A Missed Opportunity?

"That was the moment when Clinton could have, and should have, pounded Obama relentlessly as being weak and inexperienced on foreign policy. It might not have been pretty, and it might have engendered a bit of a backlash at the time, but she could have at least tried to define Obama in a way that would hurt him over time, and raise the kind of doubts that might have prevented, or at least slowed, the migration of Democratic primary voters his way.

"But that boot-on-the-throat moment is long gone, and instead of returning to a recurring theme about her opponent Clinton looks like she's raising it in a desperate final pitch to save her hide."

Some very cogent observations from Slate's John Dickerson on how campaigns love to play the victim, as happened with the Obama-in-Somali-garb photo:

"It was just the opening a presidential candidate craves, a perfect opportunity to take umbrage. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe immediately cried foul, charging the Clinton campaign with 'the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election . . . It's exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world.' . . .

"The swift reaction from the Obama forces was good damage control and even better umbrage-taking, a political tactic that has been elevated to a high art in the 2008 campaign. There was once a time when campaigns didn't respond to items like this for fear of giving them too much publicity. But if done correctly, candidates can exploit flamboyant displays of public upset to gain attention, raise money, put their opponents on the defensive, and distract from an unfavorable story.

"Last week, John McCain may have united his conflicted Republican Party on the umbrage platform. Conservative commentators once groused he was too liberal. Heck, he'd even been endorsed by the New York Times. Then the paper ran its widely criticized story about alleged conversations among McCain associates about an alleged improper relationship with a female lobbyist. The conservative world united in group indignation at the cheap shot by the liberal Times. Even better, McCain and the RNC got the chance to send out indignant fundraising letters . . .

"Hillary Clinton raised money by stirring outrage about a Washington Post story that mentioned her neckline and successfully took advantage of the crass statements by Chris Matthews and David Shuster. She also benefited from spontaneous indignation on her behalf. When Barack Obama said Clinton was 'likable enough' before the New Hampshire primary, he may have motivated her female supporters to give him a thumping for being so rude."

National Review's Rich Lowry says the audacity of hope doesn't extend to trade agreements:

"For Barack Obama, hope can triumph over anything, except for open trade with a neighboring country with an economy 1/20th the size of ours. Then, all is despair. Obama's culprit is Mexico, our third-largest trading partner. It is trade deals like NAFTA -- the 1993 accord eliminating tariffs among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada -- that 'ship jobs overseas and force parents to compete with teenagers for minimum wage at Wal-Mart,' Obama intones. Feel inspired yet? . . .

"Obama always says that politicians should tell voters what they need -- not what they want -- to hear. But no one in the Democratic party will emphatically say that trade is a net benefit to the U.S., even if it brings painful -- and ultimately unavoidable -- dislocations. Hillary Clinton always was lukewarm about NAFTA, and even Bill is skittering away from his legacy."

Lots of buzz about Dana Milbank's column on a press breakfast with Hillary aides on Monday, at which spokesman Phil Singer challenged the assembled journalists for allowing Drudge to be their assignment editor, among other complaints:

"After the breakfast, one of the questioners asked Singer whether he could elaborate on the tax-return issue. He dismissed her with more hostility. When the reporter suggested that Singer was being antagonistic, the spokesman explained. 'Sixteen months into this,' he said, 'I'm just angry.' "