Rove's strategy -- discuss

[rlev1223]

My view -- what's yours?

Rove doesn't care whether the Bush campaign "wins" any arguments,
as long as most of the campaign noise is about issues where he feels strongest.

The Swift Boat thing is a perfect example. It keeps the
campain centered on "leadership" and "security," while letting proxies create some confusion and some doubt about Kerry. At the same time, Bush can take the high road and say that Kerry's Vietnam era record should not be debatable --- and so, by implication, neither should Bush's be, as if they had anything at all in common.

We saw the same thing surrounding Richard Clarke. At the same time one administration official was intimating that Clarke was most responsible for transition period fuck-ups, another (Cheney, I think) was claiming that he was out of the loop altogether. It didn't matter if the statements were illogical, it was just supposed to briefly create enough confusion to blunt the straightforward meaning of Clarke's testimony.

Sometime soon, Kerry will have to backfoot Bush on strong domestic issues, like medicare and most especially the environment, get out of Rove's stadium and force Bush to play in his.

[rwenos]

1. You've Got It About Right

Based on what we've seen so far, Bush will be allowed to surf, while the attack dogs bare their fangs and sink their teeth into the soft flesh.

Thus, Cheney, Condi and even Laura will carry the mail. Georgie Boy will be allowed to look angelic.

Rove = Iago.

[BurtWorm]

2. Way way overrated!

The swift boat thing shows it. These guys often act like rank amateurs--getting a swift boat captain to lie--under oath!--just to tear down Kerry?! They're like stupid frat boys a lot of the time. Evil and stupid, but stupid all the same, and more and more transparent. I think we all know that the Republicans' game is always to turn an opponent's strength into a weakness. Of course there are enough idiots on the right to get suckered into playing the role Rove manipulates them into. But the media are destined to get bored with these stupid Republican tricks. Same old same old.

[necso]

4. The neos are idiots...

But they do have a lot of very high priced "talent" at their beck and call. Some of this "talent" is even pretty good.

They may get "purchase" yet! But I wouldn't want to give them any ideas.

And I wouldn't give any credit to the media at large, they are awfully stupid themselves.

[Sporadicus]

3. Trust John Kerry and His Campaign Managers

They know the best time to pounce on these domestic issues - and apparently the time isn't quite right. As much as I hate to admit it or even think about it, the average American attention span is very short; springing too much information on the public too early would be a waste of time.

In contrast, Turd Blossom sprung the Smear Boat Vets' lies early in hopes that this dungheap would bear fruit. This was a big mistake, because it has provided time to discredit their every utterance to the point of total irrelevance.