Rovian Strategy Dead???

Arianna Huffington posted a piece to HuffPo today that sounded the death knell for rovian campaign tactics. Very hard to swallow that suggestion with a clear head.

Arianna cites the reach of the Internet in fighting smears and repeated lies, bemoaning the utter uselessness of the mainstream media in actually reporting facts. She ignores, however, the fact that the Internet is also filled with lies and smears. And with comcast and verizon working hard to control the Internet, we're only one bad piece of legislation away from the same meltdown that hit the media after ronnie ray-gun killed the Fairness Doctrine.

I can only agree that the impact of rovian tactics is not working for mccain in this election.

I cannot agree that rovian tactics will no longer work. Too much empirical evidence suggests otherwise.

There are roughly 45% of the entire voting population that believe what mccain's goon squad campaign is telling them. That is a staggering number of people. If it were 20%, then I'd be willing to hop aboard this happy bandwagon.

Update 11-8-2008: In a pot-election Rasmussen poll, 64% of Republicans want the palin to run for President in 2012. Her entire shtick was rovian slanders and backroom skulduggery. Again, a little early to declare death to the approach.

We have a very likable, credible, rational candidate on our side against a very unlikable, grouchy candidate whose credibility is utterly bankrupt. But what if we had Hillary Clinton on the ticket against mccrotchety? Are you willing to guarantee that the smears that would have been hurled at her would have fallen away so easily? Yes? Probably right.

But what if the Rs had picked Romney or someone else a ton more likable than mccain? What if the economy wasn't in freefall? I think she'd sink like a rock under the attacks.

Keep your eyes on the ball, folks. Rovian tactics are highly effective. I think Obama has done extremely well. But I confess to being disappointed by the fact that he could counter those tactics and break the blind lemmings out of their stupor by turning mccain's rovian strategy into an issue. We're tired of the health care ads (dear gawd, make them stop!) - deliver ads that delineate the lies and misleading statements, mapping to "how DC works."

And don't think for a minute the RNC hasn't learned a lesson from this. They will adjust. Expect a tidal wave of web sites to arise over the next couple years to "watch" the Obama administration. They will spread these sites and their continued torrent of lies into the 45% - just like "conservative talk radio" has exploded since ronnie tore down the walls of journalistic integrity. They will push hard to get more "ownership" of the Internet into the hands of corporate content managers like comcast and verizon so they can begin censoring and throttling access to sites like HuffPo.

In short, they are NOT going to toss away the text book, shrug, and say, "Well, I guess we have to come up with another plan!" They are going to rebuild the breached walls.

We need to teach people how to stop getting duped by liars. THEN we can declare the rovians dead. When media cartels are shattered and Fairness Doctrine is restored, I will begin to relax. But not before.