Bill Maher on Palin in CNN Situation Room 9/9/08

I do seriously wonder why the Democrats don't attack the Republicans on their foreign policy record. It's their utterly unsubstantiated de facto rallying call. Every time there's a situation like the Kosovo secession or Russia-Georgia conflict, they get a free bump in the polls.

The Democrats should point out unilateral resoluteness and belligerence has not produced success and link that to the Cold War-like us-against-them policy approach McCain is conveying. They should continually hammer the point that the Bush administration, previously perpetually rejecting negotiations with Iran and North Korea, has succumbed to pragmatism. They should point to the multiple studies have shown that Americans are not safer, the mindnumbing redundancy of the terrorist watchlist, and put the nail in the coffin by pointing out Osama has not been captured as your symbolic centrepiece.

Every time the Republicans revert to terrorism or 9/11 campaigns, they get scolded for resorting to the politics of fear. That isn't the root of the issue, all political campaigns resort to emotions, whether it be to patriotism, to traditional values and the times of old, to a sense of duty or need to subsume to a greater purpose. Fear is no different. The issue is fear triggers a Pavlovian mental link to national security, foreign policy and the presumed Republican strength in that regard.

That is the paradigm that needs to be challenged.

After all, the Republicans are continuously praised in the success of their political campaigns for their ability to go after the opposition candidate's strengths, why can't Obama do likewise?

davidraine

says...

>> ^RedSky:
I do seriously wonder why the Democrats don't attack the Republicans on their foreign policy record.

Because this election isn't about issues. It's about character. John McCain is a maverick and a war hero, and Sarah Palin is a hockey mom out for change.

What the Democrats need to do if they want to win this is have Barack Obama parachute out of a plane into a Ford monster truck, which he will drive over two cars and a moose. After drifting into a parallel parking space between a John Deere and a Caterpillar, Joe Biden will jump out of the passenger seat and grill up the now dead moose on the huge grill occupying the entirety of the truck's flatbed. Mooseburgers will be given to all of the hysteric onlookers and the truck will be donated to an eleven year old boy to make way for the next generation of Americans.

volumptuous

says...

>> ^RedSky:
I do seriously wonder why the Democrats don't attack the Republicans on their foreign policy record.

They do, time and time again.

Problem is, the media is moving the messaging in this campaign, and as you've seen on the O'Reilly clips, these pundits box them in to defending people like Ayers, Wright, etc. And gloss over any issue oriented messaging.

If the media propogated the Dem's message as much as they spew the GOP's talking points, you'd see a much different race.

But, Drudge rules the media's world.

RedSky

says...

I dunno I'm of the belief that while narratives and personality obsession play a part in generating a bump in publicity and raising opinion polls, when people go to vote they don't cast their votes as haphazardly as they do when asked about their possible intentions in a mere survey. Particularly with so many Americans dissatisfied with the state of the country and the economy.

I don't really think the Republicans control the media half as well as they used to. Regardless, the Democrats have had five good years to change these misguided preconceptions and plenty of material that could have been trialed for media limelight staying power. Now granted Obama's inexperience plays right into the same line of argument of Republican foreign policy superiority and perhaps for his campaign tying McCain to Bush as more of the same makes more sense.

rougy

says...

Love it!

Note to Bill Maher:

The next time you get to answer a David Brooks criticism - eviscerate the bastard.

Redsky,

The cons are all about war. War is the answer to everything they do. No talk, just fight. Like a bad John Wayne WWII flick. Don't talk, just punch somebody in the mouth and show everybody how tough you are.

Obama, if he's elected, will be attacked 24/7.

Bank on it.

Bush and his plebes have been protected 24/7, and any time the truth leaked out about their perfidy, the cons in the aisles screamed "liberal media." Most Americans are so damned stupid that they can't tell the truth from a lie. If it's the truth, but it exposes Bush and Cheney, then it's just liberal "hatred" and you can't beat that.

We've lost. We've lost to corruption supported by stupidity.

Nothing can beat that except its own cancerous nature.