Blue rhetoric
“If you ever get the blues, just remember — it could always get worse. You could be forced to spend the week listening to the rhetoric of Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton. Judging from last week’s news reports, that alone would be plenty to send almost anyone spiraling into the abyss of depression,” Carol Platt Liebau writes at www.townhall .com.
“Campaigning with Teresa Heinz Kerry last week, Michelle Obama had this to say about her husband’s pursuit of the nomination: ’[I]n this ever-shifting, moving bar, Barack Obama will always be the underdog. No matter how much money he raises, no matter how many wins he pulls together, no matter how many delegates he accumulates, he is still the underdog. It’s the way it works.’
“That’s the latest bon mot from a woman who has expressed pride in her country for the first time in her adult life. In Mrs. Obama’s view, her husband is unjustly condemned to perpetual underdog status — despite his clear lead in fundraising, in pledged and unpledged delegates, in the popular vote and in high-profile endorsements.
“Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect anything more uplifting from Michelle Obama, who characterizes America as ’just downright mean’ and ’a nation of struggling folks,’ notwithstanding her (and her husband’s) elite educations, prestigious jobs, comfortable income and meteoric rise to political superstardom,” the writer said.
“Hillary Clinton’s vision of America is no more inspiring. Last week, she repeated again the heartrending story of Trina Bachtell — a young woman who lost her baby and died herself simply because she couldn’t afford the $100 fee a heartless hospital supposedly demanded in order to treat her.
“Not too surprisingly, it turns out that the story wasn’t true — but the very fact that Hillary deemed it plausible enough to repeat is revealing. Her view of America and its circumstances is remarkably dreary, considering that she and her husband have risen from the middle class to enjoy stratospheric influence and prominence, along with an income that puts them in the ranks of the super-rich — $109 million just over the last eight years.”
Barr’s candidacy
If nominated, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr “could be the most successful Libertarian presidential candidate in the party’s 37-year history — and John McCain’s worst nightmare,” W. James Antle III writes in the American Spectator.
“Ever since Ronald Reagan appointed him U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in 1986, Barr has been a leader on behalf of conservative causes (he has more recently, in the interest of full disclosure, been a contributing editor to the American Spectator). Representing Georgia’s 7th Congressional District as a Republican from 1995 to 2003, he is best known for his role in passing the Defense of Marriage Act — which has kept the marriage laws of all 50 states from being at the tender mercies of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court — and as a House manager in the impeachment of Bill Clinton,” Mr. Antle said.
“In 2002, Barr lost his congressional seat after redistricting forced him into a primary with fellow Republican Congressman John Linder. After leaving the House, he has focused on civil liberties and privacy protections, opposing the Bush administration on the Patriot Act and its national surveillance program. These issues, along with the explosion in federal spending, drove Barr toward the Libertarian Party and away from the GOP. …
“Barr can potentially appeal to disgruntled conservatives who see the choice of McCain or the Democrats as analogous to picking between being punched in the stomach or kneed in the groin.”
Penn’s departure
“The decision by the Clinton campaign to demote its chief strategist, Mark Penn, after a flap concerning Mr. Penn’s advice to the government of Colombia has to be one of the lamest reasons in the history of presidential politics for the demotion of a campaign aide,” the New York Sun said yesterday in an editorial.
“What Mr. Penn reportedly did — meet with Colombia’s ambassador about the Colombia Free Trade Agreement — doesn’t come close to warranting being fired as chief strategist. If Mrs. Clinton is such a committed protectionist, following the logic of losing Mr. Penn, she’d have to get rid of her husband, who championed, and signed into law, the North American Free Trade Agreement that was a predecessor to the Colombia pact,” the newspaper said.
“Or if it’s not the trade that is the issue but the mere appearance of being on the payroll, or giving advice to a foreign entity, she’d also have to fire Mr. Clinton. Some of the $109 million the Clintons earned in the last seven years, after all, came from speeches he gave to foreign groups.”
The newspaper added: “Mrs. Clinton is running around the country accusing President Bush of having ruined America’s relations with our allies around the world. What are the people of Colombia to think, though, of an American politician who forces her aide to apologize and step down for the supposed sin of meeting with their ambassador to discuss improving trade relations between our countries? It is an insult.”
McCain’s cash
Sen. John McCain raised more than $15 million in March for his presidential campaign, a top performance for the likely Republican nominee that still falls far short of the cash gathered by his Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The amount was confirmed to the Associated Press by two campaign officials speaking on the condition of anonymity because the numbers haven’t been made public.
One official said Mr. McCain intends to accept public financing in the general election — a sum of about $84 million. McCain donors are now being asked to supplement that public financing with donations to the Republican National Committee, with a goal of raising $120 million through a joint Victory Committee.
The March fundraising and the decision to seek public financing in the fall are two separate tracks that highlight the superior fundraising by the Democratic candidates, the AP said.
Mr. Obama raised $40 million in March, bringing his total so far in the campaign to about $234 million. Mrs. Clinton raised $20 million for a total of more than $175 million during the entirety of the contest. Mr. McCain has raised about $75 million since he began running last year.
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes .com.
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