Dean's early sniping draws fellow Democrats to battle


The Boston Globe drinks the Kerry Kool Aid:

''The season of attacks has been accelerated really by Howard Dean, which is to say, Dean has gone after Edwards, Kerry -- and nobody sits still and takes that lying down for very long,'' said a Democratic pollster, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''Dean brought it on himself by deciding he was going to use very sharp elbows to force himself onto the national stage. Eventually it would have happened anyway and eventually it will happen with even greater ferocity.''


Deanistan residents have watched the Edwards and Kerry tiffs evolve in real-time, so we have a deeper perspective than this article, which essentially repackages the conventional wisdom. The Globe article, while uncritically accepting the "Dean started it" meme, does however make an important point - that regardless of Dean's intentions (ie, pointing out why the other candidates are unwilling to challenge Bush when it matters - and thus why they can't beat Bush), he is seen as the instigator. And as long as the conventional wisdom agrees, then even outright hypocrisy by the others in response will be justified by the opposing campaigns as self-defense.

I was disappointed to see that in yesterday's Notepad, Dean's campaign chose to hammer hard again on the Kerry-military flap. Thats a mistake - it's in the campaign's best interest to let these die quickly. The campaign needs to rise above the fray, by responding only once. Then leave teh rest of the defense to Deanistan and the netroots.

In fact, I think the campaign should deliberately wait a full day before respondsing (once) to any such future attacks. That will give them time to incoporate the research done by the netroots and the political elites at Slate, TNR, etc. Imagine how devastating it would have been if Dean's official response incorporated Kerry's hypocrisy from the outset? Yesterday's Notepad response just looks like piling on - I'll be highly surprised if the Kerry campaign notepad entry has anything about the flap at all. In a sense, the campaign squandered the rhetorical advantage by pushing too hard - and played right into Kerry's hands by reinforcing the conventional wisdom.

The Notepad is a great innovation. But it is also public and high-profile and it can't be wasted. I think the Dean campaign needs to use it to focus on Dean, not on Kerry.

and leave the brawlin' to Deanistan.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gay Saudi Arabia

Five Things Dean Supporters Can Do Right Now to Fight Terrorism