The Washington Post has an op ed from pollster and former adviser to Bill Clinton Dougles E. Schoen saying Hillary Clinton “needs to completely abandon her positive campaign.” This would be like George Bush’s pollsters saying that Bush should abandon his policy of being completely honest and transparent and should become more secretive and misleading in his communications with the American people to improve his approval ratings.
This appears to be an attempt to hide how dirty Clinton’s campaign has been, considering how many believe she has resorted to the Tonya Harding strategy. Josh Marshall also questions Schoen’s arguments:
But, seriously, what is Schoen smoking? Hasn’t Clinton been going after Obama pretty much tooth and claw for like eight weeks?
Steve Benen also shows many faults in Schoen’s arguments, including:
John Heilemann has a fascinating item on McCain in the new issue of New York magazine, and he spoke with one leading Republican Party official about how the GOP would go after Obama in the general election. “Our strategy will look a fair amount like the one that Hillary is running against him now,” the official said.
If Clinton were running an exclusively “positive campaign,” somehow I doubt Republican officials would make a comment like this.
The dishonesty shown by Hillary Clinton has already been very damaging to her campaign. After a long string of lies from Clinton and her supporters, the claim that Clinton has been running a positive campaign might be the biggest lie of all.
Unfortunately, their record doesn’t offer much strength, so negative is the alternative. Here’s a good summary of some positive reasons to consider supporting Barack Obama. Share it with friends in Pennsylvania.
http://acropolisreview.com/2008/04/top-reasons-to-give-barack-obama-your.html