On Chris Matthews Show, Kathleen Parker claimed "the Clintons can slime better than anybody"

On the August 19 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Washington Post Writers Group syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker asserted that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL) is "holding back a little bit because he knows as well as anyone that the Clintons can slime better than anybody."

Her comment came as part of a panel discussion that followed host Chris Matthews' assertion that "in military training ... they tell you it's one thing to shoot at a target, it's another thing to shoot at a person," and his question: "Does [Obama] have that 'eye of the tiger' to take her on and say, '[Democratic presidential candidate Sen.] Hillary Clinton [NY], I'm going to beat you because I'll be a better president than you will?' "

Media Matters for America has documented several instances in which members of the media have warned Obama or his campaign donors about the ruthless "Clinton machine ."

From the panel discussion with Matthews, Parker, National Public Radio host Michele Norris, New Yorker Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza, and HDNet global correspondent Dan Rather on the August 19 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show:

MATTHEWS: You know, Michele, in military training, not that I'm experienced with this, but in military training -- the Peace Corps didn't have this stuff -- but they tell you it's one thing to shoot at a target, it's another thing to shoot at a person. Does he have that "eye of the tiger" --

NORRIS: And look them in the eye when you do it.

MATTHEWS: Does he have that "eye of the tiger" to take her on and say, "Hillary Clinton, I'm going to beat you because I'll be a better president than you will"?

NORRIS: You know, I think he might have it, but the thing that he said, and it came out in your piece [Lizza's] also, that he wants to emerge as the same person that he was when he went in the race.

MATTHEWS: Yeah, but that person ain't president.

NORRIS: It's difficult to do both those two things.

MATTHEWS: But he isn't president.

NORRIS: And that's the real challenge for him, is can he hold on to these principles that he holds dear, and yet find the warrior inside himself, that's willing to pull the trigger and look someone in the eye.

MATTHEWS: And where's he gonna come out?

NORRIS: Well, and part of it goes to this thing that you mentioned in your article, is opposition research. I mean, the reason that you ramp up, you know, the "dark arts," that you have these oppo researchers do this for you is so you don't have to do this -- that someone else can, perhaps, pull the trigger, and, you know, when you're looking the candidate in the eye. And they've already shown that, you know, they don't -- in a head-to-head matchup with the Clinton team, they're not quite there yet.

LIZZA: They don't quite know how to play politics like the Clinton team does.

MATTHEWS: Well said.

Let me ask you, Kathleen, in the beginning of the year, to just have a little perspective historically, this year started off grandly in Springfield, I was there, in Illinois, the land of Lincoln. This guy was Bobby Kennedy, African-American, mixed background, interesting roots. He was going to turn this country around. And then something -- he couldn't seem to go from that excitement, and you've [Lizza] written about this -- from that excitement and big crowd-drawing to "I'm going to get in that main arena, take on my main opponent."

What's the problem, what's the disconnect, the gap here?

PARKER: Well, I think he's holding back a little bit because he knows as well as anyone that the Clintons can slime better than anybody. And so he doesn't want to put himself in the position for them to come after him.

But he can also show himself to be strong just by being fiercely smart.

—R.S.K.