Clinton blunders

Sunday Hillaryland issued a news release that contained this:

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.' "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07]

Here's what Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune writes:

Clinton’s lucky that the late-night TV comics are on hiatus due to the writers’ strike, otherwise this blunder would launch a thousand jokes, each one portraying Clinton as desperate and ruthless as she tries to regain momentum in Iowa from the surging Obama.

And a blunder it certainly was: The point of the news release was to discredit Obama’s “aw shucks” act—the notion he projects that the idea of running for president had hardly even occurred to him until an irresistible swell of encouragement all but ripped the stovepipe hat off his head and threw it into the ring.

Why? Because the reluctant hero who has greatness thrust upon him is more attractive, in political folklore, than the striving, conniving, ever-ambitious seeker of power.

Clinton is stuck with the latter image. But, as the first several examples in her news release illustrate, Obama has been eyeing the White House a good deal longer than mythology suggests.

This is the type of thing you want to be reported, but without it being linked to the campaign. We'll see how much play this gets, but the irony is obvious. Hillary wants the presidency so badly that she's willing to criticize her opponents Kindergarten records, to show that they want the Presidency too much.