Flashbacks
Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like I've seen this before:
Such attacks have raised worries among Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 -- that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character. Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity.[...]
A liberal advertising consultant said: "There's frustration there because they're watching these childish ad campaigns, and they know exactly how to answer it, but they're powerless to do so."
Powerless, that is, because most of the independent groups that would have taken the lead in such an independent campaign have been sidelined by Obama's insistence that Democratic donors channel their money to him, rather than outside groups. Obama's efforts have succeeded in maintaining message discipline in a campaign predicated on what the senator from Illinois has called a new kind of politics.
I'm guessing that as the day progresses there will be accusations of "concern trolls" coming from some in the blogosphere but lately I've been having flashbacks to August 2004 when I would see the Swifties on all the newsnets followed by video of John Kerry windsurfing. It was then that I started to realize that we'd have four more years of the most destructive administration in history.
The big problem I've had with Obama from the beginning was his whole "rising it above it all", "new politics" shtick. Democrats have spent the last couple of decades taking the high road and, not coincidentally, losing much of the time.
I'd love to have clean, respectful campaigns. But I'd love more to win.
It's only the survival of our republic that's at stake.
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