Monday, September 20, 2010

The Economy vs the Extremists

That's apparently what Decision 10 will be coming down to if the Democrats decide to pursue one of the range of options ideas available to AxelRahm:
President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a national advertising campaign that would cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.
Of course the article was a trial balloon because no party would give away a strategy so easily. The White House is now 100 percent denying it. Maybe the guilt-by-association slam campaign didn't focus group well. Nevertheless, the story is out--tea party extremists=GOP. Mission accomplished for today.

Meanwhile Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO chief enforcer and keeper of the faith even if he's not good at ciphering, has already sent out 2.5 pieces of angry mail targeting TEA members. He's been on the attack for several months now. And who are the extremists again?

Yes, yes, everyone knows it's all the Democrats have. They can't run on takeovers and cram-downs with unemployment still 9-10 percent. "It's the economy, stupid" still holds sway as always sans some kind of imminent security threat. With so little substance we can expect a lot of Alinsky Rule 5 activity, perhaps with the presidential participation (this stuff really trips his trigger). Wildcard one is whether the big media will do their part by focusing incessantly on O'Donnell and other conservatives they believe are ripe for intimidation or public mocking or will they play it more even this time.

Seems if the GOP is to counter this coordinated blizzard of innuendo and smear they need to circle the wagons and keep hammering a message that the real extremists are already in power and have nearly bankrupted the country--and if given a mandate will raise taxes and enact cap and trade and a variety of other budget busters. Here we have wildcard two--it's not clear they can do it with cracks already showing between the TEA caucus and the GOP establishment.

Wildcard three would be the faux conservative Dems up for reelection in 'Red State' districts. A super negative campaign could easily blow back on them and make them turn cartoonishly right, which could be exploited via pointing out their votes. But here we have wildcard four--the Dem machine has a lot of money. It ain't over til it's over.

3 comments:

Sam Huntington said...

“ … that would cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists …” I think they should do that. I can’t think of anything that would solidify the conservative base more than that. They are making an erroneous assumption: TPOs involve Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are very pissed off at government right now. I only wish this could have happened in 2008; it would have been a perfect time for an independent candidate for the presidency.

Right Truth said...

Democrats, doing the advertising job RINO Republicans fear.. Go for it. Nothing would be better than for voters to know that Republicans in name only no longer run the party, that Conservative Constitutionalists do. Let the Dems pay for that ad, with my thanks.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

A.C. McCloud said...

Notice the admin pulled back on the Times story the next morning after having time to gauge early reaction. They still got their message out--O'Donnell, Palin, et al are the face of the GOP (and are scary witches, etc).

I'm getting redundant, but the wildcard is the moderate voters, who tend to blow in the breeze over the course of a few months. Obama was out today in a town hall format, which fits him like a glove because he might be the smoothest political BS'er ever to come down the pike as long as he's in a controlled environment where the crowd can't yell follow-ups. He even cut off the moderator several times when he tried to interject during an Obama filibuster reply. This is the kind of thing, done over and over, that can make a dent in the moderate mind.