Clinton coverage and I go into Obama land...

Things have been busy as the local coverage of the presidential race has been heating up as we approach crunch time. I've been blogging most of the experiences over on Glass City Jungle including a breakfast this morning with Ann Lewis, the Senior Advisor to the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign.

Just a few short moments ago I finished up being a guest on Talk It Out! where I was the Clinton supporter. It was really interesting listening to the person before me from Texas, Susan, share her experiences of how the Obama campaign was going in Texas and compare that to what I had personally experienced here in Ohio. One example was she stated how organized the Obama campaign was in Texas, yet here in Ohio, the Clinton campaign is the one doing the blogger outreach and the one that is sharing information. Which started before I made the decision known of who I was going to support.

Pat the host of the show expressed the feeling that since Obama had handled what the Clinton campaign had thrown at him that she felt he would be able to handle the Republican attack machine. I realize many believe that, but I don't share their confidence in that. I don't feel he has been truly tested under the type of pressure that will come and it will be at a much higher level than what a Democratic candidate would throw at him. It's going to be much worse than a focus on his middle name, connections to terrorism ties, questions concerning financial dealings, previous situations where he demonstrated he put the seeking of power before unity, the antisemitic nature of the relationship with his now retired minister and Louis Farrakhan...and those are just the few things I know have already been touched upon will become the source of negative ads. Anyone who does not realize that the Republicans have developed the ability to use PAC's and 527's to run ads with complete plausible deniability from a candidate is going to be in for a harsh experience this fall if Obama is the candidate.

Whether you like Hillary Clinton or not, most of her past negatives and any that will be dragged up concerning her husband have been publicly vetted to the point of the chances of creating less of a "shock value" are less.

Hope is great, but in the land of realism the chances of the very same media sources that are not asking the hard questions now, won't last forever. The best that can be hoped for if it is Obama after the Democratic Convention is that the Clinton campaign has been hard enough for them to know how to handle it when it really gets tough. Having personally witnessed some brutal Democrat on Democrat campaigns in the past, I'm not sure that's happened...