BARACK ATTACK

BARACK ATTACK 

Now that Barack Obama has pushed ahead in his contest with Hillary Clinton and stands a reasonable chance of being the Democratic nominee for President, the fear is that he will not be able to take a punch. First, however, his opponents (all of them) have to throw one. And so far, either none are, or none are landing. 

Whether it's Hillary, John McCain or right wing pundits like Charles Krauthammer, the attack on Obama thusfar is numbingly similar, surprisingly superficial and stunningly ineffective. It's some verson of the notion that he offers promises but not solutions (Hillary), rhetoric but not reality (McCain), or the snake oil of messianic hope that "dazzles" crowds even as it arouses "skepticism and misgivings among the mainstream media" (Krauthammer). Victory after victory, eloquent speech after eloquent speech, Obama is now pilloried for a campaign that is supposedly becoming "dangerously self-referential" (Joe Klein). 

Puh-leeze! 

All of this is sheer rubbish. Not to mention disingenuous and false. Obama is winning because, for much of the past thirty years, the establishment hasn't delivered. His crowds are large and his rhetoric soars because he hasn't invested in the past and doesn't need to (and won't) apologize for it. Whether it's a war he opposed, a surge he knows is just a bandaid, or an economy that comes nowhere near delivering the kind of middle class created by FDR and his followers, Obama admits and tells the truths that the others either ignore or are partially (and sometimes wholly) responsible for. His rhetoric is compelling because it is real. The "solutions" Senator from New York cannot get traction because, in the Senate on the mother of all issues, she helped create the biggest problem we now have (in Iraq) rather than solve the one we already had (in Afghanistan). Ditto for Mr. Reality from Arizona. John McCain is consistent and has the courage of his convictions. But as George W. Bush has proved beyond any doubt, one can have consistent convictions that are consistently wrong. 

There's also nothing "dangerously self-referential" or "messianic" about Obama's appeal. For starters, it's hard to get a grip on what, precisely, this charge means. The rugged individualists, rich entrepreneurs and devotees of Ronald Reagan (messiah, anyone?) who make up the Republican Party are self-referential to a man. They just call it individual responsibility. They also think that is a good thing, one that more or less ought to be the foundation of most public policies. Barack is just stealing their thunder, the first Democratic politician since JFK to "ask not." When Obama says "We are the change that we seek," he's offering Americans hard work and responsibility for their future, not salvation. When he tells crowds that he is relying on them more than they are on him, he is repeating an old lesson in democratic self-governance -- that change comes not from those in charge but from those who are charged; that we get the government we elect, not the government we deserve; that the people are more important than the President. None of this is self-referential. It's the precise opposite. 

 No candidate has yet issued a bill of particulars against Barack. Hillary allegedly refuses to "whoop it up" Barack-like in deference to her ostensibly more honest and humble devotion to tough choices and real solutions. And McCain denounces Obama's speeches as "platitudes" masking as policies. Neither sound bite has touched the Illinois Senator. Today, however, Charles Krauthammer tried a different (albeit related) tack. He wrote: Obama is "going around issuing promissory notes on the future that he can't possibly redeem. Promises to heal the world with negotiations with the likes of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Promises to transcend the conundrums of entitlement reform that require real and painful trade-offs that have eluded solution for a generation. Promises to fund his other promises by a rapid withdrawal from an unpopular war". Krauthammer thinks this "spell" can last just past an Obama inauguration. Following that, he foresees a "rude awakening." 

Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Obama hasn't promised to heal the world with negotiation. He has simply made the unremarkable observation that the world has never moved down that road without it. As for entitlement reform, the solution has eluded Krauthammer's generation, not Obama's. The kids at his rallies don't think they're getting Social Security or Medicare, they do not much like that, and they know that, with two reforms (increasing the earnings subject to payroll tax and moving the retirement age up slightly) Social Security could be sound. The solutions do not elude them. Nor do the costs. They are willing to pay higher taxes once they become millionaires. And they know a war that is off budget and cost billions each week is a source of funds if only it can be stopped. 

 The gig may not yet be up for Hillary. She has an almost infinite capacity for survival, and she will fight to the last. It's also hardly up for McCain. He will be the GOP nominee and in November, he will be strong. But neither one of them will beat Barack if what we've seen to date from both is the sum and substance of their argument against him. Anyone who wants 10-point plans on everything from health care to entitlement reform to Iraq can get it from any of these candidates. Just go to their websites. It's all there. All the reality, all the solutions, all the policy you could want. Obama's is no less detailed than Hillary's or McCain's. And if the websites are not sufficient, just replay the debates -- 18 of them with Barack and Hillary on the stage, covering the policy waterfront, which is why everyone now knows that he's for universal access and she's for a universal mandate. It's as real as it gets. 

But my wife -- who was the Legislative Director for a senior Congressman in the '80s and early '90s and has worked a half dozen campaigns -- says none of that will ultimately matter. And she may be right. 

Because while they keep telling us what they will do, Barack Obama keeps telling us what we can do.