Reply #10: Can Clinton's Scorched-Earth Tactics Work? [View All]

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Can Clinton's Scorched-Earth Tactics Work?

16.04.2008--Jonathan Chait

Doug Schoen has an op-ed in today's Washington Post urging Hillary Clinton to finally get tough with Barack Obama. Schoen's byline identifies him as a pollster, a former advisor to Bill Clinton, and the author of "Declaring Independence: The Beginning of the End of the Two-Party System" (which suggests you don't have to be a rabid partisan to question whether he has the Democratic Party's best interests at heart.)
The most interesting thing about the op-ed is not mentioned anywhere: Schoen is the business partner of Mark Penn, who has reportedly been arguing within the Clinton campaign for a scorched-Earth desperation final drive to take down Obama. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Penn helped plant the op-ed.
As far as Schoen's argument itself, he's not entirely wrong. The heart of his case is one that I've made, namely that Clinton's only chance is to make Obama totally unelectable:
…But here's the problem with this strategy: Clinton's attacks may be harming Obama, but they're harming her even more. A new Washington Post poll, published the same day as Schoen's op-ed, found that while Obama has gotten somewhat less popular, Clinton has become wildly unpopular:

….Update: Schoen is Penn's former business partner, and I'm told it's unlikely he put him up to it.
…more at the link