HALPERIN’S TAKE: If Obama Has The Nomination Wrapped Up, Why is His Campaign Going After Clinton So Hard?

1. They want to drive up Clinton’s negatives as high as they can, to keep her from improving her standing in head-to-head matchups with McCain, because they know the Clinton campaign would use such polls as an important electability talking point with superdelegates.

2. They want to get the media focus off of Rev. Wright.

3. They want to demonstrate their toughness (to themselves, to the Republicans, and to those watchful superdelegates).

4. They want Clinton to feel there is a cost for staying in the race.

5. They want to remind superdelegates that Clinton would carry substantial baggage into the general election as the nominee.

6. They want to improve Obama’s standing with white voters by artfully playing the Lewinsky card (as when they talked about the circumstances that led to Bill Clinton being photographed in the White House with Rev. Wright).

7. They are angry at the Clinton campaign.

8. They think — contrary to the media conventional wisdom — that Clinton can still beat them.

9. Because they can: the media continues to highlight the Clinton campaign’s negative tactics in a disapproving way, but only rarely points out the intensified negative tone and rhetoric Obama’s campaign has been using – even though it conflicts with the candidate’s professed desire for a new kind of politics.