Control the message, control the debate
Michael Kinsley has a column in today's Washington Post that echoes a theme I've been circling around here for a few weeks and pulls it together in a cohesive (and more eloquent) form.
His basic premise, like mine, is that the Democratic Party isn't devoid of ideas - they just lack the creative leadership to play the game to win, and to properly frame the arguement. His main example - the ginned up outrage over Hillary Clinton's plantation remark - is the perfect demonstration. Prominent leaders on the right (Newt Gingrich, Paul Gigot, WSJ Editorial Page, Dick Cheney) have all used the phrase without outcry. Hell, Cheney actually went to a plantation.
But somehow the conventional wisdom has become that Hillary was pandering and playing to racist stereotypes. And, the fact that she was absolutely right in labeling the House of Representatives a plantation gets no ink or examination.
Despite massive Republican scandals, declining real wages, increasing poverty, more uninsured, a byzantine, dangerous foreign policy and on and on, the big discussion is Hillary and pandering. Bush will try to further shift the debate on Tuesday night in the State of the Union address, moving attention away from his string of failures and corruption towards his usual, "Vote Republican or the terrorists will get you" schtick.
Will the Democrats let him get away with it again?
His basic premise, like mine, is that the Democratic Party isn't devoid of ideas - they just lack the creative leadership to play the game to win, and to properly frame the arguement. His main example - the ginned up outrage over Hillary Clinton's plantation remark - is the perfect demonstration. Prominent leaders on the right (Newt Gingrich, Paul Gigot, WSJ Editorial Page, Dick Cheney) have all used the phrase without outcry. Hell, Cheney actually went to a plantation.
But somehow the conventional wisdom has become that Hillary was pandering and playing to racist stereotypes. And, the fact that she was absolutely right in labeling the House of Representatives a plantation gets no ink or examination.
Despite massive Republican scandals, declining real wages, increasing poverty, more uninsured, a byzantine, dangerous foreign policy and on and on, the big discussion is Hillary and pandering. Bush will try to further shift the debate on Tuesday night in the State of the Union address, moving attention away from his string of failures and corruption towards his usual, "Vote Republican or the terrorists will get you" schtick.
Will the Democrats let him get away with it again?
posted by John at 1:50 PM
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