Procrastinet

Blumenthal Brings the Hurt

filed under: Stuff to be pissed off about

From roving reporter StefT (hi mom) comes yesterday's column in the Guardian from Sidney Blumenthal, laying a righteous smackdown on the Administration.

Key quotes:

The party that Nixon built is crumbling. Bush is the candidate of canned talking points and a party whose instincts have become rote and often counterproductive. The "war president" wraps himself in the flag, but the latest code-orange terrorist alert aroused no rally-round-the-flag syndrome; instead, it raised questions about Bush's timing and handling. Rather than campaign on his record, he has challenged Kerry to justify his vote for the Iraq war resolution, and when Kerry explained his reasoning accused him of "nuance". How can Bush change the subject?

With independent voters bleeding away from him, he has taken to stumping with the maverick Republican senator John McCain, his mortal enemy. Can Bush dump Cheney without being seen as desperate and repudiating his entire term? Bush's father owed his political career to Nixon's patronage; now the son is in danger of inheriting the wind.

The article as a whole is more an electoral analysis that watches the sands shift out from under the feet of the GOP (which is heartening in itself).

I'm still not sure I'm ready to jump on the "he'll dump Cheney" bandwagon, for a variety of reasons. Mostly, I'm not sure it would play the way he intends it to - I think now that people are openly questioning the weekly Ridge-a-palooza terror scares, the ground is ripe for a Cheney dump, "medical reasons" or no, to be seen as the desperate, cynical posturing it would be.

And if you think a Bush/McCain ticket would be untouchable, I refer you to this lovely picture from a couple days ago.

Posted by rjt at August 13, 2004 12:00 PM