Sunday, March 02, 2008

"The Clinton Campaign Would Be The Last To Characterize Any Real Estate Transaction As Unusual"   [Byron York]

It is striking that it was only after utter desperation led one of the candidates to force the issue that Democrats began to debate who would be the better commander in chief. But now it's being done, and watching David Axelrod and Howard Wolfson on ABC's "This Week," it is clear that Hillary Clinton has, at long last, changed the subject of the Democratic race. The problem is, neither candidate has a compelling case to make. But in purely horserace terms, Clinton is benefiting from putting Obama on the defensive.

The other part of the talk on ABC was about Tony Rezko — another sign that Clinton has finally gotten some traction after pretty much pleading with reporters to look into the story. Axelrod tried to ignore Wolfson's questions about the case, including questions about the questionable real estate deal that helped Obama buy a strip of property next to his house. At the end, a frustrated Alexrod said that with all due respect, "The Clinton campaign would be the last to characterize any real estate transaction as unusual." Maybe Obama's staff will start steering reporters to this.

UPDATE: I have the transcript now of that exchange in which Axelrod made an oblique reference to Whitewater — one of the first such references of the campaign:

WOLFSON: [speaking to host George Stephanopoulos] You've given him several different opportunities to say whether or not he would release all of the information, correspondence, documentation relating to this very unusual real estate transaction with somebody who's about to go on trial on Monday, and he refuses to do it.

AXELROD:  I would honestly, and with all due respect, I would think that the Clinton campaign would be the last person to be wanting to characterize any real estate transaction as unusual.
 

03/02 10:41 AMShare