[lbo-talk] Ruy Teixeira on Bush's faith-based campaign strategy

snit snat snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
Thu Jul 22 19:34:05 PDT 2004


At 09:46 PM 7/22/2004, Michael Pollak wrote:


>[It's finally beginning to dawn on me: the Bushits are just as ignorant
>and delusive about campaigning as they were about Iraq or international
>economics or anything else. They were never political geniuses. They
>were just doofuses santified by a fluke success. The simple occam's razor
>explanation for all their policies is they haven't a clue -- about
>anything. They're self-delusive all the way down to the ground.]

My friend who works for the Republicans has always said that Shrub's strategy was to hope for a low voter turnout. The point of the negative, mud-slinging campaign is to keep the swing voters home be/c you can't predict who they'll hang a chad for. They're hoping that a relentlessly negative, mud-slinging campaign will make peole so disgusted they won't bother.

The problem with their strategy is that they're counting on Kerry to return in kind. Thus far, they're not. so, as much as some people lament the Dem's choad behavior, it's actually the strategy to take. If they start slinging mud back in any direct way, they'll turn off the marginal voters. That's why Kerry's distancing himself from Moore, Cho, etc. He lets _them_ sling the mud. Which is also what the Busheviks have tried to do re: attacks on Kerry's military record. It's always some schmoe in Palookaville who just happens to remember this or that damaging thing about Kerry. It's never something that emanates from the administration. It hasn't worked too well for them, but that's mainly because everything else fell apart on them re: Iraq.

Alas, there is much more to come. The worst of it will be Sept-October when they'll unveil the big guns. IT's been a steady drip, Chinese water torture style so far, key piece of dirt released every so often, enough to keep the red meat republicans licking their lips and panting 'til they're thrown another hunk of meat to tear apart and work themselves into a saliva-spraying frenzy.

Kelley

"We're in a fucking stagmire."

--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'



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