Jonathan Tasini, the Democratic longshot challenger to Senator Hillary Clinton, aiming to make a splash at the primary on September 12, seems to be gaining a bit of media momentum. There are big stories about him in the Observer and NY Times today. The Observer details how Tasini met with the NY Times editorial board - resulting in a Monday editorial urging Clinton to pay attention to Tasini and an earlier NY Post editorial urging a debate between Tasini and Clinton:
But The Times wasn’t advocating for Mr. Tasini in a vacuum. A week earlier, on Aug. 15, Mr. Tasini’s cause was adopted by the conservative Post—which has barely acknowledged the existence of the Tasini campaign in its news pages, but which argued nonetheless that the unapologetically left-wing activist deserved a chance to debate Mrs. Clinton on television.
“Her stance on Iraq—always adaptable to changing circumstances—could stand a little clarification,” the editorial read.
Tom Elliott, a member of the Post’s board involved in writing the editorial, said the purpose behind the Tasini article was in part to try and force Mrs. Clinton to better define her position on the war.
“Her position on Iraq is largely dependent on current circumstances and whatever audience she happens to be speaking before,” said Mr. Elliott. “Just by having that side, that kind of argument, put in contrast with whatever Hillary believes, she would just be forced to contend with an unequivocal position. She has for the most part been hedging her stance.”
And all articles point to the fact that like Senator Joe Lieberman, Clinton has been pro-war whereas Tasini is anti-war. (Of course, Clinton has tons of money to spend on a campaign.) The NY Times has a quote from Marko Moulitsas that explains the lack of online enthusiasm for Tasini: “I fed off the excitement and energy [Ned] Lamont created amongst Connecticut activists and bloggers. I see none of that energy or excitement for Tasini.” Well, Clinton is married to Bill Clinton, while Tasini is no millionaire - he's only raised $200,000, which left him short of the $500,000 mark that NY1 requires for candidates to debate.
The Republican Senate primary is an exercise in going through the motions, it seems - is that what the Democratic primary is, or are you voting?
