March 11, 2004

Lileks' Perspective

Because he puts it much better than i could, here is Lileks' take on the question of which side is taking the high road and which side the low road in this election.

People say all sorts of things in elections. The underlings and infantry fire the cheap shots, and let the big dogs lope along the high road. But when the top officials of the party start slinging the slander, weÂ’ve entered a different era. And no one seems to notice, because the story becomes the charge, not the nature of the accusation.

Accusing oneÂ’s opponent of treason is a personal attack. Al Gore accused Bush of 'betraying this country.' Reasonable people could say he misled the country, or misruled the country, and make the argument to support the assertion, but 'betrayed' is a word that has a special quality when talking about the President of the United States. IÂ’ve heard General Wesley Clark question the PresidentÂ’s patriotism, and insist that his religious beliefs were misguided, because the Democratic Party is the party that truly hews to Christian doctrines. . . . And of course we heard Governor Dean insert the 'Bush was warned' meme into the body politic.

There’s nothing comparable on the other side. Nothing. I mean, the Bush team runs an ad that has a second of 9/11 footage, and his opponents pitch a carefully staged fit – because that’s all they have.

i agree. it's the Democrats who've sunk to "Willie Horton" style campaigning, and they've been doing it for months, unopposed.

Posted by: annika at 10:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 And yet the GOP can't seem to effectively point this out...we've got a bunch of panzies running the PR. They don't need to go back at them willie horton style, but simply and loudly point out the horrendous nature of what they are charging/labeling the GOP with.

Posted by: Scof at March 11, 2004 11:37 AM (XCqS+)

2 And yet, Scof, people continue to also buy into the idea that Karl Rove is some kind of evil genius when that's obviously false. The President's numbers started to slide as soon as Karen Hughes went back to Texas: she, not Rove, was the real genius, or at least the one who understood how to keep the show on-message.

Posted by: Dave J at March 11, 2004 12:49 PM (VThvo)

3 Exactly, we need Karen Hughes back!

Posted by: annie at March 11, 2004 12:56 PM (zAOEU)

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