Well, I guess they don’t have any new ones. Glenn Reynolds says no one should have expected a a mistake-free war. But whence this straw man? Who has ever said that? But let’s review: a humiliatingly bollixed war rationale, a completely bollixed post-war campaign, a bare chance of getting through the next few months in Iraq without calamity, a clear increase in terrorism within Iraq, the slow loss of most of our allies, and, with Abu Ghraib, the end of our moral high ground. These are “amazing accomplishments”? Yes, I guess they are. When you run the most powerful military in the history of the world, and had plenty of time to prepare, fucking things up this badly is somewhat amazing.
THE SAME OLD ARGUMENTS II: And then my good friend Michael Barone says that all the slime and negative campaigning has come from the Democrats. Has he been asleep for the last several months? Of course, there have been vile, rancid distortions from the Michael Moore wing; and if you read this blog, you will not have missed them. But it wasn’t the Kerry campaign that launched a direct attack on the other guy’s war-medals; or deployed every anti-gay slur known to man in critical races; or accused those who worried about missing munitions of attacking the troops; or implied that a vote for Kerry would mean a nuke going off in a major city. Both sides have been down and dirty in this campaign. But the sheer viciousness of the anti-Kerry tsunami, unleashed early and often and without cease, was remarkable for its negativity and desperation. Again, people have noticed. That’s why a war president with a buoyant economy cannot get outside the margin of error in the closing days. People recognize a negative campaign when they see one.
The Dish 