I Shit You Not… August 31, 2008
Posted by bensix in Uncategorized.trackback
Karl Rove in the Weekly Standard:
“…the American people are particular about who they elect as president. And voters do not tolerate candidates whose opinion of ordinary citizens is so low they think they can get away with misleading them…“
Srsly, just send him to jail, please.
I want to see that man behind bars when Obama becomes president. Second order of the day, after settling the Iraq withdrawal timetable. Rove has done more to damage American democracy than any figure in history, and he’s still wreaking havoc.
As the vile little sod is a donor to the McCain case – and has been rewarded with this slimy praise – I long for that day.
Ben
* campaign
(Why on earth did I type case? I’ve been watching too much ITV3.)
Freudian slip? It is a case, as in a basket case, or perhaps a head case, or even “a case of bad judgement” – I wouldn’t call it a campaign as much as a series of Republican smears and appeals to the worst in the American cultural psyche loosely linked together by a desperate, imminent loss of power.
Having said that, the Democrats need a strategist who can out-think Rove without resorting to his tactics: someone who can take his heat, and dish it out. David Axelrod has been brilliant, but those bad times during the primaries (Wrightgate, bittergate, Appalachia) and Obama’s recent battering suggest that his chief strategy in the face of negative attacks and smears is to take it in, and hope you can outlast the barrage, only to then release a counter-strike (i.e. Obama’s ascendant acceptance speech).
I’d wager that approach won’t work in the general.
A tediously conventional explanation for the ‘case’ slip, I’m afraid – I had one eye on a crime drama.
Well, Axelrod has done a fine job; especially in promotion through the netroots. I think that the need to combat accusations will become less urgent if he ascends to Presidency. Most obviously, there will be more focussed scrutiny, and less of the scattershot allegations that characterise these electoral seasons.
Of course, what I’m really longing for is transparency in decisions and accountability for error.
Ben
I stand corrected. Davids Plouffe and Axelrod have played a blinder. Yes, without the economic crisis it is possible this will be much closer than it should be. However, they haven’t compromised his core message of a postpartisan/non-attack politics. If people, annoyed with the Republicans over the economy, didn’t think the Democrats were much better it wouldn’t explain the huge lead they have nationally and in downticket races across the country.
Obama has been calm, statesman-like, and cool as a cucumber throughout all of this. It has been a good strategy, and one that will see the campaign through all the way to the White House. It was McCain’s tactical error to throw in surprise after surprise, then chuck the kitchen sink at their opponents, to the extent they are now relying on an unlicensed, lying plumber to win.
What is this, Mario Land?
I agree, this* is particularly interesting. According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll six out of ten Americans think that McCain has been unfairly negative. Obama barely had to challenge him.
Ben
* http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/20/poll.crisis/