Rather Strikes Back

Conservative commentators are quick to fire back. Andrew Sullivan rips Jackson's entire philosophy:

"Jackson's 'acting white' remark is a sign of desperation -- of failure, of the bankruptcy of pure victim politics. It's racist; and it's offensive. But it's also an extremely encouraging sign. It could help illustrate one of the game-changing features of the Obama candidacy and open more eyes to the potential in the Illinois senator; and it could jump-start up a real debate among African-Americans about what their future politics should look like and express. Both are very healthy developments.

"Obama, after all, is not only running against Clinton and her well-oiled machine. He's also running against the failed past in racial politics. But part of his candidacy is about not explicitly returning to these tired and divisive racial themes, while articulating policies that he believes benefits whites and blacks in an interconnected America. The Obama campaign should thank Jesse Jackson for making the newness of Obama's racial message clear in a way that leaves the race-consciousness to others."

Captain Ed throws down a challenge:

"The fact that Obama has not exploited the incident for his own political gain makes Jackson think he's 'acting white.' Do the rest of the African-American community concur in this analysis? Does Jesse speak for them when he says that black people have less authenticity when they act carefully, rationally, and thoughtfully?"

Jackson must be feeling the heat: He put out a late statement that, while not retracting his comments, says that Obama has transcended race.

Of course, Obama has a much broader problem: He's behind. Slate's John Dickerson poses the question: "Is it time for Obama to panic?" Dickerson offers several possible strategies, including:

"Go after Clinton. It's been seven months since the first Obama/Clinton dust-up over David Geffen's negative remarks about Hillary. That spat didn't hurt Clinton at all. Two months ago, the two got into a name-calling match over who was more naive about foreign policy. Clinton came out of that fight stronger in the polls, too. Obama has been trying to paint her as a captive of lobbyists and unable to change Washington, but that attack hasn't worked, either. In June voters thought Clinton was the candidate who represented change in Washington, and they still do.

"Perhaps the problem has been that Obama's attacks have been too veiled. Speaking about the Iraq war last week, he said, 'Perhaps because of how much experience they had in Washington, too many politicians feared looking weak and failed to ask the hard questions--too many took the president at his word instead of reading the intelligence for themselves.' He was talking about Clinton, but not every voter would have picked up on that. Should he start making the attacks more explicit--perhaps arguing that the partisan GOP response to her policies is exactly what her presidency would bring? (Or should he at least keep sending his wife on the offensive?)

"The big downside is that if Obama goes after Clinton, he hurts his brand. He's campaigned against gutter-style politics. Clinton's big weakness in the polls is that people don't trust her. But if he went after her for that, it would get personal and ugly fast. Iowa voters in particular tend to look down on this kind of behavior."

Well, it was deja vu again on the Hill:

"A proposal that Democrats put forward as their best chance of changing the course of the Iraq war died on the Senate floor on Wednesday, as Republicans stood firmly behind President Bush," the NYT says.

"With other war initiatives seemingly headed for the same fate, Senate Democrats, who only two weeks ago proclaimed September to be the month for shifting course in Iraq, conceded that they had little chance of success. They said their strategy would now focus on portraying Republicans as opposing any change and on trying to chip away support from the White House as the war continued.

"The proposal that failed Wednesday fell 4 votes short of the 60 needed to prevent a filibuster and would have required that American troops be given as much time at home as they had spent overseas before being redeployed." The Dems picked up six Republicans.

Ryan Sager has a noteworthy observation about a poll that has Giuliani at 30 percent, Thompson at 22, McCain at 18 and at Romney 7:

"Mitt Romney's favorability rating is a mess. That is, it's negative -- fairly remarkable for someone who's been busy trying to shape his image for so many months.

"Here's Gallup:

" While Romney's favorable rating is the same as it was earlier this month, his unfavorable rating has increased and is now at its highest point to date (35%). Romney's ratings had improved following his win in the Iowa straw poll in August, after which 33% rated him positively and 24% negatively. Since then, his ratings have quickly deteriorated. Romney now has a net negative image in the eyes of Americans (27% favorable, 35% unfavorable), as was the case in several polls this summer.

"Almost all of this has to be attributable to Mr. Romney's 'flip-flopper' image (though, it's possible his Mormonism also plays a part)."

Dick Cheney must be a fast writer; he quickly took to the WSJ op-ed page to rebut Alan Greenspan's criticism of the administration's fiscal record.

O.J. is free once again, and anyone watching cable yesterday saw one of the most ridiculous sights in quite some time: helicopter footage of his car driving down the highway after he made bail, in a self-conscious attempt to recreate the low-speed Bronco chase of 1994.

The New York Post even follows him and "gal pal Christie Prody" onto his plane:

"Freed jailbird O.J. Simpson posted bail, rushed out of the pokey and hightailed it home to Florida yesterday.

"And, by the way, no hard feelings Vegas, the Juice said. 'It [treatment by Las Vegas jailers] was totally professional,' a relieved Simpson told the Post aboard a Fort Lauderdale-bound US Airways jet taxiing out of McCarran International Airport."

Now he can resume looking for the real killers.