Holmes: Obama on offense
Barack Obama's sport of choice is basketball. He played hoops in high school, enjoys pickup games on the campaign trail, and I've seen reports that, if things work out, he plans to have a half-court installed at the White House.
For that to happen, he's going to have to prove to Democrats that he's got game. He's got to play offense as well as defense, which means Hillary Clinton will have to feel his sharp elbows.
He's starting to do that, with a strong response to the Clintons' - Hillary invited the return of the plural by letting Bill help deliver the message - mischievous suggestion that voters could have Barack as VP if they'll vote for her.
Obama ridiculed the audacity of the person in second place deigning to offer the second spot to the candidate in first place, but I'd have been tougher. If she wins the nomination, there will be more pressure to take him on as VP than the other way around, so I'd use this occasion to issue a veiled threat that she'd better behave herself in the weeks to come.
"I'm serious about pursuing a new kind of politics," he could say, "so I won't run a campaign based on cheap shots, personal attacks and appeals to fear, either before or after the convention. And I will not share a ticket - on either end - with a candidate who wages that kind of campaign."
In other words, drop the kitchen sink strategy or you'll never see a dream ticket. Not a punch in the nose, but an elbow in the ribs.
Obama cites his years in Chicago's Southside to reassure skeptics that rough play doesn't bother him. But his "new politics" image restricts his movement. He says he draws the line at personal attacks, but contrasting records and issues is fair game.
That ought to include Clinton's record on campaign finance and transparency. He ought to remind voters, for instance, that Clinton's health care reform task force was as secretive as Dick Cheney's energy policy task force. Both Clinton and Cheney went to court to block access to records of who participated in the discussions. By contrast, Obama has promised to put his health reform negotiations on C-Span.
Demanding the Clinton tax records be released is good; demanding the Clinton Library release records relating to the pardons Bill granted just before leaving office is better.
If Clinton can use the threat of John McCain to justify questioning Obama's national security credentials, Obama can use McCain's record as a champion of campaign finance reform to remind voters that it was the Clintons who rented out the Lincoln bedroom to campaign contributors.
If he's looking for a response to the "red phone ad," Obama might consider something like this: "Let's get real. While she was in the White House, Hillary had neither the responsibility nor the security clearance to sit in on meetings involving international crises. Whatever decisions she was making in the middle of the night didn't involve national security."
Obama need never mention impeachment or Monica Lewinsky, but the primaries have shown that Bill Clinton is more of a liability than an asset. In subtle ways, he can remind voters that we're looking at Bill's third term.
When it comes to hitting back, the 2006 Deval Patrick campaign provides a precedent once again. Patrick took the high road throughout, even when GOP nominee Kerry Healey took the low road with ads tying him to a convicted rapist. But Patrick resisted returning fire, most likely because Healey never came closer than 10 points behind in the polls.
But there was an unintended consequence. Because Patrick has yet to show he's capable of cutting an opponent off at the knees, the hacks on Beacon Hill who have stalled Patrick's agenda don't think they have anything to fear from the rookie governor.
Hillary Clinton is no Kerry Healey, and neither is John McCain. The ball is in Obama's hands, but to get it into the hoop, he's going to have to elbow some pretty strong players out of the way.
Rick Holmes, opinion editor of the MetroWest Daily News, blogs at Holmes & Co. (http://blogs.townonline.com/holmesandco). He can be reached at rholmes@cnc.com.