Reply #52: As usual, good points [View All]

This went to the very heart of the Obama campaign, the whole "new politics" mantra. It is unlikely he would not be aware of a memo that risked undermining a pillar of the Obama brand. He likely knew of the memo, although he may not have read the entire memo, and approved it because it was a calculated risk. Obama was at 20% in the polls before he said a word about what he intended to do (a testament to the Obama brand--which is why risking tarnishing the brand is a huge risk for him) and has essentially remained there, gaining only a couple points through campaigning. It is entirely likely the campaign reasoned that in order to overtake HRC they had to weaken HRC.