The Republican National Committee released this memo, appropriately entitled “Project Pander,” detailing to the media how the RNC will attack each of Hillary’s VP choices: Warren, Castro, Kaine, Brown, Perez, and Becerra. The lines of attack for each candidate sound like the standard ones we’ve all debated and worried about there, except with more lies, childish insults, and internal contradictions. For instance, Republicans will hilariously try to portray Tim Kaine as simultaneously too liberal and too conservative:
Kaine has attacked free trade opponents as losers, supports right to work, and signed estate tax repeal in Virginia. He is a self-described pro-life Catholic, and while he opposes overturning Roe v. Wade, Kaine supports a ban on partial birth abortions
….
Politically, there will be dual narratives to push: firstly, that Kaine’s selection will upset the Sanders wing of the party for not being liberal enough (see above); secondly, that Kaine’s selection makes the ticket more liberal than the electorate. Given his career trajectory from ACLU lawyer, Kaine is also a hyperactive partisan, once going so far to as to call Republicans “mosquitos.” Kaine has been a vocal cheerleader for such initiatives as ObamaCare and a $4 billion tax hike for Virginians
What I don’t get is why the RNC would want to release this to the media (this wasn’t a leak but a regular press release). Even the media (Huffpost) was confused:
Authored by Raj Shah, the research director and deputy communications director at the RNC, the memo telegraphs a campaign of subterfuge that is traditionally executed in private. Parties normally don’t like their fingerprints on the attacks against the opposition. But this has been an untraditional election, with both sides relatively unapologetic about the mud they are slinging.
What do you think? Why is the RNC releasing this (beyond the usual “because they’re stupid and crazy”)? Is Raj Shah so fed up with his own party that he is passive-aggressively trying to sabotage his own efforts by revealing his strategy? Are they trying to intimidate us with their mad research skillz? Is this some kind of attempt at reverse psychology? Are they hoping to intimidate Hillary into making a bizarre choice by making all her top candidates look bad? Is there anything in the memo that Democrats can use to our advantage?