Entering an attack-free zone

Humor is not in Obama's political DNA, as you can see in the clip below, back from before the NH primary. He takes himself seriously and is the polar opposite of Bush-like self-deprication. Even Hillary Clinton can poke fun at herself with more verve.

Why are moments like these important? Because in large part the battle over the nomination will be about likability. Despite the importance of likability generally, it's getting to a point where almost all attacks are backfiring. Blacks resent the Clinton's attacks, and attacking Hillary makes women rally to her defense.

Robert Novak has a column today continuing a discussion of a previous column which I talked about here. The Prince of Darkness writes:

The unintended byproduct, to the dismay of Democratic loyalists, disturbs the party's racial chemistry. An assault on the qualifications of Obama, the first African American with a real chance to be elected president, could undermine Democratic reliance on overwhelming support for the party's white candidates from black voters. The outbreak of racial conflict in Democratic affairs, which has resulted solely from Clinton's strategy against Obama and has nothing to do with race as such, arouses deep apprehension inside the party.

But the fight really was about the Clintons resenting an obstacle on their return to the White House. A prominent Democrat who saw the former president this week described him as "furious, outraged, angry and utterly dismissive of Obama."

These attacks, and comments taken out of context, have really backfired on the Clinton team. It's distracted from their main line of attack, laid out on Meet the Press last week, that Obama's vaunted judgment is not all it's cracked up to be.