Cabinet Slamming Shut on Clintons

(Berkeley, California)

 

    He may have been the tiniest of the Clinton Cabinet ( at 4 ft., 10 in.), but today he threw one of the hardest punches against his old boss and his wife. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President.

 

   
Reich,, who is a longtime friend and advisor to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, now teaches economics at the University of California-Berkeley.

 

    This is a repeat act for the Clintons, and it likely gets more painful. Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), who served in two Clinton cabinet posts, endorsed Obama on Good Friday. That prompted some close Clinton advisors to refer to Richardson as "Judas" from the Bible. Ouch!

 

    The Clintons not only face the issue of likability; they face the issue of loyalty. Former Clinton cabinet secretaries Bill Dailey, Norm Minetta, and Federico Pena had already joined Reich and Richardson in the Obama camp. Today, former Democratic Senators David Boren and Sam Nunn joined them. Double ouch!

 

    On his blog, Reich said: "My avoidance of offering a formal endorsement until now has also been affected by the pull of old friendships and my reluctance as a teacher and commentator to be openly partisan. But my conscience won't let me be silent any longer.
I believe that Barack Obama should be elected President of the United States."

 

    Reich said he was upset by the negative tone of the campaign, especially on the Clinton side. On KCBS radio this afternoon Reich said, "To tell you the truth I got so frustrated the past week with the negative advertising coming out of Hillary Clinton's campaign, particularly the pick up on the word that Obama used to describe people in Pennsylvania as bitter. The whole resurrection of the guns and religion issues."

 

   
Now wait just a minute. Isn't Bob Reich defending the use of stereotypes by Barack Obama? And isn't Reich making things worse by perpetuating a stereotype of rural Americans as people who cling to guns and God?

 

    The Obama campaign has lambasted anyone who has suggested the Illinois Senator is "articulate" or "cleans up well." Those are stereotypes of blacks who advance in society, and they are offensive. But suggesting rural whites cling to their religion and guns in hard times is an offensive stereotype, too. Neither notion has any place in this campaign.

 

    Regardless of what Robert Reich says, Hillary Clinton had every right (and even obligation) to challenge the simplistic stereotypes offered up by Obama. What the candidates say and stand for is fair game in the press; and it is fair game for the other candidates to challenge.

 

    As NBC's Chris Matthews says, "This is 'hardball'" politics!

 

    I will be in Philadelphia starting Monday to cover the Pennsylvania primary. It's all on www.MarkCurtisMedia.com.

 

 

   

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