It Doesn't Matter Who Dems Nominate, Rove & His Allies Will Try to Smear Them

Here is an article that appeared on the Forbes website on Friday, August 17, 2007, about Rove attacking Hillary Clinton. The thrust of the article is that while Rove attacking Clinton may help her in the short term, it could hurt her in the long term by raising her negatives and concerns about her electability.

Look, here is the problem with that analysis: Rove and his allies will attack anyone the Democrats nominate and try to smear them. This is the party that attacked Vietnam vets like Max Cleland and John Kerry to help elect Republicans who avoided service in Vietnam. This is the party that impeached a Democratic president for allegedly lying about private consensual sex. This is a party that launched over 150 investigations of the Clinton administration when it was in office. It doesn't matter who Democrats nominate, they are going to attack him or her.

There are problems with Hillary Clinton as a nominee, but there are also problems with Obama, Edwards, or anyone else. There is no such thing as a the perfect candidate and there is no candidate who won't be attacked by Rovian Republicans. The question for Democrats is whether our candidate can take a punch and whether he or she can deliver a punch.