I've lost it--Kristol, Rove and Frum have made interesting points

[vixengrl]

and I find I'm agreeing with more Republicans lately.

:hide: (Is it safe to come out and explain?)

What I'm referring to is this clip from Think Progress ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWYQ9nQeHs&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/ ) that features both Kristol and Rove pointting fingers at the disloyalty of people on the McCain campaign staff, and David Frum's recent WP article that starts, ominously enough:

"There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him. "

And goes on point out the ways in which they're dragging the party down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR2008102302081.html

And of course, the Republicans I've found myself agreeing with are the growing number of Obamacans that have come out in support of our candidate ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/24/uselections2008-republicans-obama-obamicans ).

Now, all these things I'm pointing to are very well and good--but do I have a point to back up my slightly shocking title?

"You betcha," as the Republican VP (and Senate-President) candidate might say. See, being at the top of a party's ticket makes them the party leadership. And if they aren't inspiring the party--take a look at the people who are supporting Obama! or even inspiring their own campaign workers, they simply aren't showing leadership. I find it interesting that as a kind of counterweight to Rove and Kristol's observations about 'disloyalty" and failure to do their job, there's an article like this: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html where camapign aides are actually blaming the candidate. (Oh noes--she's gone "rogue"! Too maverick-y!) No wonder the make-up person was the highest-paid person associated with the campaign this month--she at least knows that making the candidates look good is her job!

Rumor has it, many top aides for the McCain camp have already started shopping around their resumes ahead of the inglorious crash they expect their personal reputations to take in the event of an Obama landslide--not an especially good sign of loyalty on their parts, but an even more dismal sign of lack of faith in their candidates--whom they have worked closely with. There's the rub.

I can easily understand the point in both Rove and Kristol placing blame for the low McCain/Palin positives on a badly run campaign--it deflects the blame away from the candidates themselves (and naturally, they are also being a bit self-serving, after all Rove wants to distance himself from a loser to still look like he has the chops, and Kristol is being tagged as one of the geniuses who backed the Palin-pick). Frum is participating in what I think we'll see more and more of--I think of them as "pre-mortems"--an attempt to figure out what's going wrong to look prescient when it does, and to describe what needs to be done in crafting the GOP message *while they already seem to be doing it.* But regardless of what is said about the mess, at the heart of it lies two very flawed candidates--one who couldn't run a positive campaign based on his personal narrative and experience, and another who just can not seem credible enough even to her own party.

Watching people on the right analyze this has simply tickled me no end. It's actually even made me capable of watching a whole episode of FOX News Sunday without yelling at my tv. Much.

I never realized how cool schadenfreude really is.

[LaPera]

1. Really, you spend time watching the lies of Fox news each week? One gets what one deseves!

You need pig-face Rove, horse-face Kristol and Fox news to tell you what?

It's over for McCain/Palin?

So stay overjoyed & confident, the Dems will win....Shit, don't even bother to vote....it's already in the bag...

Nah, republicans wouldn't try to keep the Dems complacent, they just wouldn't do that.

The republicans decided they won't even be stealing any votes this election, because it's over, the republicans thugs have conceded, even though they've been working on stealing it for the past four years and Fox news has voiced the obvious....That we've already won!

[vixengrl]

5. Um--who's overjoyed and over-confident?

I just doubt that the expressions of "Here's what we're doing wrong..." coming from that side are a head-fake. There's real concern on that side--and yes, I'll vote, and every vote for Obama is completely necessary and of course I think that they will try to "legally" contest close races because that's how they roll. But the Republican message, like Rove's claim in 2006 that "he had the math," has often been predicated around the idea that they were winners--even if the numbers were close. To keep things uncertain, in the event of a little "foolin' around" with dumping out legitimate votes to effect a narrow win, maybe? Could be. And to keep maroale up among people whose cognitive dissonance will only carry them so far in their support of a party that doesn't work in their own interest--maybe that,too. Truth is, people don't really "flock" to underdogs, and the GOP has relied on projecting strength and conformity.

The reason I watch FOX is because it is healthy to stay outraged. They do a nice job of it. I really can't stand Brit Hume. Disliking them is like a cardio-routine, for me.

[Andy823]

2. We will know the ship is sinking

When old Joe Lieberman jumps ship and starts begging for forgiveness, and saying it was "temporary" insanity, he really didn't mean all those nasty things he said!:evilgrin:

[melody]

4. He's already been making those noises n/t

[geckosfeet]

3. And the irony of his statements is completely lost on him. eom