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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Capitol Hill. J. Scott Applewhite / AP
When the late Geraldine Ferraro remarked in March of 2008 that Barack Obama's meteoric popularity owed in part to his skin color, it immediately ignited two very different narratives. To the outside world, it was a clear example of the diabolical Clinton machine putting a highly decorated supporter - and member of its campaign's finance committee - up to deliver a nasty smear. To those of us actually in the Clinton war room, it was a cringe-inducing slur authorized by no one - and uttered by a person with whom few if any of us had ever spoken, who'd been out of office for more than two decades, and whose position on the finance committee, whatever that was, was ceremonial and perfunctory at best. This set of alternate realities was called to mind for me when Harry Reid leveled his nowfamous charge, in a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post, that Mitt Romney did not pay taxes for ten years. Naturally, many have assumed this had to be planned and coordinated by the Obama campaign - CNN's Candy Crowley spent nearly Senator Jeanne Shaheen's husband, Billy and pressing Romney to release his taxes. The bottom line? Many high-profile politicians simply say what's on their mind, and ask questions.... never. So, while you'd think it'd be common practice for prominent supporters to talk with the campaign before they speak about the race, trust me, it's not. 3. The Obama campaign has been willing to "own" its sharpest attacks. The sole motivation in secretly asking a supporter to level an attack for you, is that the campaign can get the benefit of the hit but still appear to have its hands clean. But keep in mind, the Obama campaign has been more than willing to "own" - i.e., openly embrace - some pretty hard shots fired at its opponent. Remember when it suggested that Romney was either a liar or a criminal based on how he characterized his tenure at Bain on SEC forms? Or the TV ads they've been running to the
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dulcet sounds of Romney singing "America the Beautiful" while regaling us with a chronicle of his off-shore accounts and outsourcing records? This campaign is not trepidacious in owning the attacks it does originate. What's more, the Reid critique don't seem much rougher than the ones the campaign owned. Reid's office told me that, unlike the SEC example, the majority leader was not accusing Romney of breaking the law. So why would the campaign feel compelled to falsely disown this particular charge, rather than embrace it? Keep in mind that were they to own it, they could maintain control of the message, rather than place their faith in the senator and his team. All of this is not to say, of course, that Obama's team minds one bit what the Senate Majority Leader is doing. In fact, I'm sure they're thrilled with it. But did they put him up to it? While only a small number of people know for sure, put it this way: When it comes to surrogate attacks, coordination is happening far less often than you'd think.
Blake Zeff, a former presidential campaign aide to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and former aide to Senator Chuck Schumer and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is a BuzzFeed contributor. You can follow him on Twitter at @BlakeZeff.
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