And Kos for that matter?
Josh Marshall over at the redoubtable Talking Points Memo has an essay up about the differences in the early general campaigns of Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain that makes a pretty good case for it.
We (meaning some of the folks that supported Sen. Clinton) made the argument that her bare knuckle tactics in the primary season were a net good, as some of these issues and an (ahem) problems with Sen. Obama would be brought up in the general, were he to become our nominee. Now, the Dog was not part of that, as he does not generally make excuses that he thinks are weak, even in support of his candidate (yeah, the Dog was for Sen. Clinton before he was against her).
The Dog thinks that generally his fellow Kossacks are going to feel that what Sen. Clinton and her surrogates did and said was out of bounds or over the top, opinions can vary but that is not the point. Leaving aside the actual content (if your anger management skills allow that) one unintended consequence is that it has made the Obama campaign strong, fast and unafraid to stand on their plan and issues.
We see this in the new smear response website the campaign has opened. We see it in the fearless way that our candidate hits back at Sen. McCain and his assertions that Sen. Obama does not understand what is going on in Iraq and why that matters. We see it in the money that they can and are raising. We see it in the way that the Obama campaign has served notice that they will contest for the whole country, not just because it is the smart move, but because it is the right thing to do.
If we contrast this with Sen. McCain, who as Mr. Marshall says became the Repuglican Republican nominee by default and you can see what a difference a strongly contested primary can make. His campaign is slow to react, has almost no ability to take the initiative and is missing the pulse of the nation. Now, some of this might be due to the fact that the entire conservative movement agenda is held in disdain by the majority of the country, but that is not the whole story. By not having win his party’s nomination, Sen. McCain has not had to hone a message that resonates with his base. He is in trouble with evangelicals; he is worrying his lobbyist friends and funders by throwing some of them to off the campaign. This means that he has to spend time in the general election shoring up his base. For a candidate that is going to have to depend on independent voters for a win, this is a very costly thing to have to focus on. This is especially true when what the base wants to hear and what independents want to hear is so far apart these days.
Finally, let’s give a little shout out to the Great Orange One. He has maintained all along that hard fought primaries are good for democracy and good for the Democratic Party. It seems that this long and hard primary season has vindicated that premise. We have a candidate that is ready to fight for the office and has developed and honed the skills needed to win that fight. So, while many of us may have some residual anger and frustration at Sen. Clinton, we should recognize that some of the strength of our candidate comes form having to fight her so hard. Who knows if Sen. Obama would be this ready, if he had not had to walk through the fire of her campaign?