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Opinion: It depends on what your definition of is is

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It’s a classic modern political ploy, showing film of your opponent saying, first one thing and then another. John Kerry in 2004 saying he voted for it before he voted against it, a classic film snippet that Karl Rove called ‘the gift that kept on giving.’

Candidates now know that everything they say in public can show up within minutes on the Internet for hundreds of thousands to see. With the explosive growth of YouTube, it’s possible for virtually anyone to post video.

Now, come the John Edwards folks, who think they’ve found a gap in the once-invulnerable armor of front-runner Hillary Clinton. It involvesthe last few minutes of her Philadelphia debate performance last week when she appeared to slip into a stereotypical Clinton dodge to have it both ways on policy questions--and avoid providing invaluable video footage for Republicans to use against her in the general election.

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In the hopes of driving a wedge into that gap, the Edwards campaign put up on YouTube this afternoon this devastating video montage of her own words titled ‘The Politics of Parsing.’ By this evening, more than a quarter-million people had screened it.

But Democrats aren’t the only ones using this device. The Republican National Committee has its own version up here.

And from the 2006 election cycle comes another effective example, a video assembly recalling the past comments of newly minted Iraq war critics.

Will the anti-Clinton videos have legs? That depends on what the meaning of legs is. To the extent it reminds voters of past parsing by Clinton I and Clinton II, it could hurt. Edwards (and Obama) have to hope so because they’re not catching her in the polls. They’ve got to hurt Clinton to bring her down closer to them. And there were some initial indications this afternoon that they’re succeeding.

A new Rasmussen tracking poll, out today but taken after last week’s debate performances, shows Clinton still leading Barack Obama 41% to 22%, with Edwards way back at 13% and Bill Richardson at 4%. However, two weeks ago Clinton’s lead over Obama was 49% to 22%.

And a new CNN/Opinion Research poll, also showed Clinton’s support slipping. She leads Obama 44% to 25% now, with Edwards at 14%. But last month she lead Obama 51% to 21%.

--Andrew Malcolm

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