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Wrong Rhetoric on Joe

John McCain has his hands on the first useful political stunt he’s pulled in in months: Joe the Plumber, who may soon join him on the trail. Problem is, Obama is not handling it well by deciding to attack Joe (“what kind of plumber makes >$250,000 per year?”), a strategy that’s leading Republican adjuncts to revamp the “elitist” rhetoric that Obama had, until recently, himself employed. Obama’s goal should be to respin & defend his tax plan; not attack McCain’s newest running mate. Let’s hope he realizes it.

Minnesota GOP Holds in its Hand a List…

While Barack Obama and Joe Biden continue to campaign on a message of unity – “we all love this country” – the GOP, acting through Minnesota’s Michelle Bachmann, continues to equate dissent with disloyalty. Bachmann would deputize the mainstream media as a latter-day House Un-American Activities Committee bent on ferreting out un-American politicians… like, apparently, Barack Obama. Never forget that this is the sentiment behind, latley, all GOP politicians, a horrific misunderstanding of patriotism that John McCain institutionalized and incorporated into his presidential ticket with Sarah Palin.

The Nameless Fear: a Democratic Washington

For a few months now, I’ve been hesitant to write this post and put in the public domain what is, likely, McCain’s best remaining argument against Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, the conservative pundits have caught on. Here we go.

If Barack Obama wins – as remains likely, despite the Republican media empire’s remarkable yet dishonest attempts at denialism – he will take power with, for the first time since the Democrats “lost” America by enacting sweeping civil rights legislation (a worthy trade-off), a Congress willing to reinforce his power, rather than fight against it. The media may take pains to estimate the size of the wave of anti-Republican backlash that fuels the possible creation of a united Democratic Washington, but none deny its likelihood.

While McCain and Palin have yet to catch on to the spin potential behind what is quickly becoming a political fact, the right-wing pundits are way ahead of them.  In the grand Republican tradition of whipping up fear rather than generating new ideas, web pundits across the series of tubes are starting to use the prospect of a Democratic Washington to terrify voters with terms like “liberal supermajority.” Sure, you can’t trust us Republicans, the narrative goes – after all, we’ve rampantly abused power for nearly eight years – but the Devil you know, right?

Leading the charge are, unsurprisingly, the Wall Street Journal and Pat Buchanan, the latter of which as much warns of as promises a “backlash” against them thur lib’ruls: “[President Obama] will be at war with [his party], or at war with us. If Barack wins, a backlash is coming.” Real mature, Pat. Put down the rifle, and keep your hands where I can see them.

The Republican fear narrative depends upon the voters’ abilities to divorce their support for their congressional candidates, or their support for Barack Obama, from an overriding love of the Democratic Party in general. Democrats in specific, the theory goes, aren’t so bad: we understand you like Barack. But Democrats with other Democrats? Scary business.

Yet there’s cause to doubt this strategy’s efficacy. Our Democratic Party has managed, over the past year, to pull a stunt worthy of a 1996 Tony Blair (I still love you, Tony): we’ve managed to reinvent our party by moderating our hard-line policies and accentuating our electoral strengths, all the while somehow preserving what makes us essentially “Democrats.” Insofar as Buchanan & co. hearken back to an outdated image of the far-left Democratic Party, one dispelled by the moderate Barack Obama and even-tempered Senators like Claire McCaskill, the strategy is likely to simply reinforce the radical right’s hatred of all things Democratic, and go amiss with the target demographic (swing voters). For Buchanan to try to sway swing voters by yelling to his readers at “Human Events,” after all, is the pundit’s equivalent of navel-gazing. Ditto for the WSJ editorial board and its, uh, vast cross-spectrum appeal to America’s inner “Plumber Joe.” As for the swing voters reading this blog – yes, both of you – I’m confident in my ability to “draw the sting” of Buchanan’s point.

Further, invoking the fear of a Democratic Washington likely proves too much. McCain can screech about the evils of the do-nothing Democratic Congress, but any one of us with half a brain cell knows what the hold-up is there (look at Δveto, 109th-110th Congresses). Especially when the guy holding the veto pen believes lawmaking is his job, not Congress’, divided government is SLOW and ineffective in a crisis. Electing McCain wouldn’t solve the problem; it would make it worse. If John McCain wins this election, it’ll only be by smear tactics or the always-possible October Surprise. Neither “strategy for victory” would endear him to a Democrat-packed Congress. President Obama can count on the legislature to help him fulfill his promises, both good and bad: in the face of his likely opposition, our hypothetical President McCain could only guarantee the latter.

All of this leaves this simple truth: voters concerned about a runaway liberal Washington shouldn’t take that as an excuse to trust the Republicans to somehow screw up less than they have. Rather, they should just elect moderate Democrats. Luckily, that’s the choice we’ve given them.

We Haven’t Won Yet: Keep Donating

BarackObama.com. $10 gets you a free limited edition car magnet; $30 gets you a free limited edition t-shirt! Neither of which you’ll get before the election. But, dammit, that’s not the point! The point is, who doesn’t like $30 free t-shirts?! Skip two Starbucks and send Barack to Washington.