Inside Politics

Time to hit back

“The battle of Hillary is over. The battle of Obama has begun,” Dick Morris writes in the New York Post.

“The question of his readiness and experience looms ever larger in the minds of the media and of voters,” Mr. Morris said.

“Her red-phone ad, citing her supposedly superior readiness to be commander in chief, evidently cut deeply among the electorate.

“It’s time that Obama counters her strategy by hitting back. His lofty politics of hope will avail him little in the aggressive, rough-and-tumble world of modern politics.

“He’s got to spell out the special-interest connections that stigmatize Hillary as the tool of the lobbyists.

“He must underscore the need for her to release her tax returns for 2007 and 2006 to show the source of her new-found wealth.

“He’s got to learn to trade blows with the Clintons, the best counterpunchers in the business.

“Looming above the primaries is the specter of the unseated delegations from Michigan — chosen in a primary with only Hillary’s name on the ballot — and Florida.

“Obama needs to stop her gathering momentum by shedding his ingenue status and fighting hard for the nomination his previous victories have earned him.”

Franken fined

The state of New York fined the personal corporation of Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken $25,000 for not carrying workers’ compensation insurance for almost three years.

The New York Workers’ Compensation Board levied the fine against Alan Franken Inc. in August 2006 for failure to carry the insurance from June 2002 to March 2005.

Brian Keegan, a board spokesman, said a number of notices were sent to the address the New York agency had listed for Mr. Franken. But his campaign spokesman, Andy Barr, said the television personality and political commentator didn’t become aware of the fine until Tuesday.

“If there’s a mistake by the Frankens, it was an inadvertent mistake, as opposed to trying to evade the law,” Mr. Barr said.

The fine was reported recently by Minnesota Democrats Exposed, a Web site sympathetic to incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, whom Mr. Franken is seeking to unseat in November.

The Franken team says it may have been a clerical mistake on the part of the Workers’ Compensation Board, but it’s also possible the Frankens did not keep the insurance current, Mr. Barr said.

If the latter turns out to be true, he said, Mr. Franken will pay the fine, he said.

Mr. Barr said Mr. Franken established the corporation to receive payments for speeches, royalty checks from his TV and movie roles and other income.

Media disdain

“Now Hillary Clinton knows how Republicans feel,” the Wall Street Journal says in an editorial.

“Usually, GOP candidates have to overcome media disdain and establishment calls to declare defeat and get out of the race. This time she’s the target of the collective liberal swoon for Barack Obama. But after her victory [Tuesday] in Ohio and a nailbiter in Texas, we see little reason that the New York Senator shouldn’t fight on,” the newspaper said.

“That wouldn’t please the Democratic panjandrums who desperately want a nominee now that John McCain has wrapped up the Republican race. The party superdelegates who were all for Mrs. Clinton when she was ’inevitable’ are now hoping she’ll drop out and spare them a painful decision. A herd of them — they prefer the camouflage of numbers — have reportedly even been plotting to break together for the Illinois orator.

“But [Tuesday’s] message from actual Democratic voters was hardly a decisive verdict for Mr. Obama. The Illinois Senator continued to do well among better educated, wealthier, more liberal and younger voters. He maintained his domination among African-Americans. But Mrs. Clinton regained the advantages that she showed earlier in the campaign among blue-collar Democrats, union households, women, seniors and Hispanics.

“Perhaps most important, according to the exit polls, she was able to expose a significant vulnerability that Mr. Obama would have against Mr. McCain — his lack of experience on national security.”

McCain’s tasks

“Now that he’s won the Republican presidential nomination, John McCain has some serious tasks ahead of him,” Fred Barnes writes at www.weeklystandard.com.

“Wooing conservatives and raising money are the least of it. Telling his life story to the country and making speeches on big issues, while Democrats continue their nomination struggle, won’t be much of a challenge either,” Mr. Barnes said.

“But there are three things McCain must do that won’t be easy. The most important is to bring Barack Obama down to earth from his pedestal in the heavens. He’s still the likely Democratic nominee, after all, despite Hillary Clinton’s primary wins yesterday. And he’s mostly gotten away with campaigning as if he’s on a mission to purify America, not merely running to capture the presidency.

“McCain must also organize a turnout effort to match President Bush’s in 2004 — or exceed what Bush put together. This is necessary because it’s clear the Democratic turnout is going to be larger and more enthusiastic than it was four years ago.

“And he must gear his campaign to attract independents while not antagonizing conservatives, who constitute the Republican base. Conservatives are loyal Republicans, for the most part, and they didn’t ditch the party even in its darkest of days in the 2006 election.”

History lesson

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed after her Ohio primary victory Tuesday that no recent presidential contender has reached the Oval Office without the Buckeye State’s support.

However, John F. Kennedy won the presidency without Ohio’s help, the Associated Press reports.

“No candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary,” the New York senator told cheering supporters Tuesday night in Columbus, Ohio.

Mr. Kennedy’s name was not on the ballot in the Ohio Democratic primary in 1960. Michael DiSalle, who was the state’s governor at the time, ran unopposed and took all the votes cast in the contest.

In the general election, Mr. Kennedy won the presidency even though Republican Richard M. Nixon won Ohio.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes. com.