RERUNS: THE MMTP ARCHIVE

Episode 16: The Tide Turns?

By Lee Molloy

For our reality series Make Me the President, we scoured the country to find the most power-hungry, Machiavellian and downright unattractive people in the United States of America (“The Greatest Nation On Earth” ™) to find the man, or woman, who could raise the most money, be willing to break the most promises and offer the most bland reason to become — The President.

Last week on MMTP:

We asked for the origin of Sen. Obama’s mystery Scripture after he claimed during the compassion forum that “Scripture talks about clinging to what’s good.” MMTP fan Ms. Carolyn Klepser bravely stepped up to the plate and offered Philippians 4:8, which reads, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Now, the MMTP producers can kinda see where Ms. Klepser is coming from, but thinking about something is not the same as clinging to it. And, after reading 13 different versions of the Bible, we have not found a single incidence or synonym of the word “cling” in that passage. As Obama has said, “words are important,” and the problem with the verb “to cling” is it tends to sound desperate, which is not the way rural Americans feel about either their guns or religion, hence all the fuss. So, thanks for playing, Carolyn, and better luck next time.

This week on MMTP:

Just as we wrapped last week’s episode, Team Democrats held what could be its final debate between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and it was a doozy. Obama’s remarks about “clinging” came up again and he once again tried, and failed, to spin his comments in a way that didn’t sound too condescending. 

Next up was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal. Obama claimed, after giving his remarkable speech on race a few weeks back, that he had not heard any of the Rev. Wright’s incendiary remarks from the pulpit. So, that being the case, ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked Obama why he rescinded his invitation to Wright to speak at the event where he announced his candidacy more than a year ago. Gibson quoted Wright as saying Obama told him, “You can get kind of rough in sermons. So what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out in public.” In other words, Obama knew exactly the kind of things Wright was likely to say and put a muzzle on him. When pressed, Obama tap-danced around the subject. This issue is not going away.

Sen. Clinton, meanwhile, had problems of her own. She was asked about the Bosnia sniper fire story and replied, “On a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book. And, you know, I’m embarrassed by it. I have apologized for it. I’ve said it was a mistake.” Which is as straightforward an answer as one could hope for from a politician.

And the hits kept coming: Obama was asked about his relationship with William Ayers, a domestic terrorist and original signer of the founding document of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed the Capitol, the Pentagon and other buildings during the 1970s. Ayers is on record as saying to the New York Times on 9/11, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Obama, naturally, tried again to tap-dance around the fact that Ayers had visited his house during a state-Senate campaign meeting, and that his own campaign had painted their relationship as friendly. Sen. Clinton, however, pointed out that Obama continued to serve as a paid director on the board of the Woods Foundation with Ayers even after his 9/11 comments. Oh dear, that’s another massive Team Republicans swift boat attack coming Obama’s way should he win the nomination.

So, after that bruising encounter, Obama spent the next day crying and complaining about the tough questions and how they were a distraction from the real issues. Perhaps the junior senator from Illinois should get off his pedestal and realize that the rules of engagement in the political theater are not going to change just for him. And, furthermore, he should toughen up and stop being such a pussy.

Also this week, we have seen that the campaigns are now apparently completely separate entities from the contestants themselves. Every time one of the campaigns says something negative about its opposing Team Democrats contestant, the contestant says something along the lines of, “It wasn’t me, it was my campaign.” And this has given carte blanche especially to Obama to continue his magic trick of seeming to be above the cut and thrust of politics while his campaign is negatively attacking Clinton on an almost daily basis and outspending her by as much as 3-to-1 in the process.

So, what’s next? It is now apparent that Clinton will not get enough delegates to win this thing, but she keeps winning the states that are going to matter in the general election: California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. So, why can’t Obama close the deal? His campaign beat up on Clinton for weeks in Pennsylvania and almost broke her campaign’s pocketbook, yet she still won by 10 points. What’s wrong with this picture?

It appears the more Obama speaks and the more skeletons fall out from his closet, the less likely he seems able to beat Sen. John McCain in the general election, which is probably why Obama has not taken questions from members of the press for more than a week now. Coward.

At the end of the day, it is all a question of style. Obama promises a new kind of politics, in which he holds his head above the fray but, all the while, allows his people to continue business as usual on the campaign trail. Clinton, on the other hand, is not afraid to get her hands dirty as she goes to the mat and fights with all she’s got. During her victory speech, Clinton used the word “fight” no fewer than six times. Fighting is in her blood and she has yet to be knocked out by a larger and better-funded campaign that has had all the momentum for months now. Obama, however, has wobbled and, as he said to CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the Wright issue broke, “This controversy has actually shaken me up.” Well, if that little spat shook him, what’s he going to do when the swift boaters come gunning for him?

Finally, Obama seems to have drunk his own Kool-Aid, and he really seems to believe that if Mr. Obama goes to Washington as president, Washington is going to stop doing things its way and just follow his lead. Is he crazy? He will need to fight tooth and nail just to change which paper clips the entrenched interests use, let alone how they conduct business. The question then becomes, is he up for that fight? Unfortunately, judging by the evidence so far, no.

Tune in next week to see which color drapes Mrs. McCain has picked out for the staterooms on Air Force One.

Hail to the Chief!