Don't know if I can find a transcript or video, but I just saw Howard Wolfson on Chris Wallace's show this morning. Wallace was running through the standard fare: Clinton's comments about "hard working, white Americans," Florida and Michigan, the all-but foregone conclusion of the nomination campaign, Clinton's debt, the question of the "dream ticket," etc....
When Wallace asked about how Clinton could win the nomination, this is, more or less, what Wolfson said:
"It starts with West Virginia. WV is an important state, one that democrats should fight to win in November." Wallace didn't press him any further (in my mind: "OK, Howard, it STARTS with WV, but after you pick up a handful of delegates there, how do you overcome the massive delegate lead that Obama has already accrued?).
Then, later in the show, Wolfson returned to the theme of West Virginia's importance.
At this point in the show, he started laying into Obama: Why is he "writing WV off," why can't he close the deal, what if he loses WV badly after having emerged as the front runner, what will that say about him as a candidate, etc. etc. Wolfson seemed pretty pissed and, dare I say it, bitter.
More after the jump.
Wallace followed up by asking: So basically, you are saying to the Obama campaign: Quit your whining?
Wolfson hesitated for a moment and said, "No, I'm not saying that..." But then he basically reiterated the point.
This is damaging. This is destructive.
Wolfson is talking to the most conservative audience in the country -- an audience that still believes that Hussein helped Bin Laden carry out the attacks on the WTC. An audience that still supports Bush, by and large. An audience that, for various reasons, is quite reticent, to say the least, about supporting Obama. And Wolfson just trashed the man, basically saying that he didn't care about rural white folks, that he is a weak candidate because he can't close the deal, that he is whining because he can't take the heat from Clinton.
This is the kind of sh*# that Fox viewers (not to mention executives) love. Wolfson is not going to win any converts to Clinton's cause on Fox news. All he is doing is reinforcing negative memes about Obama, thus solidifying FOX viewers' opposition to Obama as a candidate. THAT IS ALL HE IS DOING.
If this isn't destructive to our chances in November, I don't know what is.
Now is the time for super-delegates to stop sobbing over their beers about the damage Clinton is doing to Obama and take some action. Be decisive folks. Get this thing over with. If you don't, the Wolfsons of the world are going to feel totally free to go onto FOX news and trash Obama. Is that what you want?
Will update with transcript and video.