Let the Defenestrations Begin
| Fri Oct. 24, 2008 10:18 AM PDT
LET THE DEFENESTRATIONS BEGIN....Politico reports on what's going on behind the scenes in Republican circles:
With despair rising even among many of John McCain's own advisers, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering — much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.
...."If you really want to see what 'going negative' is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we're starting to see," said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. "And there's one common theme: Everyone who wasn't part of the campaign could have done better."
"The cake is baked," agreed a former McCain strategist. "We're entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It's every man for himself now."
I am so looking forward to this. Is this schadenfreude? Or does that require at least a veneer of pretending that you're not really taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others? I'm not sure. But I'm looking forward to it anyway.
And you know the part I'm really looking forward to? Sarah Palin's role in all this. I expect her to rip McCain absolutely to shreds. On background, of course, but it will be no less vicious for that. Her future, such as it is, lies with the wingnut rump of the party, and she knows what her audience wants: John McCain's blood. And lots of it. They never liked him in the first place, and I expect them to be howling for his head on a platter starting at about 8:01 pm EST on November 4th.
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
Submitted by Matthew (not verified) on Fri Oct. 24, 2008 10:16 AM PDT.
It's nice to know that while they couldn't get together a coherent message or campaign they are able to get a cohesive blame narrative going: it was everyone else but me!
OK, prediction time: Will McCain run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2010? Will he even make it that far?
My prediction is he'll serve out his term (won't want to let Napolitano appoint his successor), but won't run for reeelection.
How could I have missed the chance to answer your title?
We were talking about defenestrations? I should have written: "This is what die-hards in their last throws look like."
Somebody please go and disturb Rumsfeld & Cheney again.
I expect them to be howling for his head on a platter starting at about 8:01 pm EST on November 4th.
It would be great if that kept them busy for a while. I'm not getting my hopes up, though. Attention span isn't one of their strong suits.
This is delicious. As much damage as the GOP hs done to this country since Reagan, they deserve to be in minority status for at least two or three decades.
However, after Obama is elected, there needs to be serious groundwork undertaken towards building a viable third political party, if not also a fourth. I hope this election signals the death of the two party system in this country, as the current one is clearly sclerotic, the Dems only marginally less so than the Republicans. It would be the best thing that ever happened to this country.
I can see it right now, McCain will give a standard, gracious concession speech, but Palin will start going to war. She'll accuse the Dems of vote cheating, of sexism, of savaging her family, etc. Meanwhile, she probably has already begun the behind-the-scenes campaign to trash McCain.
This is going to get very ugly.
Will anyone care what Sarah Palin has to say about anything after the election? I can see her showing up in the National Enquirer and Star for a while, and hitting the wingnut lecture circuit. I wonder if McCain's aides will blame HER more than she blames THEM.
I have to say, Clinton's strategy of moving the Dems to the center worked brilliantly. Rove responded by amping up the right-wing base, and eight years later the more centrist (rational) arm of the Republican party has in large part left and defected to the Dems. We are looking at a crushing of historic proportions; the big policy debates will now occur inside the Democratic party rather than between Dems and Repubs.
Its so like Democrats to not understand a conservative Republican.
So, if Sarah Palin refuses to "..rip McCain absolutely to shreds.." will you publish a retraction, and possibly rethink your position on her political future.
Its so like Democrats to not understand a conservative Republican.
And so like a conservative Republican to not see the reality right in front of their noses. Sarah Palin's shown herself to be a corrupt opportunist and will absolutely rip McCain to shreds, behind his back.
Any football fans out there? Every now and again some rookie celebrates before he gets into the end zone. Recently a talented, speedy wideout named DeSean Jackson for the Eagles started strutting into the end-zone after a long catch and run and dropped the ball in celebration, except he dropped it before he actually got into the end zone. No TD, very embarrassing.
James, et al, are correct - let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Democrats have a remarkable capacity to screw the pooch (I think Obama made this point last week). James' analogy is apt - don't start dancing before you get the friggin touchdown.
Submitted by Neil B (not verified) on Fri Oct. 24, 2008 11:33 AM PDT.
While my more elaborate version sits in the balance, just briefly: Don't forget to get a kick out of the recanting by Ashley Todd of the "attack" story, and how that humiliates EVP John Moody of Faux not-news who said that the outcome would determine who was credible in the election (hint - McCain loses this one.)
I am gonna celebrate the evening of November 4th.
That said the ReThuglican organization needs to be legally burned to the ground & the ground salted so that the organization NEVER again has the power to do anything that affects the human community. The uglier it gets the better.
And as for Ms Palin, I suspect there is an even or better chance that she will not finish her term as governor of Alaska. We shall see tho.
"If the world isn't going to make sense, we'd better." - John Perry Barlow
The Palin base will rip McCain to shreds for his failed campaign, the Republican moderates will rip him to shreds for choosing Palin, and the party will -- GOP willing -- finally be split. Continued electoral misfortune will further inflame the far right, leading to a deliciously vicious cycle of madness and defeat.
Or so we can hope. Palin's future depends in large part on her ethics investigations and revelations of her patronage system.
-TTm
I believe that's 8:01pm PST. The networks do not announce voting results until the polls close on the west coast in order not to discourage voters from coming to the polls. (I guess Alaska and Hawaii are not important enough to wait for.)
I don't know if any of the early votes will be counted and announced by then.
On Schadenfreude, there is no need for a veneer of pretending that you aren't actually taking pleasure in the failure of others. But it's also about taking pleasure in their suffering now. If you're not happy about it now, but anticipating being happy, that's not quite schadenfruede.
But with everything that's going on right now, I'd say you (and many others) are actually experincing schadenfruede. And rightly so.
After the cosmic screwing we all got in 2000, I declared to friends and family that the word for the next four years was 'apoplectic'
After 2004, when amazingly, the coutry re-elected (sort of) Bush, I declared the word would be 'schadenfreude'.
"I am so looking forward to this. Is this schadenfreude?"
Oh, HELL yeah!
I am not saying you are wrong, but even by Republican standards it would strike a new low for Palin to trash the man that gave her a shot at national prominence.
I know that pretending he is at fault for destroying her reputation is the only way to avoid acknowledging the damage her presence on the ticket did to his campaign.
But even for someone that has shown herself to be without any sense of class or decency, trashing McCain would be remarkable.
Submitted by Robert Merkel (not verified) on Sat Oct. 25, 2008 12:32 AM PDT.
From this side of the Pacific, all the arguing about whether the campaign screwed up looks like it's kind of missing the point.
The seeds of this election defeat were sown in 2000 when George W. Bush won the nomination, and perhaps even more so when he picked Dick Cheney as his running mate.
I don't see how McCain, or any other Republican, could have won against a competent Democrat in the circumstances.
It's not the tactics, it's the long-term strategy that's failed, and it'l be interesting to see how long it will take for that to sink in.
Submitted by Steve in CO (not verified) on Sat Oct. 25, 2008 10:24 AM PDT.
I have to agree with Green Eagle and others... perhaps I'm too paranoid, but I won't be able to relax until Obama is well into his second term and is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nominee... nothing is out of bounds for wingnuts, nothing.
I'll enjoy a little schadenfruede listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity crying Wednesday morning of the 5th of November, but I'm not going to get my hopes up to high. I really don't trust them as they are already talking about retrenchment but darkly hint that a surprise may be coming.
Is it schadenfreude?
No. There is a much more practical reason to be happy to see the Republican Party tear itself to pieces -- the Modern GOP represents the worst impulses in the history of our country and they are a threat to our most fundamental rights. Sadly, because so many Americans are so ignorant and/or stupid, Republicans have continued to get elected. We've just begun to see what eight years of Bush/Cheney have done to this country (and the world) and wanting the GOP to self-destruct is far more than a cheap thrill or a guilty pleasure -- it represents renewed hope that this country will have a decent future and stop being a burden on the rest of the world.
Passing on a friend's theory here. I'm a moderate conservative (more by family inheritance than anything else) who's voting Dem this round because, well, I'm not clinically insane.
At any rate, my (liberal) friend's theory is that Palin is much more likely to have a future in media as sort of a 'conservative Oprah' figure.
In terms of electoral politics, she's become radioactive and is likely to stay that way, but she's clearly a figure who a minority of American society identifies strongly with. These people aren't going to just go away on November 5th, and they're not likely to let go of her.
Oprah's made a tremendous industry of telling women who are too busy, tired, isolated, or narrowly- or under-educated to develop their own opinions or ideas, but would still like to have them, what those opinions should be.
Palin can do the same thing, because she can talk to white, conservative women 'credibly' about parenting, career, faith, values, media, culture, and politics without providing too much threatening empowerment.
For those who think that Palin won't start ripping on McCain, take a look at her political rise in AK.
When someone gives her a "hand up", she takes it. In fact, she takes their whole arm (off), then shoves the bloody remnant out of her way.
McCain's going to retire after the election, I'm sure of it. He's old and tired, honor and credibility trashed, no big "vision" that he can do, no friends left in the GOP (just Lieberman). So he'll say "fuck it" and leave.
None of which means we should take our eye off the ball for a nanosecond. They're still Repubs, and dangerous when cornered.
Submitted by Independent Perspective (not verified) on Sat Oct. 25, 2008 3:47 PM PDT.
I don't know, I mean the Party has dipped so far into radicalism. If Palin is part of it, and she certainly seems to belong to wingnut part of Party, which should be seen as the problem with the GOP, not the solution. If and when the GOP goes forward after Nov 4th, shouldn't they be getting back to real conservative politics, as Bush/Cheney were not conservatives, they were a couple of criminals who lied to do what they did, and in the process, fostered extreme radicalism on the party in order to fool everyone, including conservative voters.
Submitted by Independent Perspective (not verified) on Sat Oct. 25, 2008 4:01 PM PDT.
This guy seems like he is trying to get the pitbull to savage McCain.
Jonathan Darman, at TIME http://www.newsweek.com/id/165656
That is last thing this party needs. Ugh! That should end any need to have a GOP at all.
Submitted by Steve in CO (not verified) on Sat Oct. 25, 2008 7:00 PM PDT.
Dear IP,
Puh-lease!
"...back to real conservative politics, as Bush/Cheney were not conservatives..."
If you're not a concern troll, you have been asleep for nearly a decade. Bush and especially Cheney DO REPRESENT the modern GOP and it's version of conservatism. The conservatism you may pine for is dead along with Goldwater and Reagan. Conservatism as a political philosophy will surely survive, tattered and torn by the rape and whoring out it willing submitted itself to in the name of "capitalism," surely as there will always be people searching for a philosophy to excuse their greed and xenophobia as selflessness.
Me, I'm walking around singing a little song (sung to the tune of "Edelweiss" (from Sound of Music) with the word "Schadenfreude"
It's easy:
Shadenfreud, Schadenfreud,
every morning you greet me.
Mugging fraud, some sick broad,
saying 'a big black man beat me'.
Hey, that's just spitballing, running it up the flagpole to see who sets fire to it. You can make up your own verses.
I hear Hollywood is looking at Palin as the next onscreen female action figure (no joke), so we may see her in the next Laura Croft, Tomb Raider, movies.
In any case, it's nice to see Palin making a home for herself with the white-redneck vote (the "real America"), since that's a dwindling demographic.
As an independent Virginian living in a rural area, I can vouch for the changing landscape down here. A lot of people living in small towns these days are not as ignorant as the Republicans seem to think. Some rural folk actually read, have an education, and can think for themselves.
The die-hard biggots and religious zealots are dying off, and the new generation coming in is not as monochromatic or as ignorant of the outside world.
