Here is the Democratic "brand" plain and simple that every Dem can run on:

[Awsi Dooger]

48. Republicans squeeze every last advantage

Illegal, unethical and outright lies but at least the moves make sense toward the desired outcome. Democrats, on the other hand, are inept handicappers. I've emphasized that countless times since joining this site in 2002 and for decades prior.

In Las Vegas sportsbook circles I quickly learned that I had to seize every method to negate and reverse the mathematical casino advantage. That meant I had to get the best possible odds on every game along with playing middles and arbitrages, etc. Daily grind with tons of legwork but logical and successful. In following politics I see the Republicans essentially doing the same thing. They aren't popular. They rarely pretend to be popular. They savage the opposition while placing a handful of big picture themes into the mindset of the electorate then hammering and hammering away. It's backed by massaging the districts and voter rolls in their favor. Russia was a late summon and candidate driven. Somebody like Jeb wouldn't have gone there, and probably denounced it, while more than satisfied with the typical schemes. He was Florida cleanse 2000, after all.

When I do all the exhaustive dirtywork in Las Vegas it's amazing how often the result cooperates. I imagine Republicans feel the same way. They must laugh like hell as we whine about machines and similar waste of time. None of that is earning a half percent here or half percent there. In fact, just the opposite. We actually play into their hands and do some of the work for them when the faces of our party are the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Rachel Maddow. That's no pushing or explaining required. One look or one mention and the hate overflows. Then we run Obama and Hillary back to back but somehow choose the most amazingly ignorant ordering possible. The more likable candidate had to go second, in the exponentially more difficult terrain after two straight terms for the party. I'll always wonder how the nation and world would have evolved if we'd simply been intelligent and slotted Hillary in 2008 with unmarked Obama waiting in the wings.

Then during the 2016 campaign we brainstorm to prioritize North Carolina and its 43% self-identified conservatives. We might as well campaign in Winnipeg. I realize I'm the only one who ever mentions those liberal/conservatives splits by state. That's the issue. The party relies on bullshit polls, ones that often carry no foundational logic whatsoever. Some of the polls in every campaign are so moronic it's literally like debuting pro football pregame polls and touting them on the air: Look, according to our poll Tom Brady is forecast to go 3 for 28 this week with 6 interceptions. Interesting.

Yes, Republican voters are stupid. We allow them to be stupid, without shame or concern. People don't like to feel stupid or inferior. There hasn't been one clever slogan or campaign aimed at jarring the fringe Republican voter out of the stupidity or gullibility. Remember the Apple commercials with the cool guy and the PC nerd? I absolutely loved that campaign. I've owned a chunk of Apple stock since the late '90s. I was touting Apple stock here when the price was 50 bucks and countless posters were dismissing the company as nothing but overpriced hardware, blah blah blah. In fact, those people are the reason I adopted this avatar well more than a decade ago. Lousy handicappers...no surprise.

I knew that Apple campaign was sheer brilliance, that it would unnerve some PC owners while swaying others to make the switch, to become cool. You could tell how effective the campaign was when Microsoft desperately tried to counter with its own pathetic version. And there is no reason Democratic strategists can't summon some type of ad aimed at people who fell for fake news, or believed the manufacturing jobs would magically reappear, etc.

It is not a risk. The risk is doing nothing similar. Chuck Schumer holding up a "Meaner" sign is exactly the type of standard fare hopelessly overmatched tactic we've used since I started following this party.