Why Rovian Attack Style Politics is Back-firing?

[Homer12]

Why? Because we have seen this pattern over and over again when anyone critisizes Buschco or does not back down to their bullying, they attack their oppenents/enemies with ruthless hatred.

It will backfire.

[htuttle]

1. I think I know why it backfires

I think the reason it doesn't seem to work anymore is that the Bush administration has been such an absolute FAILURE on anything they've tried to do themselves.

If things had turned out differently, and if the Bush administration had lived up to the promises they had made about what they were about, and who they were (ie,. 'honesty and integrity', 'heavy hitters in cabinet', 'the grown-ups', etc...), they might have been able to get away with their typical attack politics. But they didn't, and they aren't, and that is becoming obvious to all but the most blindly partisan Republicans.

It's one thing to try and attack your opponents. It's another to do so while being shown as utterly incompetent yourself. A side effect is that the constant, meanspirited attacks remove any feelings of sympathy people might have for them.

[wildeyed]

2. It already has

They have managed to do something no Democrat ever has, unify the Democratic Party.

[Warpy]

3. So far all the mud they've thrown at Kerry has blown back

and stuck to them. Let's face it, Bush really has no record to boast about, and his character is dubious, too. Every horrible thing they can come up with to throw into a campaign commercial is likely to be something that Bush either is or has done.

Trying to get the little SOB elected has got to be the most thankless job in the world.