Josh Marshall: Bush campaign's clinging to Reagan sign of desperation

[lancdem]

Now, earlier today I noted how the Bush campaign has replaced the front page of their website with a Reagan tribute, with a huge picture of the late president backgrounded with flags, accompanied by links to a Reagan tribute video, links to President Reagan's most famous speeches and statement of his praise for President Reagan by President Bush.

Now, how many days of leaving the site that way will it take before people start to see the obvious: that President Bush's campaign staffers believe that pushing their own guy isn't a particularly good political strategy and that bashing Kerry or grasping on to Reagan nostalgia is far preferable?

Now to a related point. I've got a number of notes from people (few of them Bush supporters in the first case, of course) who are outraged by the Bush campaign's unabashed exploitation of Reagan's passing as part of their reelection campaign effort --- the morphing of the Bush website into the Reagan tribute website being a key example.

Yes, it's crass and cynical. But it's also a tad desperate. And that's the more important point, I think. Having watched the Bush White House for some time and seen them try all manner of crude and crass political gambits, very few of them, in my recollection, haven't ended up biting them in the behind.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com

[LittleApple81]

1. Good analysis. I can see Bush*...like a squashed bug clinging to

the sole of a clown's shoe.

[Beetwasher]

2. Rove Is A Moron

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's pathetic really. How many hair brained schemes will he try before he realizes how stupid he is? It didn't work in 2000 when they had to rely on the SC to install the chimp. He didn't WIN an election, he lost and he's going to lose another one because he's an idiot and has no clue what the fuck he's doing.

[iconoclastic cat]

6. He's Lucy---but where's Ricky to set him straight?

Smack, smack!

[iconoclastic cat]

9. And no, I'm not saying domestic violence is funny...

sheesh...

[elperromagico]

7. The "Boy Genius" label is a bit silly.

His talent seems to be winning local races... but getting a Republican elected in Texas or Georgia isn't really much of a feat, is it?

One thing's for sure: He's no Lee Atwater.

[Beetwasher]

11. True That!!

Rove is such a jeeenyus!!! He got a Repub elected in Texas with a bankroll that would make a Rockefeller swoon!!

[MadinMD]

3. Remember how Wellstone bit us in the ass?

Apparently the republicans don't....

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Cue Nelson: "Ha, ha!"

Yep. Ask not for whom the bell tolls...

[burythehatchet]

5. I am in complete agreement with Mr. Marshall in that

the bushitas are in a vortex. There is nothing they can do to dig out o fthis hole. Every trick used in the past three years has been over-used and they have nothing left. Its like going into extra innings and realizing you have no pitchers left.

My heart bleeds for them...not

[rumguy]

8. Bush is the most shameless opportunistic bag o' scum ever

His site goes from mocking Kerry - there was virtually no discussion of Bush himself - to an attempt to be all somber...

what a joke!

[MajorFlaw]

10. If shrub was the product you were trying to sell, wouldn't you

try to focus on the perceived shortcomings of his opponent. As Gore said to Quayle during their debate, "Everything that should be up is down, and everything that should be down is up." I think that shrubco has realized that focusing on his own record is a losing proposition.

[PATRICK]

12. Once exposed

you never get trust back for this kind of exploitation. Both Rove and Bush expect to win with these methods, but everyone knows it. You are NOT supposed to know it for such arrogance to work. More and more people, even counterintuitivelly, people who "support" Bush and his policies will not vote for him no matter what.

Nixon commented on the rt rust the people bestow on a President. Once revoked, that's it. This is not just a slump but an irreversible exodus of trust by the angry, the abused. the suckers played too often- even if they don't get everything that is going on.

A national mood like this combined with the power of Kerry and a united Dem campaign should be devastating. I only pray that nothing devastating adds more useless death and suffering into the death throes of the Bush misadministration.

Today we are burying Bush.

[lancdem]

13. That's why I think Bush is in serious trouble

When people sour on an incumbent in the fourth year of his presidency, he doesn't get them back. Period.

[Justice]

14. They are Trying to Show that Reagan Was the Beginning

of an era that is continuing in Bush. I heard Fineman talk about this last night, every so gently. Chris Matthews actually kept arguing with him about it - didn't believe it. Chris kept making the contrast - not the similarity. They were actually a little tense with each other by the end of the piece.