What will Hillary Clinton throw?

Get ready, ’cause here it comes…

Sometime between the debate Wednesday night and the talk shows on Sunday morning the Clinton campaign’s surrogates are going to launch another salvo of mud to keep the pundits focus on negatives that might trim a few points off Obama’s Tuesday PA Primary results. You know it, and I know it. We’ve seen it before, the descent into old-school politics is by now a hallmark of the Clinton campaign. You know they’ve got something ready, just as they’ve got spin ready no matter what the outcome is on April 22, and they’re likely still working overtime to find something juicier, because the last thing they want is to let the pundits talk about Annie Oakley, or even the real issues. Divide and - hopefully - conquer, that’s the strategy the Senator’s advisors learned and adopted from Karl Rove.

The tactics are as shopworn as they are predictable; fling some mud to dominate the news cycle going into a primary, while the candidate maintains (or even increases) scandalized plausible distance from the smear-monger, yet ruefully admits there “might” be something to the message even though obviously the candidate would never condone such a statement. Why, that would be underhanded, veritably reprehensible, wouldn’t it?

Yet, even as the careful, scripted distancing takes place, the effect is to repeat the smear. Obama doesn’t come back to the Bosnia story, though that would be easy… he talks about health care, the war in Iraq, the state of the economy, the real issues, while his opponents conjure up soundbites pre-labeled for the talking heads. “Bitter-Gate” indeed - how does a multi-millionaire claiming 35 years of insider experience claim to be more in touch with the people? Simply enough - just say it. Truth be damned.

That’s why so many are tired of - dare I say bitter about? - the way the DC masters play their games. Eristic campaigns about mud, rumor, and innuendo serve only the winner, and perhaps the ratings-hungry media and pundits, but certainly not the voters. So, what will it be, do you suppose? Drugs? Sex? Rock and roll? Family skeletons?

The clock is ticking: what will Hillary throw at the media this time? What untruth are you expecting to hear about Barack Obama?