One week after Bill Clinton stumped for Travis Childers at Ole Miss, the Childers campaign issued a press release criticizing Alan Nunnelee for welcoming House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to Mississippi.
Here is what a spokesman from the Childers campaign said: “It’s clear that Alan Nunnelee has been letting out-of-touch Washington politicians run his campaign, so why would North Mississippians expect anything different from him if he were elected to Congress.”
Three points:
– How the heck do you send out a press release knocking your opponent for “relying on national figures from Washington” one week after you had a former president campaign for you? Did no one at the campaign think that just maybe this would be difficult to explain?
– The presser blasted Boehner for supporting the Fair Tax, Social Security privatization, raising the retirement age, and the bank bailout. The merits of those comments not withstanding- does Childers want to be judged by the statements and positions of his supporters? Do we want to talk about what Clinton supported from government healthcare to gays in the military to partial-birth abortion to massive tax hikes? What about everything supported by the woman he put in charge to run the House, Nancy Pelosi. Does he support everything she does?
– And as I said yesterday, Boehner- and the Republican leadership- is pretty popular in the district. A plurality said their views line up with the leadership with a substantial number saying they are more conservative than Boehner, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), etc. Attacking them probably will not work.