Marginal Footnotes

After the relatively harmless but momentarily frightening incident of John Kerry’s bad(ly interpreted) joke about the Bush administration, it’s particularly clear that the major challenge for Democrats going into the last 48 hours of this election cycle is to avoid derailing their own gravy train. Democrats are going to win the House; the Senate looks increasingly winnable. The trick is to simply allow the Republicans to destroy themselves, and it’s true that the GOP has been eating its own babies at least since but probably well before the Foley affair. 

Thomas Ferraro has a quick piece in Reuters today demonstrating the new Rovian Democratic strategy for winning elections: Not Losing. His thesis is that Democrats historically fuck it up and have therefore remained in the Minority party on the Hill. I think that’s a wee bit of an oversimplification of electoral dynamics in America, particularly since 1994. But whatever. I think the important point now is that the ground has shifted. Support for conservative ideology is dead, in retreat or in hiding. That all Democrats have to do is to avoid saying something idiotic enough to turn people off is, finally, a positive remark about the American voter.

–mpd

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