This election cycle is seeing an extraordinary thing: the failure of the last-minute negative smear campaign. It's always a risky move (Gray Davis tried it just before he went down here in California and it just made him look meaner) but as a rule, it's served Republican presidential candidates for the last ten years or so. If there wasn't a last minute smear campaign in 2000 questioning Gore's honesty, we'd probably have a president Gore right now. If he hadn't worked out, and they hadn't questioned John Kerry's fitness in combat, we'd have president Kerry.
So however you feel about it morally, you have to admit it's been an effective tool. But this year it's backfiring big. Michele Bachmann was ahead in the polls until she implied that Democrats were anti-American - suddenly she's three points behind and the RNC has pulled her funding. McCain brings up Bill Ayers at the final debate and the squiggly insta-poll lines among undecideds drop like a stone.
The situation is similar to being a Zeppelin captain where suddenly, without warning, the laws of physics change and hydrogen is heavier than air. At first you don't believe it - why would you? - and you immediately tell the crew to pump more hydrogen into the balloon. It's only when you see the Earth rushing towards you that you start to consider the unthinkable. We're in the last 9 days before the election, and some Republicans finally realize that they need to switch to helium.
God help 'em, I don't think there is enough helium on board to keep the ship aloft this year. Even before the financial meltdown the zeppelin was lookin' a little wobbly. Now it looks like the best hope of survival is jumping close enough to the ground to avoid injury but far enough that you're out of the way when it bursts into flames. Oh the humanity!
4 comments:
Looked at properly, this incident actually shows that the GOP is still the more moral party. After all, this woman made an off color comment and the RNC removed her funding.
On the other hand, there has never been a case where the Democrat Party has ever done the same to any of their racist, outrageous hatemongers.
Democrats back KKK members, racists, serial rapists, people that have affair after affair... there is no immoral behavior that a Democrat can do to lose his support in the party.
Ergo, Democrats are entirely free of morals.
Yet, the GOP constantly dumps members that show racist or other troublesome behavior. Obviously, Republicans have higher standards... well, they have standards at all, compared to Democrats.
To be fair, my contrarian friend, if it were just a moral issue wouldn't they have pulled out of project Palin also? She has said markedly similar things. The RNC pulled out because they saw a losing contest and decided they needed to put their scarce funds elsewhere.
Why would they? What has Palin done that could even REMOTELY be considered immoral?
Are you reading the Nat'l Enquirer again?
I think we're confusing each other... Bachmann didn't say something off-color, she called the majority of America anti-American.
Everything you said Democrats do, Republicans do also. Not all of them, not even most of them. I guess that's the point. We can't keep saying everyone in a certain group is ANYTHING. First of all it's inaccurate; second it just winds up pissing off everyone in the group. And in this case, also the undecideds.
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