Full Speed on the GOP Production Line


Because hey, those shitstorms aren't going to manufacture themselves, you know.

I think I've posted about this before, but I hope you don't get too bored with me repeating: what genuinely amazes me this election cycle is how deeply the cynicism has managed to embed itself. I mean, geez, dirty campaigns have been around as long as campaigns themselves...but in times past it at least seemed that the actual tasks were grimly assigned and/or delegated to professional bottom feeders who might have specialized in that sort of thing but kept at enough distance to afford at least a minimal measure of deniability.

But in this cycle, that isn't even a consideration: instead, it's flail away with just about anything, facts or consequences be damned, and look to see if something sticks, that is to say, generates enough media converage to require a response or "explanation" (and, as the saying goes, when you're explaining, you're losing.) Sad to say, I wouldn't be surprised at all if McCain's next act of desperation was to level the charge that Obama "fathered a black baby" and then hope his pundits simply out-shout the competition.

OK, maybe they'll draw the line at that. But anything short of it...is the "theme" of the McCain campaign...because that's all they've got. Try to stir up outrage and resentment over...well, anything. By the time November rolls around, they're going to make Bob Dole in 1996 look all warm and fuzzy in comparison.

Will it work? I hope like hell not. A while back I commented over at YRHT that stirring up hatred, resentment and other such emotions are, sure, part of standard modern campaign tactics (it's far easier to hate than to like)...but they're also, for lack of a better word, small luxuries. Small luxuries that, during an economic crunch, people can't afford:

"When people are struggling, when they’re trying to pay their bills, when they’re concerned about their fundamental security, I don’t think they have much tolerance for Britney Spears and Paris Hilton," Mr. Axelrod said. "I think they understand times are more serious than that, and they thought John McCain was, too."

I guess we'll see.

Oh--one other thing: after running what's bound to be one of the sleazier campaigns of this era, I can guarantee that Team McCain, should they lose, will individually and collectively, from the top down, play the victim like you've never seen, a final act of self-pity on a scale that could only be described as epic.