McCain would like voters to forget that he grew up immersed in beltway politics, and that he married into a $10 million fortune

Last week, Barack Obama said that rural voters have become bitter and frustrated because of wage stagnation and unemployment, and because politicians from both parties have failed to improve the situation. This, he said, explains why rural voters are more apt to base their votes on non-economic issues like the infamous 3 G’s of Republican politics: God, Guns, and Gays. Sensing and opportunity, McCain and Clinton pounced, calling Obama elitist and out-of-touch. I thought that Obama did a pretty good job of explaining what he meant, and I expected McCain and Clinton to back off.

They didn’t.

It might seem strange that two candidates, both worth tens of millions and both of whom grew up in privileged households, would attack a former community organizer for being elitist and out of touch. McCain and Clinton are incredibly vulnerable on the issue of elitism, but they decided to press ahead anyway. And the reason is clear: they know that they can’t beat Obama on the issues, so they’re trying to beat him with identity politics.

Clinton tries to get voters to forget that she supported gun registration and a ban on assault weapons

In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. McCain and Clinton are flailing, and they’re up against the most talented American politician since John Kennedy. Clinton can’t meaningfully distance herself from Obama on the issues without alienating primary voters, and McCain is trying to run on Bush’s economic platform during Bush’s recession. Leaders in both campaigns are convinced that Obama is reaping the benefits of identity politics among black voters, and they’re eager to retaliate by using identity politics to go after white voters.

The trouble with that is, Obama hasn’t been using identity politics. In fact, his emphasis on unity and on economic issues show that Obama is more interested in inoculating himself against identity-based attacks than he is in practicing identity politics. The notion that a black man named Barack Hussein Obama could maintain a lead while practicing identity politics is absurd on its face. Most voters can understand that. So while I can see why Obama’s rivals see identity politics as a lifeboat, it’s a lifeboat that’s already been swamped by the out-of-touch elitism of McCain and Clinton.

Take, for example, McCain’s “let them eat prime rib” attitude toward the mortgage crisis. After doing some polling, McCain flip-flopped on that one, but he’s going to have a hard time convincing foreclosed homeowners that a man who owns eight houses feels their pain.

Then there’s Clinton, whose aids now pass out “I’m not bitter” stickers at her campaign rallies. Huh? She doesn’t think Democratic voters are bitter after eight years of Bush? Democrats are becoming more hopeful as the Bush era draws to a close, but if Clinton had been listening to these voters as attentively as she pretends to, she’d know that Democrats are still very bitter.

The bottom line is that Americans are sick of divisive identity politics. That’s what makes a unity candidate like Obama feels like such a breath of fresh air. And that’s why this sort of “I’m more American than Obama” attack is bound to backfire:

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Note to Clinton: you’re not going to pull out of this tailspin. It’s time to punch out.

Ultimately, McCain might be able to squeeze out a few extra votes with his divide-and-conquer tactics. But for Clinton, this latest broadside is going to be a disaster. Obama is already calling her to task for it:

“She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her,” Obama told an audience at a union hall. “I just have to remind people of the track record,” Obama said, noting Clinton accepted campaign contributions from PACs and drug and insurance industry lobbyists, which he does not. “This is the same person who took money from financial folks on Wall Street and then voted for bankruptcy bill that makes it harder for folks right here in Pennsylvania to get a fair shake. Who do you think is out of touch?” Obama said.

“This is the same person who spent a decade with her husband campaigning for NAFTA, and now goes around saying she’s opposed to NAFTA,” Obama said, referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement that is widely unpopular in blue collar communities. He said he’d expected blowback from GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain, but had been “a little disappointed” to be criticized by Clinton.

Then, laughing along with the union audience, Obama noted that Clinton seemed much more interested in guns since he made his comments than she had in the past. “She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley,” Obama said, invoking the famed female sharpshooter immortalized in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun. Hillary Clinton is out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday. She’s packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better. That’s some politics being played by Hillary Clinton.”

He’s right. Clinton is using Republican talking points, and she’s not very credible when she presents herself as a gun-toting, whiskey snorting, working-class woman. Clinton has long been a gun control advocate, and when challenged she refused to say when she last attended church or fired a gun. And when Bill ran for president in 1991, he was singing the same tune that Obama’s singing now:

When their economic policies fail, when the country’s coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, ‘What happened to everybody’s job? What happened to everybody’s income? What … have … you … done … to … our … country?’”

And she’s not the daughter of a working class man. She’s the daughter of a man who owned a textile factory, much like the one that employed John Edwards’ father when he was growing up. Someone ought to let Hillary know that ‘working class’ people are the ones who WORK in factories, not the ones who own them.

So Clinton’s laughable charge of elitism will hurt her a lot more than it will help. She’s not going to score the big victory in Pennsylvania that she so desperately needs. She’s not going to be able to impress the superdelegates with her electability after blowing a 51-21 lead over Obama in just a few short months. She is done. It’s time for her to stop helping McCain and start doing the right thing by her party and by her country. It’s time for Clinton to drop out.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 3:37 am and is filed under Hypocrisy, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.