"Our Karl Rove is the blog you should be glad that Democratic strategists don't seem to listen to"
-- what they're saying on Republican blogs

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

And Then There Was One

My Fellow Americans,

As members of a capitalist society and culture, we are all tuned into the value and long-term strength created by healthy, fair competition. This extends well beyond the free market -- our Presidential races follow the same model. We whittle down our candidates through a primary process, and the winners compete for votes in the general election.

Yet, one of these winners has just suspended his campaign for President. For those of you counting at home, that leaves us with one presidential campaign. I am quite concerned about this development, as I think an Obama campaign without healthy competition will overwhelm our nation in vast swaths of hope and change. Unencumbered by distractions like pig cosmetics and lies like sexy kindergarteners, the Obama campaign will ruthlessly rampage our electorate with their savvy policies, relevant philosophies, and wicked smarts to boot.

John McCain has not only let this country down by suspending his campaign, but he has also shown the American voter that, even if he does re-start his campaign, John McCain is the kind of no-email, no-internet, single-tasking guy that reminds us more of our grandfathers than our CEOs.

Here are some other things that we've learned from McCain's decision:

  • America requires fundamentally strong leaders as Presidents who can handle a crisis without suspending their responsibilities. We've already had 8 years of a President who has panicked in a crisis. Look where that's gotten us.
  • The job of the American President requires juggling 20 crises in any given hour. John McCain has just demonstrated to us that he can't handle any more than one at a time.
  • We know John McCain doesn't use email or the internet. But what we didn't think about is how that means he needs to be everywhere in person for every single event that affects him. Times have changed since the 1970's, John. We now can do a web conference without having to fly anywhere. We now can check our emails on our Blackberries and monitor situations remotely.
  • We now better understand and appreciate Carly Fiorina's assessment that John McCain couldn't run a company.

And while these new insights into John McCain's character and nature are revealing, I have left the most fascinating observation for last:

In his heart of hearts, John McCain is a Senator, not a President. When looking at the choice of how to spend his time during a crisis, he would rather legislate than lead.

13 comments:

LiteralDan said...

Can I borrow your scalpel? On second thought, I don't think I could wield it half as skillfully.

Nicely done.

Cultured Meat said...

well said...
however, Fiorina was asked a question about if Palin could run a company - she said no- but neither could McCain, Biden or Obama in the same breath.

Why dont you work for these campaigns.. democrats only shoot themselves in the fooot. where were you in 2000?

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. I quoted you on the WaPo "The Fix" blog.

Jon a.k.a. "Our Karl Rove" said...

LiteralDan -- nicely crafted kudos! Thanks.

Joel -- re: Fiorina's quote. What I did there is a trick that the Republicans use on such a regular basis that it really is second-nature to them. I call the trick "containing the framing." Find the frame where what you say is true, even if not entirely true, to help make your point.

It's high time Democrats contain the frame, because it works.

SoonerThought -- Thank you! All my energy goes into idea creation, not promotion -- so anyone who can help promote things here, I deeply appreciate it.

The Religious Left said...

umm...this is from a Republican:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/25/sanchez.mainstreet/index.html

"Streetfight"... what is this Republican obsession with violence?

And, ahem, thank you, Letterman.

The Religious Left said...

Things are getting strangely like a Doonsbury cartoon.

Anonymous said...

your insights are pure enjoyment Jon. As I listened to Obama's comments tonight after a failed day of bailout negotiations, he sounded so knowledgeable, so collaborative, so PRESIDENTIAL that it gave me renewed hope. Is it possible? Be still, my heart...

The Religious Left said...

Slightly unrelated to this thread, yet related in some ways. Boy, kids, Palin's not helping. I have this great bumper sticker/tshirt idea:

Cleese/Palin '08

Surprised no one's not made the Python reference sooner.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/26/palin-should-step-down-conservative-commentator-says/

Can you say "imploding"?

Far be it from me to suggest cockiness on the part of our fair minded progressive community, yet if this isn't jumped on... I dunno.

The Religious Left said...

More Fox baiting:

"Boy, you people are desperate.

Sorry, your era of mismanaged greed is coming to an end, GOP. Fox is digging as hard as it can for… ways to pre-blame for Palin’s performance tonight. She probably will do ok, don’t worry. She’ll probably spout out all the campaign slogans you all on Fox want to hear so you can declare her a winner. Whether or not it will make sense to the rest of the world is another matter, yet no one around Fox seems to care for the rest of the world. Will you blame McCain’s loss on Ifill’s book as well?

What’s that? Obama ahead in VA and North Carolina? Uh oh! Better pull out the stops and keep lying and spreading rumors that he’s a Muslim… maybe there’s a love child you can dig up, that always seemed to work in the past… but, no, the American public is waking up after 8 years of bungled, cronyism and utter negligence and there’s no way McCain and Palin are overcoming that.

Get ready for an adult in the White House, and get ready for a even more Democratic congress. Now, maybe, just maybe, instead of corrupt negligence and false wars we can now have some fiscal responsibility and a functioning government by and for the People. You’ve had your chance, GOP. You failed. Miserably. Now, the problems are too big for you to handle, so, now, the American people are about to leave you in droves. You made your bed, now you must sleep in it. All the incomprehensible right wing sloganeering on here isn’t going to change that. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for you, and, sadly, I think it’s about to get even more bitter after tonight. Good luck."

Anonymous said...

Hey Jon--care to take on the "Burning Down the House: GOP propaganda video that's making the rounds again? They are so desperate they are trotting out that old saw.

Jon a.k.a. "Our Karl Rove" said...

SoonerThought,

Thanks for presenting the challenge. I had not heard nor seen the video until you mentioned it. Are you referring to "Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?" on YouTube?

I just watched it, and on first blush, it looks like someone quite cleverly is "containing the framing" of the financial crisis down to Democratic-led legislation.

This is just like any conspiracy video: if you reduce the focus down to the key points that fulfill the conspiracy, then the conspiracy is fully supported by the facts presented.

It's only when you widen the aperture to include all the facts that the conspiracy fades away in a murky puddle of complexity.

I think you're right -- this deserves a post that can serve as an antidote for anyone who wants to respond to this attack.

Thanks for the head's up. This video is quite strategic and effective. Let me know if you find any counter-videos or counter-posts out there that I can leverage as I develop my response.

Thanks,
Jon

Rikki Westerschulte said...

OKR -
Can we mount an assault on McCain's economic judgment 1. hiring Phil Gramm of the now infamous grammswaps of credit default swaps (Commodity Futures Modernization Act)
2. proposing deregulation of insurance industry (see his paper on more deregulation)

Jon a.k.a. "Our Karl Rove" said...

Rikki,

Yes, it will be intertwined with the response to the video SoonerThought brought up right above.

It's going to take a day or two to get this right, so stay tuned... and keep the requests and ideas coming in.