As we go back and forth with our conservative counterparts, I find it almost a relief that the best they can do say that Sen. Clinton is a woman and Sen. Obama is black. Sure, there are degrees to these attacks, but when you boil it down, that's all they have: "The Democrats aren't running a White Male this time, so let highlight this to our base and to the voters."
It's not like they have too many options. The economy isn't on their side. Just about every champion they've endorsed has turned out to be at best a hypocrite, at worst shamelessly corruptable. The "God, Guns and Gays" formula appears to be worn out this election cycle.
In the recent past, there was one issue that the Republicans and their base could have used to save their collected asses. It's worked with mind-boggling sucess time and time again. But for some reason, even this tried-and-true tactic, this ace in the hole, has begun to fail them.
Maybe it was the American People finally waking up. Maybe it was just the natural passage of time; they say it can heal all wounds. I honestly have no idea when it happened.
But I do remember when we were given one public, jaw-dropping confirmation that the page was turning...
Who would have known back then the impact this moment would have had on the political landscape?
In that moment, "9/11" went from being the spiked club George W. Bush used to pound his will into our legislative process to being fodder for the Late Night Talk Shows. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran...the connection between them and the terrible tragedy Bush still tries to exploit began to crack.
Rudy Giuliani went from National Hero to National Punchline. Suddenly, there was the revelation that he quit the ISG in order to rake in cash, that he stiffed the rescue workers, that he foolishly put his headquarters in the one place terrorists had told us they wanted to strike. All these issues became relevant, and challenging the Republican Frontrunner was no longer tabbo. The "I Use Tax-Payer Security to Protect My Other Signifigant Other"-Gate was just icing on the cake; we all know the media can't resist a story with sex, money and power involved. But it's clear that "America's Mayor" was banking that his popularity and constant references to 9/11 was going to be enough to sweep him to an early primary victory (why else would be put all his chips on Florida after going 0-and-infinity?).
Of course, there was blowback, but really only from Giuliani's Camp...and it was hardly effective.
While it's pretty much hindsight now, Sen. Biden took a little risk here. Remember that he was kinda off the mark with his belief that a change in Congress would equal a change in course in Iraq, but that's Conventional Wisdom for you.
Besides, it doesn't negate the fact that he never stopped trying to present a resolution to the Iraq Occupation Problem.
And it was this effort that gave more credence to Biden's remarks. Biden had put the serious work in; Giuliani had not. Biden was coming up with tangible ideas; Giuliani was not. Biden was willing to listen to other people and add their voices (if possible) to his final product; Giuliani was hoping he could just pick up Bush's playbook next January.
As a result, both Clinton and Obama can have a debate about Iraq, not 9/11. They have Joe Biden to thank for that...and so do we.