Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Will Dean Make Playboy Centerfold Next?:
Howard Dean has stirred up so much "buzz" that he pulled off a major feat by making the covers of Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report all in the same week. This is hard to believe seeing as there are nine other presidential candidates and the election is over a year away. So why's the former Vermont Governor getting so much attention so early in the process? I think two things are at work here, both being brought about by the overwhelming tendency of people working for the major media outlets to be liberally biased. Liberals in the media, as in the rest of the country, seem to have diverged into two camps with two different opinions on Dean. The first group, the true believers, think Dean can win the election regardless of how popular Bush is come election season. He harnesses the political spirit of Mondale, Dukakis, and McGovern that makes die-hard liberals wet in their "special" places. The second group, the realists, know that Bush will clean Dean's ultra-liberal clock barring an economic collapse or possibly a poorly handled domestic terrorist attack. They tend to be the people leaning towards non-politically suicidal candidates like John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.
True believers in the press are elated at the chance to give Dean as much free press as they can, filled with plenty of David and Goliath rhetoric. This is compounded by the fact that the realists want to get the word out so that all their fellow liberals know that this guy probably can't win. So you have an interesting situation whereby both sets of liberals want Dean's face in the press, but for different reasons. All the while, Dean is riding the tidal wave of press, good and bad, all the way to the Democratic primaries. It seems as though the realists would have the common sense to stop the freight train they helped to start, after all they are smart enough to know Dean is a weak candidate, but liberals don't necessarily have the best track record on demonstrating common sense.
The Strategy:
Not much we conservatives can do to have an impact on this situation. Best to let the liberal media attempt to deify and demonize Dean at the same time. The best case scenario for Bush would be a Dean candidacy, but it would be just as effective if his popularity among Democratic primary voters dragged all the candidates so far to the left that they all fall off the mainstream political map.
Howard Dean has stirred up so much "buzz" that he pulled off a major feat by making the covers of Time, Newsweek, and US News and World Report all in the same week. This is hard to believe seeing as there are nine other presidential candidates and the election is over a year away. So why's the former Vermont Governor getting so much attention so early in the process? I think two things are at work here, both being brought about by the overwhelming tendency of people working for the major media outlets to be liberally biased. Liberals in the media, as in the rest of the country, seem to have diverged into two camps with two different opinions on Dean. The first group, the true believers, think Dean can win the election regardless of how popular Bush is come election season. He harnesses the political spirit of Mondale, Dukakis, and McGovern that makes die-hard liberals wet in their "special" places. The second group, the realists, know that Bush will clean Dean's ultra-liberal clock barring an economic collapse or possibly a poorly handled domestic terrorist attack. They tend to be the people leaning towards non-politically suicidal candidates like John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.
True believers in the press are elated at the chance to give Dean as much free press as they can, filled with plenty of David and Goliath rhetoric. This is compounded by the fact that the realists want to get the word out so that all their fellow liberals know that this guy probably can't win. So you have an interesting situation whereby both sets of liberals want Dean's face in the press, but for different reasons. All the while, Dean is riding the tidal wave of press, good and bad, all the way to the Democratic primaries. It seems as though the realists would have the common sense to stop the freight train they helped to start, after all they are smart enough to know Dean is a weak candidate, but liberals don't necessarily have the best track record on demonstrating common sense.
The Strategy:
Not much we conservatives can do to have an impact on this situation. Best to let the liberal media attempt to deify and demonize Dean at the same time. The best case scenario for Bush would be a Dean candidacy, but it would be just as effective if his popularity among Democratic primary voters dragged all the candidates so far to the left that they all fall off the mainstream political map.
Friday, August 01, 2003
The Daschle Blog:
A tidal wave of enthusiasm is sweeping throughout the country after the announcement of Tom Daschle, Senate minority leader, that he would soon be starting his own blog. Daschle apparently hopes the fact that no one cares what he says on television and in the print media will be transformed by a magical entity called the "Internet." I imagine one of his enthralling entries might go a little something like this:
Tuesday, 3:50 AM
I woke up in a cold sweat tonight after having the most terrible nightmare. The near apocalyptic images that invaded my usually peaceful slumber truly shook me to my core. I dreamed that WMD stockpiles were found in Iraq, the US casualty rate slowed to a near halt after Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces, and the domestic economy showed exceptional growth in GDP and jobs. As if all this weren't terrible enough, the last thing I remember seeing before I broke free of this nocturnal terror was hundreds and hundreds of voters in lines all across America, each checking a box next to the name of George W. Bush. I awoke in my bed, violently thrashing my arms and legs about, wondering if America could ever really be headed for such a doomsday scenario. I only pray, for the good of our nation, that these events are far from the realm of possibility. Writing out my feelings has really helped settle me down and I'm feeling a lot better. I should be getting back to bed soon because I have a long day tomorrow trying to discredit everything the administration says while delicately trying to avoid taking any positions myself. I mean, you've got to love being able to say, "This president is clearly mishandling post-war Iraq. Sure he won the war, but he's in grave danger of losing the peace." That's the type of rhetoric that plays big in the media, and the best part is I don't even have to have the slightest idea what type of alternative to propose. So I just throw in a little "multilateralize" here and some "not enough troops" there, and then I just sit back and wait for the praise from pundits and news anchors alike. Good night all. --TD
The Strategy:
The conservative strategy for this one is all too obvious. This new blog of Daschle's needs to be subjected to a full-on offensive of scrutiny, review, and most importantly-- extreme ridicule. This shouldn't be too hard given the army of conservative bloggers out there. There should be plenty of red meat for us if he actually writes the blog and doesn't have a team of advisors screen it first. If he should happen to make a misstatement of let's say....16 words, it's time to take the gloves off.
A tidal wave of enthusiasm is sweeping throughout the country after the announcement of Tom Daschle, Senate minority leader, that he would soon be starting his own blog. Daschle apparently hopes the fact that no one cares what he says on television and in the print media will be transformed by a magical entity called the "Internet." I imagine one of his enthralling entries might go a little something like this:
Tuesday, 3:50 AM
I woke up in a cold sweat tonight after having the most terrible nightmare. The near apocalyptic images that invaded my usually peaceful slumber truly shook me to my core. I dreamed that WMD stockpiles were found in Iraq, the US casualty rate slowed to a near halt after Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces, and the domestic economy showed exceptional growth in GDP and jobs. As if all this weren't terrible enough, the last thing I remember seeing before I broke free of this nocturnal terror was hundreds and hundreds of voters in lines all across America, each checking a box next to the name of George W. Bush. I awoke in my bed, violently thrashing my arms and legs about, wondering if America could ever really be headed for such a doomsday scenario. I only pray, for the good of our nation, that these events are far from the realm of possibility. Writing out my feelings has really helped settle me down and I'm feeling a lot better. I should be getting back to bed soon because I have a long day tomorrow trying to discredit everything the administration says while delicately trying to avoid taking any positions myself. I mean, you've got to love being able to say, "This president is clearly mishandling post-war Iraq. Sure he won the war, but he's in grave danger of losing the peace." That's the type of rhetoric that plays big in the media, and the best part is I don't even have to have the slightest idea what type of alternative to propose. So I just throw in a little "multilateralize" here and some "not enough troops" there, and then I just sit back and wait for the praise from pundits and news anchors alike. Good night all. --TD
The Strategy:
The conservative strategy for this one is all too obvious. This new blog of Daschle's needs to be subjected to a full-on offensive of scrutiny, review, and most importantly-- extreme ridicule. This shouldn't be too hard given the army of conservative bloggers out there. There should be plenty of red meat for us if he actually writes the blog and doesn't have a team of advisors screen it first. If he should happen to make a misstatement of let's say....16 words, it's time to take the gloves off.
