Yesterday I got one of those Presidential Campaign Surveys in the mail. I was surprised to see it addressed to me, since most of the Dem stuff is sent to Mr. Examiner.
The cover letter, signed by my new pal, Howard Dean addressed me as “Dear Fellow Democrat” and asked that I fill out the survey in order to “share your opinions and make a big impact on the presidential race.”
Among the pressing issues facing Dems are: 1) How to avoid being Swift Boated by the GOP with “dirty tricks, personal attacks and untruths”, 2) more oppo research so McCain can’t “muddle” his record, 3) money for a “rapid-response operation to counter GOP “using the politics of fear and smear”, all in order to fight GOP mud slinging and hatchet jobs on the Dems.
I wonder if Dems are so obtuse they don’t realize that the Dems are doing exactly the same things to McCain and the GOP?
The upside is that if Obama is the Dem nominee, at least he won’t have to worry about having a long legislative record as attack fodder
The survey was mostly typical stuff, but three of the questions caught my attention:
**Do you believe that John McCain’s pledge to keep troops in Iraq for another 100 years will be a liability in the General Election?
**How likely do you think it is that John McCain and his Republican allies will launch a “Swift Boat” style smear campaign against our presidential nominee?
**How concerned are you that Republican voter suppression schemes will disenfranchise Democrats and impact the outcome of the presidential race?
Sheesh! Talk about whipping up fear and paranoia—and lies! I can’t believe the Democrats are so heavily invested in the “100 years war” canard —they must take us for a bunch of rubes.
The “voter suppression” bit is pretty rich too—not one case of GOP voter suppression has been proven, and as we’ve seen, the Dems were shrieking about voter fraud and suppression AGAINST EACH OTHER during the primary season!
Of course the kicker is a plea for money at the end. Fat chance I’ll be paying to support the party of fearmongering, lies and smears!
The last question on the survey was what piece of advice I would have for the Dem POTUS nominee. My advice would be to stop lying, smearing, distorting and engaging in dirty tricks against John McCain and run a clean campaign based on the “new politics” that you claim to embrace.
In other words—-stop being flaming hypocrites!
QC Examiner 
Howard learned his lesson from the swift boating of McCain and Kerry. I don’t have a problem with his being ready in case the same style of attack happens.
Let the gladiators’ sabers be drawn and the blood flow. Obama has already proved his plans to go for the jugular while crowing Kings X. The Agent of Shame shows his true intentions. The weird thing is McCain seems ready to run a virginal campaign, although I feel there are those around him that he has little control of that will choose otherwise.
If Scoundrel”s idea of viginal means calling Obama naive every other sentence, or forgetting who the enemy is in the War on Terror, then I agree. When will you right wing fools stop trying to convince people that you’re the “good guys.” You arer evil and the only way you can win elections is through lies and distortions. Thank God the good people of Rock Island see through you and consistently elect Democrats.
How does one prepare to be swift-boated?
The fact is that Wright handed the Republican 527’s the gun. There is nothing that Dean can do.
Obama rose to the position he is in because he is a black man who, well, is not black. His color was not an issue…he was color-less (similar to Jordan, Oprah and myself, Tiger Woods).
However, the Wright-issue made Obama BLACK and the 527’s will remind the voters of this come Sept/ Octo. There is little that Dean will be able to do about this.
tiger, at least for me, it wasn’t the fact that Wright preaches a wacky theology or that the issue made Obama black when he was trying to be “post-racial”; what did Obama in was the way he handled the controversy:
1. April ’07: “Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church.” NYTimes
2. Feb.’08: “[Wright] is like an old uncle who sometimes will say things I don’t agree with.”
3. March ’08: “I don’t think that my church is actually particularly controversial.”
4. March ’08: “I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown the black community.” (After the Homer Simpson “I was sleeping in church” gambit didn’t work)
5. April 08:”The person [Wright] I saw yesterday was not the person I met 20 years ago.”
The last comment was when Wright was prancin’ and dancin’ for the National Press Club and the negativity associated with Wright was beginning to hurt Obama in the polls.
Don’t you wonder what the Dem POTUS race would look like now if this Wright business had come out BEFORE the Iowa caucuses instead of toward the end of the campaign?
The fact that Wright preaches his crazines is not the issue, I agree.
It is, as you said, the lies, the tap-dance that Obama provided to ‘handle’ the situation, rather than truth. You are exactly (w)right.
In addition, it is the fact that Obama did not leave the church long ago when this foolishness was known – as Oprah did.