You know Democrats are worried about Senator Obama's chances when post-mortems begin on the first day of the Democratic Convention. Joan Walsh of Salon.com, on MSNBC's Morning Joe program on Monday, August 25, shared with viewers that if Mr. Obama loses it's not because he's black. Newsflash: It's because he ran a flawed campaign.
Hmmm. With friends like this, who needs Republican strategists? Oh, and where did Joan Walsh, the ostensibly neutral editor of the progressive magazine, stand on the Hillary nomination? Come on, Democrats, Independents and disaffected Republicans. McCain's numbers are going up because he overhauled his management team in July and these people are very, very good. It doesn't mean that Barack Obama and the people who surround him can go on vacation for the rest of the campaign. If they haven't already studied Steve Schmidt's, Mike Murphy's, and Mike DuHaime's resumes and tactics, they need to. Go here to learn more.
Here's a hint: Steve Schmidt is the Rove protégé who ran the Bush-Cheney Rapid Response team in 2004 and went on to help a limping California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his re-election campaign, following the super-hero governor's bruising losses on several important ballot initiatives. For the 7 out of 8 of you who do not live in the Golden State, the governor's poll numbers were in the toilet, and California Democrats were arrogantly over-confident. We just knew that Schwarzenegger was going to get his come-uppance.
Add to the mix a bruising Primary Campaign between California's Treasurer Phil Angelides, the progressives' favorite and California's Controller, Steve Westly, the E-Bay millionaire and proponent of bipartisan politics. Sound familiar? Westly hurled mud on Angelides and then Angelides threw mud back on Westly. Or, was it the other way around? No matter. Schmidt caught it all on tape, and when Angelides emerged as the broke and bloodied victor in June to face off against a rested and coffer-filled Arnold Schwarzenegger, none other than Westly's words damning Angelides during the Primary, were used by Schmidt, on behalf of the Schwarzenegger team, to sink Angelides.
Schmidt's latest commercial, featuring Hillary, in her own words, condemning Obama, is so text-book Schmidt and Rove, that the Democratic response should have already been in the can. And it should have featured Hillary and Bill hitting back hard against the machine surrounding John McCain on behalf of Democratic voters and values. If anyone knows how effective these guys are, Bill and Hillary do.
So. I take it back. If Obama loses in November with what we know about how very good the Rove-trained Steve Schmidt and Mike Murphy are, we did screw it up. And I'm not letting Hillary off the hook on this. She knows what Obama, and therefore the 99% of Huffington Post readers who are not benefiting by the Bush-McCain tax cuts, need, and perfunctory ain't it. And this isn't about getting in the gutter. This is about educating voters as to just how closely aligned John McCain is to Bush policies and cronies.
And it should also wake up Hillary voters who are crossing over to McCain, that there is a reason why Republican strategists and money have coalesced behind John McCain.
If you didn't like the last eight years -- be very, very scared.
The same people pulling the strings behind John McCain will demand their due in November.