So How Are Things On The Other Side Of The Fence?

by: Mimikatz

Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 13:58


Turns out, not so good.  While we angst over Obama's every move and worry about the Dems yet again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, it seems things aren't going too well on the other side of the fence.

First, there were reports of serious grumbling among many GOPers with the McCain campaing:

While the practice of second-guessing presidential campaign decisions is a quadrennial routine, interviews with 16 Republican strategists and state party chairmen - few of whom would agree to talk on the record - reveal a striking level of discord and mounting criticism about the McCain operation.

"It's not just message or not having just one single meta-theme to compete with Obama," said a veteran Republican strategist with close ties to McCain's top advisers. "It's not just fundraising, which is mediocre. And it's not even just organization, which is [just] starting or nonexistent in many states."

"McCain's campaign seems not to have a game plan. I don't see a consistent message," said Ed Rollins, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns. "As someone who has run campaigns, this campaign is not running smoothly. But none of this matters if they get their act together."

And now reports of a high-level shakeup. within the McCain camp.

And how's that drive to retake Congress going?  Between Mitch McConnell's admission that the GOP isn't going to retake the Senate to the anemic GOP prospects in the House, not so good.  The vaunted GOP "Regain Our Majority Program" (ROMP II, formerly "Retain Our Majority") has only one open seat contender and two challengers, one of whom is running for Tom DeLay's old TX-22 seat, and 5 incumbents needing defense.  And a GOP fundraising machine has been exposed as something out of the Producers, keeping 95% of the money they raised for candidates or funnelling it to cronies.

Meanwhile the Dems "Red to Blue" program has 18 open seat contenders, 20 challengers and another 20 "emerging races," for a total of 50 more than the GOP's list.  And the Dems right now have a 37 seat majority in the House.  And Dem registration and voter identification are both way up.

So don't get discouraged.  Things look better for us right now, as to both electoral prospects and the possibility of positive change, than at any time since I cast my first presidential vote in 1964.
Mimikatz :: So How Are Things On The Other Side Of The Fence?

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So How Are Things On The Other Side Of The Fence? | 11 comments
Have you seen this story? (4.00 / 2)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25...

(hat tip BTD)

Talk about going off message: yeesh.

One of John McCain's Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.

A former McCain aide who was along on the mission said he doesn't recall an incident like the one described by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Cochran said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said in an interview with the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever ...


Wow. (4.00 / 1)
Just wow.

I guess that's his idea of diplomacy.  Cochran had said earlier that he didn't think McCain was fit for the Presidency, IIRC.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

[ Parent ]
And people think (4.00 / 1)
Obama has problems with his base.
[ Parent ]
McCain's idea of diplomacy (4.00 / 3)
I think his first option is to say "Stop the bullshit," but I guess if that doesn't work, you just have to grab some shirt collars.
[ Parent ]
I like the idea of tying McCain to the Contras (0.00 / 0)
I don't really know what the residual feeling about the Contras is over in America (here they definitely seem to have earnt their reputation as, to use the old Marxist phrase, "capitalist running dogs".)

Still, hitting McCain on one of Reagan's greatest fuck-ups would be especially satisfying, particularly given the effort that Bush II put into trying to stop Ortega getting elected, even after he abandoned the militancy and most of the socialism.

If that kind of attack can be made to work, it will be a harbinger of a successful realignment.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

[ Parent ]
But my English friend ... (0.00 / 0)
we don't remember things here. Contras -- isn't that a folky style of dance?  

Can it happen here?
[ Parent ]
Don't think we remember them here (0.00 / 0)
Nicaragua is only really remembered on the high-info left, but the tarring of America's reputation and the fact that details are hazily remembered means that the Sandinistas would win the argument right now.

Substitute Republicanism for America and that's my thesis as to how this attack could be made to work and to damage hegemony.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

[ Parent ]
Great idea; don't hold your breath (0.00 / 0)
The Democrats couldn't even manage to make the Iran/Contra scandal an issue when they ran against GHW Bush, you know, back when the scandal was a current event, so the idea that they'd dredge it up in 2008 is just wishful thinking.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."
[ Parent ]
"Prisoners of love, blue skies above, can't keep our hearts in jail..." (0.00 / 0)
I wonder what the thank-you message was when someone donated to that GOP outfit.

"Congratulations! You now own 500% of the GOP '08 re-election campaign."

Very good points (4.00 / 1)
We need more of this perspective around here. It supports my pet theory that Obama is playing prevent defense (from a position of strength) rather than triangulating (from a perceived position of weakness). And just like in football, the prevent can be more trouble than its worth.
More on the McCain campaign shake-up (0.00 / 0)
He has installed Steve Schmidt, Schwarzenegger's communicatuions guy, in charge of day-to-day operations and scrapped the idea of 11 semi-autonomous regional operations in favor of a tighter, top-down campaign organization.  All of which means they are basoically retooling the whole campaign structure four months before the election with a candidate who can't keep his message straight.  More here.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.
So How Are Things On The Other Side Of The Fence? | 11 comments
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