A week ago at this time, the Obama campaign was reeling from its toughest and most difficult week on the campaign trail. In the first week of March, the Goolsbee-Canada-NAFTAquiddick scandal broke; he lost Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island; one adviser said he wasn’t ready for the 3 a.m. phone call; another adviser was forced to resign after calling Hillary a “monster”; that same adviser said he might not keep his pledge on a fast withdrawal from Iraq; a third adviser said he was wrong on his FISA vote; foreign diplomats said the Democrats’ NAFTA rhetoric was sending a signal that America was “an unreliable ally”; the Rezko trial began, and Obama whined that he had already answered eight questions about his dealings with Rezko.
So this week had to be better, right?
Monday was actually something of a good day, as Eliot Spitzer managed to remind everyone of the Lewinsky scandal, and removed himself as a superdelegate for Hillary Clinton.
But also that day, the New Republic reminded us of Michelle Obama’s 2004 statement that all men put themselves first, ahead of their families and God.
On Tuesday, Obama won the Democratic primary in Mississippi by 20 percentage points… and yet he was only able to add six delegates to his lead, because of the way the delegates are allocated by congressional district.
Coverage of the Tony Rezko trial continued, and the question at the heart of the complicated mess became simpler: Who is this man who helped ensure Obama could buy his Chicago mansion?
Wednesday, outrage from Obama supporters forced the resignation of Geraldine Ferraro. This may seem like a victory for Team Obama, but one wonders if Hillary’s demographics – white working class voters, the elderly, and Hispanics will see the event as the dismissal of a woman for making a statement that they find pretty obvious. She may have worded it poorly, but it’s hard to believe that a white politician with the same level of experience, charisma, etc., would be in the frontrunner position Obama is in, much less being touted as a symbol of racial healing.
Thursday, video of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons ran on ABC News and all over the Internet; the phrase “U.S. of KKK A” is usually one you don’t want associated with a candidate’s mentor.
Also Thursday, we learned that on Obama’s list of earmark requests was $1 million for the hospital that employs his wife, that more than doubled her salary after he was elected to the Senate.
And today….
A prominent gay adviser to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama resigned Tuesday after reports surfaced that he wrote a blistering denunciation of rival presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton that brought up President Bill Clinton’s extra-marital affair with a White House intern.
Maxim Thorne, a member of the Obama campaign’s GLBT Leadership Council and former chief operating officer at the Human Rights Campaign, wrote that Hillary Clinton should disclose her whereabouts “when Monica was having sex with Bill.”
Well, next week has to be better, right?
I guess Obama has to hope that his fortunes will change.