Update 8/5/08
The attack dogs are at it again. Obama has tried extremely hard to avoid the pitfalls of past candidates who are of color. He emphasizes self-improvement, taking personal responsibility, and moving beyond traditional racial barriers. In many ways this message has resonated with a broad swath of voters. Using the Rovian approach, this is the perfect time to attack his apparent strength with another festering earworm.
In Lindsey Graham's comments on the Sunday Fox News Vomitoriam, he insinuated that Obama was implying that McCain is racist. Graham went on to say, "...there's no doubt in my mind that what Senator Obama is trying to suggest -- that he's a victim of something."
Alluding to Obama calling McCain a racist and claiming victimhood is the new Republican earworm. They were holding on to this one for just right time to unload it. And they just did. This earworm will be repeated and repeated by as many McCain surrogates until it loses any air time cache. Graham and the other minions know that many white folks just "love" it when black people claim that other whites are racist and black people are victims.
Again, Obama has never uttered any statements like this. It doesn't matter. The earworm is burrowing its way through the political discourse. Tom Daschle on the same program had to stop and actually say in response, "Barack Obama does not believe John McCain is a racist." This is the attack the jugular politics in the Turd Blossom Universe we should only expect more of in the near future.
Here is a recent post by John Fund from the Wall Street Journal: “The Terminator's Terminator (Steve Schmidt -- McCain's new operations manager).” “The John McCain campaign ... installed Steve Schmidt, until now an ultra intense counselor to the campaign, as its operations manager. Mr. Schmidt has a reputation for ruthless efficiency, a take-no-prisoners campaign style and the ability to inspire confidence in subordinates. Karl Rove once dubbed him "The Bullet," a reference to both the shape of his shaved head and his lethal impact when deployed against opponents….”
Steve and many other alumni of Young Republicans cut their campaigning teeth under the tutelage of the great “Turd Blossom.” Schmidt’s ruthless approach to attacking Obama for his celebrity status is classic Rovian politics. You find your opponents greatest strength and build a false narrative that casts doubts about that candidate’s perceived attribute. As you remember, Rove and his minions painted Al Gore as a boaster and braggart. They Swift-boated John Kerry’s Vietnam War experience. Rove gave a glimpse of the new McCain attack on Obama in a recent speech. He was quoted talking with some Republicans operatives recently saying that Obama “was coolly arrogant… He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette, that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."
Is this a legitimate characterture of Barack Obama? Not really. It doesn’t matter in the Rovian world of political mudslinging. You start with a basic premise to attack and discount the perceived strengths of your opponent with innuendo, half-truths, and in many instances, fabrications. You have your talking heads fertilize the 24-hour news cycle with same narrative and character assassinations. In a short time, the pundits and political reporters start asking questions to fill their newspaper columns or airtime. Are these legitimate attacks on Obama? Is he pompous, presumptuous, and full of hubris? Regardless if the attacks are amoral and baseless, they have succeeded. They are earworms that fester their way into the infected realm of contemporary political dialogue. Often these earworms are packaged in a manner to resonant with many of our deeply rooted prejudices.
Rove and most Republicans control the prevailing discourse not because they have better ideas. They understand how to exploit the media’s insatiable need for news and controversy. Repeating false narratives over and over again gets as much attention as real news. Most viewers and listeners cannot discern the differences. Just poll most Americans even today and ask them if Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9-11 terrorists attacks. How many times did Republican members of congress repeat the lie that Hurricane Katrina didn’t damage our oil drilling efforts in the Gulf? Or that the Chinese were drilling for oil of Cuba’s coastline. Steve Colbert labeled these political polemics at “truthiness.” I called them lies, lies damnable lies!
As these attacks or false narratives increase in ferocity, John McCain’s candidacy becomes less relevant. What are his views on the economy, illegal immigration, global warming? He just has to appear as the candidate that is not Obama. Schmidt’s winning coalition of voters includes those crazies on the extreme right of his party and “low information voters” that will go out in troves to vote against an arrogant Muslim president and independents who begin to doubt Obama’s overall character. Once the earworms grow and infect the political discourse, he wants to discourage other potential voters from voting at all. By debasing the election, he hopes to reduce turnout. This has worked in past elections.
This political strategy does have a downside. John McCain, the maverick, becomes an empty suit. This was most evident recently when McCain told ABC News that payroll taxes were not “off the table” to help bolster social security. Immediately after his flip-flop on no new taxes, a spokesperson, Tucker Bounds, essentially dismissed McCain’s pronouncement by stating “…that raising the payroll tax is absolutely out of the question…there is no imaginable circumstance where John McCain would raise payroll taxes. It’s absolutely out of the question.” Apparently, John McCain no longer speaks for the John McCain campaign.
Yes, the choice has been made. Big John has selected Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I guess Karl Rove's ongoing effort to create a new Republican majority is taking on a new appearance. Perhaps the GOP has given up on young voters, Hispanics and African Americans. They are asking caribou, polar bears and lots of mosquitoes to stand with the GOP in this Presidential election. Do they vote in Alaska?
