The Spectre of the Guy Who Came Before You
Reading a HuffPo article on how the Team Country First formulated a response for their candidate on this week's financial fiascoes offered some interesting insight. Floating out the notion of criticizing BushCo for the mess is a strong step:
Not surprising that this tactic was abandoned when donors in the financial industry got wind of it, but McPalin's inability to come to grips with what to do about Bush 43 is more telling. My first thought was, this is Gore 2000 all over again.
Most liberals and Democrats believe that the 2000 election was stolen by Bush and poor Al Gore should be President. While I agree that BushCo did indeed steal the show for the drunken frat-boy, we still must hold Gore accountable for allowing the election to get close enough for the steal to be possible. When a team loses a futbol match 1-0 over what they think is a bad last-minute call by a referee, they don't have much ground on which to complain if they blew 4-5 chances to score earlier in the match. Team Gore should have put one or two of their opportunities in the net, rendering Florida inconsequential.
One of the contributing factors in Gore's 2000 defeat was his decision not to stand strongly on the accomplishments of the Clinton-Gore administration. Team Gore went out of their way to argue that their guy had the chops to be prez, but didn't want to remind everyone of the Big Dog. "Clinton Fatigue," the media would sigh, and it scared Team Gore to death. Air Force One flying into town with one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century aboard would have been a powerful tool to nail down the electoral vote, but no, Gore listened to the same voices in the media that savaged him on so many points.
We're seeing the same thing now with Team Country First. George Walker Bush is pure political poison this fall. Nobody wants him anywhere near their state, district, county, or town. It's no surprise that McCain wants to put as much distance between himself and the toxic waste dump in the Oval Office, and Obama has hit him hard, forcing him to take ownership of BushCo. There's a very compelling argument to be made for McCain totally disavowing Bush. The MSM darlings would have renewed the "maverick" meme in full-force.
But it wasn't to be. They floated the idea, as you can see, and it sunk, probably taking the entire McCain campaign with it.
In private late Tuesday evening, the McCain campaign circulated a draft statement on the Wall Street crisis that attacked the Bush administration for a slow and "inconsistent" response, and charged that executives at several financial firms had made "misleading and false" statements.
Not surprising that this tactic was abandoned when donors in the financial industry got wind of it, but McPalin's inability to come to grips with what to do about Bush 43 is more telling. My first thought was, this is Gore 2000 all over again.
Most liberals and Democrats believe that the 2000 election was stolen by Bush and poor Al Gore should be President. While I agree that BushCo did indeed steal the show for the drunken frat-boy, we still must hold Gore accountable for allowing the election to get close enough for the steal to be possible. When a team loses a futbol match 1-0 over what they think is a bad last-minute call by a referee, they don't have much ground on which to complain if they blew 4-5 chances to score earlier in the match. Team Gore should have put one or two of their opportunities in the net, rendering Florida inconsequential.
One of the contributing factors in Gore's 2000 defeat was his decision not to stand strongly on the accomplishments of the Clinton-Gore administration. Team Gore went out of their way to argue that their guy had the chops to be prez, but didn't want to remind everyone of the Big Dog. "Clinton Fatigue," the media would sigh, and it scared Team Gore to death. Air Force One flying into town with one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century aboard would have been a powerful tool to nail down the electoral vote, but no, Gore listened to the same voices in the media that savaged him on so many points.
We're seeing the same thing now with Team Country First. George Walker Bush is pure political poison this fall. Nobody wants him anywhere near their state, district, county, or town. It's no surprise that McCain wants to put as much distance between himself and the toxic waste dump in the Oval Office, and Obama has hit him hard, forcing him to take ownership of BushCo. There's a very compelling argument to be made for McCain totally disavowing Bush. The MSM darlings would have renewed the "maverick" meme in full-force.
But it wasn't to be. They floated the idea, as you can see, and it sunk, probably taking the entire McCain campaign with it.
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