Party Like It's 2002

There are few sadder sights in this world than watching a political party past its prime trying to relive its best moments as if they can turn back the clock. In 2002, capitalizing on 9/11, Bush and the Republicans won the Senate and added 8 seats in the House.

By 2006, however, things had changed. An ill-fated attempt to recreate the 2002 climate of fear by (R) Nancy Johnson in 2006 was met with humiliating defeat by Chris Murphy (CT-05), with the incumbent Johnson losing 56%-44% despite this ad (Johnson's 2006 ad is on You Tube under the heading 'worst ad ever?'):

Murphy's win was, of course, part of the Dem resurgence that took back Congress that year. Unwilling or unable to learn from that, Republicans are restaging Pickett's Charge, running similar ads against Chris Murphy and other freshmen Dems:

And why not? The entire Republican party is out of touch with the American voter. The standard-bearer, John McCain thinks sniggering at Barack Obama's position on Iraq is a winner.

"I'm not embarrassed to tell you that I did not watch the Democrat debate last night, but I am told that Senator Obama made the statement that if Al Qaeda came back to Iraq after he withdraws – after the American troops are withdrawn – then he would send military troops back, if Al Qaeda established a military base in Iraq," McCain said while campaigning in Tyler, TX. "I have some news: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Al Qaeda, it's called Al Qaeda in Iraq, and my friends, if we left they wouldn't be establishing a base, they wouldn't be establishing a base, they'd be taking a country. And I'm not going to allow that to happen my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to Al Qaeda...

"So you know this is how politics works," Obama said. "McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying ,'Well, let me give you some news Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I wasn't reading the papers. Like I didn't know what was going on."

Obama continued: "But I have some news for John McCain, and that was that there was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."

Obama went on to remind McCain about Al Queda in Afghanistan and other unfinished business left by President Mission Accomplished, the fellow that screwed up in the first place.

Ah, yes. George Bush and John McCain. Now there's an image to remember. And note, please, that in every poll American voters think Iraq is a mistake (58%), and oppose the war (64%). And McCain thinks his attack line is a winner, because.... he thinks it's 2002?

November 15, 2002
According to the first CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted after the congressional elections, 68% of Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president -- up from 63% just before the elections, but about the same level it has been for the past 3 months.

Because he thinks America wants a third George Bush term (Bush is at 31% and dropping)? Because he thinks voters like it just the way things are (69% think the country is on wrong track)? Because Americans want to stay in Iraq for 100 years?

Now McCain would have us believe that more war, and then still more war—"bomb, bomb Iran" to the Beach Boys' melody—remains the best course to follow. "We will never surrender," he likes to say, "and they [meaning Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama] will."
A more realistic appraisal: McCain will never come to his senses.

This is a winning strategery for McCain and Republicans... why? It's not 2002 any more. The inept Republican fear campaign played badly for Nancy Johnson in 2006 and Rudy Giuliani in 2008. Why would it work better now?

Alas, it's going to take a Democratic win in November to purge the system of the idea that Republican fear and smear still work. Chalk that up to yet another reason to vote Democratic.