Randi Rhodes complains that the McCain Campaign

[TheDebbieDee]

has been using the Hillary Clinton Campaign playbook against Obama for the last several weeks.

And guess what? It seems to be working!

For the sake of all that is good, we Democrats have got to abandon this "High Road" frame of mind we seem to be set on and concentrate on doing what it takes to win this election.

We've got to stop being polite to these a$$holes and win!

[LittleClarkie]

1. Well duh. What does she think that the Bush campaign was using against Kerry?

The flip flop came from the Dean campaign iirc.

[Arnold Judas Rimmer]

3. Excuse me?

The Kerryfans are STILL trying to slander Deaniacs four years after the fact?

And we're worried about the Hillaroids getting over it?

[LittleClarkie]

7. Oh please.

And Kerry people waved waffles at the Deaniacs. So?

If Dean would have gotten in, the Republicans would have been walking around wearing waffles instead of flip flops.

It just makes sense for your opponent to pull stuff out of the primary playbooks if they think it'll work. And as far as I know it's been done before. That was my whole point.

I don't need to get over anything. I wasn't even involved in the primary wars of 2003/2004. That's just what I thought I'd heard about how things went. Kerry people called Dean a waffler, and Dean people called Kerry a flip flopper. No?

[Arnold Judas Rimmer]

13. I don't remember anybody calling Dean a waffler (and he wasn't)

But I do remember this.....



:hide:

[nolabels]

14. When i was driving a long-haul truck those waffle house's were the best

Sure wish we had some them on the west coast :D

[LittleClarkie]

15. Now look you smeg head

:D

All politics aside, I LOVE your handle.

[Arnold Judas Rimmer]

16. That's what Yvonne McGruder said

Tragically, nobody else has loved my handle since then. And now I'm a hologram, so it really doesn't matter :evilfrown:

[musette_sf]

2. i don't care for MoDo but she makes the same point today

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/opinion/20dowd.html?ref=opinion

[gateley]

4. They are vicious - and we try to be "strong".

I think we need to step it up. But we have VALID criticisms we can use in that way -- THEY don't.

[bdamomma]

6. we need to hit back hard

we are dealing with criminals repigs and neo cons.

[defendandprotect]

10. You're getting entangled in MSM created controversies which aren't valid. . .

rethink it all ---

[Vincardog]

5. Who is stopping HRC and friends from attacking the old gas bag? Obama needs "plausible deniable"

[Cleita]

8. I'm not worried.

A little bird in my ear tells me that Obama is going to blow everyone away at the convention with the thing he does best, outstanding speeches. He is going to make the speech of all speeches that even the Fixed News whores are not going to be able to ignore him. John McCain will not be able to match that. I think part of the reason Bush was able to bamboozle the public in 2000 in spite of his limited English is that Al Gore didn't use his rhetorical skills in that campaign which came out later in his passion for the environment. His speech writers didn't serve him well. Obama I believe will learn from that and step up to the plate with an acceptance speech so filled with hope that he will make all Americans, even the conservatives, proud to be American again.

[defendandprotect]

9. No one who is going to vote for Obama is going to move to McCain .. .

Yes . . . some warmongers might decide it's a bit much for them and move to Obama ---

but not the reverse ---

If Obama is fading --- and I'd question the pools on this, anyway --- it's his own doing

in abandoning POPULIST positions.

Why would meetings with Evangelicals give him a boost?

Why would support for Bush's positions give Obama a boost?

Why would failure to speak out against the oil industry -- nationalizing it/electric cars --

give Obama a boost?

etal ---

[bdamomma]

11. Randi is ranting on McCain

I don't blame her, this man cannot relate to Americans, he is just another bush.

[stillcool]

12. there almost seems to be a..

coordinated effort to get people riled up about this. Is the media singing this tune?

[JDPriestly]

17. Obama is making the same mistake that Kerry made.

Obama needs to tell a story -- not just with words, but with events and then create stories before the voters' eyes. He did that during the primaries, but he is no doing that now. He is not reaching the hearts of that crucial portion of voters who vote not for good policy but for the person who makes them feel good.

Imagine a story without a villain. Let's take the Lord of the Rings or even the Harry Potter stories or even Gone With the Wind or any other story. Pretty boring. Obama needs to identify the villain in his story. Thus far, he has not done that.

And, by the way, the villain can't be an abstract idea. (Have you ever read Pilgrim's Progress?) That might work for DUers, but it won't work for the majority of Americans. McCain is the villain that Obama has to fight, and if Obama does not make that clear, he cannot be a hero in the eyes of Americans and he will lose.

McCain is making Obama into the villain, and the polls today show McCain pulling up. That's the way it works.

Obama's message is inspiring, but difficult for people to identify with. McCain presents his ideas in stories that people understand. The whole Georgia thing was a manipulation, but a great story. Russia was depicted as the villain. McCain came out looking like a hero. That is a story that people understand. So what if Georgia actually attacked first. The story was that Russia was a villain, and McCain stood up to Russia. Didn't happen, I know, but it's about the story, not the reality. That's how Republicans win. They tell a good story. Obama can do this, but he has to get the courage to do it. Humility is wonderful, but we want our leaders to be heroes -- humble heroes, but heroes. And to be a hero, you have to slay a dragon or the equivalent.

So, negative campaigning when properly done wins for a reason -- it makes the person campaigning negatively look like a hero.