Noonan--A Surmountable Hill

Peggy Noonan writes about how the 2008 campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton is seeming much less inevitable, in the wake of the dust up with David Geffen, than it was a week ago. "A Surmountable Hill."

If you haven't been paying attention to such things, Hollywood mogul and big-time Democrat fundraiser (and now-Obamaniac) Geffen said in an interview with the New York Times' Maureen Dowd: "Everybody in politics lies, but [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it's troubling."

Back to the story; I think this is an interesting issue because, until now, the Clintons have only had to campaign against Republicans. In that context, there were no holds barred. Noonan writes:

Mr. Geffen should be braced for a lot of bad personal box office--negative press, searching profiles, strained relations. We're probably about to see if the Clinton Machine can flatten him. Little doubt it will try. John Dickerson wrote in Slate this week of Bill Clinton's generously sharing his campaign wisdom: "Your opponent can't talk when he has your fist in his mouth." Among some Democratic political professionals this kind of talk is considered tough and knowing, as opposed to, say, startlingly belligerent and crude.

I'm interested to see if such tactics will go over as well in the family.