Credibility

My initial support of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama was not because I liked Hillary more than Barack, I dislike them both equally, but because I thought Hillary was better equipped to fight the right wing smear machine. Obama has had it pretty easy up until now but that is changing now that he is the front runner. As I discussed yesterday Israel and the neocons are now in full attack mode. The Times Online now reports that the right is ready to tag Obama as a "Chicago Socialist".

LEADING Republicans believe they can trounce Barack Obama in the presidential election by tarring him as a shady Chicago socialist. They are increasingly confident that his campaign could collapse by the time their attack machine has finished with him.

Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “Barack Obama has been able to create his own image and introduce himself to voters, but the swing voters in a general election are not paying attention yet. He is open to being defined as a leftwing, corrupt Chicago politician.”

Norquist’s comments will be music to the ears of Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Democratic rival, who believes Obama has not been sufficiently “vetted” for the White House. She has been unable to attack him too vociferously without risking a backlash from Democratic primary voters, but Republicans may salvage her campaign by doing the job for her.

Obama has the voting record of a “hard-left” socialist, according to Norquist, from his time in the Illinois state legislature to the US Senate. He was recently judged by the nonpartisan National Journal to have the most liberal voting record in 2007 of any senator.

This might have worked four years ago but not now. Grover Norquist and the rest of the wingnuts have no credibility. They have the complete and total disaster of the Bush presidency to thank for that. As I suggested a few days ago after over seven years of the Bush administration the new toxic tag is conservative - not liberal or socialist.