Vote for me! I'm not a Republican! [View All]

I used to believe that candidates with a positive message tended to be preferred over candidates with a message that boils down to "I'm not the other guy(s)"

There is an AP-sourced article that is doing the rounds here on DU, in a few topics that focus on the by now well-known and just as silly charge that Wes Clark is a "closet Republican." That AP article has an interesting end:

The Dean campaign is distributing fliers in New Hampshire proclaiming, ``Wesley Clark: Republican,'' and a man wearing a Reagan mask has shown up at Clark appearances to taunt the candidate.

Yesterday evening I posted this tongue in cheek commentary. The more I think about this peculiar variety of partisan slash-and-burn tactics, the more I realize that my irony was, in effect, quite on the mark:

• This type of attempts at suggesting, directly or indirectly, that Clark is an ex Republican who switched just before announcing his candidacy actually prompts another question: what Democratic value exactly is served by knowingly and falsely equaling past exercises of the Constitutional right to vote with present Republican party affiliation?
  <...>
  Instead of slamming Clark on an unsubstantiated insinuation, they should be silently appreciative of an outstanding Democratic exception, who has an excellent chance of delivering national security as a Democratic stronghold, as it was in the past until the years of Kennedy.
  
  Maybe I should simplify even further to prove my point: it isn't exactly a compelling proposition for the Dean campaign to run with the slogan: "Vote for me! I'm not Republican!" It's a proposition that only political professionals can dream up!
  
  Since I have read a little bit on Howard Dean's campaign proposals, I know that there is more than enough decent "own" Dean campaign material around to promote, instead of getting mired in ghost busting. That was really just a movie, you know.

If you don't have a substantive point to make on a candidate's positions and proposals, get on with a positive message of your own, instead.

It wouldn't be too far fetched to devise an adapted inversion of that "closet Republican" thingie. Much of Howard Dean's appeal (certainly in the beginning of his campaign) stemmed from his adamant and stern (some would say "angry") opposition to Bush. So, it might be entertaining to imagine a few Clark campaigners annoying Dean supporters with an equally nonsensical counter message: "Opposite attraction: Dean really loves Bush!" Fortunately for those imaginary victims, Clark appeals to a more mature audience.

Seriously, as much as I'll avoid landing on or departing from a certain airport in Washington, named after a famous Alzheimer patient, I don't think it's politically wise or smart to wield the word "Reagan" as a string of garlic.

Believe it or not, it's really 2004, and not 1980 or 1984 anymore.