For those who've long believed that Obama's best chance of winning was to frame the race as a choice between the future and what you didn't like about the '90s--well, it looks like the Obama campaign has come around to your view. Here's a fundraising e-mail they sent out just now under Michelle Obama's name:
In the past week or two, another candidate's spouse has been getting an awful lot of attention.
We knew getting into this race that Barack would be competing with Senator Clinton and President Clinton at the same time.
We expected that Bill Clinton would tout his record from the nineties and talk about Hillary's role in his past success. That's a fair approach and a challenge we are prepared to face.
What we didn't expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we've seen recently. We didn't expect misleading accusations that willfully distort Barack's record.
Barack Obama isn't relying on a former President of the United States to campaign for him.
He's relying on us -- you, me, and hundreds of thousands of people like us who are giving whatever they can afford to support this movement. ...
Barack's unwavering opposition to the war in Iraq, his outspoken support of women's rights, and his call for leadership that will transform our party and our country have all been mischaracterized in the past two weeks.
We've seen disingenuous attacks and smear tactics turn people off from the political process for too long, and enough is enough.
It's time for a change. It's time for a new kind of leadership and a new kind of politics in our party and in our country.
Wow.
The Clinton campaign is holding a conference call this afternoon to respond to this stuff (I think). I'll keep you posted on what they say.
--Noam Scheiber