How Webb Must Respond: FACT, NOT FICTION (thereisnospoon at kos)

[jefferson_dem]

Excellent analysis and advice, courtesy of http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/26/211633/66 -->

How Webb Must Respond: FACT, NOT FICTION
by thereisnospoon
Thu Oct 26, 2006 at 11:32:50 PM PDT
(From the diaries -- kos)

<SNIP>

And I'm sorry to say it, but it's true: A simple "Hey, it's just fiction!" response simply won't cut it here. After all, we have made a big deal about Scooter Libby's girl-bear sex passages. What a novelist writes can and does provide an insight into his or her own worldview and character. And these passages, if cut from whole-cloth straight from the imagination of an author, would be extremely disturbing and cast doubt on the moral character of the author himself.

That need not be the case here, however--because there's a great comeback that Webb can provide to this that should put Allen very much on the defensive, if the Webb campaign is smart enough to use it.

That defense lies NOT in the idea that these are works of FICTION, but rather that they are works of FACT.

What do I mean? I'll tell you.

You see, if the public believes that Webb wrote these things straight from his own head and fertile imagination, Virginia voters will believe that he is one sick puppy with a sick imagination and a degrading view of women and children.

If, on the other hand, Webb comes out and says that these passages were based on actual experiences from the hellhole of Vietnam, the public will not only NOT view him as a pervert, but see him as a hero. It can easily be that Webb, rather than write a memoir of the war, chose to channel expression of what he witnessed into a fictional account.

Above all, he can use the incident to draw more attention to the fact that WEBB served his country during Vietnam, while Allen did not.

His response should look like this:


"George Allen is dragging my name through the mud based on some scary passages that are in some of my books. But I won't distance myself from those passages: I won't do it because they're based on REAL events that I saw with my own eyes in Vietnam. That why none other than John McCain endorsed these books: because they relate the sorts of awful things that happened during that war.

<SNIP>

That alone should put this to rest.

Above all, however, Webb must NOT fall into the trap of saying that this is just fiction. That would be absolutely devastating.

Webb must come out on OFFENSE--and declare these passages to be based on the eyewitness experiences of a real solider, who served his country honorably during a real war, in writings endorsed by a real Republican war hero.

Webb is poised for a brutal and eviscerating counterattack--if he's smart enough to use it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/26/211633/66

[Benhurst]

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