My thoughts on beating shrubbie

A few things to remember about shrubbie:
His strength is that many think he's a dolt. I think he cultivates that image to keep his opponents from really going after him. And if you think someone is an idiot and they look half-way intelligent you get a positive impression of him.
Second, if he comes out of all of this bad press and is above 40% in the polls, he has an excellent chance of rebounding.
Third, if we hit him too hard, if we hit him dishonestly, unfairly (like someone suggested on the DU board that we find negative things about Barbara), or appear to glib that could backfire in his favor. It's also best to be supportive of the military. I was in the military and have only ever voted for 5 republicans in my life (none for president) and I'm almost 40. But when people appear anti-soldier, I bristle after all that could have been me.
The last and best way to get him, listen to what the fence sitters say and remind them of what he's done that is the exact opposite of what they believe. If they approve of the invasion, don't get angry, pick a new topic. Just use shrubbies own words against him.
Just my thoughts. What do you think?

HIMSELF!

His strength is that many think he's a dolt. I think he cultivates that image to keep his opponents from really going after him. And if you think someone is an idiot and they look half-way intelligent you get a positive impression of him.

Like Reagan before him, he reminds a lot of unhappy people of a time in which you didn't need to be thoughtful or well educated to succeed- just clever and lucky enough. That ended in the Fifties, really, but a lot of people haven't liked the change.

Second, if he comes out of all of this bad press and is above 40% in the polls, he has an excellent chance of rebounding.

He's never been able to do much of that on his own. He has had four 'approval' spikes: post-Florida, post-9/11, the invasion of Iraq, the capture of Hussein. All of them based in delusion and denial, btw.

About 45% of the electorate is Republican or Republican-leaning and now well-trained over many years to accept even the most deluded crap from the ConIntern. Even if his approval rating goes to 40% or 38%, he's going to get 45% on Election Day.

But yes, he is going to abandon the 'national security' core emphasis. It's all going to be about Republican Virtue and Democratic Corruption from now on, I figure.

Third, if we hit him too hard, if we hit him dishonestly, unfairly (like someone suggested on the DU board that we find negative things about Barbara), or appear to glib that could backfire in his favor.

They specialize in exploiting exactly that. Atwater called it 'verbal jujitsu' or something like that and they beg for opportunities for it. Republicans don't do well when they allege the truthful except when it's about untruths told about them, Democrats don't succeed when they allege the untrue.

It's also best to be supportive of the military. I was in the military and have only ever voted for 5 republicans in my life (none for president) and I'm almost 40. But when people appear anti-soldier, I bristle after all that could have been me.

That may be true, but don't forget that the defensiveness is rooted in the unacknowledgable common knowledge that the military has been used for everything other than its basic mission since the mid-Seventies- much of that being illegal and indefensible.

The last and best way to get him, listen to what the fence sitters say and remind them of what he's done that is the exact opposite of what they believe.

That's everything, really. The oldest joke about election campaigns is that they are the struggle of men with the record of their actual deeds.