Sure we have all the positives-experience, real policies, the smartest team, real moral force, a flawless campaign, and an awesome executive at the top of the ticket. But there is a cancer in our politics that must be called out and destroyed. Attacking this is staying positive.
I've been thinking about what really bothers me about Palin, and I realized it's not her at all. It's the dog and pony show that the Republicans keep trotting out as an excuse for politics in this country. And, as we all know, it's not a harmless scam on the street corner, it has morphed to a full-fledged crime syndicate and beyond into coup d'etat territory. There is a strong case to be made that that Bush/Cheney/Rove have committed treasonous acts.
Let's go directly after the beast. McCain and Palin are puppets in the game-they are decoys. As long as we allow ourselves to fire away at these straw men, we are open to charges of picking on a pow or a woman, and waste our ammo in a spiral of name-calling.
But the puppet master is exactly the same as it has been for the last eight years-Karl Rove and his minion, Steve Schmidt. This is an undisputed fact. So...let's go all out after Rove/Schmidt. How about a campaign long series of commercials following the repellant career of Rove, eg:
- Being fired from Bush 1's campaign for dirty tricks beyond the pale of even Lee Atwater. Bonus: recap Atwater's renunciation of his tactics before he died.
- His orchestration of the "black illegitimate child" push poll smear of McCain in the 2000 Rep primary. Bonus: Bush saying to McC, "It's just politics"
- Plamegate. Nuff said
- New Hampshire (04?) phone jamming of Dem Headquarters. Leads right back to the NRC.
- Bob Ney, Kenneth Blackwell, and the felonies (both prosecuted and under investigation) of the Ohio Rep party
- Siegelman. Name all the names and the direct link to Rove-Leura and Bill Canary, et al. Don't forget the torching of the Rep whistleblower's house. And all the Repubs who signed the letter to reopen the case.
The list goes on and on.
I don't see any down side to going all in on this attack. Because it isn't going negative. Just put the facts out there and Rove hangs himself. At the end of every commercial, make the direct link to McCain and Palin. It's so obvious in both personnel and tactics-Steve Schmidt, GOPAC for Palin, etc, etc. It's the gift that keeps giving because you don't have to attack McC or Palin directly. Instead of attacking McC's character, you simply show what Rove did to him in S. Carolina and say "what kind of judgement does it show when McC embraced the people that did this to his family?" You get the idea. And when Schmidt or Palin go on tv to unload some outrageous and diversionary smear, you just call them on it-"There you go again with the Rove playbook". Go meta and call them on the tactic. Then you don't have to waste time refuting a lie.
This is not a game to me, and to the majority of Americans. The media and totally-devoid-of-reality morans like David Broder can heap praise on Rove's gamesmanship, but it just stinks to the rest of us. There was a time when even Republicans recoiled in horror (Bush 1) at the stench of his immorality. I can live with the notion of honorable Republicans-I've met so many of them on the campaign trail for Obama, and we've seen people like Susan Eisenhower lead the charge. I believe that Richard Lugar is a decent man, and has a warm place in his heart for BHO and his campaign. And I think these folks despise Rove, and are repelled at what McCain has become. By attacking with the meta-theme of this election, the shunning of Karl Rove and his whole disgusting world, it will bring them and undecided independents further into the light of our campaign and expose the cynicism of McCain/Palin/Rove for what it is.