There are plenty of diaries that chronicle the 'win at all costs' and 'scorched earth' tactics of the Clinton campaign. The point of this diary is much less grandiose.
Hillary Clinton did herself a disservice by not defending Barack Obama against baseless attacks against his Patriotism. She has missed a valuable opportunity.
More after the fold.
A good defense illustrates how the defender has great character. Watch Barack defend Joe Biden against charges of racism.
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The attacks on Barack have taken many forms.
First, it was whether Barack is a Muslim -- a charge that is now quite laughable in light of recent news coverage regarding his church, Trinity United Church of Christ.
Hillary sat next to Barack at Christian prayer breakfasts. She could have unequivocally stated that he is a Christian and denounced the smears. End of story, right? No. Instead, she stumbled through this answer -- "as far as she knows" -- on 60 minutes.
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Most people agree that the smear, if people believed it, could help Hillary in Ohio and across the country. Maybe it was calculated, maybe it wasn't.
But, more broadly, Barack's patriotism has been under attack. These have ranged from the guilt-by-association coverage of Rev. Wright to bogus claims that Barack will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance (even though he has led the Senate in the recitation several times).
Does any thinking person really believe that Barack doesn't love this country or that he is unpatriotic?
Hillary and Bill could have stood up and defended a fellow Democrat, saying, "There are many reasons to vote for Hillary over Barack, but there is no doubt that they both love this country."
Instead, Bill said yesterday that McCain and Hillary are patriotic. Implying, by exclusion, that Barack is not patriotic.
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I'm not suggesting that Hillary should prop up Barack's candidacy and urge people to vote for him. She has every right to talk to Superdelegates about electability. But, to try to take advantage of these smears to take the nomination is untoward and bad for the party.
I think Hillary has lost a great opportunity. By standing up and defending another Democrat from these attacks, she would have shown a lot of character and I imagine it would have improved her "Trustworthy/Honest" poll numbers which are now in the mid-40's.
Instead, she and Bill continue to talk about how great John McCain is.
Shameful.
UPDATED: This is a video of Mike Huckabee defending Obama on the Rev. Wright controversy, saying "You can't hold the candidate responsible for what someone else says." Thanks IHateBush
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UPDATE 2: John McCain has also come to Barack's defense in the past week. This clip is from an interview with Sean Hannity in which McCain says that he doesn't believe Barack shares the views of Pastor Wright.
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