"Buyer's Remorse" - Another Clinton Campaign Talking Point Goes Down In Flames

Following the primaries on March 4 the Clinton campaign rushed to the national microphone with a shiny new Mark Penn talking point: Democratic voters had "buyer's remorse" about Barack Obama.

The idea, I suppose, was to suggest that Senator Obama was some kind of fad-- that people had gotten caught up in the excitement of the Obama campaign but felt burned once the got home and looked inside the box. How, exactly, voters casting ballots for the first time in Ohio were expressing the "remorse" of those who had voted previously in, say, Virgina, was never clear but, hey, why let reality stand in the way of a good talking point? It sounded kinda true, sort of, and that's all that matters.

But, logical howlers aside, what if it were true? What if those who went for Obama when the whole nation seemed to be saying "Yes We Can!" had a chance to take a second look now that he's lost that new candidate smell? Would people change their minds now that he has had the kitchen sink thrown at his head?

Well, the good citizens of Iowa just just offered us the first real chance to compare apples to apples and test that theory. Ben Smith at the Politico reports:

A pretty stunning gain out of Iowa for Obama, where an Iowa Democratic official confirmed to me just now that the county convention results will translate into a 25-14-6 edge for Obama over Clinton and Edwards.

That's a gain of nine  for the Illinois Senator over the results reported in January, while Clinton lost one delegate. (Edwards lost eight).

Hmm, I guess when you actually test the "buyer's remorse" theory, you wind up with a result that's exactly opposite to what Penn and the rest of Camp Clinton had suggested. Not surprising, I guess; reality is developing a strong Obama bias.

Smith continues, offering a bit of context:

It's a welcome -- and meaningful -- gain for Obama on a tough weekend, and a result both of his long, hard work in Iowa and of a situation in which Clinton's attacks seem to be turning off party activists.

Think about that for a second.  After weeks of having Ye Olde Kitchen Sinke thrown at him by the Clinton campaign, after a week of having had his fiery minister's most outrageous statements pinned to him by the press, after all that happened between Iowa's general caucus in January and yesterday's county caucuses-- Iowans gave Obama more of their support, not less.

You have to wonder if Mark Penn has "seller's remorse" for pitching that "buyer's remorse" bullshit.

Now, I know that SusanG already mentioned this on the front page yesterday but there's a larger pattern here that I'd like to highlight: Namely, Obama's utter, death-defying resilience as a candidate.

Team Clinton is great at manipulating the short-term optics. At first, Obama was wasting his time running against the Clinton Machine™ and its "inevitable" march to the nomination. Then, Obama supposedly knocked himself out by suggesting that the U.S. should go after bin Laden in western Pakistan if we knew where he was and Musharraf refused to help. Then he wasn't "vetted enough" and boy if people really found out about what was in his underwear drawer then they'd run in droves to vote for Clinton. Now, the past statements of Obama's former pastor spell certain doom (DOOM, I TELLS YA) for his candidacy.

In all of these supposed candidacy-ending "flaps" two things have remained true:

1. the Clinton camp has been able to effectively warp the short-term  coverage in a way that either marginally hurts Obama or helps their candidate. and

2. When the smoke of the initial ZOMG IS THIS TEH END 4 OBAMA??? coverage clears and people, even the press, have a chance to think and look at the facts, Obama winds up on top.

I have to admit, sometimes being in the tank for Obama has been bad for my blood pressure. Years of preemptive first-strike politics have warped my view of what being an effective fighter is, I guess. When the Clintons go nukular I tend to freak out when Obama doesn't respond immediately and in kind. They throw a rock at his head and he just ducks it, smiles, and continues patiently putting forward his positive message. As someone who greatly admired John Edwards' passionate firebrand style of stumping, Obama's calm demeanor and measured responses occasionally have made me want to rip my hair out. "ATTAAAAAACK!!!" I scream at the TV. "Doesn't he know he needs to attack when they do that??"

No more. I'm now convinced Barack knows exactly what he's doing. The Clintons keep running closer to the edge to win the small skirmishes and Obama keeps smiling and winning the war. They keep running off the side of the road to throw dust in the air and he keeps calmly moving forward. He figured out a way to stay true to himself and still win; each new challenge only shows him to be more, and more deeply, what he says he is.

So, "buyer's remorse"? Hardly. Far from being a crappy gadget in a showy box, Barack Obama has proven that all the best, most durable parts of his candidacy are on the inside and the more the he is put to the test the better he gets. In the retail world they call that a "quality product". In this case, I'll call him "Mr. President."

Evidently, the fine citizens of Iowa are satisfied customers, too.