CNN's Borger said Clinton will "mimic[]" McCain by ... campaigning

Summary: Gloria Borger stated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to question Sen. Barack Obama's experience and accomplishments on the campaign trail "without being negative and nasty, while at the same time, she kind of mimics John McCain and goes out and chats with every voter she can." Borger did not explain how "go[ing] out and chat[ting] with every voter" amounts to "mimic[king] John McCain."

On the January 10 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, during a discussion on former White House senior adviser Karl Rove's January 10 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, senior political analyst Gloria Borger stated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is going to question Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) experience and accomplishments on the campaign trail "without being negative and nasty, while at the same time, she kind of mimics John McCain and goes out and chats with every voter she can." Borger did not explain how "go[ing] out and chat[ting] with every voter" amounts to "mimic[king] John McCain."

From the discussion on the January 10 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, featuring Borger, host Wolf Blitzer, commentator Jack Cafferty, and chief national correspondent John King:

BLITZER: Jack, listen to what Karl Rove wrote in the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal today, the president's former tops political adviser: "Former president Bill Clinton hit a nerve by drawing attention to Mr. Obama's conflicting statements on Iraq. There's more -- and more powerful -- material available. Mr. Obama has failed to rise to leadership on a single major issue in the Senate." What do you make of that?

CAFFERTY: Beware the wolf in Rove's clothing. You know, all of the Republican research leading up to this campaign suggested that the easiest candidate for the Republicans to defeat in November is Hillary Clinton. So if you're Karl Rove, what do you do? You try to tear down the guy who has the best chance of her not being the nominee, and that's Barack Obama. Just a conspiracy theory I have.

BORGER: Well, I think Karl Rove sounds a lot like Bill Clinton in this. I mean, this is exactly what the Clinton campaign is looking for. Bill Clinton has spoken about this, as Rove wrote, and I think as this campaign continues, you're going to see Hillary Clinton take a little page from the Walter Mondale question to Gary Hart, "Where's the beef?" She's going to try and do it without being negative and nasty, while at the same time, she kind of mimics John McCain and goes out and chats with every voter she can. But she's going to start asking Barack Obama what his ideas are for fixing the problems in this country, and I think the Obama campaign is going to start putting some meat on those bones.

BLITZER: John?

KING: Wolf, I think it would be an exaggeration to say Obama has had no impact. He was influential in that new lobbying law that was passed -- the restrictions on lawmakers, including on how lawmakers can't fly around on those private jets. Now they have to reimburse the government the full cost of the jet, not just a first-class ticket. So he has had some influence, but he is a first-term senator who has spent much of his first term running for president, and as you know full well, the Senate is a creature of seniority. To have significant influence, you have to be around awhile. So, that will of course be used against him. Senator Clinton is using it against him now. The Republicans would use it against him if he was the nominee, and there is a downside to that. There's also an upside to that, as Jack just noted, look when Bob Dole ran for president, look when John Kerry ran for president. When senators run for president, you can get tens of thousands of votes on these little motions in the middle of the night, even a senator doesn't know what he's voting on. In a presidential campaign, that can be used against you.

—L.K.A.