Monday, October 25, 2004
Attack the Real Enemy
It’s really not George Bush that Kerry is running against. He’s running against Karl Rove. It would be a highly educational move for the public if the Kerry campaign were to explain this, because although probably many people recognize “that those ads are full of lies,” it’s not likely that they realize to what degree.
I don’t understand why Karl Rove is so feared and considered to be such a genius. He’s not a genius. He’s simply unscrupulous and criminal. There’s nothing too low for him to pull. Plus he’s worked out a few simple tricks that have been successful time after time merely because they’re unbelievable. He has a pattern of attacking somebody directly on his strengths. Who would imagine – I’m sure Kerry didn’t – that Rove would have the guts to attack Kerry on his war record? Because it’s so outrageous, and because the innocent public probably imagine that nobody would simply invent from scratch such a massive lie, they think there must be something behind it.
It’s almost impossible to defend yourself against a completely baseless accusation. (As Lyndon Johnson famously recognized, insinuating that his opponent was a little too intimate with farm animals.) The attacked person flounders and looks foolish. Well, the correct way isn’t to refute the lie, especially since the press isn’t much interested in refutations. They like attacks. So what you do is attack the correct target, and attack with truth, not lies. Attack George Bush – but more than that, bring the fight directly to the real enemy, Karl Rove. Don’t let him hide in the background! Give him the celebrity he deserves! You probably can’t prove what he’s doing in this particular election. But pick out every filthy trick he’s been shown to have done in the past and draw the parallels. Show how Bush via Karl has fought election after election with jaw-dropping lies. Detail them. They make great copy. Let’s see the Bushies do some refuting for a change.
Remember that most people are ignorant about both Bush and Kerry and everything that’s been going on under their noses. They probably base their voting decision on only one or two bits of information they picked up somewhere – something memorable. If you can memorably discredit Bush’s whole campaign he will have nobody left but his groupies to re-elect him. And it’ll be a lot harder for Karl Rove to push through outrageous lies when everybody’s saying, “Oh, here comes another illegitimate black baby!”
I don’t understand why Karl Rove is so feared and considered to be such a genius. He’s not a genius. He’s simply unscrupulous and criminal. There’s nothing too low for him to pull. Plus he’s worked out a few simple tricks that have been successful time after time merely because they’re unbelievable. He has a pattern of attacking somebody directly on his strengths. Who would imagine – I’m sure Kerry didn’t – that Rove would have the guts to attack Kerry on his war record? Because it’s so outrageous, and because the innocent public probably imagine that nobody would simply invent from scratch such a massive lie, they think there must be something behind it.
It’s almost impossible to defend yourself against a completely baseless accusation. (As Lyndon Johnson famously recognized, insinuating that his opponent was a little too intimate with farm animals.) The attacked person flounders and looks foolish. Well, the correct way isn’t to refute the lie, especially since the press isn’t much interested in refutations. They like attacks. So what you do is attack the correct target, and attack with truth, not lies. Attack George Bush – but more than that, bring the fight directly to the real enemy, Karl Rove. Don’t let him hide in the background! Give him the celebrity he deserves! You probably can’t prove what he’s doing in this particular election. But pick out every filthy trick he’s been shown to have done in the past and draw the parallels. Show how Bush via Karl has fought election after election with jaw-dropping lies. Detail them. They make great copy. Let’s see the Bushies do some refuting for a change.
Remember that most people are ignorant about both Bush and Kerry and everything that’s been going on under their noses. They probably base their voting decision on only one or two bits of information they picked up somewhere – something memorable. If you can memorably discredit Bush’s whole campaign he will have nobody left but his groupies to re-elect him. And it’ll be a lot harder for Karl Rove to push through outrageous lies when everybody’s saying, “Oh, here comes another illegitimate black baby!”
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