Harry and Louise Vs. the Nazis

[UPDATED]
No sooner did Hillary and Barack appear to put any bad blood behind them in Thursday's debate than it bubbled up elsewhere in the campaign. In response to the Clinton health plan, the Obama campaign put out a fear-based attack mailer that seemed to invoke former Clinton insurance-company nemeses Harry and Louise. Ezra Klein discusses the brochure and even includes a frame from an old Harry and Louise ad to make the pretty obvious comparison. This is disappointing, but then Obama's negative was trumped by something worse out of the Clinton camp. Clinton's people set up a conference call to defend her health-care proposal, and one of the experts got a little carried away. According to Ben Smith at Politico, the New America Foundation's Len Nichols criticized the mailer perhaps a little more strongly than it deserved. Saying, "I am personally outraged at the picture used in this mailing," Nichols followed it up with, "It is as outrageous as having Nazis march through Skokie, Illinois."

Outrageous might be arguable, but Nazis? That kind of overstatement just backfires on the person making it and steals focus from the original piece, which certainly deserves the complaints it's been receiving. But due to an overzealous defender, Hillary lost the ability to make the criticism, and Obama won a point or two for being attacked unfairly. Looks like advantage, Obama.

UPDATE--I should say a little bit more about the campaign pedigree of the Nazi comparison. It was not made by an official Clinton spokesperson, but it was made by someone lined up to speak in favor of the campaign in a call organized by the campaign. At the end of the conference call, Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson repudiated the comment.