That’s what Day 1 of the DNC seemed like today. It was “last eight years horrible McCain equals Bush hope change health care Barack was a community activist out of Iraq responsibly.”
So, David Axelrod is the Democrat Party’s sole speechwriter now?
I watched it gavel-to-gavel today. (No, I’m not ordinarily a sadist.) One thing that jumped out at me was the dichotomy that took place at 7 o’clock (8 Eastern). Before 7, I saw kind of a kooky looking motley crew of an audience, holding handwritten signs. The speakers tended to be more strident and radical, some speaking in Spanish. Also, the music before 7 seemed to be provided by a bad house band that you’d hear in a crummy bar.
After 7, the audience seemed to get somewhat more respectable, the speakers more “mainstream,” the recitation of Axelrod talking points more precise, the signs professionally printed, and the music more slick and polished.
This has been the Democrat Party playbook for as long as I’ve had a conscious memory. Behind the curtains, pander all out to blacks and (increasingly now) Hispanics. In front of the curtains, hide the pandering and appeal to whites’ economic frustration. And pray that the media don’t blow your cover.
David Brooks wrote in the NYT yesterday that, the DNC strategy will be the “genericificaton” of Barack Obama. He says that a generic Democrat beats a generic Republican by a wide margin in polls, so the DNC has to make Obama more “generic,” while turning McCain into George W. Bush. The trouble with that is that you can’t paint Obama and Michelle white. That dog won’t hunt for much of anybody.
Also, tonight, former Republican former Congressman, Iowa “moderate” Jim Leach, spoke at the DNC and endorsed Obama, which was the only speech of the night that didn’t come off the Axelrod mimeograph. What happened to Leach in 2006 also happened to a lot of lib-mod Republicans that November, like Lincoln Chaffee and Mike DeWine. They all got bounced for real liberals and Democrats. And now, they’re taking their anger out on their former party, even as their former party is getting ready to moderate one of their ilk for President.
Needless to say, I’m not watching gavel-to-gavel tomorrow.
