How ironic that Obama should scold Clinton Inc. — “Don’t tell me that words don’t matter!” — in a rousing speech using, nearly verbatim, a whole litany of words there were not his, and that his defense — “Obama said he does not think using Patrick’s words was ‘too big a deal’” — was so rhetorically lame.
And now both Clinton and McCain, in criticizing Obama’s apparent walking away from an earlier pledge to forego private fundraising in his presidential campaign, are suggesting that his promises are also “just words.”
And once again Obama’s defense of his second thoughts on this matter sputtered considerably below the rhetorical heights of his trademark speeches:
The candidate’s advisers said yesterday that his pledge came before anyone realized how explosive his fundraising effort would become….
“The outpouring from small donors has been unprecedented and perhaps unexpected, and I would not want to do anything to deny those donors the chance to participate [in the general election], regardless of who the Democratic nominee is,” said Alan D. Solomont, a longtime Democratic fundraiser who is a member of Obama’s national finance team. “To be blunt, the ability of Democrats to raise money from both small donors and others is a significant competitive advantage.”
Oh, now I understand. Obama meant his “pledge” to be binding only if he was not giving up “a significant competitive advantage.” Since honoring his “pledge” now does not seem to be in his interest, he appears to view that “pledge” as, well, “just words.”
In other words, he’s a typical Democrat after all.
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