The New Politics By: shep

So the Democratic candidate for president is trying a new kind of politics where the Democrat offers fair policy-based critiques of his opponent, while the Republican opponent uses surrogates and a vast media-based propaganda network to dishonestly and relentlessly smear the Democrat in the most vile fashion. I’ve got news for you, Senator Obama, that’s been tried a couple of times lately, to generally disastrous effect (you might consider sitting down for a chat with Al Gore and John Kerry at your upcoming convention).

The way the game is played is that the Republican, having nothing to commend him, will scorch the earth for you with the drooling Republican base and the great, ignorant, passive-aggressive, independent middle of America. The new politics, invented by Atwater, perfected by Rove, is to make the opponent unacceptable and unelectable by indoctrinating the racists, the angry and the disaffected (who aren’t already slavishly following the Republican cue in typical right-wing-authoritarian-following fashion) with lies which assassinate your character.

I predict that they won’t refrain from doing so because you’ve asked them not to. Likewise, I doubt the success of making it a referendum on the Bush Administration’s policies – pssst, most of the people you need to win don’t have a clue what’s been going on the past eight years and who’s responsible because our establishment media has kept them in the dark due to their own complicity, stupidity and moral turpitude.

This is a good start:

On a conference call with reporters just now, senior Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice argued that there is "a pattern here of recklessness" when it comes to McCain's approach to various national security issues. She pointed out that McCain reacted too quickly with "aggressive and bellicose" rhetoric on the Russia-Georgia crisis, and contrasted that with Obama's measured response to the dust-up.
[snip]
"There's something to be said for letting facts drive judgment," Rice said, also referring to McCain's desire to target Iraq right after 9/11.
[snip]
Furthering the hothead meme, Richard Clarke was also on the call, and he described the Republican as "quick draw McCain" and "trigger-happy."

I particularly like that you are making good use of Clarke since it appears you fear the obvious choice of making him your Vice Presidential pick. "I'm sure he [McCain] loves his country. It's just that loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view." Yeah, buddy.

But this is still too clever by half, or too clever for half-wits, if you will. I’d suggest something more basic, more appropriate for the lizard brain. Something that will make McCain seem, you know, unelectable. Try this:

McCain is Insane

Simple, memorable, frightening. You have the story, the pictures and the words from McCain’s own mouth to prove it. Don’t be shy, this really is a new kind of politics. The kind where the story used to make the opponent unelectable is 100% true.

P.S. Obviously, I don’t think that you should get your hands dirty with the ugly truth but some totally *cough* independent *cough* actor ought to get busy with it.

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]