So the GOP is trying to paint the eventual Democratic nominee as an 'out of touch liberal,' make him toxic, use his 'toxicity' to bring down other Dem candidates, and the media dutifully reports this 'unexpected development' with surprise. In other news, the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, puppies will be cute, and all the news will be bad for Democrats. Some things never change. Link to laughable article below the fold...
GOP Now Sees Obama as Liability
The writer acts as if the Republicans weren't going to do this to whoever the nominee was, whether it was Obama or Christ himself.
In a sign that the racial, class and values issues simmering in the presidential campaign could spread into the larger political arena, Republican groups are turning recent bumps in Mr. Obama’s road — notably his comment that small-town Americans "cling" to guns and religion out of bitterness and a fiery speech by his former minister in which he condemned the United States — into attacks against Democrats down the ticket.
Ya think? First off, I like how those issues were 'simmering' and just waiting to blow up (in the Democrat's face, of course). The writer acts as if the Republicans hadn't planned on this last ditch, defend Berlin to the last strategy all along. They have literally nothing, nothing to run on and we've known it for the last three years. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together could see the GOP's election 'strategy' for 2008 fifteen light years away - attempt to use whatever controversial material they could find, no matter how tangentially connected to the nominee, blow it up like a hydrogen bomb, let the media do their dirty work, and try with all of their might to make the Democrat seem extreme and those running downticket appear just as 'out of touch and un-American' (those accusations are always rich coming from the Republican Party). Since our nominee is an African-American, its only natural that the Republicans would pick to choose the 'scary black man' buttons to push over and over and over and over. Since he's a Harvard grad, its only natural they'd choose to push the elitist meme over and over and over and over. Since he's a Democrat, its only natural they'd push the 'tied to domestic terrorist' garbage over and over and over and over. This is not news. This is SOP for the Republican Party.
That they are pushing these and not their normal 'gays, Jesus, and endless war' message tells me two things: 1) they are desperate and this is all they got. Literally. They are so fucked in any conceivable metric of successful governance they have to use this or November will mean their electoral destruction; and 2) they know the old 'issues' just aren't selling anymore - Americans just aren't buying this time around. That the media can't see this speaks volumes. What's even more telling is that the media is taking at face value the Republican's sudden shift to 'wanting to run against Obama.' One last time - the Pubs were going to do and say these things regardless of who the nominee was. Why the media can't see that is beyond me.