Clinton/GOP Smear Campaign Working So Far?

In the most recent Gallup Polls, Barack Obama has opened up a significant lead among registered Democrats. Senator Obama now leads 51/42 against Senator Clinton in the race for the nomination.

However, the good news ends there as Obama trails in general election results when matched against presumptive GOP nominee, John McCain. McCain pulls 47% of the vote to Barack's 44.

Hilariously, Hillary Clinton is running ahead of McCain head-to-head, which must be a bitter pill for the former First Lady to swallow. After hitting her stride by marketing herself as the more electable candidate on the basis of her hardworking whiteness, Clinton now faces the fact that she is losing the nomination to a man who - if these numbers are to be believed and if the election were held today - would lose the Presidency she would win.

While we have an entire summer, fall, and part of winter between now and the elections, it bears noting that the recent smears of Obama have done visible and discernible damage to his image, especially among uneducated whites, who are being told that Obama symbolizes some sort of unfairly advantaged group of African-Americans in this country, getting over at the expense of whitey.

This is as ridiculous as it is untrue, but the fact remains that it emerged as a successful narrative from the Clinton camp's playbook from Ohio and Texas through the NC and IN primaries. While the Senator from New York has thankfully called off the dogs, the GOP has shown no qualms with taking the muddy baton of fear-mongering rhetoric and running with it.

While one cannot put too much faith in one set of poll numbers, especially when the results are so close, the fact remains Barack Obama has taken a hit in the past eight weeks, and he must now spend the next six months fighting accusations of elitism, pacifism, a lack of patriotism and ties to terrorism.

I posit the idea the the GOP has already committed a cardinal sin - instead of attempting to convince the American people that there are multiple reasons to vote for John McCain, they have opted instead to simply tear down their opponent. This tactic is risky in that if at any point it stops working, it leaves them woefully vulnerable to defection en masse.

For the next six months, a man's name and family will be dragged through the muck. The true measure of this country's remaining character, intelligence and integrity will be shown in our response to such a sustained derogatory attack predicated not upon policy or a history of success, but upon the destruction of one man in the court of public opinion.