by Stephen of the Thinkery
Barack Obama's campaign is experiencing a wee bit of trouble lately. Here's a quick rundown:
Campaign finance violations
This is pretty minor stuff, which you can read about in the link. It's difficult to run a campaign while occupying a political office without overlap between the two operations. The plain fact is that the candidate and the officeholder are the same person. So while Obama's Senate office and his campaign need to be far more careful about the boundaries between the two, this seems to be yet another example of our campaign finance laws, to quote another person accused of improper politicking, "straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel."
Leaked fax.
This ties into the campaign finance problems, since it was one of the items improperly sent from his Senate office equipment. This fax is full of advice, talking points, all the usual stuff that politicians have to deal with. It's interesting, but not all that consequential. So what if Obama was advised to not promise Russ Carnahan a specific leadership title in his campaign? Carnahan is a US Representative. His father was Governor of Missouri, his mother a Senator. His sister is Missouri's Secretary of State. I'm quite sure that Rep. Carnahan has received the exact same advice, and has heard members of his family receive and follow advice of that type many times. Howard Fineman, in particular, wants to make Carnahan some sort of injured party. If Rep. Carnahan can't handle what that fax says about him, then his endorsement isn't really going to mean much.
The real problem Obama faces is after the fold.
