As Iowa Nears, Clinton Allies Quietly Raise Obama's Cocaine Use

On Monday morning, Hillary Clinton's campaign included a cryptic, somewhat ominous, note in an email to journalists and supporters:

Something to Chew On: Respected columnist David Yepsen notes that "it's important for Democrats to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. Clinton's negatives are well-known, Obama's less so. Any shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements in Obama's past will be exploited by Republicans in the fall campaign if he's the nominee. It's best for Democrats to vet them now."

The Clinton campaign email did not spell out Obama's "shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements," but other Democratic activists have quietly received messages from Clinton allies pointing in the likely direction. Those messages provided a link to an Iowa Independent story by Douglas Burns headlined "The Politics Of Obama's Past Cocaine Use."

Burns' article on Obama posed a question that Clinton has been unwilling to raise herself and that has received little attention during the Democratic primary battles: If Barack Obama becomes the nominee, will the GOP be able to turn his acknowledged cocaine use into a debilitating issue.

Burns cited two June polls.

One, a survey by Scripps Howard, found that 58 percent of respondents believed American voters are not ready to accept a president "who tried cocaine as an adult." The other, by the New York Times, found that 74 percent said most people they know would not vote for a presidential candidate who has ever used cocaine.

"What will be fascinating to watch is whether Americans' views on cocaine will play out in the election booths as a defining factor or anything close to that. If it does, that could spell trouble for Obama," Burns wrote.

"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote in his book Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. "The highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by then, anyway. I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory."

The issue has not been publicly raised by Obama's opponents, and only occasionally by reporters. On CBS' 60 Minutes, Obama said:

It's not something that I'm proud of, but that's part of the journey that I've taken. I like to think that by letting people know the mistakes I've made that maybe young people behind me are looking and saying 'You know what? This is a guy who made mistakes and he was able to right his life and get on track.' And that's I think an important message.

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Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, said the campaign has not tried to make use of Obama's past cocaine use and that it would not attempt to do so in the future. "Candidates personal lives should not be a part of this campaign," Wolfson said.

The raising of questions about Obama's electability poses a larger dilemma for strategists in both parties during the primary season.

On one side, there is a strong case to be made that wounds opened during primary fights only make the job easier for the opposition in the general election. Republicans, in theory, are supposed to honor Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: Speak No Ill of a Fellow Republican -- although few, in fact, do abide by this precept.

Yet there is the counter argument: that a crucial function of the primaries is to weed out candidates who will be losers in the general election; that the intraparty fights are the first tests of how well the competitors are likely to do next November.

In 1988, for example, the Democratic primaries failed to fully exhume Michael Dukakis' handling of the Willie Horton controversy, and the Horton case became a cause celebre in the general election.

This dilemma is only likely to intensify as the Obama campaign is beginning to demonstrate that it is prepared to throw a punch or two that some might view as below the belt.

Hillary Clinton's "electability" has always been a subtext in the contest, although her opponents have been very cautious in the ways they have raised the issue. With the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, Obama aides are doing so more aggressively, if indirectly, by pointing reporters to a column by Bloomberg executive editor Albert R. Hunt that describes a recent focus group of Democratic voters in Philadelphia.

"[The participants'] concerns about Clinton, 60, a New York senator, are that she is devious, calculating and, fairly or not, a divisive figure in American politics," Hunt wrote - music to the ears of the Obama camp.

Members of the focus group, according to Hunt, said that Obama "would be inspirational, motivating, charismatic and compassionate. After praising Clinton's experience and intelligence, they say she would be demanding, difficult, maybe even a little scary."

Comments

[StatueOfLiberal]

I've taken enough acid to kill a blue whale, but I won't touch cocaine.

I'm afraid I'd like it too much.

That being said, the coca leaf in it's natural, unrefined state has been chewed by the Columbians for centuries and NOT ONE single person has ever overdosed, ever. I'd chew a coca leaf for sure.

Oranges can be refined into pure Vitamin C, and people can overdose on Vitamin C. Should we outlaw oranges?

[drblack]

Obama obviously isn't a coke fiend now...if he ever was.
His honesty about being a human is one of his best qualities.
It puts him above Hillary and Bill but below Kucinich.
98% of people who use, or have used drugs for recreation don't have any problems and Obama is clearly one of them.

[partyofone]

Hillary and her campaign are desperate and mean. She's dropping fast in the polls and has no substance to offer. Going publicly negative did't work, so now the Clinton machine is starting a Bush-Rove style whisper campaign. This type of politics of attack and division are what we need to end. Obama is a step in that direction, toward hope, vision and bridging deep divides.

Hillary is more of the Bush-Clinton style politics of division. We need a president who can inspire, persuade and a large majority of the nation. Hillary cannot do that.

[Grey]

This report is incredibly, shamefully, bankrupt.

1. Nowhere in this article does anyone from the Clinton camp raise Obama's cocaine use as an issue, either directly or indirectly.

2. Howard Wolfson specifically said the campaign has not and would not use "Obama's past cocaine use" and added that "Candidates personal lives should not be a part of this campaign," Wolfson said.

And yet the headline reads "Clinton Allies Quietly Raise Obama's Cocaine Use."

So quietly that you could not find a single one for your won piece.

Shame on you.

[lisakaz]

How ironic given Hillary's married to Mr. "I didn't inhale" (lie) and gives blind support to Mr. Ex-Cokehead.

[peaceandfreedom]

"Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, said the campaign has not tried to make use of Obama's past cocaine use and that it would not attempt to do so in the future."
----------­----------­----------­----------­--

They don't need to. They already have over 350 people here on this site alone, doing their work for them. I know it's easy to sit in front of your computer and respond to blogs like this one. Just remember, each time you do, you are giving yourselves over to the master manipulators who get you to do their work for them. Sad, really...

[aznurse]

So when you hear the word Blow who comes first to mind?

[kevenseven]

For all of you who are indignant and possibly enraged at HRC for whatever you take this report to mean, I would ask you:

Assuming that Obama were to get the nomination, how sweet and polite and gentle and honorable do you think the Rethugs will be?

We are in the middle of a vetting process. The Democratic candidates challenge each other. It gets messy.

But this is NOTHING compared to what the Nominee will experience.

You all owe HRC a thank you for putting Obama to the test. If Obama cannot survive politically a brief history of drug abuse a quarter century ago, he won't last a week with the attacks of the reich wing.

Edwards/Webb '08!

Oh, I'm giving Obama a second look...If he were to show as much fight as does HRC, or Edwards for that matter, then there would be no difficulty choosing one of those two.

Unless both Edwards and Obama really show some fight. Then I'll be in a pinch.

[LibsRHilarious]

With regard to cocaine use, we should give Obama the same benefit of the doubt Dims have given Bush all these years.

When can we start calling Obama, a "coke-addled chimp"?

[maxcat06]

Good grief...Hi­llary went to college in the sixties; you can't tell me that she also "never inhaled". I'm only a few years younger than she is, and I'd never make that statement!

[MoreMoxie]

1) When I saw the headline, I wondered if the comments would be filled with people denouncing Clinton because Obama used to use cocaine. Yup!

2) I am a liberal Democrat who has voted for every Democrat since Humphrey. I will not vote for Obama under any circumstances. I would not vote for anyone who has admitted using cocaine, which is a genuinely heavy duty drug. I cannot imagine at any age choosing to ingest it or later writing about it. Bush was in his odious way right to refuse to acknowledge it, although his using it also renders him ineligible for being taken seriously by me. To be clear, I do not take anyone seriously who has ever taken cocaine. It's that simple. Rigid maybe, but my rule.

3) Go Hillary, one truly serious human being!

[LeaderofMen]

Good God. Bush is an UNTREATED alcoholic. Talk about that. He's a compulsive liar. Talk about that.

F*ck what someone tried years ago. Obama is clearly not an addict.

[desertdweller]

sounds like a "vast right-wing conspiracy"

[DannyEastVillage]

well, that decides it for me: Hillary's off MY list.

[Colin742]

Why are drugs mentioned in the title of this story which refers only to "Any shortcomings, inconsistencies or misstatements in Obama's past". There was no mention of drugs in the memo.
The Clinton web site has info on Obama's voting record, inconsistancies and demonstrable lies all of which should be exposed to voters. There is no mention of drug use in Clinton's site. Considering the fuss over the Clinton's LOSS of $30,000 on Whitewater real estate, there is no mention of Obama's large gain on property bought from a slum landlord for whom Obama had obtained State funds.