Obama spokesman Bill Burton blasts out the following email, titled, "McCain campaign channels Bob Dole:"

"Where is the outrage!?"
-Steve Schmidt on a conference call with reporters just now

FLASHBACK...SEN. BOB DOLE: "I don't read all these political things, but somebody told me the press reported that Bob Dole was frustrated. Well, I'm not sure I'm frustrated, but I'm a little - I don't understand - Vice President Gore goes to a Buddhist temple where everybody takes a vow of poverty and comes out with $122,000. And so good old Al, he explains it to the media, oh, I was on an outreach program. So that'll be the end of that. Nobody'll look beyond that in the media. That's the end of that one. And then we have the President of the United States sitting down here with 900 FBI files, might be one of yours, might be one of yours. And then we have the President of the United States who won't say he will not pardon somebody who did business with him and might implicate him later on. Where is the outrage in America? Where is the outrage in America? (applause) Where has the media gone in America? (applause) Where is the outrage in America? (applause) Can you imagine former President Bush doing one of those things? No! And you'll never imagine Bob Dole doing one of those things either. (Crowd shouting "No!") So where's the outrage? Where's the outrage? When--when will the voters start to focus? I think they've started about right now. They've started to focus. (applause) This is serious business. This is serious business--this is about the public trust. Remember the public trust? Well, they never understood the public trust. It was always a game with this White House. It was always a game. How far can you push the envelope? How much can you get away with? What can you do? Bringing people into America, raising money all over, and I tell you we're going to have a change. When Bob Dole and Jack Kemp are elected on November 5, America will start to change, and we're going to be a lot better off as we go into the next century." [PBS, 10/25/96]

I'm sure the Obama campaign thinks it's both clever and mocking to link Schmidt and the McCain campaign to Bob Dole, but I think they've missed the mark by quite a ways. This statement is certainly going to appeal to Obama's base and subscribers of the New York Times, but the problem is that they are in many respects one in the same.

Trust me, the working class folks Obama needs to reach in Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and even in Green Bay where he was today, probably sympathize far more with Steve Schmidt's take on the New York Times than they do with the cadre of folks currently huddled in Bill Burton's office chuckling and patting themselves on the back over how clever they are.

And I'm not sure bringing up Al Gore's Buddhist fundraising or Bill Clinton's rifling through FBI files is such a good idea either. In addition to being remembered as a man who ran a lackluster campaign in 1996, Bob Dole is also remembered for being an honest, decent public servant and a true American hero. I'm not sure mocking him is a terribly good idea either.