Karl Rove is a whipping boy for the left and former New York Times editor Howell Raines has recently become a whipping boy for the right.
So when the two of them go head to head, you can expect some fireworks.
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Such was the case Tuesday night at a panel discussion sponsored by The Week magazine.
“The Clinton campaign has run a very negative campaign,” Raines said. “They have constantly — but in a very subtle way — had people remind the public that [Sen. Barack Obama] is black.” Howell later said the “best thing [Sen. Hillary Clinton] has going for her” is the fact that Obama is consistently stigmatized by the fact that “if you’re a black candidate, you have to apologize for every stupid thing ever said by any black person.”
No small accusation by Raines, and even Rove had to agree that Sen. Clinton has run a poor campaign.
“She has run a horrific campaign,” Rove said. “It has been astonishingly bad. … [Obama] has strategically always run a better campaign than she has tactically.”
Yeas & Nays later asked Rove: If you were a member of the Democratic Party, would you encourage Sen. Clinton to pull out of the race?
“Hey, it’s a free country,” Rove told us. “Besides,” he added, with a bit of enthusiasm, “I’m not a member of the Democratic Party.”
When we asked Raines how he assessed his performance against Rove, he said: “He’s a pro and I’m a bit rusty, but I think I did OK.”
