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Jane Hamsher covered Elizabeth Edwards, now Taylor Marsh is covering Obama's reaction.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: The MoveOn ad, General Betray-Us? Do you think it's counter productive?
BARACK OBAMA: You know, I probably, if they had asked me, would have suggested that we focus attention on George Bush, the commander in chief. I mean, my assessment is that General Petraeus is playing a bad hand as well as he can.
Clinton, by the way, did not attack Moveon, but turned this on Giuliani. Richardson did good messaging as well. Actions like these, if they reprssent a pattern, might be one of the reasons Richardson and Clinton are gaining strength. If you attack the people who you are wooing, it's hard to gain votes.
The key narrative of the last seven years is betrayal. In this episode, Clinton and Richardson gets this, but Obama and Edwards somehow do not. And here's Wes Clark, with a different but equally effective response, going around Petraeus and making a larger point about the military.
Testifying before Congress last week, Gen. David H. Petraeus appeared commanding, smart and alive to the challenges that his soldiers face in Iraq. But he also embodied what the Iraq conflict has come to represent: an embattled, able, courageous military at war, struggling to maintain its authority and credibility after 4 1/2 years of a "cakewalk" gone wrong....
At the same time, the United States' top generals must understand that their duty is to win, not just to get along. They must have the insight and character to demand the resources necessary to succeed -- and have the guts to either obtain what they need or to resign. If they get their way and still don't emerge victorious, they must be replaced. That is the lot they accepted when they pinned on those four shiny silver stars.
Criticizing Petraeus, as Moveon did, was necessary. But insiders are deeply unhappy with the base for demanding that they do something. That's why Edwards and Obama, Frank Rich and Mark Shields, and John Kerry got deeply upset. Here, after all, is Steny Hoyer apparently talking to an attendee at a fundraiser.
Hoyer never really did answer how he planned to expand Democratic numbers while funding the war, but did comment that "I know the base is mad at us - and I'm mad at the base." When he tossed that off, I inquired "Because.....?" He basically said the base has unrealistic expectations in terms of ending the war, and the Dems can't de-fund it because doing so would anger the moderates they need to win more seats in '08.
The desire to pander to war. to overlook the betrayal of our republic by its leadership, is extremely strong in DC.
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