Clinton Throws Kitchen Sink

With their backs against the wall, the Clinton campaign has unleashed a barrage of attacks against Barack Obama on the eve of crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio. Unlike earlier Clinton forays against Obama and his adroit team, some of these blows appeared to land.

The "kitchen sink" strategy-Obama said at a press conference that Clinton was "throwing the kitchen sink at me"-has succeeded in knocking Obama off message and put him constantly on the defensive the past couple of days. Clinton has used the tactics to portray herself as a tough fighter and raise doubts about Obama among men and working class voters while at the same time trying to win sympathy as the candidate who has been abused by the press while Obama has largely avoided tough scrutiny.

At the last debate Clinton complained about being too frequently asked the first question and referred to a Saturday Night Live skit in asking whether Obama wanted another pillow. Obama responded that his campaign does not whine, but Clinton's approach may have resonated with women who feel the press may have been piling on the female candidate.

Clinton followed with the famous "3:00 A. M." security commercial that raised questions about Obama's ability to command in a crisis without referring to him by name. Obama fired back with a similar ad touting his judgment about Iraq versus her claim of experience. This seemed a quick and nimble parry.

The Clinton camp then raised new inferences about Obama's relations with Chicago real estate man and Obama friend and fundraiser Antoin Rezko, who faces corrution charges for bribery and kickbacks. These strike at the heart of Obama's clean image and his appeal as a practitioner of a new politics. Obama admitted erring in a land purchase from Rezko and promised to return money he had raised for the campaign.

Finally, Canadian sources reported a meeting between Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee and Canadian government officials in which Goolsbee allegedly assured them that his candidate's harsh criticism of the NAFTA trade pact was more about "political positioning" for the campaign than actual substantive objections to the policy. At first Obama denied the meeting had taken place but then corrected himself and said he had been unaware of it. The Obama camp then charged the Canadians with either distorting or at least failing to understand Goolsbee's true meaning. In NAFTA-hating Ohio this sequence of events cannot have done Obama any good at all.

They certainly aren't pretty but the successive salvoes may be having effect; a last-minute Zogby poll showed Clinton solidifying her lead in Ohio and narrowly regaining the edge in Texas. Clinton's numbers did not go up but Obama's went down and the undecideds grew by identical amounts. One poll may of course say nothing, or it may have captured a trend. There's little doubt the Clinton team came to the conclusion it was their last best chance. We'll find out Tuesday whether the old politics still has legs.