Mon, 10/13/2008 - 8:37am — vastleft
Glenn Greenwald describes his latest book, now out in paperback (makes a great gift!):
The book details the personality-based, substance-free (and issue-obfuscating) campaign tactics which Republicans have used since 1980 to win national elections — building manipulative personality cults around their leaders while simultaneously destroying the Democratic candidate with character smears — and describes, I believe, precisely the tactics on which the McCain campaign has come to rely with increasing desperation, and the reasons why they must.
Has anyone noticed any similar phenomena lately, in case Glenn wants to do a sequel? There must be something....
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It can happen
because I think that's the only kind of campaign, and candidate, that the Village will permit. Plus, the press loves a media-fuelled campaign; it's very profitable.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
What is Glenn smoking?
He needs a dope slap. Hard. I would like to administer it myself.
Where was Glenn during the primaries? Brazil?
Come together at The Confluence
C'mon, GB... Hard slapping and playing the Brazil card?
I surely wish Glenn had used his bully pulpit to critique the sins of the primary, and that he'd walk back a couple of primary posts that he did write.
This piece, like one he wrote yesterday, is steeped in unintended irony.
I still think he's one of the handful of must-read bloggers, and his FISA posts and "Called to Serve" brochure post were some of the most significant reality-based blogging about Obama. So, to me the question isn't what Glenn's smoking but why his brand is occasionally filtered.
Let's see: Axelrod decides Rove had a great plan: Candidate with
little to no political history to be used against him, high Q factor (people respond well to the candidate), can be blank slate, reads teleprompter well, handles interviews OK.
Game the primary system, find ways to get opponents out of race and, failing that, attack and smear primary opponent, primarily through cut outs. However it's done, get the smear out there.
GOTV, GOTV, GOTV. Work the neighborhood or web contacts, etc. Follow Repub play book for "ground game."
Only problem, Rove was great at getting W elected--but sucked at helping him govern. He made the presidency just a way of getting reelected.
And, baby, look at us now....
This is so damned rich, Glenn.
- "building manipulative personality cults around their leaders" CHECK
- "destroying (other) Democratic candidate with character smears" CHECK
I guess irony really was murdered.
Kind of veering off topic, but having run against a young, inexperienced, and charasmatic politician back in 2000, you'd have thought McCcain would have learned something, but it seems that he hasn't. I know McCain's strong suit isn't campaigning, but he really could have avoided his campaign looking pitiful pulling into the end. All of this talk about him running some exceptionally nasty campaign is complete bunk. It simply never materialized. If this had been Bush running against Obama, it'd be a much different story, now...
"An exceptionally nasty campaign..."
Gee, that charge reminds me of something. But what could it be?
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.