Fraticidal moves

 

 

Are Presidential elections in United States due next month? Going by the sheer intensity of campaign, this is the impression one gets these days. Allegations, counter allegations and aspersions, mostly involving Democrat frontrunners, the Illinois senator Barack Obama and New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, are flying thick and fast, threatening to turn the campaign ugly.

The latest round has been triggered by a former Bill Clinton-backer David Geffen’s accusations that Clintons were liars. “Everybody lies in politics. But they do it with ease. It’s troubling,” Geffen, one of the biggest Hollywood fund raisers, said. Referring to Hillary as “an incredibly polarising figure,” he doubted whether she could keep the country together.

Earlier, a section of media launched a vicious campaign on Obama’s personal life. He was reported to have studied in an Islamic fundamentalist school in Indonesia; his father was termed a drunkard who ditched Obama’s mother for another woman. Such allegations are emanating from sympathisers of Obama and Hillary. Both Democratic Presidential candidates were, however, quick to distance themselves from the smear campaign.

On Geffen’s statement, Hillary’s Deputy Communications Director Phil Singer said, “While Obama claims to eschew the politics of slash, his campaign embraces the politics of trash.” Obama was more prudent in saying, “Somebody who contributed to my campaign fund said some unflattering things about (the) Clintons, but I don’t share such opinion.”

With Presidential elections still two years away and the first primaries too to start next year, the smear campaign may harm Democrats’ prospects. But, their campaign managers don’t share the perception. The mudslinging actually keeps the focus sharply on Democrats leaving out Republican frontrunners Senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani (current favourite) out in the cold. The strategy will be a runaway success only if it doesn’t cause a burnout to the Democrats.