Tit for Tat

This campaign is getting really interesting!

I love the current wrinkle, essentially amounting to whether Obama gets any play out of any response he can muster to the end of New Hampshire attacks that absolutely did hurt him.

His team did try to recoup, by pointing out that the attacks were a little bit racist, or unfair, and that got some play. But whether it translates depends on their response to Clinton’s response.

Clinton responded by saying:

“I think that his story line is not accurate,” he said. “And in 15 debates, no one ever once bothered to ask Sen. Obama, ‘How can you say you were always against the war, and your judgment is better than theirs, and they were wrong to vote for that resolution which authorized force, when two years after you gave the anti-war speech in 2004, you, Sen. Obama, said you didn’t know how you would have voted on that anti-war resolution, number one, then two days later, you said there was no difference between you and President Bush on the war?’ ”

So for me now, the question is: what’s Clinton talking about, and did Obama say those two things, or are they out of context? If Obama did say them, that was dumb, since it’s the main thing that distinguishes him (the other two things are 1) I will talk to bad guys, and 2) I’m really going to fuck shit up and we all know it so I’m not going to say anything specific, which is what “change you can believe in” is code for.

I assume, in the Clinton quote, he’s referring to the 2nd anti-war resolution, which Obama was absent for. But Clinton isn’t being specific. And I’m not sure if it is that, that that makes Clinton’s point that that means there’s less of a difference, or how much less of a difference, between Hilary and Obama (I guess it’s just going to be that for awhile: Hilary and Obama, unfair and sexist as using the female’s first name and the male’s last name is). But I really would be surprised to find substance behind the 2nd part of Clinton’s quote, where he says the no difference thing. I just can’t imagine. But again there’s no reference.

Furthermore, Obama’s side isn’t responding so far. My feeling is that at this point they ought to. Barack (there, I used his first name) should very factually call Bill Clinton out and say what he meant in these two instances, especially if that meaning differs at all from how Clinton is portraying it. So my question is: does Barack respond?