This video is an excellent compilation of clips demonstrating the perfection of the type of defense that Kerry should have mounted against the Swiftboaters four years ago. Come out with guns blasting, and never let up. It worked and now Wesley Clark is silenced. This won't necessarily win the election for McCain but is takes Clark, the one guy who could have stood up to McCain's war record and tempered the importance of his being a POW, out of the picture.
This is masterful stuff really and the clip not only shows right-wing whores (Hannity, Kelliann Fitzpatrick, Ollie North, Rove, etc) bemoaning Clark's comments, but it also shows Democratic-leaning moderates (Mika Brzezinski) and outright anti-McCain partisans (Rachel Maddow) chiming in with "Swiftboat" comparisons. Even the usually rational Bob Schieffer likened Clark's comments to "denigrating McCain's war record." This was nothing like the Swiftboat bullshit which really did attempt to negate Kerry's war experience. Clark was making a rational argument about the value of war time experience as a soldier as it pertains to executive decision-making.
The Republicans hire pit-bulls who know the way to handle these attacks. They have a grease board with all the possible attacks that could be made and the various responses. It's well-coordinated, ferocious and effective. But such responses and rhetorical techniques are nothing new. I'll let the Communications professor enlighten us, but I seem to remember that Cicero was famous for the mastery of such rhetoric in the Roman Senate. History rhymes.
The power and money at stake in the US elections is enormous and exponentially more than even 20 years ago. These campaign people are the most talented at what they do and their incentive is greater than ever. Perhaps the lesson in this is that no office in the world should be as powerful as the US presidency is today. The rest of the world is a little freaked by the damage that one person can do and merely electing Barack Obama will not assuage their trepidation, only allow them to breath a sigh of relief for four years. The US system of such unchecked executive power has become, under Bush, structurally threatening to the world. While 70% of Americans and 80% of Iraqis want US soldiers to pull out of Iraq, and the Iraqi Parliament and Prime Minister have called for time tables for withdrawal, the US leadership has said this is not feasible and will not be done. The opinion of one person-- Cheney or Bush or whoever is running the show-- has promulgated a criminal war, destabilized the world's oil supply, promoted nuclear tensions, instituted torture as modus operandi, holds prisoners illegally, etc.
These guys are just plain bad people.
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