The Audacity of Hope

Could it be true? I dare to hope. This article claims that Rovian politics has had its day, that the Internet has given the public the means to see the smears for what they really are, desparate attempts to save McCain from certain defeat.

It's interesting that the writer points to how much the Internet and YouTube have changed the political campaign game in just the past four years.

I've been a voice crying in the wilderness for months, trying to alert folks that the smears are right out of Rove's play book. The Rovian tactics are what sunk McCain in 2000 and he has prostituted himself so completely that he has hired the very same people and firms that screwed him back then, in an attempt to screw Obama today.

It's heartening to read the recent articles about how Rove's tactics have become so transparent to no longer have the desired affect this time around. However there are still far too many nasties out there who buy into it. Like awful commercials, they wouldn't be run if they didn't work, if there weren't enough people to believe the lies.

Not everyone has access to the Internet or the skill and interest in using it to verify what's true and what's crap. In fact those who don't are the real targets of the Rovian tactics. McCain is counting on enough of them in the swing states with large electoral votes to help him win.

Remember Rove cut his teeth on these tactics as a direct mail advertising guy. That marketing concept counts on flooding the mail with junk, filled with exaggerations, half truths and subliminal messages, knowing that 1% or fewer bites translate into millions of dollars in sales. The same approach worked for the Bush campaign in 2000 and 2004. Some are saying it's no longer working and might actually be turning people off.

We can only hope.

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper