Sadly, we are all thoroughly familiar with the terrorist’s and insurgent’s use of the suicide bomber. Graphic images from Israel and Iraq of the vicious asymmetrical warfare tactic have been burned into our consciousness. Sacrificing themselves for the glory of their cause, the bombers strap on explosive-laden vests or belts, approach their often unsuspecting targets and detonate the explosives, killing themselves and their victims in the gory equivalent of the poor man’s precision-guided bomb. As is the case among terrorists and politicians, success inspires imitation. Noting the devastating effectiveness of the tactic, the Clintonistas have adapted it to the political realm and have used it with similar success against an often equally unsuspecting Barack Obama.

The appeal of the tactic is multifaceted. First, it is devastatingly effective. While a supporter or surrogate is politically sacrificed in the attack, it allows a campaign to inflict potentially critical damage on an opponent.

In the process it promotes an embarrassing or controversial story that the opposition would prefer to not have to address and that the media might otherwise consider taboo or below the belt. As we’ll see, the Clintonistas, though unable to inflict mortal damage, have effectively used it to engage in race-baiting and character assassination. In addition to this, unlike the traditional perpetrators, political suicide bombers inflict little if any collateral damage. Innocents rarely get caught in the attack, as it is target and candidate specific in nature. Finally, while campaigns reap the benefit of the bomber’s attack, they maintain the illusion of plausible deniability. Letting the story play until press coverage boomerangs and seeks to determine the campaign’s culpability, candidates then complete the suicidal nature of the attack by claiming the surrogate went off the reservation and made personal, unscripted comments. The rogue is unceremoniously tossed aside with a wink and a nod, having completed their mission and damaged the opposition. That being said, let’s take a look at how effective the Clintonista suicide bombers have been in attacking Obama and playing on the doubts and fears that accompany his candidacy.

The first suicide bomber dispatched by the Clinton camp was Billy Shaheen, husband of former Governor of New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen and Co-Chairman of the Clinton campaign in the Granite State. In December, Shaheen warned Democrats that Obama was a flawed candidate that was vulnerable to Republican attacks in the general election campaign on his admitted past drug use. Failing to see the irony of an attack from the Clinton camp on the issue of drug use, Shaheen speculated that Republicans would expand on the admitted recreational use to question whether or not Obama had engaged in trafficking or dealing. Having succeeded in getting the issue into the media spotlight and subtly triggered a secondary explosion of racially stereotypical angst, Shaheen dutifully apologized and resigned from the campaign.

The next race-baiting suicide attack occurred in South Carolina in January, when Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson insinuated that Obama was using drugs while the Clintons were selflessly working on issues critical to the black community. In addition to again raising the specter of a minority candidate with a drug use Achilles’ heel, it also sought to wrap Hillary in the mantle of Bill’s title as America’s honorary first black president. Again, having succeeded in his suicide mission, Johnson dutifully apologized to the Obama campaign and assured the media he was referring to his community organizing efforts and not his drug usage.

The most recent and rabid bomber to appear on the scene was former Democratic Vice Presidential-nominee Geraldine Ferraro. In an eerie echo of Rush Limbaugh’s analysis of the media’s treatment of Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb, Ferraro asserted that Obama “…would have not be in this position.” were he white. Speaking from her own experience, Ferraro defended her remarks on the basis that had she been a man, she would not have been in the position of being Walter Mondale’s 1984 running mate. While going through the motions and resigning her position on Clinton’s Finance Committee, she did not take the option of quietly fading into the background once the smoke had cleared from her attack. In contrast to the scripted apologies and exits of Shaheen and Johnson, Ferraro indignantly protested any comparison between her own comments and those of Obama’s controversial spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom she called a “racist bigot.” Not satisfied with the success of her initial attack, Ferraro triggered a secondary detonation that heaped additional damage on an Obama camp already reeling from the devastating explosion of the Write controversy.

Having mastered the suicide bomber tactic and witnessed its effectiveness, the question for the Clintonistas is who will be the next martyr for the cause and when will they be dispatched? With time growing short and the odds growing long, pressure will increasingly mount to launch more spectacular attacks with greater frequency in the hopes of blasting Obama out of the nomination and Hillary’s increasingly narrow and tortuously steep path to the presidency.