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Monday, September 06, 2004
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BAD UGLINESS
The presidential election is very likely to go nuclear very soon. I wrote on Friday of the dark fantasies of professional loser, Susan Estrich, who envisions a scorched Earth campaign unseen since Grover Cleveland first ran for the nation's highest office.
This appears to be a consequence of the damage done to the Kerry campaign by the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth (who, as Jon Stewart observed, seem neither swift or truthful.) Leftie bloggers are uttering ruinous rumours regarding the President od the United States' personal hobbies, both past and present. The oft repated tale of George W. Bush obtaining an illegal abortion for a paramour are being trotted out, although the woman in question denies that it ever happened. One leftie goes about it a particularly adorable way. He celebrates the abortion story, but qualifies that with a denunciation if the story turns out to be false.
Apparently, the President's 80 year old father is not immune from these unsubstantiated smears.
The drinking story is particulary cute, as it is universally predceeded with the line, "It's an open secret in D.C." Well, I can easily start any rumour that way. For example, I could post that "it's an open secret in the Capitol that Senator Kerry spends an inappropriate amount of time in the men's room with Barney Frank." My saying that it's an "open secret" doesn't necessarily make it true, but it does give me a certain amount of credibility with the stupid.
It appears that Democrats, in their particularly Democrat way, are making wildly stupid leaps of logic in regard to the Swifties. Do I think the SBVT are full of shit? Absolutely, at least in regard to most of their allegations. On the other hand, they didn't make Vietnam the central theme of the Kerry campaign. Kerry himself did that.
There are a couple of tactical problems with this strategy.
Firstly, the drinking, abortion and yes, even (gasp) the cocaine abuse stories got wide airing in 2000. It turned out that there was no "there" there. Despite being the first major party nominee in American history to be forced to admit to being arrested, George Bush still won. Yeah, I know it hurts. But you're big boys and girls. You can deal. Or Not. Whatever.
Secondly, it reeks of desperation. If John Kerry and his supporters are so desperately afraid of a bunch of paunchy fifty-something liars with 300 grand in their bank account, voters would be wise to ask how they will respond to someone serious. Someone like Kim Jong Il.
Thirdly, it'll bite them in the ass. The story about Bush drinking again could have legs if it could be proven. The problem is that it can't be. Besides, in a country where 75% of the populace supports abortion rights, a future president obtaining one for a fuck buddy is supposed to be damaging how? I know that the leftie shitheads in my audience will scream that it's an issue of hypocracy. What they fail to understand is that this is politicians we're talking about. Most voters are disappointed if a politician isn't a hypocrite. Democracy is a cynical business.
Fourthly, there's the doctrine about people in glass houses throwing stones. John Kerry is a divorced Catholic. The Church sees this as an oxymoron. There might not be anything fun behind that divorce. But there might be. Wanna bet that it could be exposed in about 20 minutes if there is?
Yeah, Jack Ryan didn't think so either.
The fact that Kerry's first wife spent some time at Club Cukoo-Land following their divorce just adds grist to the mill. I wonder what the odds are the Senator's "personal life" had something to do with that commitment. This can cut both ways. People would do well to remember that. And the fact remains that Republicans are better at digging this shit up than Democrats are.
All of this leads to a personal theory of mine. It's a theory based in political history, so bear with me.
Back in the good old days of the 1950's, policians would leak damaging information about their opponents that the they couldn't afford to reveal in public themselves to gossip columnists. It is now widely known that Walter Winchell's radio program was a wholly owned subsidiary of J. Edgar Hoover. Winchell was the smear machine of choice for President Roosevelt and then Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson.
I firmly believe that several blogs serve that purpose today. There are certain things that no national party will be caught dead saying in public. Therefore, they leak them to some retard with a PC. Morons tend to enjoy attention from powerful people, just as Walter Winchell did. Therfore, the opposition's dity laundry gets hung out in public without the fingerprints of anyone of importance.
Here's the beauty of it. In a credibility pissing match, who are you more likely to believe, the Chairmen of the DNC and RNC or some douchebag with a laptop in Deluth, Minnesotta? I think we all know the answer to that, don't we?
I love how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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