Read
The Atlantic article by Josh Green about Rove? Excellent piece.
It details how Rove is truly at his slimeball best when backed into a corner. That is when the smear machine starts up, doing things like anonymously releasing huge smears about HIS candidate to generate public backlash against the "dirty tricks" of his opponent. Or the whisper campaign calling an Alabama judge who ran a children's fund a pedophile (attacking the greatest strength), or calling McCain "mad", unbalanced and saying he has a black child in the SC primaries in the last presidential race. Rove cuts to the bone.
It's too late for whispers in this national stage, and while Rove has Washington locked up by Republican operatives, he dosen't have a national network to disseminate his "whisper" tricks.
But you can see shades of all the rest of his trick book. SBVT & now Sinclair attacking Kerry's patriotism, conceivably his greatest strength. We've watched as the Republican Media Machine takes to the airwaves after any major event, each with exactly the same message to push.
More thoughts below the fold...
"What's next?",
Atios and
Digby have been wondering aloud, and several sites exist to guess the next batch of slime coming down the pike (
here and
here are some samples).
Essentially, Rove is going to push and push big as the end approaches without a clear poll lead for Bush. He needs a rush of sympathy for Bush before voters take to the polls but without time for the Democrats or media to expose the situation as the fraud it will assuredly be.
I think of all the options Atrios gives, Terror Alert is not just likely, but a given. They've proven themselves completely capable of using it for politicial purposes before. They can easily raise the terror alert as those terra-ists are SURE to want to disrupt the voting process on Nov 1 and 2.
But more than that, Rove needs to gain a upswell of feeling of loyalty to the president. Atrios guesses a visit to Iraq, but that is really unlikely, as even the Green Zone is no longer safe. A capturing bin Ladin could occur, but I think the American people could be a touch cynical of it occuring a week before the election, and lots of feelings of distrust could occur that the administration was hiding it until it could achieve maximum political impact. I think it'd simply rub people pretty wrong.
No, Rove needs SYMPATHY. The crop of attacks on Republicans is starting, and that could be a side tack but doesn't directly apply to Bush, only to the general "Democrats aren't trustworthy". But even that is a little too late in coming and slow in building.
I think something like a faux attack on the president could be in order. It'd create enough sympathy up front right as voters are going to the polls, then the attacker could be pardoned right after election. Easy as pie and very effective if the attacker is painted as a "ragin' liberal".
I also look for the Republicans, even while they control every branch of government, to paint themselves as the underdogs in this race. They'll whine themselves to victory yet again.
[originally from schadenfreude]