A Classic Campaign Dirty Trick

Bob Novak reports that the Clinton campaign is claiming to have some devastating negative information about Barack Obama:

Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

This word-of-mouth among Democrats makes Obama look vulnerable and Clinton look prudent. It comes during a dip for the front-running Clinton after she refused to take a stand on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's now discarded plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Experienced Democratic political operatives believe Clinton wants to avoid a repetition of 2004, when attacks on each other by presidential candidates Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt were mutually destructive and facilitated John Kerry's nomination.

Obama responded to the report:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took the rare step of issuing a statement in his own name on Saturday to call attention to a report by columnist Robert D. Novak that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is sitting on “scandalous” information about Obama.

The information was not described and there is no proof it exists.

Obama accused Clinton of “'swift boat’ politics” and vowed he will not be intimidated.

“I am prepared to stand up to that kind of politics, whether it's deployed by candidates in our party, in the other party or by any third party,” Obama said. “The cause of change in this country will not be deterred or sidetracked by the old ‘Swift boat’ politics. The cause of moving America forward demands that we defeat it.”

This is a classic campaign dirty trick - alleging that you have something terrible on your opponent but your campaign will take the high road and not release it. Of course, that turns the press into a fury and gets them speculating about all kinds of things. Does Obama have a girlfriend? Is he gay? Is there an outstanding political scandal that can be unearthed (do I smell Pulitzer??)? It's no-win situation for Obama as he will find himself trying to defend against all kinds of stuff, none of which may be true.

Obama also pulled out what has become the tried and true chestnut of the Dems: "Don't swift boat me!" Of course, the Dems don't really understand the meaning of the term. They think that "swift boating" means spreading false information when in fact "swift boating" means telling true tales about past endeavors of the candidate. To this date Sen. Kerry has yet to refute the allegations made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Until he does using the term "swift boating" to infer lies about a candidate is an improper use of the term.

If Obama does have some skeletons in his closet, then has has correctly used the "swift boat" analogy. We may never know.