Democrats Struggle with the Vast Wasteland of Cable News
By Madison Powers
CQ Guest Columnist
Democrats and Obama supporters generally have been sputtering with anger and incomprehension as McCain gains in the polls. These gains follow on the heels of months of exceedingly negative campaigning, made even worse in the Republican convention’s roll-out of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential running mate.
Democrats are flummoxed in very large part because these gains seem to them predicated on a battery of obvious and deliberate lies, and nothing and no one seems to stop them. There are lies about Obama and his record, lies about McCain’s own positions, lies about Palin’s achievements, and lies about the surge and McCain’s early misgivings.
Even Karl Rove has conceded that the McCain’s tactics do not meet the “100% truth test.” (Apparently, there is another standard).
Some observers are not altogether surprised. Veterans of the Clinton era said it was coming and they warned their fellow Democrats to expect no less from the Republican attack machine. Many of those veterans never believed that things would be different with McCain at the helm.
McCain’s Washington insider reputation as mercurial provided a credible opening for the Bush campaign to mount a character assault against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primaries. The attack was made even easier to sell because it went all the way back to high school, where he was known as McNasty.
Those who think that Bush’s earlier portrayal represents the authentic McCain did not buy into the Straight Talk mythology back then, and they did not take him at his word in 2008 when he promised to run a respectful campaign.
(Continued here.)
CQ Guest Columnist
Democrats and Obama supporters generally have been sputtering with anger and incomprehension as McCain gains in the polls. These gains follow on the heels of months of exceedingly negative campaigning, made even worse in the Republican convention’s roll-out of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential running mate.
Democrats are flummoxed in very large part because these gains seem to them predicated on a battery of obvious and deliberate lies, and nothing and no one seems to stop them. There are lies about Obama and his record, lies about McCain’s own positions, lies about Palin’s achievements, and lies about the surge and McCain’s early misgivings.
Even Karl Rove has conceded that the McCain’s tactics do not meet the “100% truth test.” (Apparently, there is another standard).
Some observers are not altogether surprised. Veterans of the Clinton era said it was coming and they warned their fellow Democrats to expect no less from the Republican attack machine. Many of those veterans never believed that things would be different with McCain at the helm.
McCain’s Washington insider reputation as mercurial provided a credible opening for the Bush campaign to mount a character assault against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primaries. The attack was made even easier to sell because it went all the way back to high school, where he was known as McNasty.
Those who think that Bush’s earlier portrayal represents the authentic McCain did not buy into the Straight Talk mythology back then, and they did not take him at his word in 2008 when he promised to run a respectful campaign.
(Continued here.)
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