And, sadly, they're probably right.
Not about you who read Daily Kos, but about most Americans.
Democrats have run a positive campaign, giving detailed proposals about the need for change in this country, which 80% of Americans think is going in the wrong direction.
Republicans, the party of the Government--the people who gave us the corruption, lawlessness, and lies that is causing our economic mess, massive deficits, perpetual war, cronyism, incompetence, and addiction to oil--have a plan to give you more of the same.
Republicans know they can't run on their plan which devastates America, forcing a real decline both in our country's well-being and in our standing in the world for the first time since....well, for the first time really ever, so they instead have an empty convention, where they don't tell you that they want "four more years." Instead, they bleat "change" without telling you what they'd change. (Hint: they won't change anything.)
And they go negative. Of course, they go negative. That's what Republicans do. Republicans know America contains many racists just itching for a reason to vote against Obama. They cynically nominate the biggest porker/earmarker in America as a "reformer"; a politician who is well known for croneyism, incompetence, and using the Government to force religious fundamentalism down the throat of unbelievers; they hide her from the press; and they give her a Bush White House written speech full of sneer and invective and lies about Obama.
And Americans eat it up. Racists, who were looking for an excuse, have found one.
It's hard not to be angry. I knew when Democrats ran a positive convention, the Republicans would respond with negativeness, lies, and empty dirty tricks--and then attack the corporate media for exposing those lies. It's what the party of Rove and Cheney do best. Indeed, it's the only thing they do best.
There's been a convention about the conventions for many years now that the party in power gets to hold their convention second. This hurts Democrats every single year. The Democrats need to stop following this. Even if we leapfrog all the way to Election Day.
Will Palin, the Angry Liar beat Obama the Happy Warrior?
Sadly, she might, as this manufactured good-cop/bad-cop routine, combined with Palin hiding in a secure location from any tough press to avoid answering tough questions, appears to be working on a number of uninformed voters. (Hint: Don't expect her to go on Meet the Press, as Joe Biden did yesterday, from now until election day.)
In 1958, George Wallace lost the Alabama governor's race to John Patterson, who ran with the support of the Ku Klux Klan while Wallace had been endorsed by the NAACP. After that race, Wallace told his aide that he lost the race because "I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again." Wallace changed his stand to a hard-line segregationist view which propelled him to win the next gubernatorial election. Going negative works.
McCain is doing the same thing. Remember when George Bush responded in 2000 to McCain's claim of being a "reformer" by saying he (Bush) was a "Reformer with Results"? We all laughed at the idiocy of Bush, owned by the corporations and the right-wing, stealing McCain's rhetoric. It was so blatantly cynical. But it worked. Americans were stupid. They bought it.
And McCain is determined never to be out-niggered again, or in this case, out-Roved. He'll play fast and loose and dirty and cynical. McCain, having changed his few maverick views to adopt all of Bush's policies, now claims--using the same Cheney/Rovian tactics that propelled Bush to power--that he wants change in Washington. The trick is for McCain to do it with a straight face, as if he doesn't know he's lying.
It works because Republicans think you're stupid.
And sadly, they're probably right.