Last night on 60 Minutes, Hillary Clinton, with a straight face, told the audience that Barack Obama has never been vetted and suggested that Obama might not be able to handle the attacks that Republicans are going to lodge at him. Good thing for her she wasn't under oath or hooked up to a polygraph test.
Barack Obama has already been vetted Republican style. 98% of the attacks, smears, and lies that Republicans and John McCain will levy against Obama have already been levied against him.
Who's the levier? Ans: Hillary Clinton + Co.
The Clinton campaign vetted EVERY single aspect of Obama's life.
The Clintons dug up his essays from kindergarten and rummaged through his entire upbringing.
The Clintons dug up everything there was on Obama's family.
The Clintons dug up every piece of information about Obama's schooling.
The Clintons dug up every business transaction Obama has ever engaged in.
The Clintons read through Obama's books and searched hard for a quote here and there to mischaracterize or attack.
The Clintons searched through every vote Obama ever casted in the Illinois legislature.
The Clintons looked through every job Obama has ever held and any person associated with those jobs. They even played two degress from Kevin Bacon with Tony Rezko.
The Clintons examined every vote and non vote Obama ever casted in the United States Senate.
The Clintons tried to smear Obama's character with false insinuations of drugs.
The Clintons tried appealing to fears in some older Democratic voters by implying that Obama's race would make him the weaker general election candidate.
And none of it worked.
Then the Clintons parroted the talking points of George Bush by bringing up Obama's alleged inexperience but this won't work too since Obama has a lifetime of experiences that surpass those of JFK.
Now the Clintons are parroting George Bush's talking points about alleged lack of substance and alleged hollowness but this too will backfire because Obama has been very specific about what he will do as President on economic and foreign policy issues.
And people are sick and tired of this HRC/McCain/Rove nonsense regardless of whether it comes from Republicans or Democrats.
On the issues Obama is slightly more moderate than HRC. Obama may even be to the "right" of most of the American people. However, Obama attracts the support not only of die in the wool progressives and liberals, he attracts the support of center-right independents and even some conservatives. He wins in the East, the West, the North, the South, and everywhere in between regardless of the ethnic makeup of the state.
Obama attracts that support because people of both parties and of all different political persuasions are sick and tired of the establishment, the corporate media, and Washington cocktail party insiders telling the American people what they can and can not do. They are sick and tired of these establishment politicians putting themselves ahead of the real interests of the American people.
Obama symbolizes the return of people oriented politics, a person who wants to be President to help others, even if he is not as progressive as I would like him to be. He offers change after 28 years of either a Bush or Clinton in the White House. Yet the establishment and the insiders have attacked him relentlessly, led by the Clinton campaign.
Obama is battled tested. Obama is equipped to handle Republican type smears. He's already done it.