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Speaking of worrying about political dynasties in America, it appears Obama is actually trying to open up a line of attack similar to the dynastic one:
Barack Obama is starting to slip into his speeches a disputed account of a secret 20-year plan for both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the White House.
"I'm not in this race to fulfill some long-held plan or because it was owed to me," Obama told a gathering of Nevada Democrats after Thursday night's Las Vegas debate.
That was a veiled reference to an account by biographers Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta that the Clintons sealed a "secret pact of ambition" to both win the presidency - which has been vehemently denied by Clinton advisers.
Asked if Obama was referring to the pact, a spokeswoman replied, "Barack Obama has not been mapping out his run for president from Washington for the last 20 years like some of his opponents."
Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff responded, "This is an odd statement, considering that the number of people who say Sen. Obama talked about running for president as a youngster seems to grow daily."
Several interesting things here. First, unlike most attacks against Hillary Clinton from Democrats in this primary campaign, this one actually does echo Republican lines of attack against her. It has been a long-term claim from conservatives that the Clinton's have had a plan in place to make Hillary Clinton President. Rush Limbaugh even once said that the Clinton's probably funded the swiftboaters in some way to make sure the Presidency was open for a Democrat in 2008.
Second, when asked if they were repeating the old charge, the Obama campaign repeated the attack when they were asked about it. So yeah, make no mistake, they really are accusing the Clinton's of having a 20-year plan to make Hillary President.
Third, even though they have denied it in the past, the Clinton campaign didn't seem to deny it here. In fact, they responded to a Republican style attack on Clinton from Obama by attacking Obama in Republican fashion. Weird.
Fourth, and finally, is it really a bad idea to have a lengthy plan to become President? This is the most difficult job in the country, with the most responsibility in the country. As such, it strikes me that it is probably a good idea to have a lengthy planning period before assuming the job. I'm pretty sure that all seven of the major Democratic candidates had been planning their runs for several years. I have no problem with that, either. This isn't the sort of thing one does off the cuff, nor should it be. You need to call in every connection you have made, be extremely familiar with every policy area, understand the political landscape as well as anyone in the country, and spend a long time prepping both your family and yourself. Hopefully, you will plan for a long-time before you run. Why, exactly, are we supposed to think it is a good thing that someone decided to run the country on a whim? Why is it a negative that Clinton has been preparing for this for twenty years? Is there something wrong with having a life plan, or dreaming of being President? If there is, I'm not sure what all of those career days in high school and college were for.
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