Daily Howler on the ineffectiveness of Democratic partisans (Part I)

[Karmadillo]

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh080304.shtml

<edit>

But of course, you can make someone the objective of ridicule when they don’t provide the material. It’s easy: You invent bogus stories; recite them endlessly; and then you rely on Democratic partisans to be too inept to refute them. In the case of Gore, for example, you claim he said he invented the Internet. You repeat the claim for two solid years—and rely on the Washington press corp to ignore, reinforce or recite it.

In Kerry’s case, the strategy is already active—and hapless Dem partisans are playing the role they played four years ago. How to make Kerry the object of ridicule when he isn’t providing material? Easy! For one thing, you can say he is “the number one liberal in the Senate”—and rely on hapless Democrat partisans not to be able to answer the charge. We saw that pattern played out Friday night in that gruesome cable exchange with Sean Hannity. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 8/2/04—but be sure you’re sitting down when you do so.

To their credit, it isn’t like the RNC doesn’t tell us what they’re doing. But then, they’re willing to do so for an obvious reason. They know that “good guy” pundits are so inept that, even handed the RNC plan, they’ll be completely unable to counter it. Dems will send partisans off to war unarmed, inept, unprepared, unable. Last Friday, Hannity ate Janeane Garofalo for lunch. And how do Dems respond to the carnage? Of course—they send us whining e-mails! They tell us that we hurt Janeane’s feelings when we so rudely point this out.

But then, this is the way your “good guy” pundits lost the race four years ago. Republican strategists laugh in their faces—and, after all, why shouldn’t they? When it comes to losing elections, these folks are the ruling masters. They proved this point four years ago. Hannity understands this point well.

more...

[glitch]

1. one quibble - we didn't lose the election 4 years ago - the USSC stopped

the full vote count ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. Bob needs to not ignore, reinforce and recite this fact. Saying we lost the election is quite different than saying we lost the court case.
Although I do agree with him that our side needs to come back hard with facts every time they are faced with lies. Of course if they did they wouldn't be asked back. Is that another story or the same one?
Signed, a fan of them both.

[dolstein]

6. Newsflash -- If you're the one in the White House, the other guy lost

Sorry, but any definition of victory that includes any scenario in which you fail to take office isn't an unacceptable definition in my book.

[Democat]

2. He leaves out the fact that our side won't go on the attack

Kerry wants to be the "nice" guy in this race and the entire Democratic machine, with a few individual exceptions, does not appear capable of launching any sort of sustained attack on Bush.

We lost by being "nice" in 2000, and now we're trying the same strategy again.

Let's hope the hate for Bush is stronger than the wimpiness of the strategists in our party.

[LuminousX]

3. Kerry doesn't have to attack

but partisans who choose to wade into battle had better have their facts straight. Look at Jon Stewart last night. He had his facts in order and he isn't even one of our partisan warriors. Imagine what someone with the right info could have done against Hannity.

We can't field a B team against a AA team.

[Democat]

4. Kerry shouldn't have to attack, but who will attack for him?

Howard Dean? And then 10 other Demcocrats will attack Dean for attacking Bush.

We don't have enough Democrats, enough organization, enough fighting Democrats, to effectively attack Bush and make our attacks stick.

Everyone knows the media is biased against us, but at least our side could try.

Why doesn't the public know that Bush is a flip flopper? Why don't they know that Bush is a rich guy from Connecticut?

The Democrats still can't get together an attack plan, while the Republicans are being very effective in undermining Kerry with some voters.

[jacksonian]

5. it's a wierd world for oppositional politics

Dems are truely the majority party but control none of the government. It's a steep slope - get too pissy and you might lose that majority and then you'll never get power, or if you do leverage that majority into power you still need the other side's cooperation to govern effectively (Clinton's lesson).

When you're a majority you're not really trying to change the map.