SUMMARY
DETAILS
Obama will really need to take off the gloves and fight: the Republicans know this is their last chance to run against the scary black Muslim Marxist. He needs to listen to the fighters like Pelosi and Schumer, and stop chasing the dream of bipartisanship: there will be no making nice with the GOP in 2012. He needs to bring back the 2008 Obama, the man who overcame so much and came so far so fast. He needs to shoot down the endless lies. He needs to fire up the base. He needs to defend the Senate and take the House. He has begun a rapid response unit already, like the Clintons did in 1992, and do that this early is a good sign; also they are running attack ads extremely early.
DETAILS
In the 2012 election, a great deal depends on whether we come up with the right answer to the following dilemma.
SONNY I want you to find out where that ol' pimp Tattaglia is hiding -- I want his ass now -- right now!
TOM Hey -- Sonny...
SONNY What?
TOM Things are starting to loosen up a little bit. If you go after Tattaglia all hell's gonna break --
SONNY Oh, Tom...
TOM -- loose. Let -- let the smoke clear -- Pop can negotiate.
SONNY No, Pop can't do nothin' til he's better! I'm going to decide what's going to be done --
TOM All right, but your war is costing us a lot of money; nothing's coming in! --
SONNY Whattsa matter?
TOM -- We can't do business.
SONNY Well neither can they! Don't worry about it.
TOM They don't have our over-head!
SONNY Please, don't worry about it!
TOM We can't afford a stalemate!
SONNY Well, then, there ain't no more stalemate -- I'm gonna end it by killin' that old bastard! I'm gonna...kill...
TOM Yeah, well you're getting a great reputation! -- I hope you're enjoying it...
SONNY Well you just do what I tell you to do! Goddamn it! If I had a wartime consiglieri -- a Sicilian -- I wouldn't be in this shape! Pop had Genco -- look what I got.
TOM Hey -- Sonny...
SONNY What?
TOM Things are starting to loosen up a little bit. If you go after Tattaglia all hell's gonna break --
SONNY Oh, Tom...
TOM -- loose. Let -- let the smoke clear -- Pop can negotiate.
SONNY No, Pop can't do nothin' til he's better! I'm going to decide what's going to be done --
TOM All right, but your war is costing us a lot of money; nothing's coming in! --
SONNY Whattsa matter?
TOM -- We can't do business.
SONNY Well neither can they! Don't worry about it.
TOM They don't have our over-head!
SONNY Please, don't worry about it!
TOM We can't afford a stalemate!
SONNY Well, then, there ain't no more stalemate -- I'm gonna end it by killin' that old bastard! I'm gonna...kill...
TOM Yeah, well you're getting a great reputation! -- I hope you're enjoying it...
SONNY Well you just do what I tell you to do! Goddamn it! If I had a wartime consiglieri -- a Sicilian -- I wouldn't be in this shape! Pop had Genco -- look what I got.
The Democrats need wartime consiglieres. The Democrats should be poised to crush the GOP for the foreseeable future, under the current circumstances. But for three years, they have refused to fight. They need some Patton-meets-Churchill leader to take off the gloves. Guys who can dive into the line of scrimmage and punch a kidney, guys who can go into the paint and throw an elbow, guys who can slide spike-high into second. Guys who actually care about winning. Guys who are willing to smack down the Republicans every day when they lie to the press and the American people. And protecting the nation from the extremists. Did we all forget the Bush era?
Or, to quote William Tecumseh Sherman: "The northern generals who prosecuted the war most effectively , and most ruthlessly, had more understanding of its ideological purposes..."We are not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war"....Therefore the North must "make the war so terrible...[and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it. "
Obama can be that guy, when he chooses to be, which unfortunately is seldom. In the 2008 race he showed his executive leadership in assembling a 13-million-man-army led by one of the best no-drama, no-leak campaign teams in history: he built a Democratic machine unprecedented in history, with groundbreaking innovations in fundraising and the exploitation of the internet; he was the first Democrat in memory to outspend his opponent. Obama’s popular-vote total was the highest in history, even more than Reagan in 1984. Obama won by 9 million votes and by 7 percent, better than any Republican has done in two decades; his 9-million vote margin is the largest ever for a non-incumbent. He got more electoral votes than any Republican has done in two decades. His share of the popular vote was better than Reagan did against Carter.
Obama won the men’s vote, the first time a Democrat has done that in a long time. Obama won voters making over $200,000 despite promising to increase their taxes. He won every education group. He won the largest share of white support of any Democrat in a two-man race since 1976. Obama, the black guy, competed in red states that haven’t even seen a Democrat in years. He beat McCain by 10 points among young white voters, which means that in the years down the road as these kids get older, Democratic candidates will be able to win both whites and blacks.
Some Republicans tried to spin the 2008 race by arguing that Obama should have won by twenty, which is nonsense. Want to know how often a presidential candidate wins by ten, let alone twenty, unless he's an incumbent, or his opponents split into factions, or something? Three times in the 19th century, then the two Roosevelts, Harding and Hoover, and look how swell Harding and Hoover turned out: they caused the Depression. That’s it, for more than two centuries. And that’s ten-point victories, let alone twenty.
Obama won the men’s vote, the first time a Democrat has done that in a long time. Obama won voters making over $200,000 despite promising to increase their taxes. He won every education group. He won the largest share of white support of any Democrat in a two-man race since 1976. Obama, the black guy, competed in red states that haven’t even seen a Democrat in years. He beat McCain by 10 points among young white voters, which means that in the years down the road as these kids get older, Democratic candidates will be able to win both whites and blacks.
Some Republicans tried to spin the 2008 race by arguing that Obama should have won by twenty, which is nonsense. Want to know how often a presidential candidate wins by ten, let alone twenty, unless he's an incumbent, or his opponents split into factions, or something? Three times in the 19th century, then the two Roosevelts, Harding and Hoover, and look how swell Harding and Hoover turned out: they caused the Depression. That’s it, for more than two centuries. And that’s ten-point victories, let alone twenty.
But let’s look at what Obama had to overcome, to do all this.
Obama overcame the brutal beating from the allegedly invincible Clinton machine, which seemingly had the race so locked up that everyone thought he was crazy to try; he devised a strategy that destroyed Hillary in a matter of weeks.
He overcame his inexperience and outsmarted McCain, a war hero representing the incumbent party fighting a war from the White House, a guy who had months to set up his general election campaign while Obama was battling Hillary. He blew away the “experience” argument by making McCain look foolish on foreign policy, setting the example on policy which even Bush followed, and on domestic policy, staying cool while McCain hopped around like a donkey with a bee up its butt during the early days of the fiscal crisis. He overcame McCain without attacking him on all his crooked deals, his flipflops, his many medical and psychological problems, the way McCain would have, if their positions had been reversed.
He didn’t just beat McCain, he made him irrelevant. He overcame politics as usual by ignoring all the attacks and McCain’s “double dog dares” on everything from town meetings to denouncing pastors; Obama simply addressed the needs of the people and they responded.
He overcame the deep-pocketed GOP fundraisers, the GOP culture warriors and white power people.
He made fools out of the neocons who warned of a “surrender” when he said we must talk to our enemies; even Bush agreed. He overcame the fiscal conservatives who lied about his tax plan and claimed that deficit spending and deregulation were the secret to prosperity.
He overcame the dirtiest Karl Rove kitchen-sink campaign in the history of politics, dishonest smear ads, hundreds of speeches dishonestly smearing him, robo-call smears, daily internet smears, illegal vote suppression, fake emails, fake phone calls, fake flyers, Wright and Rezko and Ayers and taxation and “socialism”, all lying to voters to get them to stay home.
He overcame the wave of Palin-mania, staying cool when the hysteria temporarily looked like it would sweep him away.
He overcame two centuries of racism, hate, and fear; he made his bones in ultra-white and actually went south to capture new territory for his party. A guy with Hussein as his middle name won during a global war on…guys with names like Hussein.
Obama overcame the brutal beating from the allegedly invincible Clinton machine, which seemingly had the race so locked up that everyone thought he was crazy to try; he devised a strategy that destroyed Hillary in a matter of weeks.
He overcame his inexperience and outsmarted McCain, a war hero representing the incumbent party fighting a war from the White House, a guy who had months to set up his general election campaign while Obama was battling Hillary. He blew away the “experience” argument by making McCain look foolish on foreign policy, setting the example on policy which even Bush followed, and on domestic policy, staying cool while McCain hopped around like a donkey with a bee up its butt during the early days of the fiscal crisis. He overcame McCain without attacking him on all his crooked deals, his flipflops, his many medical and psychological problems, the way McCain would have, if their positions had been reversed.
He didn’t just beat McCain, he made him irrelevant. He overcame politics as usual by ignoring all the attacks and McCain’s “double dog dares” on everything from town meetings to denouncing pastors; Obama simply addressed the needs of the people and they responded.
He overcame the deep-pocketed GOP fundraisers, the GOP culture warriors and white power people.
He made fools out of the neocons who warned of a “surrender” when he said we must talk to our enemies; even Bush agreed. He overcame the fiscal conservatives who lied about his tax plan and claimed that deficit spending and deregulation were the secret to prosperity.
He overcame the dirtiest Karl Rove kitchen-sink campaign in the history of politics, dishonest smear ads, hundreds of speeches dishonestly smearing him, robo-call smears, daily internet smears, illegal vote suppression, fake emails, fake phone calls, fake flyers, Wright and Rezko and Ayers and taxation and “socialism”, all lying to voters to get them to stay home.
He overcame the wave of Palin-mania, staying cool when the hysteria temporarily looked like it would sweep him away.
He overcame two centuries of racism, hate, and fear; he made his bones in ultra-white and actually went south to capture new territory for his party. A guy with Hussein as his middle name won during a global war on…guys with names like Hussein.
This is not to praise Obama. It’s to goad Obama: you’re a great fighter, but you haven’t gotten into the ring often enough in the last three years. Time to stop reaching out the hand of bipartisan friendship to people who want to chop your hand off with an axe, and start fighting. And not just for the White House: for Congress too. He needs to be willing to fight, willing to shoot down the lies, willing to pump up the Obama record, watchful for last-minute smear attacks and bombshells in September and October, ready to fight to regain the hearts and minds of the people, ready to fire up the troops who elected Obama in 2008, ready to raise money for Congressional races.
One positive sign: after letting the GOP firehose him with lies and attacks for three years, Obama is setting up a full-time operation to shoot down all the lies, like Clinton’s old war room. Perfect time for it. Characteristically, when Fox News heard about the new Obama team designed to shoot down rightwing smear attacks, they went after it with a rightwing smear attack.
Although Obama does need to come out and fight, that doesn't mean engaging on every little issue, or getting into mudfights with some candidate who's polling in the single digits and wants to become a star by screaming "You lie!" at the president, or whatever. The little gnats can't hurt him, so ignore them. Engage the major players and the major issues, and stay on message. And let your subordinates do a lot of the attacking.
Although Obama does need to come out and fight, that doesn't mean engaging on every little issue, or getting into mudfights with some candidate who's polling in the single digits and wants to become a star by screaming "You lie!" at the president, or whatever. The little gnats can't hurt him, so ignore them. Engage the major players and the major issues, and stay on message. And let your subordinates do a lot of the attacking.
During the first GOP debate, in June 2011 in New Hampshire, the Democrats were already on the attack: they were running ads slamming the Republicans on Medicare, and former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs waited patiently during the debate to issue a rebuttal to the GOP statements in the debate. Gibbs' appearance is part of strategy to keep visible in early states and organize there, and consistently shoot down smear attacks against Obama.
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