Reply #14: I agree that both parties should conduct a clean and issues based campaign [View All]

[bklyncowgirl]

I for one would love to see the sort of campaign you describe and there is a real chance that Obama and McCain who both claim to despise negative campaigning would conduct themselves in a manner that would make all Americans proud. Wouldn't that be great to see!

But it makes no sense to come to a gun fight armed with a pocketknife.

Let's take McCain at his word, but also be prepared in case things degenerate into accusations and mud throwing.

I read somewhere that Bill Clinton kept Bush the Better from using his sexual pecadillos in the campaign but sending a couple of aides to Bush's people with documented proof that Bush the Better had not exactly been faithful to dear ol' beloved Barbara. They didn't use it but the other side sure as hell knew they had it.

As far as the neocons go, they're not destroyed, they keep on doing the things they've been doing, because in Washington no matter how often you're wrong as long as you're a member of the club you're going to be just find. Bill Kriston just got a lucrative gig on the New York Times. Others (John Bolton for example) appear frequently on talking head shows. Some are advising the McCain campaign. It's people who had the temerity to be right that are outcasts in our nation's capital.

I wish they were gone, I wish that every time they appeared on television the host would say something like "this is Mugwatter Thumpscrup from the American Enterprise Institute who predicted that American troops would be showered with flowers and Iraq would become a pro Israel democracy whose people would take up baseball and golf. Mr. Thumpscrup, how do you have the nerve to appear on this show when you were so completely, utterly and catastrophically wrong?"

Unfortunately that is not going to happen because they are members of the most elite and exclusive club in the world. Washington insiders.

By the way welcome to DU.