OBAMA WINS TEXAS!

This has been covered several times before, but let's cover it again.

Being attacked from someone within your party is completely different from being attacked from the opposing party, for a couple of reasons.

If Romney said McCain was unfit to lead the country out of economic crisis, that gives McCains' opponents far more ammunition than if Obama or Clinton say it (which they are.) If Romney said Obama would be better for the economy than McCain, that's a soundbite the Dems could loop over and over. "OMG even the repubs think he's no good!!1!" (If Romney made that comparison in order to claw back into the race, he'd rightfully be called a backstabbing idiot.)

If Huckabee told his evangelical base that McCain was unfit to be the moral leader of the country because of his past conflicts with the Christian right, McCain can't hit back at Huck the way he can at Hillary- he needs those voters. Huck is one of his own.

If Hill wins the nomination she needs Obama's voters, and vice-versa. Hitting and emphasizing negatives decreases the chances of that happening. Obama has indeed hit Hillary with a negative, particularly the "character gap" press release. It was in response to an amazing kitchen sink attack from Hill all month long.

Brushing off attacks from the opposing party is far easier than defending yourself from attacks within your party. When McCain and Co inevitably come after Obama with the inevitable "weak CIC" crap, Obama can hit right back without flinching. Responding to Hillary doing the same is completely different.

When the far right starts looping Jeremiah Wright nonstop, and constantly bringing black/white tension into the campaign, it will be easy to hit back on social conservatives who are mentally r****ded re: American race relations. Some of them will inevitably impugn themselves with stupid comments. Obama defending himself from an attack from a fellow democrat who (was) popular with the black community is entirely different. Very, very, very different.

Will the repubs hit harder? Yes, of course. Will Obama be able to hit back harder? Yes.

 

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread were the reports before the Texas primary/caucus where Clinton was threatening to sue the state's Democratic Party over the process. It's another instance where she was willing to hurt her party to help herself, and still seems counterintuitive to me. That bothers me as much if not more than her claims that McCain would be more fit to lead than Obama.