With the headlines about the Democratic barroom brawl and the Republican hissing match, few have considered the potential tone of debate in the coming general election. If the current frontrunners, McCain and Hillary, go up against each other, how will things proceed? A few days ago Bill Clinton said:

“[Hillary] and John McCain are very close. They always laugh that if they wound up being the nominees of their party, it would be the most civilized election in American history, and they’re afraid they’d put the voters to sleep because they like and respect each other.”

Don’t count on it. Attack mode is the only mode the Clintons know. In fact, Bill’s very statement was a jab in McCain’s ribs. With conservatives railing against him for his supposed liberal inclinations, the last thing John McCain needs is a nod of “respect” from Hillary. And McCain himself is, if not exactly the loose cannon Mitt Romney describes, a cannon in need of considerable restraint. He’s already gone so far as to describe Hillary as having “raised the white flag” in Iraq.
If the Clintons employ gutter tactics against McCain, though, they may face their biggest backfire yet. One that could resonate beyond the media. Even people who despise McCain politically tend to show the man more respect than they do, say, our sitting President. In a certain light, Obama can be seen as a young punk in need of a dressing down, but hitting McCain below the belt could even be ignoble by Clinton standards. On the slimmest chance that Hillary realizes this, the war in Iraq comes front-and-center. She’ll ratchet up the withdrawal talk and promise all sorts of resolutions within the first weeks of her presidency. This, of course, will draw out McCain and his white-flag accusations, and we’re once again in ugly territory. Not exactly the slumber party Bill Clinton describes.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 2:00 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.