Rove smears/distractions that DIDN'T work.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

It's my feeling that most or all of the important issues are AGAINST Bush and favor Kerry. So the best strategy for Rove is to keep the media focused on anything but relevant current issues, especially Iraq. To the extent that he succeeds in doing this, it favors his boy and works against Kerry.

I've been dismayed by the extent to which he's been able to do this so far, which has been greatly facilitated by a willing news media, but we're still in a position to win.

Rove has probably got dozens of things big and small set up to accomplish this. We here sometimes act like he's some kind of invulnerable evil supergenius, but he has misses as well as hits.

Hits:

-Swift Boat Veterans (may be dead/dying now, but ate up valuable weeks of media coverage and helped steal some momentum from K/E campaign)
-Memogate, assuming Rove somehow related to the memos and to "Buckhead" (helped distract not only from Iraq and other current news but also from the very valid non memo related aspects of the Bush TANG story, such as Barnes' favoritism etc., and again, a week or so worth of valuable coverage lost to this)

Misses:

-Polier intern smear (this may have been a quickie attempt to kill the Kerry campaign in its infancy, even with no evidence, a campaign that early could potentially be sunk just by enough rumors)--media declined to participate in this particular feeding frenzy

-Sandy Berger/"socksgate" (media DID participate in this feeding frenzy along with the usual RW echo chamber suspects, which dissolved, without any apparent embarrassment to anyone, within a week with no apparent evidence to support the scandal)

-"Little girl sign-gate": One evening worth of DUers googling this bozo Parlock's name has pretty much killed this one. They might have milked a week's worth of RW talk radio outrage over this one otherwise. Perhaps they still are doing that in RW echo land, but the so called "straight" media probably wouldn't touch this with FOX news' ten foot pole now that the facts are out on Parlock.

Any others to add to the list?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Oldie but goodie: Drudge claimed Kerry had his own intern indiscretion.

But he forgot to check his facts first.

[kikiek]

2. I see Bush is now coming out declaring the memos should be investigated.

The hoopla was dying down and he has to refocus people onto things other than his disasterous administration. Especially with the recent press on Iraq. I suppose it was this or another alert, and people are onto that. No doubt the work of Rove. It's ok to let lies be told only when they're aimed at Kerry.

[kikiek]

3. I think the Theresa ones are Rove initiated too. I actually heard

that loser Robert Novak say on Capital Gang yesterday that Kerry gets money from the Heinz fortune. Was saying his connections to Heinz are as suspicous as Cheney's to Halliburton. No one is questioning any Heinz contract with the government. It was so ridiculous I won't go into anymore detail. That Novak is nuts. Someone should check his brain for a implanted chip.

[AWhitneyBrown]

8. Big Ketchup

Should fill you with the same feeling of foreboding as Big Oil.
I fear that all the might of the US military will be turned against the world's tomato growing countries under a Kerry regime. All in the service of Big Ketchup.
A secret study also shows that the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve is prime tomato growing land, if only it could be unfrozen somehow.
Be afraid, be very afraid.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Careful, some might take you seriously. nt

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Didn't Eisenhower warn about the "ketchup/industrial complex"? n/t

[AWhitneyBrown]

16. Yes! And Reagan..

Was nearly able to classify ketchup as a vegetable. Under the secret Kerry plan, ketchup will be classifed as a mineral and an animal as well. I could also reveal what I know about the black op known as "Operation 58th Variety", but that could so get me killed.

[blondeatlast]

23. Don't even ask about Variety 38 and the Trilateral Commission.

I've said too much already...

[blondeatlast]

22. That's why we are depleting the ozone, don't you see?

Thaw the tundra, grow the tomatoes...

[whathappened]

4. where has all this evil

come from in this country , this don't even sound like a campain for the election of a new presadent , it sounds like a wwf commerial on tv anymore , what b.s, we have to endure to elect a good presadent anymore , and the money that is spent on these campains could feed a army of poor in this country

[kikiek]

5. it's ironic that the media gets rich from it. they perpetuate and prosper

[bogey18]

6. New word

Machiarovian

Or we could just stick with the more familiar slimeball

[shawmut]

7. There was also the leaked NASA photo that certain morans thought

would be the Dukakis-in-a-tank picture of 2004. :eyes:

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Yes, that was an early attempt. Of course,

I've always wondered if that Dukakis photo really hurt him or if the media just liked to say that as proof of their power.

[the Kelly Gang]

11. they have also played their games far too early

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. I'm sure they have at least several more, and will choose the few

best ones. I still think we'll win.

[Longhorn]

14. Here's the good news!

The "dirty campaigning" has played out rather early -- meaning that there's plenty of time to focus on the issues, especially with the debates coming up. If any new dirt emerges, on either side, maybe the public will decide that they've had enough, and we can remain focused on the issues.

We all know that we will KICK ASS on the issues!

[SayitAintSo]

15. Heinz money link to Tides Foundation...

Snopes has this debunked. Even with that, the urban myth is still floating around the RW internet/email anti-Kerry orgies

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. The Heinz thing, while likely Rovian, is a different category I think. It

is designed to swim around the murk of RW internet spam and not really see the light of media scrutiny too much. That's my read anyway.

[theorist]

17. I still think the cocaine allegations may surface once more.

I'm sure Rove has something planned along these lines, but it may not be close to grand finale. Whatever his magnum opus (i.e. October Surprise) turns out to be, it will be a doozy, considering an around-the-corner indictment for his participation in outing Valerie Plame. Do you really think he's going to "go out like a bitch"?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

21. What cocaine allegation? You mean the allegations that BUSH used

cocaine? Why would Rove want that out? So that it could be debunked if there's no evidence, and the debunking talked about? What are you getting at?

[theorist]

24. I'm not sure if you're being ironic with these questions, so....

Yes, the allegation the GW used coke, then did community service to get the judge (a bush family ally) to scrub the record. This initially surfaced (as far as I know) in the afterword of Hatfield's Fortunate Son.

No credible source has verified these allegations, but Rove himself is known to be one of the original sources. In my opinion, it didn't get the air time in 2000 Rove thought it would, so it's fair game once again. Let's see who get "Hatfielded" or "Rathered" this time around.

I didn't mean to imply that Kerry has ever used cocaine, if that's what you thought.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. I don't know why anyone would want to "float" negative rumors about

their own candidate, even if they could be easily debunked, unless they felt some TRUE, similar, charges were likely to surface, and that this would "innoculate" them against the charges.

If your candidate was completely free of such a scandal, even floating a debunkable smear would carry some considerable risk to your campaign, I'd think.

But then again, some nutcase like Parlock may have shot out a Repub HQ window to get on the news and talk about "those crazy Dems", so maybe it's not as outlandish as I would think.

[theorist]

26. It would only happen, if it were on the verge of breaking.

The AWOL story was out already. Hence, the swiftvet for revenge (hit your opponent's strengths, right?) and the "forged memos". That's easy enough to understand, but the drug/womanizing charges are all tied to bush's being transferred to Alabama. GW's daddy considered his Houston partying to be a political liability.

Now, what I'm getting at is that if some journalists really dig hard, and get lucky, they'll find one of George's old drinking buddies. If the poor schmuck is low on money, or just wants to talk, then there it is, house of cards comes tumbling. (Most likely wishful thinking, but you can probably see it's a possibility.)

That's where your point comes in. All they'd have to do, is make the coke charge dubious for a single month. They could easily leak some info to a liberal British (maybe even French, for that matter) newspaper. Then the RW newsies jump at the chance to debunk it. The election comes and goes, and all they find out is that the pres is a former cokehead, got several women pregnant in his twenties, etc.

And all the while, none of the real issues have been discussed.

[Doosh]

18. misses - UN Oil For Food "Scandal"

heavily whored by FOX, got absolutely no traction.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

20. You're right. This one has been pimped by some of the more "respectable"

RW shills like William Safire. Actually I don't think he's very respectable, he just gets a little more respect because he works for the NYT.