Obama campaign chair questions Hillary's tears, why she didn't cry during Katrina

Jesse Jackson Jr, a co-chair of the Obama campaign, go on TV today and questioned whey Hillary teared up over her campaign hardships but didn't tear up over Hurricane Katrina. Here's the clip, via TPM Election Central.


I don't really fault Obama for taking on "the tears," but I do fault him for how he did it (a bit clumsy, I'd say). Then again, I don't think I'm the target audience for this ploy, and with that in mind, it may be downright brilliant. The rest of my analysis after the jump...

I mean, I get the overall point - that this is a woman who only tears up when she's in political trouble, rather than about puppy dogs and sunsets. And that's an interesting line of attack to try to diminish the now-famous tears. First off, this is a clear signal that some in the Obama camp think "the tear" may have caused their defeat in NH and are now trying to tear the tear apart before it hurts them elsewhere on the campaign. What matters is what the tear represents - a Hillary that is no longer just robotic Stepford borg Hillary Clinton. Now she's Hillary with a heart. So, her opponents must show that she's not Hillary with a heart because she didn't have a heart during Katrina, etc. Except that I don't recall Hillary being a problem during Katrina - the heartless one was Bush.

I think the Obama campaign flubbed this one. Not by attacking Hillary over the tear - if they perceive the tear as public enemy number one, then they have to undermine it somehow. And let's face it, it's not like the Clinton campaign has been playing nice with Obama. But I'm not sure the messenger for such an attack should be someone co-chairing Obama's campaign (this is what surrogates outside of the campaign are for, it's called plausible deniability), nor should his name contain the words Jesse or Jackson in them. Then again, choosing a black messenger to deliver the message that Hillary didn't care about Katrina (aka Hillary doesn't care about black folk) may be just the subliminal message the Obamaites want for the upcoming South Carolina primary, where half the Democratic primary voters are black.