Will Barack Withstand Pressure from the Competition
BLITZER: Our poll of polls shows Hillary Clinton leading Barack Obama by seven points in Ohio, but with a considerable number unsure who they want to be the Democratic nominee. Let's get back to the best political team on television. Jack, there was a story on the front page of "The New York Times" today saying if Obama gets this nomination, get ready, because the Republicans, their opposition research, they're gearing up. And Mark Penn, the top strategist for Hillary Clinton, was quoted in the story as saying this: "The truth is, if he is ever in a general election, a lot of positions he took in 2003 and 2004 will come back to haunt him in a big way and a lot of the vetting that didn't happen will happen. The Independent and Republican support that he has had will evaporate really quickly." What do you make of this?</s>CAFFERTY: Well, I think -- I'm sure Mark Penn hopes that will be the case. Barack Obama seems like a big, strong guy. He's probably able to take care of himself. And they're missing the point about what's going on, I think. Barack Obama is running on the palpable rage against the status quo in Washington, D.C. . The reason that 20,000 people turn out to hear Barack Obama speak and 200 show up at some school auditorium to hear Bill Clinton talk about his wife is that the public is up to their eyebrows in the status quo of Washington, D.C. The stock market is down another 3.25 today. The dollar is approaching the value of those pennies somebody had in a report a few minutes ago. We're $9 trillion in debt. Kids dying in Iraq. We've got two wars going on. And if there were ever two poster children for the status quo in Washington, D.C. , they are John McCain and Hillary Clinton. And that's why Barack Obama will probably be just fine.</s>BLITZER: Gloria?</s>BORGER: A lot of Democrats I talked to today, Wolf, privately worry that Mark Penn is actually right. And that whatever the Clinton campaign could dig up on Barack Obama, perhaps from his early years as a community organizer, things he might have said, that maybe they decided to hold back on it because in the Democratic campaign. They didn't want to anger the Democratic base. And so maybe some of the stuff they didn't want to use against him and the Republicans can run with it. So there is some unease, you know, among Democrats.</s>BLITZER: Jeff, is that unease, as Howard Wolfson, the Clinton communications director told us just a little while ago, bordering on this whole notion of buyer's remorse?</s>TOOBIN: Well, I think the Clinton people are betting on buyer's remorse because the Democratic Party, at least, is clearly buying Barack Obama. But I think what we're going to see in the fall, if Obama is the nominee, is a classic sort of anti-liberal campaign. Every word from the Republican is going to be he's a liberal, he's liberal, he's out of touch, he's so liberal. And that's worked very well over the past 20 years in American politics. But you know what? Maybe it won't work anymore. Maybe that list of disasters that Jack just gave is enough for people to say, look, you know, liberal doesn't sound so bad to us now. And change of any kind sounds good. But, certainly -- I mean Mark Penn is right that there is going to be assault on Obama that he is simply too liberal.</s>BLITZER: If Mike Huckabee stays in this race, Jack -- and he's staying in the race, even though McCain has an overwhelming mathematical advantage -- why shouldn't Hillary Clinton stay in the race as long as Barack Obama doesn't reach that magic number, even if she loses Texas and Ohio on Tuesday?</s>CAFFERTY: I don't care if she stays in the race. I mean I -- you know, at some point, the Democratic Party, if they think the opportunity they sense is there is real, is going to have to make up their minds, get behind somebody and get about the business of winning the general election. The longer the race is unresolved, the more money gets spent fighting each other, et cetera, et cetera. The thing with Huckabee is he's got the support of a whole bunch of Republicans and John McCain is this close to being the nominee. Neither Clinton nor Obama is that close to being the candidate. But at some point, the Democrats are going to have to decide what they want to do.</s>BORGER: Wolf, Hillary just has a lot more to lose by staying in, if she were to lose Texas and Ohio. She has a great reputation, could be Senate majority leader some day, doesn't want to be seen as a spoiler dividing the Democratic Party. There's also the question of her husband's legacy. If they could be seen as the people that bring the party together, that would be very, very good for Hillary Clinton in the future. Mike Huckabee, what does he have to lose? Nothing.</s>TOOBIN: Right. And unlike Mike Huckabee, Hillary Clinton actually has a job right now.</s>BORGER: Exactly. And has --</s>TOOBIN: That she could go back to. And she's, by all accounts, very good at it and enjoys it.</s>BLITZER: All right --</s>TOOBIN: And, as Gloria says, has a considerable future, certainly in the Senate, and perhaps as a candidate for president.</s>BLITZER: We've got to leave it there, guys. Thanks very much, Jeff and Gloria. Have a great weekend. Jack, we're not done with you yet. We've got "The Cafferty File" coming up. John McCain's middle name is Sidney. Hillary Clinton's middle name is Diane. Surely both nice names that you might not know. But you likely have heard Barack Obama's middle name. And here's the question -- why? Barack Obama's wife thinks she knows why. Let's turn to CNN's Mary Snow. She's in New York -- Mary?</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, his political opponents on the right step up the use of Senator Obama's full name. His wife Michelle says they're doing it to play on fears.</s>SNOW (voice-over): His middle name, Hussein, has never been a secret. But twice this week alone, Senator Barack Obama's full name has been used in two attacks drawing scrutiny. Obama's wife Michelle says it's a fear tactic she witnessed in past campaigns.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: They threw in the obvious ultimate fear bomb that we have been hearing now. They said his name. They said look out for his name. When all else fails, be afraid of his name and what that could stand for because it's different and let me play on your fear of difference.</s>SNOW: Reporters who covered Obama's 2004 Senate race say a Web site went up with Obama's name, along with a picture of Osama bin Laden. It eventually disappeared. In this election, conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham, for one, is emphasizing Obama's middle name, Hussein. It was part of a broader attack on Obama. And Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain publicly apologized for Cunningham's attacks since they happened at a McCain event. But Cunningham remains defiant.</s>BILL CUNNINGHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Hussein is a great Muslim name. I meant no offense and none was taken.</s>SNOW: The Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release captured by some newspapers titled "Anti-Semites for Obama" that included his full name. The Republican National Committee denounced it and it's been retracted. While McCain has vowed to run a respectful campaign, some observers say they expect the attacks to continue if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee.</s>JIM WARREN, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": There's a whole world out there in the blogosphere and conservative talk radio that will not be beholden to what Senator McCain wants to do and what might be considered general notions of impropriety.</s>SNOW: Michelle Obama told a crowd on Thursday that despite political opponents trying to raise fears about Obama in 2004, she said he prevailed in what she called a climate of negativity and doubt -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Mary. Thank you. Mary Snow reporting. A White House assistant admitting now to plagiarism. We're going to show you who he is and what it turns out he didn't write. Plus, it's an issue some say should disqualify John McCain from becoming president. How now lawmakers are coming to his defense, including Barack Obama. Stick around. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.