Welcome to Silly Season, Mark Penn Style

So much for civility.  The calm and eloquent Hillary we saw at the Austin debate quickly became a distant memory this morning as Hillary unleashed a scathing--and puzzling--attack on Barack Obama.  Video of the incident is here.  A visibly angry Hillary made the following comments:

Since when do Democrats attack each other on universal health care? I thought we were trying to realize Harry Truman's dream . . . Just because Senator Obama chose not to present a universal health care plan, does not give him the right to attack me because I did. So, let's have a real campaign. Enough with the speeches, and the big rallies, and then using tactics that are right of Karl Rove's playbook. This is wrong, and every Democrat should be outraged.  Because this is the kind of attack that not only undermines core Democratic values, but gives aid and comfort to the very special interests and their allies in the Republican Party who are against doing what we want to do for America. So shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That's what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let's have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.

Hillary was complaining about mailers from the Obama campaign regarding her health care plan.  I said earlier her attack this morning is puzzling, and it is.  For one, let's talk about timing.   There mailers have been out for quite a while now, and yet, Hillary woke up this morning and was suddenly and spontaneously filled with outrage about them?

Second, let's talk about the content.  A core part of her campaign has been that she is the "tested" candidate.  That she has weathered decades of Republican attacks, that she is tried and tested in campaigns and that she is the "toughest" candidate to go up against the Republican machine in the general election.  Against that backdrop of "I can take whatever is thrown at me," her complaints this morning about how unfair Obama's campaign tactics are ring a bit hollow.

But more disturbing is exactly what Hillary said.  Leaving aside claims of Republican trickery, the most telling part of her speech was when she seemingly claimed that Obama has no "right" to attack her on health care.  Since when is a candidate's position on a given issue off-limits?  Since when can a candidate claim that because I put forth position X, you can't debate me on that position?  Of course, Hillary's point is that because Obama hasn't put forth a "universal" health care plan, he can't criticize it or ask how her plan will be enforced.  But even this too is absurd.

And indeed, it has all become absurd, hasn't it?  Clearly, the Clinton camp has chosen to ride the Mark Penn strategy of negativity straight through Texas and Ohio.  So we get a fiery Hillary chastising Obama ("shame on you, Barack Obama"), and challenging him to "meet me in Ohio," as if we were in the middle of a grade school fight instead of a presidential campaign.    

Welcome to the height of silly season, folks.  It's going to be a wild ride.