http://www.newsweek.com/id/136440
Contact:
Jan Angilella FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
at
212-445-5638 Sunday, May 11, 2008
Jan.Angilella@Newsweek.com
COVER:
THE O TEAM
OBAMA
HAS SHOWN HE CAN RUN A CAMPAIGN. HE'D BETTER GET READY FOR A WAR
OBAMA
TOLD CAMPAIGN AIDES THERE WAS TO BE NO DRAMA:
'WE'RE
GOING TO RISE OR FALL TOGETHER'
----
ADVISERS
INSIST RACE WILL BE ABOUT BIG ISSUES, BUT ARE READY FOR MUD WAR
MCCAIN
CAMPAIGN PORING OVER OBAMA RECORD; WANT TO BRAND HIM
AS 'SUPERDUPER
LIBERAL'
New York-A senior member of Barack Obama's
campaign staff tells Newsweek he's only seen the presidential candidate yell
twice in four years. Obama was explicit from the beginning: there was to be
"no drama," he told his aides. "I don't want elbowing or finger
pointing. We're going to rise or fall together," according to a report in
the current issue of Newsweek. Obama wanted steady, calm, focused leadership;
he wanted to keep out the grandstanders and make sure the quiet dissenters
spoke up.
In the
May 19 Newsweek cover story, "The O Team" (on newsstands Monday, May
12), Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe and Editor-at-Large Evan
Thomas look at Obama's management and leadership style and examine how it will
translate if he's the nominee against Republican John McCain in the fall, when
the campaign could turn negative.
Obama's
advisers insist that the race will be about the big issues because there are
stark contrasts between the candidates on Iraq and the economy. But if McCain
feels he can't win on those issues-if the war remains unpopular and the Bush
downturn goes on-he will be sorely tempted to run down his opponent, Newsweek
reports. The McCain campaign is now poring over Obama's record, looking for
weaknesses that can be exposed without race-baiting or hitting below the belt.
They want to brand Obama as a "superduper liberal who is out of the
mainstream," says one McCain adviser who did not wish to be identified
discussing internal campaign strategy.
But
Team Obama has been consistently able to outstrategize the opposition, and it
does have a plan for the coming mud war. In conversations with Newsweek,
Obama's aides have signaled
their
intention to put Sen. McCain on the spot. They note that McCain himself has
been the victim of a smear. In the South Carolina primary in 2000, GOP
operatives spread the rumor that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black
child. Recently, when a reporter asked McCain, "Does it bother you at all
that you might actually benefit from latent prejudice in the country?" he
answered: "That would bother me a lot. That would bother me a great
deal." And last week his wife Cindy told NBC News, "My husband is
absolutely opposed to any negative campaigning at all." So if McCain's
camp does try to exploit Obama's ties to the fiery Reverend Jeremiah Wright,
the Obama-ites can question his sincerity-is he really the "Straight
Talk" candidate? And if McCain can't stop others from the sort of innuendo
and code that Republicans have learned to frighten voters, Obama can cast doubt
on McCain's credentials as a commander in chief.
McCain
himself has said that he will not "referee" between various
independent groups who always want to have their say in presidential campaigns.
(The model is the notorious Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who unfairly but
effectively questioned John Kerry's war record in 2004.) Charlie Black,
McCain's top strategist, told Newsweek that McCain was powerless to stop the "527s,"
named after the provision of the tax code that covers political expenditures by
nonprofits, from running attack ads on their own. "Look, there's nothing
we can do about the 527s," says Black.
The
last Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, dithered and failed to
quickly strike back when he was attacked by the Swift Boat veterans. The Obama
team says it will not make the same mistake. "You fight back aggressively
and play jujitsu," says David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.
Another
McCain adviser, who asked for anonymity discussing campaign strategy, bluntly
warned, "It's going to be Swift Boat times five on both sides ... The
candidates will both do their best publicly to mute it. But in a close race, I
don't see how to shut that down."
Indeed, the two most experienced attack artists are already gearing up.
Floyd Brown, who produced the infamous "Willie Horton" commercial
that used race and fear of crime to drive voters away from Democratic
presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988, produced an ad before the North
Carolina primary accusing Obama of being soft on crime. He told Newsweek that
Obama is "extremely vulnerable" to questioning about his ties to
Chicago fixer Tony Rezko, who has been indicted for political corruption. Another
target is former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, whose association with
Obama will remind voters of bomb-throwing student radicals of the 1960s.
"There's plenty of stuff out there. I'm kinda like in a candy store in
this election," says Brown.
# # #
(Read cover at www.Newsweek.com)
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