The Voice Also Rants

To All I've sent this to: This is a highly partisan letter to the Obama campaign urging them on to kick the GOPhers out of office. You who are still drinking the Rove Kool Aid may not want to read further. I have no hope of changing your mind. I don't care if this irritates you, since I have been angry for the past eight years, and am immune to criticism from people who are so gullible as to have believed Rove twice. Many of those who will be irritated are likely to be in my own family. I'm not talking about love here. I'm talking about kicking out of office the war criminals who have damaged our country so badly during the past eight years. Rant if you like. I couldn't care less.

TO Obama and the Campaign:

I continue to wonder what you guys are going to do to break the statistical ties in the polls. By all rights Obama should be leading 2 to 1. Is it hidden racism? Is it the experience thing? With 80% of those polled saying that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and that reaction is based on the last several years, what gives? I have made modest donations from my SS income, the only income I have in disabled retirement. I'll keep trying to do it as I can, but with the gas prices, food prices through the roof on this administration's watch I have to be careful.

I used to believe that the American voters, as a huge and diverse group ultimately got it right. Until Karl Rove.

The judgment of much of the electorate seems to be such that nastiness works, that duplicity works, good cop bad cop stuff works. McCain is trying play good cop, Palin and the other shit slingers are playing bad cop. It's shameful behavior, but it seems that half of those polled are buying it, and that much of the shit thrown against the wall sticks.

Rove knows gullible.

How are you going to use Joe Biden for the next eight weeks? He should go after his "friend" John McCain tooth and nail, head to head, toe to toe, and gear up to paint Palin as a joke in terms of being ready on day one or day 500 to be President. He can point to McCain's confusion about geo-politics, as in when he actually talked about the problems on the border between Iraq and Pakistan. As Jon Stewart said, "Uh, that would be Iran".

He can cite examples of McCain's temper and impulsive decision making, as when he knuckled under Rove's nixing his wish to choose Lieberman for VP and took all thoughtful people of both parties by surprise in suddenly betting on a mare he had only met once. He can cite some Republican members of Congress who have said things like, "I cringe when I think of him as President", and "The idea that he could have his hands on the nuclear button frightens me." He has to do this without appearing to a bully and a misogynist.

Obama needs to stay on platform topics and peoples' economic problems and needs. He also should be free to discredit Lieberman as a lying SOB, out for himself, by airing Lieberman's praising of Obama four years ago; Romney as today's Music Man, Giuliani as a joke whose grammar and syntax are limited to a verb, a noun and 911. Biden can also claim that McCain's grammar and syntax are limited to a verb a noun and POW.

You have to expose these guys as the jokes they are and drive home the contrast to the ethical, reputable, honest people of integrity that you are. Say it and say it over and over again. If the opposition has taken off the gloves you must if it has any chance of being a fair fight. Don't take a knife to a gun fight. You've chosen to go into the ring in which the fight is on. You have to be as well trained and in shape as your opponent. In addition to the physical stamina both you and your opponents have demonstrated to go fifteen rounds, you have to match them in emotional, philosophical, ideological stamina. So far you are back pedaling, avoiding contact, on the defensive. At this point you can only count on the fight judges, the American people, to call it a draw, a split decision. You need people in your corner who can get you up for the last few rounds, 60 days till the end of the fight. Watch some Rocky movies, I know, I know it seems hokie, cynical, dishonest and abandonment of all those values you and we share. But you just have to understand that those and a few bucks might get you a latte, but will not get you the White House.

I do not say this lightly or casually. As an athlete and team member I experienced coming close to losing now and then and did lose a few times by playing the other team's game. When we pulled it out we found a way to thwart their strength and re-establish our own. If the other guys were faster, we stopped running with them, and played slow and oppressive defense. When the other team fouled without being caught we decided to foul, gambling that we wouldn't be caught either by referees who had shown us what they tolerated.

When engaging in competition there is a need to evaluate the strengths and vulnerabilities of three participants; the two competitors and the referees. In elections the refs are the voters.

As to issues that influence the American voter,remember that Bush I lost reelection when the economy was in the tank, even though he had been credited with leading a large coalition of friendlies which drove Saddam out of Kuwait and chased him back to Baghdad. The criminal genius of the players today understand that in defeating Saddam Bush I changed the landscape of the needs of Americans. The fear factor was off the stage, and the pocket book factor was front and center.

Rove,Cheney,McCain/Bush haven't forgotten that. They have no desire to take the fear card off the table, because if they do the voters will relax about terrorism and complain about the strain on their pocketbooks.

Why else would we encourage Georgia to take on Russia, why else would Cheney go to Georgia and taunt the Russian Bear, why else would there be so much talk of impending attacks against Iran by us or the Israelis, why else would Rice go to make nice with gaddaffi, why else would we be told that troop withdrawal from Iraq was put on hold, why else would be told that things in Afghanistan are deteriorating, and that the Taliban are regrouping, why else would we be told continuously that we can't abandon Israel in its hour of need against Palestinian terrorism, an hour of need that has been hyped for all the years since the Holocaust of WW II. Why else are we told to deep six our intelligence, our reason, our judgment about this manufactured conflict?

Those whose behavior is consistent with the behavior of those called neocons, are not patriots of any nation in the sense of "give me liberty or give me death".
The meaning and connotation of the word "patriot" includes meaning or connotation consistent with the behavior of one who puts country above all else. McCain's speech was all about his self-belief that he is not his own man, but he is his country's man. What conceit, what arrogance, what hubris!

Rove's background, skills and experience are in the direct mail field. If there's a more misleading, cynical, dishonest form of communication out there I'd be surprised. Used cars sales I guess. Schmidt is using his mentor's tactics, Some people are just wired wrong, and sleep well in spite of it.

Repetition is the not so secret tactic of advertising, and subliminal wish for it all to be simple as black and white is its strategy. Rove did it in 2000 and 2004, in the face of damning reality, and won. He can do it again, as the man behind the curtain.

One of the human instincts which has helped our species survive is the fight or flight instinct. It requires fear to be invoked. Rove is the best at the advertising of repetitive fear mongering, and by inducing people to believe that it will all be made simple for them, if they keep the GOPhers in office.

Today's David Brooks piece in the Times especially galled me. After acknowledging that "McCain's politics are not there yet", "there" being of substance, he actually wrote that McCain has "proven and evident integrity" and has "the heart of an insurgent". The cynical ,dishonest and dearth of integrity gets a pass from even a Times columnist.

I've written on my blog, leesvoicecryinginthewilderness.blogspot.com many times that Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line. Brooks, like the previous GOP candidates know how to fall in line, knowing where their bread is buttered.

A great way for Hillary to fall in line is for her to take on Palin, who's been quoted as calling Hillary a whiner earlier in the primary campaigns.

The GOPhers real message to the citizens is, "You're on your own". Katrina drove that home. Tax breaks for wealthiest drove that home. There are many other examples. Dems real message is, We fight for justice", which includes safety nets for folks when they've done all they could and still need help.

I don't want you guys and gals to lose your own integrity, but I do want you to state your truth, not in an abstract way, but by quoting the GOPhers in their lies and contrasting those lies to your truths. Tim Russert did a good job of that. Sorry he's not here to help.

Sorry this is so long, but I lacked the time to make it shorter(paraphrase) Blaise Pascal

----- Original Message -----
From: David Plouffe, BarackObama.com
To: Lee Lindeman
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 4:19 PM
Subject: [SPAM] What you didn't see this week
Lee --John McCain and the Republicans had all week to make their case -- and they didn't do it.The whole Republican convention went by without offering a single idea about how to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.People noticed. In the last 24 hours, more people donated to this campaign for the first time than ever before. Thank you for responding so strongly. Barack is making clear what this election should be about. At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania yesterday, he spoke out about exactly what we didn't hear at the Republican convention.You can help make sure Barack's message of change is heard loud and clear. Will you watch the video and make a donation of $25 or more today?
We learned just this morning that unemployment jumped to its highest rate in five years, and our economy lost 605,000 jobs this year alone -- at a time when John McCain believes that the fundamentals of our economy are "strong."John McCain can talk all he wants about change, but he has voted with George W. Bush more than 90 percent of the time, and Americans aren't buying it. Here are a few of the responses we received from voters who watched the Republican convention:
"This is one Republican for Obama that knows 100% now that I made the right choice and will in November vote for Obama-Biden." -- Bev from Georgia"Republicans like Palin, Giuliani, and Romney can engage in red-meat partisan vitriol all they want, right out of the Karl Rove playbook, but this isn't 2000 or 2004. Americans now have seen the full impact of GOP policies on their pocketbook." -- Rick from Colorado"What the Republicans displayed ... is more of the same old thing -- unproductive politics. I hope and pray that the American voters will see through this and realize that we need a different mindset and approach if we are ever going to get things done in Washington." -- Patricia from KansasWatch Barack's response to the Republican convention, and join these folks in supporting real solutions and making sure Americans far and wide know what's at stake:https://donate.barackobama.com/realissuesThanks for everything you're doing,DavidDavid PlouffeCampaign ManagerObama for America


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