ELECTILE DISFUNCTION

I am happy to report that the Republican attack machine is up and running, with their sights clearly aimed at Sen. Obama. At the moment they seem to be waffling between, he’s too inexperienced to lead, and, he’s too savvy to trust. But hey, it’s early yet.

As you probably know, Sen. Obama favors public financing for campaigns, primarily to reduce the influence of big business (big contributors) over elected officials, but also to curb corruption in general. To that end, he said in February that he would take public financing – and abide by the restrictions it imposes – if McCain would do the same. Here we are in June, McCain is taking public financing, and Obama is not. What’s the deal?

There are two important points here. First, both sides know that using his extraordinary network of individual contributors ($100 or less), Obama can probably raise two to three times more money than McCain. Both sides also know that McCain, with less money available, will be using “527” groups. These are private PACs with private money whose low-life tactics – remember the “Swift-boaters” – can be denied by the candidate and whose participants are completely hidden from public view. Since Obama willl not be using 527 groups, this makes public finance a somewhat less than level playing field.

Not troubled by the facts, however, Sen. Lindsey Graham, co-chair of the McCain campaign, goes on Meet The Press and begins hammering away. He cries out that Obama has “broken his word” on public financing, that he is untrustworthy. His answer to every question about McCain is that Obama is a liar. And he looks so sincere, as if he were disappointed in the behavior of an errant child.

Tied to the issue of campaign finance is Graham’s new charge, that Sen. Obama isn’t quite as dumb as he thought he was! Which leads to the accusation that, “he will do or say anything to win.” You know, the same thing happened to Abraham Lincoln. According to Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln’s opponents thought he was just a rube from the back woods of Illinois. When it turned out that he was more politically astute than all of them, they were insulted. I’m afraid Sen. Graham is caught in the same kind of interesting trap: If Sen. Obama is truly too inexperienced to be president, how can he also be too clever to be trusted?

The one thing Republicans are good at is framing arguments. You can count on them to repeat this mantra ever day until it becomes part of the public consciousness:
He broke his word.
He can’t be trusted.
He isn’t really for change.
He is secretly a savvy politician.

It isn’t much to run on, but it’s the best they’ve got.