Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, March 08, 2008 6:56:18 PM
Hence that brilliant “phone call at the White House at 3 a.m.”commercial. In the great tradition of Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy” ad, it was not subtle — though in 2008 you don’t actually show the nuclear explosion. It’s enough just to suggest an apocalyptic crisis.
Ostensibly the ad was about experience. It wasn’t. It was about familiarity. After all, as Obama pointed out, what exactly is the experience that prepares Hillary to answer the red phone at 3 a.m.?
She was raising a deeper question: Do you really know who this guy is?
After a whirlwind courtship with this elegant man who rode into town just yesterday, are you really prepared to entrust him with your children, the major props in the ad?
After months of fruitlessly shadowboxing an ethereal opponent made up of equal parts hope, rhetoric, and enthusiasm, Clinton had finally made contact with the enemy. The doubts she raised created just enough buyer’s remorse to convince Democrats on Tuesday to not yet close the sale on the mysterious stranger.
The only way either Clinton or John McCain can defeat an opponent as dazzlingly new and fresh as Obama is to ask: Do you really know this guy?
Or the corollary: Is he really who he says he is? I’m not talking about scurrilous innuendo about his origins, religion, or upbringing. I’m talking about the full-fledged man who presents himself to the country in remarkably grandiose terms as a healer, a conciliator, a uniter.
From one of this country's greatest columnists, Charles Krauthammer. The column goes on to discuss the contrast between Obama's rhetoric of reaching across the aisle and his actual record. The facts are the one candidate who has reached across the long gulf separating Democrats and Republicans is John McCain, not B. Hussein Obama. Regardless of Obama's nonsensical speeches, it is McCain who has made the most deals with the other party than any candidate. As embarrassing and disturbing as that may be; it's also true. The real "uniter" in this race is John McCain, Democrat from Arizona. Conservatives, run for the hills! If you don't have any hills near you, then dig a hole.