"Ingrown Coattails"

[Sparkly]

Husb2Sparkly came up with the term -- "ingrown coattails." You know how the president is generally considered so powerful that other candidates of his party can "ride on his coattails" to victory?

This time, most are trying to get rid of the coattails -- but they're ingrown. And they're starting to hurt.

Look at what Josh Bolten came up with as the "Five-Point Plan," designed to put a polish on the coattails. Keep in mind that this is the best they can do for damage control.
From Raw Story:

1) "Deploy guns and badges" -- to play to the conservative base on illegal immigration, using the cloak of Homeland Security.
It's been how many years now, and our borders still aren't secure? (Btw, for the "base" so worried about porous borders and "foreigners," how about the jobs leaking over the borders to southeast Asia; how about our debt leaking over the borders to China; how about $300 billion leaking over the borders to Iraq? "Secure borders" works both ways.)

2) Make Wall Street happy through tax cuts.
Does that really please the "base?" Hmm... It should be pretty easy for Democrats to point out that it hasn't "trickled down" (again). People seem to need to learn that lesson over and over.

3) Brag more ("highlight the glimmer of success in Iraq").
The "glimmer of success" -- uh, I don't think that'll play anymore, beyond a very few lost souls.

4) Reclaim security by playing tough with Iran (On Iran, "Democrats will lose").
Iran is only one letter away from Iraq. Democrats have said for years that Iran was more of a threat than Iraq. They can't play this one either way. Voters won't tolerate another invasion; and every story about Iran's nukes points out the tragic folly of the Iraq debacle.

5) Court the press (offer Tony Snow of Fox News the job of White House press secretary)
Okay, there's where they've got us -- the media (most, not all). But judging by #'s 1-4, it's a pretty tough sell.

Their ONLY recourse is the usual: demonize Democratic opponents until they are totally unacceptable, leaving voters dragging themselves to polls to choose between "the lesser of two evils."

Part of our strategy should be to highlight the "ingrown coattails." They can't run, hide, or surgically remove them. They are all complicit in BushCo's disasters, and they must be held accountable.

[unblock]

1. "ingrown coattails"! good one!

:rofl:

k&r for that alone!