Mr. Obama has stepped in it again. The up side is that it’s August. The down side is what Republicans are doing with what he said. We should have learned this by now. It’s political reality.
THE SPIN:
The suggestion whispered by Obama’s opponents was that he was maligning the
efforts of troops fighting in Afghanistan by stating they are “just”
out there killing civilians.The Republican National Committee simply repeated the comment as one of their
“They Said It!” series used to highlight statements by opponents
that supposedly put them in a bad light. RNC Chairman Mike Duncan followed
up later in a statement demanding that Obama apologize for his “offensive”
statement.“It is hard to imagine that anyone who aspires to be commander in chief
would say such a thing about our brave men and women in uniform,” Duncan
said. “Obama owes our armed forces an apology — today.”
The RNC is stacked with Karl Rove wanna bes, so this stuff is a gift to these campaign goons.
So let’s understand how this works. First, the right doesn’t operate on facts (or truth). It’s about extorting
emotional mileage from voters through sound bites by Democrats that can be manipulated
to their advantage. Anything national security or troop oriented is preferred,
because they’ve got the ready phrases and are prepared to pounce before most Democrats even realize they’ve given up a gift.
Second, playing defense, even when right, is a loser. (See above) In fact, not even the proof of factual accuracy can extracate
a Democrat from the hole the right conveniently dug for their opponent, especially when it was the Democrat who handed the shovel to the RNC in the first place.
Third, wingnuts have a bigger megaphone, with connecting media outlets synchronized to keep
their talking points going, while Democrats are just beginning to write a press
release responding. There’s Fox “News” channel, wingnut radio, with Sean Hannity
always willing to punch it up on “Hannity & Colmes” every
chance he gets and usually complete with uncomplimentary video edited just right to make some other
Democrat appear like he or she has made a similar mistake in the recent past, regardless of whether the context or video is manipulated or not. It always is.
This is going to be a long primary campaign season, but
that’s nothing compared to the general election, which is going to last ten
months or so. The RNC rapid response and take down is quick, because they are looking at one of the toughest elections they’ve had in a long time. We need a candidate
with a team who can react just as fast and brutally, not letting any daylight
between the RNC misquoting our candidate or offering outright lies about what
he or she has said. Obama could start here: “It is hard to imagine that the Republican Party is lecturing anyone on what to say or how to act towards our troops when they’re the ones reponsible for putting our troops in harm’s way without the equipment, body armor or a plan to get out of Iraq after Saddam fell. It’s the Bush administration that owes our military an apology, not only for the incompetence in Iraq, but also because it’s their fault we’re losing Afghanistan again.”
Then there’s the obvious part about not serving up air ball sound bites that can be manipulated to begin with, though that’s tough since the wingnuts manipulate everything. Again, it’s early, but it’s allowing the Republicans to test their ’08 war room.
Some discipline, please. I’m tired already.
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