BobHarris.com - If Karl Rove managed Charles Manson's campaign

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If Karl Rove managed Charles Manson's campaign

Tag it now -

Friday, 15 October 2004

October. Bush falling. Kerry 3-for-3 in debates. Whatever will Karl do...?

I don't know... but I do know his style, which is to figure out his own candidate's biggest weaknesses, then arrange for willing mouthpieces, eager to suck their way into power, to launch into a series of accusations, decrying Rove's opponent for precisely his own guy's worst problems.

Examples ain't exactly hard to find. Bush breaks damn near every promise he makes, and even denies saying things everybody knows he said? No problem: point out every time Kerry has ever changed his mind, and keep harping on it.

See, he's the one who will do anything to get elected. Never mind that people in the administration itself are saying that major offensives in Iraq are being delayed until after the election, proving (again) that the war in Iraq is less important to Bush than the war to keep his job.

Bush skipped out on Vietnam, the Guard, and even the day job he ditched for? No problem: just gin up some accusations that Kerry lied to get his medals.

See, he's the one who deserted his country. Never mind that he volunteered to get shot at while W. was bragging about how much liquor he could hold.

Bush can't even give a direct answer to simple questions about his positions on social issues (does he plan to appoint pro-life judges, have any idea how to generate jobs, support raising the minimum wage, or think homosexuality is a choice? Bush simply won't say...), and his answers mostly careen wildly off-topic and away from any genuine chance to connect with the folks at home? No problem: pick one non-inflammatory, coherent, compassionate sentence, and try to blow it up into a freakin' sign of Kerry's lack of compassion and communication skills.

That's what we're seeing right now. The Cheneys are apparently shocked to learn that anyone might say that their gay daughter is gay.

Classic Rove.

You almost admire the skill. The same way a bullet aimed at your chest might glint in the sunlight just before impact. Nice workmanship, you can think, just before it hits you.

If Karl Rove was managing Charles Manson, there would be GOP members of Congress on MSNBC right this minute, accusing John Kerry of murdering Sharon Tate in a drug-addled orgy of death.

Plus, they'd say he played a lousy guitar, couldn't get the Beach Boys to listen to him, and once carved a swastika into his own forehead.

The Democrats would be able to disprove a few of the allegations -- pointing to the obvious lack of a scar in Kerry's forehead, for example. After a series of notes from Kerry's doctor and discussions of how the epidermis heals, it would still take Wolf Blitzer a freakin' month to stop asking why John Kerry carved the swastika. But eventually, most of the allegations would die down.

Still, in the aftermath, you'd have millions of people vaguely certain that Charles Manson and John Kerry both thought they were the Fifth Beatle.

So I have no idea what the hell Rove has in mind in the next few weeks.

But just keep in mind: if Karl Rove worked in 1940s Germany, Democrats would still be explaining that they really like Jews.