Politics is an ugly game. Intra-party disputes like primaries can get pretty nasty.
But they're almost always nicer than general elections, where the really ugly stuff gets thrown around. As poisonous as the atmosphere between Hillary and Obama is, rest assured, it will get ten times worse once we hit the general election between John McCain and, it seems, Barack Obama.
Primaries are essentially fights among family. No matter how important the office, two candidates duking it out in the primary will likely have similar stances on the issues. A Republican primary will almost certainly be a fight between pro-life, tax-cutting war hawks. A Democratic primary will not have many fights over the environment, civil rights or health care - issues that everyone in the party agrees on. When politicians can't criticize each other on the issues, the fight becomes a matter of running the best campaign and raising the most money. Candidate A's voters are the same as Candidate B's voters.
And as bad as people think this extended Democratic primary has been for the eventual winner, well, they ain't seen nothing yet. Once the general election rolls around, the parties' political machinery will kick into gear and turn the Maverick War Hero into a senile warmonger and JFK Reincarnated into an America-hating newbie.
McCain is either too honorable or too smart to let his campaign play up the comments of Obama's pastor, Reverend Wright, whose controversial statements have brought Obama's favorability ratings down to Earth from their previously stratospheric heights. But rest assured, Wright will be a huge liability to Obama in the fall, as shadowy groups unaffiliated with the official McCain campaign will plaster the remarks over every mailer, poster, Web site and television ad they can get their hands on. This will be 2008's version of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Republican hit squad that played fast and loose with the facts but successfully tarred John Kerry's service in Vietnam as fraudulent.
This time, though, the truth doesn't need to be twisted to cause Obama damage; his pastor's comments are pretty damaging on their own. One perverse benefit of this story is that it at least puts to bed the rumors of Obama being a closet Muslim. Cold comfort for Obama fans, I know.
Meanwhile, Democratic surrogates will have to watch their step when they go on the attack. McCain is no George W. Bush; his life story is remarkable and heroic, whatever you think of his politics. That's why comments like, "McCain was a fighter pilot who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues," said recently by Obama backer Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), are so stupid.
The foolishness in Rockefeller, who is normally a pretty level-headed guy, is breathtaking. It's like he's trying to make sure Obama doesn't get a single veteran to vote for him in November. Never mind the fact that McCain was flying at a much lower altitude to minimize collateral damage, which is how he was shot down and then tortured. Rockefeller apologized profusely for his remarks hours later, no doubt after a furious David Plouffe (Obama's campaign manager) called him up and chewed him out.
Obama still has a slightly better-than-ever shot at being president in 2009. But Democrats who thought this campaign would be a cakewalk should think again. This will be a race.
Michael Sherry is a junior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Michael.Sherry@tufts.edu.
