Question: What's wrong with this paragraph from yesterday's Wall Street Journal opinion piece?

In light of the collapse of Fannie and Freddie, both John McCain and Barack Obama now criticize the risk-tolerant regulatory regime that produced the current crisis. But Sen. McCain's criticisms are at least credible, since he has been pointing to systemic risks in the mortgage market and trying to do something about them for years. In contrast, Sen. Obama's conversion as a financial reformer marks a reversal from his actions in previous years, when he did nothing to disturb the status quo. -- Blame Fannie Mae and Congress, WSJ 9/23/08

Answer: The first sentence is true. Everything else in that paragraph is a lie.

Imagine a Democratic primary candidate who unilaterally presumes to end the primary a month before all votes have been cast and counted. Imagine that this candidate begins campaigning for the general election as though he is the de facto nominee. Imagine that this candidate has only 78% of the delegates needed to secure the nomination. Imagine that this candidate intends to treat his remaining opponent as if that opponent did not exist.

If you can imagine that, you have just correctly imagined the behavior of former President Bill Clinton in 1992.

Aides to Mr. Clinton say that in most of the remaining primaries he will ignore the former Governor of California, Edmund G. Brown Jr., and will try to give voters a clearer sense of his own personality and his positions on major issues, in preparation for a general election campaign against President Bush.

The states holding primaries in the next three weeks include more than one-fourth of the nation's population. (May 11, 1992. The New York Times)

Now let us take our imagining to a different area. Imagine the campaign staff and supporters of a presidential candidate touting the mathematical impossibility of their opponent succeeding. Imagine numerous voices clamoring for the opposing candidate to withdraw 2 and 3 months before the last voter has voted in June.

If you can imagine that, you have just correctly imagined the behavior of staff and supporters of Bill Clinton in 1992.

"It's mathematically impossible for (Jerry) Brown to get the nomination." -- Clinton spokesman George Stephanopoulos on Clinton's last foe. (NYT, 4/8/92)

"What I'm afraid now is that we may be entering a destructive phase," Mr. Harkin said in a television appearance with Mr. Clinton that was sent by satellite to a Washington meeting of Democratic fund raisers. "Things I see happening in the Brown campaign lead me to believe something destructive is happening."

"I'd say it's time for Democrats to link arms, dig in our heels, set our sights and work together to put Bill Clinton in the White House in 1992." -- Senator Tom Harkin (March 26, 1992)

"It's time to close ranks. We cannot wait until July when we already know who has earned the right to be our nominee and who will be our nominee." -- West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller (NYT, 4/11/92)

What does all this mean as it relates to our current campaign? While it is difficult to make direct comparisons (for example, the convention in 1992 was the 2nd week of July while in 2008 it is 6 weeks later) I think it's safe to say one's perspective depends upon who's ox is being gored and who's ox is doing the goring.

Imagine that.