Post your favorite Sun Tzu quote in relation to the Dems' anti-GOP strategy

[agentS]

Recently reported on Americablog and other sites, Sarah Palin is back and is rarin' to go into 2012.
Problem is her former campaign cohort John McCain and staff are shooting back at her.
Enemy in disarray? You betcha?
It's gotten to the point where Dem strategists are opening discussing strategy, knowing the GOP has no effective way to counter the Rush=GOP line.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/dem-strategists-sarah-palin-is-the-new-rush-limbaugh/

This is some serious Sun Tzu style warfare the Democrats are waging.
I think they're using this tip to full effect:
If your opponent is of choleric temperment, seek to irritate him.
Or it could be this one:
Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.

[Richard Steele]

1. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is in the process of making a mistake." nm

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. I think I heard Tony Soprano quote Sun Stew

and it was something like, "You bring a knife, I bring a gun."

[Flying Dream Blues]

3. Aw, heck, I don't have a quote so I'm deleting my post. nt

[No.23]

4. I'd rather quote one for the current Prez:

"There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare."

That includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Ikonoklast]

5. "The very first time you meet your opponent, kick them in the balls really hard."

"You have their undivided attention the next time you meet."


OK, I made that up.

[leftofthedial]

6. "Hi. I'm Sun Tzu. Let's make S'Mores!"

[Juche]

7. I haven't read sun tzu in a whilte

So I am certain there are far better ones. This is what I googled though.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor dampened, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue... In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.



Too bad 'give up on your principles and what the country wants out of fear of being called names by talk show hosts' wasn't a quote of his.

[Octafish]

8. ''If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.''

Seems to be the ticket.

[Octafish]

9. Sorry, I'll play. I'll play...

"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."

[Political Heretic]

10. "Not in the face!"

...wait maybe that was Arthur.

[Hekate]

11. Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. ...

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Appraise war in terms of the fundamental factors. The first of these factors is moral influence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Hekate]

12. Offer the enemy bait to lure him. (Applies well to the way Obama does politics.)

All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer and achieve things
beyond the reach of ordinary men is foreknowledge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Hekate]

13. Obama is a political chess player. Chess is sublimated war. I think you're on to something...

Andrew Sullivan has twice written (that I know of) about Obama's great skill in provoking his enemies to self-destruct. It makes for pleasurable reading when you worry that he's not doing this or that.

Hekate


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article4925049.ece
October 12, 2008
Beep, beep: Road Runner lets McCain blow up
Barack Obama’s strategy of calm is provoking his rival into fatal errors


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article5992569.ece
March 29, 2009
Scared Cheney puts his head in the noose
The former vice-president fears being held to account on torture and is lashing out