Campaign Realpolitik: A friend sends this excerpt from a Wash Post chat today with political reporter Chris Cillizza:Republicans have always -- or at least for as long as the Fix memory lasts -- adopted a realpolitik approach to political campaigns.
That is, they use tactics that work -- whether or not they are "fair". Republicans are, typically, far less concerned about the approval of newspaper editorial boards and the so called "eastern media elite" than their Democratic counterparts, a fact that allows them almost total freedom when it comes to how they conduct their campaigns.
Democrats, on the other hand, always promise to play as down and dirty as Republicans but when the rubber hits the road tend to back off somewhat.
The one Democratic politician in recent memory who didn't follow that blueprint was Bill Clinton; it's no accident he is the last Democrat to win elected office.
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