A reader writes about my discussion of Bill Maher’s political instincts and Bob ‘Worse Than Useless" Shrum:
I have had many, many discussions about what the 2004 race would have looked like if Rove ran Kerry’s campaign instead of Bush’s. Think how often you would have seen this ad:
The morning of 9/11, Bush being told America is under attack. He doesn’t get up. Start the clock on the bottom. Go split-screen. On the right, we see what the firemen and police were doing in NYC at exactly the same time – rushing to the scene, making plans, acting. In the left half you’d see a man frozen. In the right half you’d see nothing but action and the beginnings of heroism.
Cut to three or four minutes later. On the left side of the screen Bush is still sitting there, paralyzed. On the right side of the screen, firefighters and police officers are rushing into the building. News crews are moving in. Everyone is moving. Just not the President.
Cut to six minutes in. Same thing.
Come back to Bush, full screen, in the moment where he actually begins rocking back and forth a bit.
Tag line beneath Bush: "On 9/11, George W. Bush froze."
"Is this the man you want in charge when the next attack comes?"You could have run that ad over and over again, using footage from different points in the attack on the right, with the same frozen president on the left side. Over and over.
The theory is pure Rove – what’s Bush’s strong point? People liked him on 9/11. So what do you go straight after? How Bush reacted on 9/11. Luckily, you didn’t even have to make it up – and you had video tape to prove it.
In my view, the only successful Democratic campaign in 2008 will run on how to win the war, despite this administration’s record of incompetence, brutality and arrogance. But my best bet is that they’ll hire Shrum again, and lose.
(Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty.)
The Dish 