WHEN THE ENEMY IS US

As predicted the Dem primary campaign is moving element by element through the phases of a good story.

Iowa tested the candidates’ ability to motivate voters. It was all about PASSION. Obama won.

New Hampshire tested the candidates’ ability to marshal the party faithful and core constituencies. Hillary was the come back HEROINE of that phase.

Now the candidates must prove they can accurately define the ANTAGONIST and attacks and low blows are coming fast and furious. We predicted John Edwards would shine in this phase, but politics is about more than a candidates story, it is also very much about cash on hand. The FEC decision to cut John E. off from matching funds may have made him peripheral, but as Romney’s win in Michigan shows the fat lady has yet to sing.   

The danger in the Antagonist phase is that so much blood is spilled by candidates and their surrogates attacking each other that the party’s eventual nominee becomes an easy target in the real election that is still 9 months away. The candidates sense this and last nights Dem debate in Nevada allowed them to address it.

When Tim Russert asked Obama early on about a memo sent by his South Carolina press secretary pushing the story line that Hillary was playing the race card Obama quickly repudiated it saying with deep sincerity, “What I am absolutely convinced of is that everybody here is committed to racial equality.” It was very classy.

And Hillary did her part to defuse things, praising Obama and Edwards for the “extraordinary” personal stories adding “We are all family in the Democratic Party.”

If you noticed that her phrase has a slightly matriarchal ring – a very subtle playing of the gender card in her favor – you have to admire how deftly and kindly it was done. Hardly any blood spilled at all. It is so much more elegant to subliminally kill with a kiss.