Carville: If Hillary Gave Obama “One Of Her Cojones, They’d Both Have Two”
Obama needs to show superdelegates his willingness to throw a punch.
Presidential elections do not turn on the issues—a sad reality Democrats have yet to fully absorb. There’s a reason Hillary connected with voters when she got teary in New Hampshire and why her message is gaining traction now, while she’s fighting so hard. People want to see passion, toughness, and determination in a president. Drew Westen, a clinical psychologist and author of “The Political Brain,” a study of how emotions affect the way we vote, says Obama’s press conference denouncing Wright was “the first time we’ve seen him really throw a punch.
The
superdelegates are looking for reassurance that he can respond in a decisive way to end the Wright controversy and get back to his message. They’re not really uncommitted—they’re mostly for Obama—but they’re wary of signing on to a campaign that might yet come apart. “He had the greatest fastball anybody had seen, and now it’s ‘Hey man, can you throw a change-up?’ He needs another pitch in his repertoire,” says James Carville, a top pitchman for the Clintons.
Reminded that Obama continues to narrow the lead that Hillary once enjoyed among superdelegates, Carville quips, “A superdelegate commitment and four bucks will get you a cup of coffee at the Ritz-Carlton.”
But if he’s to survive the assault on his character from Reverend Wright and assorted others—including, of course, Hillary Clinton—he needs to be more forthcoming. It’s not that voters think he’s a secret radical; they’re just not sure he has what it takes to run the country. If he can’t stand up to a minister who has run off the rails, how would he stand up to Vladimir Putin?
Obama didn’t have much choice in deciding to take on Wright. It was a fight he did all he could to avoid, acting only when it threatened to destroy his candidacy. “The Republicans will eat him alive” is what the Clinton campaign is telling the superdelegates. Hillary is the tougher of the two, the candidate you want on your side in a knife fight, a gender reversal that prompts Carville to indulge in some ribald humor: “If she gave him one of her cojones, they’d both have two.”
