Saturday, August 30, 2008
Rove learned......
Couple months ago I commented at length about a C-Span discussion of political tactics. Reprinting part:
I wonder if Rove learned something from those operatives. It appears that Palin was far enough down in the barrel that the brand-D dirt-diggers were caught unawares.
This note from the NYT Caucus blog verifies it:
Incidentally, "far little" provides a nice window into the mind of the NYT reporter. Clearly he first wrote "far too little", then realized that would reveal his bias, so he tried to make it "far less", which sounds more objective, but didn't quite get there.
And more verification via a posting in one of my favorite graphics forums. In the graphics world, Obama is considered too moderate and centrist; Kucinich would have been the ideal candidate for these folks. Nonetheless, Obama was good enough to get them working for The Party, and apparently they are all busy little Communist oppo-researchers this morning:
Well, at least the porn vendors weren't blindsided by the Palin boom!
= = = = =
More seriously, Palin has a lot in common with those Western Dems like Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer. Because they're all "barrel-scrapings" from the insider view, they're all refreshing. They haven't been confused, extorted, smoothed down and dirtied up by years in the Beltway. They say what they mean and mean what they say. And unlike a Larry Craig or a Patty Murray, they are also unconfused on the personal level. Tester is a man who looks like a man, Palin is a woman who looks like a woman. ¶ 7:17 AM
C-span was showing a discussion among top political operatives about this year's Congressional election. The brand-D operative was talking about those new hawkish Western Dems that I find impressive. He said those candidates were the third or fourth choices from the Party's viewpoint. After the losses of '02 and '04, the horizon looked dim to the "real candidates", the lifetime brand-D politicos with long state-level experience and good fund-raising connections. So the "real candidates" refused to run in '06, leaving the party to scrape the barrel. And what did they find? They found some Real Americans instead of the usual Real Party Hacks.
You'd think the brand-R operatives would have found this instructive. You'd think they would say "Hmm... maybe we should lop off our first-tier choices and scrape the barrel to find some uncorrupted candidates, some candidates who don't resemble Duke Cunningham, Conrad Burns and Larry Craig." Nope, from the inside-the-system viewpoint, these new hawkish Dems didn't win because the voters liked them; these fresh candidates won because their records were so short that the brand-R operatives couldn't dig up any dirt on them.
I wonder if Rove learned something from those operatives. It appears that Palin was far enough down in the barrel that the brand-D dirt-diggers were caught unawares.
This note from the NYT Caucus blog verifies it:
Ms. Palin came as a surprise not only to many Republicans and journalists, but also to the Obama team. The campaign has been busily preparing TV commercials to run against Mitt Romney — with aides gleefully watching hours of footage of Romney-McCain exchanges from the primary — but far little opposition research had been prepared about the Alaska governor.
Incidentally, "far little" provides a nice window into the mind of the NYT reporter. Clearly he first wrote "far too little", then realized that would reveal his bias, so he tried to make it "far less", which sounds more objective, but didn't quite get there.
And more verification via a posting in one of my favorite graphics forums. In the graphics world, Obama is considered too moderate and centrist; Kucinich would have been the ideal candidate for these folks. Nonetheless, Obama was good enough to get them working for The Party, and apparently they are all busy little Communist oppo-researchers this morning:
There are a lot of porn companies out there trying to capitalize on the current mania of searching out video about Sarah Palin, including a few that make themselves look like YouTube sites. If you're looking for such stuff, do yourself a favour and *only* look via links provided by bloggers you know and trust.
Well, at least the porn vendors weren't blindsided by the Palin boom!
= = = = =
More seriously, Palin has a lot in common with those Western Dems like Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer. Because they're all "barrel-scrapings" from the insider view, they're all refreshing. They haven't been confused, extorted, smoothed down and dirtied up by years in the Beltway. They say what they mean and mean what they say. And unlike a Larry Craig or a Patty Murray, they are also unconfused on the personal level. Tester is a man who looks like a man, Palin is a woman who looks like a woman. ¶ 7:17 AM
