the brilliance of it

Hey, fellow dems, choosing Palin for v.p. was a stroke of pure rovian genius. Sure, we all detest rethug policies, and the past 8 yrs of republican leadership have been a disaster of unbounded proportions for our great nation, in every respect.

But rethugs have it all over dems when it comes to running winning campaigns. Part of this is due to the huge sums of grant money poured into conservative and right wing think tanks for the past two decades. As Lakoff laments, rethugs know how to shape the national discourse and set the agenda, and this goes a long way to driving their points home and shaping the electorate's perceptions and inclinations. And, they have machiavellian strategies and tactics. We may detest and condemn these, but this is what it takes to win elections in this epoch.

Choosing Palin was a pure machiavellian strategy, and a brilliant one. Social conservatives have been agitating for her selection for months. They are elated and energized and newly enthused about a McCain presidency as they never were before. These are gun-loving, anti-abortion zealots; global warming deniers, anti-science creationists; and war mongering hawks who want a larger US defense arsenal and think attacking Iran will demonstrate and restore American might.

<http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080831/pl_politico/13016>

I've posted lots of bad facts about Palin on here, as many others have. We all agree she's an unfit dimwit, on the wrong side of every issue dems care about.

But instead of wasting energy attacking her, we should see things from rethug eyes. Only by getting into their psyches and hearts, seeing things from their perspective, can dems ever hope to challenge them and win in November.

Right now, leading academics whose entire careers have been focused on US presidential elections are not in agreement about November's outcome. Barely more than half think Obama can squeak out a victory. This seems preposterous and incorrect. Just like in 2004, my own belief was that the Dem candidate would win in a landslide. Surely the American electorate could see that only a Dem could turn things around and get the US back on a sane and ethical track. But that didn't happen. And, you can't blame the 2004 outcome on election fraud. Kerry should have been winning in such overwhelming numbers, so robustly, that election fraud here and there wouldn't have affected the final outcome.

Now we're dealing with the same electorate who voted a rethug back into office in 2004, after such a disasterous 4 years. We now not only have the same electorate to deal with, but we've got the added layer of racism to try to counteract.

What should dems do? Stop being complacent. Start spending time reading right wing blogs. Understand how rethugs and conservatives are thinking. Mobilize everyone who will vote dem. Take nothing for granted, because rethugs are not willing to relinquish power.

Obama's already reaching out to the middle of the road voters while McCain is appeasing his base.

If McCain is worried about his base instead of the middle, he's already behind.

Bush was a sitting President and he had much stronger base support than Kerry. Plus I when saw the attacks on Kerry's wife and on Kerry himself I knew things were going to be problematic. I also thought John Edwards was not an effective surrogate for Kerry. I just didn't feel the chemistry of say an Clinton /Gore ticket or what I see with a Obama/ Biden ticket. It was going to be a battle imo and the results were far from certain and the election fraud sealed it for Bush. Palin appeals to the base but I believe she will kill him with moderates and independents. I believe most omen will see through the pandering and those that don't most likely wouldn't vote fo Obama anyway. I believe that democrats are less divided than they have ever been. Obama has an absolute warrior in Kerry and other dems have stepped up to the plate. Not to mention our ground game has been superb. We are in a much better place than 04. Obama has stated that he intends to win this election and he can do it with our help.