If you're supporting Barack Obama in this campaign that means you want him to be a leader. So, Obama supporters, think more about following his lead.
The last few weeks the Clinton campaign has begun taking over in terms of setting the tone of the race. And it hasn't been pretty. It's been so ugly at times that people are puzzled about how ham-handed they have been in trying derail the campaign of Barack Obama in Iowa. We know that negative campaigns tend to blow up in the face of the candidate taking the shots, so why are they being so obvious about it?
Many suspect they see the writing on the wall and know that Hillary will not win in Iowa. The one thing they can't afford though is having Barack Obama win. The righteous indignation of Edwards supporters aside, it actually seems pretty obvious that this is what they are trying to do. They could hardly have tipped their hand any more that they're going negative. You don't have to look much further than the 'fun' remark or the kindergarten paper 'joke.' You can't be a professional campaigner and not know how that stuff will play in a caucus state like Iowa.
We could debate until after the election whether or not the Clinton team is trying to throw the thing to Edwards by taking Obama down in a death grip to the mud. But we don't have that much time to figure it out and I'm an Obama supporter and I care. So, I'm going to assume this is what they're doing and look at it in terms of how to answer this threat. Because it is a threat.
This is very real to me because I'm an Iowa caucus-goer and I'm involved. If your campaign is seen as negative or angry, it's really hard to bring people over on caucus night. That's part of why I believe Clinton/Penn are actually trying to do this. Just judge by what we've seen on DK and you can tell how it works. Obama supporters have been getting more and more angry as they try to wrestle with Clinton's 'plausible deniability' and they suffer the consequences. When you're getting mocked as hysterical it gets kind of difficult to draw people in to your campaign. DK doesn't matter in the way that Iowa matters right now but it is providing a decent microcosm of how this stuff plays out.
So I say to Obama supporters, quit being so freakin angry! Here in Iowa the professional staffers who talk with us volunteers are totally unflappable about this stuff. They show amusement, not anger when the subject comes up. And I realize, of course, this is coming right from the top. You want Obama to be a leader? Let him lead on this. Look at how he has been handling it. He speaks clearly about it but he doesn't take the bait. He doesn't accuse Hillary of floating the drug thing out there when she 'apologizes' but he mentions that the tone she sets may have something to do with the actions of her campaign. But he doesn't show any loss of control of his own emotions. The closest he comes to this is to laugh. "Hillary, I look forward to getting advice from you too."
So, do a little following of the one you want to make into a leader. He's leading already.