Pick a meme, any meme
By Steve Benen Friday Jun 27, 2008 12:00pmAs a rule, Republicans appreciate the value in defining the Democratic presidential nominee, and the GOP is usually pretty good at it. In 2000, Al Gore, they said, was an “exaggerator.” In 2004, John Kerry, they said was a “flip-flopper.”
Four years later, the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult. The GOP has experimented with a few different memes, but they haven’t stuck yet. Some even contradict each other.
For months, Karl Rove & Co. has sought to characterize Obama as a dangerous outsider who we don’t really know and can’t trust. More recently, Rove and his cohorts reversed course, and went with the opposite message: Obama isn’t a dangerous outsider anymore, now he’s an elite insider.
This week, Rove used his Wall Street Journal platform to push yet another meme: Obama the narcissist.
Such arrogance – even self-centeredness – have featured often in the Obama campaign.... The candidate’s self-centeredness has been on display before.
Yes, we should reject Obama because the outsider/insider candidate is now concerned about his (cue scary music) ... self-interests.
The bad news for Republicans is that they're stuck with garbled message and an undefined opponent four months before Election Day. The worse news is, these memes are largely nonsensical and easy to disprove.
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Well, hopefully we will have a "meme" for rove in six months ... How does Criminal sound?
Obama's black...no, he's white (he's both).
Obama's against women, er, he's for women (he's got a wife and daughters).
Obama is an elitist who eats at Applebee's salad bar...wait, Applebee's doesn't have a salad bar.
Oh you silly repubs...
I wonder if Rove is collecting McPoints by getting his name on the blogs.
they haven’t stuck yet
And they won't stick on Teflon Obama.
where are the cops for this guy.. Im amazed.
They want Obama to win, that way they can blame the recession on him. They'll tout the GW years as unrivaled gowth hindered by Clinton's ineptitude and then cut short by Obama's misguided spending.
No? I am hearing people complain that the Democrat ruled Congress is spending up the deficit, that GW had under control. The story I hear is "Dems run Congress and the price of gas is $4 When Reps had the Congress is was $2. See See Dems are bad"
Obama is running for President of the United States of America. The most powerful nation in the universe. When he is President every word he utters will be analyzed for weeks. Every time he coughs it will be reported.
Of course he is self centered. By Rove saying that Obama is self centered does that mean that McOld is not self centered?
Next Rove will say that Obama is on a power trip. Or maybe a people loving liberal.
Rove is past his prime and is trying anything to stay relevant.
They'll probably end up with "but he's black" -- and it won't be all that terribly subtle either.
That's the whole point of throwing mud. You just toss it over and hope some of it sticks. The problem is that Repubs have no mud to throw. They are scattering dust (or should I say ashes) that blows away without ever hitting the target.
John McCain is the ideal emblem of the Republican Party this year - old, tired, and pining for a past utopia that never existed.
Get your John McCain - NOPE stickers and t-shirts here.
I believe a case can certainly be made to demonstrate how Obama can be viewed as a flip flopper. He condemned Bush for advocating immunity to the telecom companies but now he believes that is a good thing [why has not C & L reported on this?]. About a year ago he claimed to support the Palestinian people but sold them out when he recently spoke in front of the AIPAC crowd. Obama claims that he was against the Iraq war years ago but has voted each and every time to continue funding the occupation. He claims to be for universal health care but is against single payer while keeping the insurance companies in the equation, thus placing profits over the needs of the people. The only conclusion one can draw is that Obama will say anything in order to claim that coveted centrist position, while proving that the last thing he can claim to be is a liberal.
Karl Rove is no "genius" and never has been; he's characterized only by a total absence of standards. When you have a candidate who hits back, he'll collapse; Obama, it appears, gets this in a way that Gore and Kerry didn't.
For more on how Obama has supported the telecom immunity bill, and how Keith Olbermann has allowed him to slide by on this, please click on the link to read about Obama's less than liberal leanings on this issue.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/27/9924/
Rove always reminds me of the Cop on The Simpsons (Clancy Wiggums) who looks like a pig.
The degree of McCain flip flops is unprecedented. As far as the strategy of throwing a label at Obama and hoping it sticks, just comes across as desperate and avoiding the issues, which they know they are losing. These whiney corporations better run for cover once some competent professional people are put into government instead of the bonehead, partisan ass kissers currently wasting space in government now.
Karl Rove. You know the guy even if you haven't met him. He's the guy in the airport restroom stall with the wide stance, trying to tap your foot.
Obama: vigorous, self-made, highly intelligent, forward-looking.
McCain: ___________
Perhaps my old and feeble mind does not remember correctly, but as I recall, Gore and Kerry both did not refute any of the Republican smears that were thrown their way. Obama does, quickly and succinctly. New Republican rule: Never underestimate the power of the blogs and grassroots activism.
Errol@11 – Did you even read this post?? What happened to the “Obama is the most liberal Senator that ever lived” meme?? Please note that profusely changing meme’s can also be considered flip-flopping.
They might as well go with all of them. He's an narcissistic elite insider secret Muslim dangerous appeaser outsider. Sounds pretty solid if you ask me.
Just remember - Karl Rove is Bush's brain - do we need to say more?
Poor Carl with a K Rove.
He's had his days in the sun .... now he needs to make money for all the lawyers he's going to need.
Somewhere in a warm and sunny climate ..... there is a cell at Gitmo with Carl with a K's name on it.
Enjoy your fat ass now Karl, your old age is scheduled to be behind bars you warmongering son of a bitch.
Obama better think about the standard post-primary "move to the center". He has 2 ways of making through to the Presidency.
1. The McCain campaign has to totally implode from ineffectiveness and economic events, or
2. He has to maintain the excitement he created in the slice of the electorate that doesn't normally turn out to vote. He needs them just to counteract the "anybody but a black man" vote.
He is tacking so centrist, so right, that he runs the risk of alienating those voters by looking like a "typical politician". They won't vote for McCain, they just won't vote.
And he will lose.
Guys like Rove need to stay in the back room. The more he shows himself to the public, the more transparently sleazy he looks. It will soon become apparent that, far from being a “genius,” he’s that grubby little fifth grader who shows his dirty pictures to the other kids. Good luck, Karl.
He's a marxist liberal that is also a secret muslim, and he has a racist christian preacher, who happens to be black.
It must be hard to be a right-winger. That is the sort of pretzel you have to twist your mind in to.
Well, sad to say, any meme will do for some people. They don't want to come out and say point blank that they will never vote for Obama because he is black, no matter what state the country is in or which candidate can be the best president. Not very subtle of Rove, though. He is about as close to calling Obama an uppity black as he can get.
@ 20,
curiousme Says:
Just remember - Karl Rove is Bush’s brain - do we need to say more?
Look at the damage they've done. None of it was due to 'incompetence.' Nobody could live alone who could ACCIDENTALLY fuck up as much of the governing structures of the USof A as Bush/Rove/Cheney have done. This was part of an on-going, attenuated coup d'etat aimed at tripping the citizens of the USofA of every last vestige of democratic, popular self-government and investing all those powers in the Corporate State. Don't for a fuuking MINUTE think there's ANYTHING "accidental" or "incompetent" about any of 'em...
The exit polls will not reflect the vote-count this year for a svery simple reason: a LOT of folks will not vote for Obama, but will tell the exit pollsters they did...
woody, tokin librul @ 27:
Would you do that?
Rove: "Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said... "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."
But that perfectly describes Rove's boy Bush, as evidenced in this attempted snub at a reporter:
The real bad news for Republicans is that the likes of Karl Rove have made Obama viable and possible at all. The millions of new voters that came out during the primaries and caucuses will be pulling DEMOCRAT levers in November for Obama AND many other down ballot candidates with the big "D" next to their name.
Karl Rove Stereotypes Obama as an Uppity Black Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw4da6dw7lA
The reply to a person who admits that they are not voting for Obama because he is black:
Oh, I agree with you, it would be wrong to vote for someone just because they are black. I'm voting for him because he is the better of the candidates.
Try that link one more time:
woody, tokin librul @ 27:
I'll bet you just the opposite is true. Republiscums are to afraid to admit that they know who the better person is, they'll lie about who they voted for just like they are lying now.
Narcissist? WHAT? Did you see the narcissist of the world, David Addington? Or his co hort Woo?
WOW talk about Narcissist! These two take the cake.
They have CHENEY ITIS.
I don't think the narcissist republicans should touch this adjective.
Sorry that this is off topic, but it's funny!
Bill Kristol: Pundit. Chickenhawk. Nose picker?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgUbUTQwHg&feature=related
LOL!
Roket @ 18:
Are you referring to the part in the post which said that "... the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult"? If you had actually bothered to read my comments at #11 and #13, then you would have discovered that what I had written backs up that allegation, as it proves how often Obama changes his positions in an apparent attempt to curry favor among the voters in this country. Like so many Obamamaniacs, you cannot possibly conceive that your man's rhetoric is quite deceptive as well as illusionary.
The only thing that Rove is good at, is being mean as hell to his fellow human beings. He is the essence of the term, heartless bastard.
They’ll probably end up with “but he’s black” — and it won’t be all that terribly subtle either.
Grover Norquist called Obama "[John] Kerry, but with a tan."
I'm sure if someone could take hidden audio recordings of bigwig Republican powwow session we'd hear the "n" word tossed around liberally.
Who are they kidding - we know what they'd like to call him but even the repugs don't think they can call him the "n" word. So they're flopping around trying to come up with something they think will dog whistle to the basest of their base. Basically, Karl thinks he can get away with calling Obama uppity. Karl is no genius just willing to be dirtier and more criminal than the rest. He didn't win the majority for the village idiot in 2000 but had Nader and a Supreme Court willing to throw an election. He probably didn't win 2004 either and was helped but cooperative Secretaries of State in Ohio and Florida to stop Democrats from voting or having their votes count.
Here's a meme for y'all - McCain is a dumbass bottom 1 percenter user who can't control his temper on a good day. Oh yeah, dems da facts.
Defining Obama is actually pretty easy.
He's a muslim and his christian church hates white people.
Oh, and he's kind of an uppity smarty pants too.
rove's schoolyard attacks only serve to highlight the moron in the whitehouse
Obama is the elitist at the countryclub who makes snide remarks about everybody he sees ???
sounds just like george bush
Obama is egotistical and self centered ???
sounds like george bush
in fact, I can't think of a single attack that kkkarl has used against Obama that doesn't describe george bush to a tee
but you just keep trying kkkarl, bless your little heart
every attack you launch costs the repuglitards votes
Check Rove's history. Anything he says or has said about anyone else is, indeed, something he himself personally exhibits. Though I find Rove fascinating, I find those who have not discovered this very fact even more fascinating.
Perhaps the correct strategy is to embrace the insult. Yes, Gore is an exaggerter; we need someone with grandiose vision to lead us. Yes, Kerry is a flip-flopper; he absorbs new information and boldy takes the correct course of action in the face of criticism.
Bobdog @ 9:
LOL. They haven't been subtle about it up until now.
Oh and FYI: Calling a black man "arrogant" is the same as calling him an "uppity n*gg*r in politically correct Karl Rove speech. Just thought you'd like to know.
Jim @ 44:
I don't know about that
in the "country club" quote, kkkarl included a little quip about being there with a "Beautiful date"
unless jeff gannon qualifies as kkkarl's date, I don't think that part fits kkkarl
not even in kkkarl's fantasy
Breaking news from the British Journal of Nutsology.
It is now a proven scientific fact that being republican is proof positive of insanity says Dr Elmwood Futherthom.
All republicans should be treated, and some can recover.
However die hard bush supporters are beyond help and should be quarantined as soon as possible for the greater good of humanity; these people have lost all signs of being human and have become a danger to themselves and others. If republicans are spotted in your area they should be pointed out to local mental health professionals. The sooner the better. That is all.
Erroll @ 37:
Dang, I really screwed that one up. Let's try again.
Erroll @ 37:
Technically speaking, your post quote is taken out of context. Since the subject matter is “Republican memes” the quote should read: “the [Republicans] effort to define Barrack Obama is proving to be more difficult.” Also your statement that “your man’s rhetoric is quite deceptive as well as illusionary” is pure projection. (See next post: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/28/shorter-bonnie-erbe/ )
I hate to burst your bubble but I, for one, completely understand Obama because he has a D behind his name. The people I don’t understand have an R behind their name and seem to be obsessed with wedge issues instead of issues that affect me personally. The only thing that a Republican does that affects me personally takes place behind closed doors and in secret. And that, my friend, is why the Republican Party doesn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell in the 21st century.
Barack Obama and the Ethanol Scam: Serving the Captains of Capital
http://takingaimradio.com/mp3/takingaim080624.mp3
As whee pointed out above, the code words "arrogant" and "self-centered" are words Rove and other right wingers use instead of the underlying message...Obama is an "uppity n*gger" who thinks he's better then us decent white folk.
And this meme will be pushed and assimilated by the Corporate media-that Obama is the "elitist" and McCain is the down to earth guy who loves the common man...even though John's immensely wealthy and most of it comes from his wife, and whatever Obama's earned comes from he and his wife's hard work.
The stupidity and cupidity of the MSM always leaves me breathless!
This is precisely why the Democrats should not make a mistake and design a campaign simply against McCain. The focus must be on the failed policies and discredited principles of the Republican party. I think that's Rove is sensing.
GOP can't do it alone. They need a complicit media!
"Goofus Al and Gallant George
In 2000, the media hounded Al Gore over alleged minor exaggerations. So why does it give Bush a pass when he doesn't tell the truth about life-and-death matters like Iraq and tax policies?..."
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/07/01/bush_press/
The self-absorbed theme shouldn't be a suprise to all you Democrats on here, after all you all have been using it to marginalize Ralph Nader for Decades!
Of all of the dumbest s**t I've heard about in the Dem primaries, the absolute dumbest is the idea that Hillary supporters will vote for McCain, rather than Nader if they don't vote for Obama.
It seems that it is better to help your enemy than to throw your vote away on Nader, the one man who is more democratic than any current democrat at any level, in any state.
Get ready people the two-party system is about to implode, and let's face it George Carlin (RIP) would have loved to have seen it.
Another factor - not known for their creativity, rePIGlics flop about and mess this up too - while liberals have found a way to communicate, unify and fight these threats rather effectively - so there is less damage than in the past.
I derive extreme and devilish pleasure from the fact that rePIGlics CAN'T control the "internets" -- and that this enrages them ....
*
obama is obviously a fraud; he has revealed himself as such; some of his followers ae still in denial, but truth has already been revealed
It's not that the Republicans are good at defining the Democratic presidential nominees. Their tactics are pretty heavy-handed, shallow, and obvious. But since they own the media in this country and have succeeded in dumbing down the US population to such a remarkable extent, their message is what is broadcast most and thus what comes to be believed. It's still clumsy and poorly done, but ubiquity and Americans' assumption that whatever their media broadcasts is the best or the truth or inevitable or the result of popular opinion makes it seem like it's just the cream naturally rising to the top. It doesn't work so well with more educated, more moral populations. Check out Venezuela, where the right wing also pretty much owns the media, but the population ignores it and votes and acts based on the real situation. Americans think they're in the real world but they're actually in a sort of media-generated virtual world, what Joe Bageant calls "the Hologram."
Yep, I've seen this one being fervently copy/pasted by the rusty little RoveBots on the internet and subsequently adopted by the kind of people who like to be told what their opinion is. This, along with the "elitist insider" meme, are some of the weakest examples of Rove's 'genius' inflicted upon us yet.
None of it is being digested by the public, especially not the "All Obama supporters are a brainwashed cult" meme. That one won't work either, Karl, precisely because it reminds the majority of Republicans that they voted for the Bush Cult Of Personality under the guise of "having a beer with" the blue-blood multi-millionaire frat boy politician. You can try and make them project their feelings about Bush in 2000 onto Obama supporters, but as they quietly take their Bush Loyalty Oaths and Bush Pledges down from the walls and put them in the garbage cans of 'Red America' (23% still have them hidden in a drawer somewhere, apparently,) and then proceed to dig dimes and nickels out from under the couch cushions to pay for $5.00-Gallon gas, there's going to be some very different thoughts on their minds in '08: 'I was duped then and I'm being duped now by a glorified schoolyard bully, but I think I will vote my actual interests this time because my children are starving and I can't afford to drive to work.'
Not that anything will stop Rove from beating his 'memes' into the ground like a snotty 4th-grader that tells the same unfunny joke over and over again. The question is: Are Karl Rove's little jokes and pranks paying your rent? No? Well, then maybe you'll want to consider voting against the one guy who's still laughing hysterically when Karl says "pull my finger!": McCain, the last dork who thinks Rove's jokes are funny and has a multi-millionaire wife to pay his rent.
Can you please explain to me why the democrats never label the republicans? Never, ever??
Well, ol fat boy there oughta know something about 'arrogant' as he embodies that word completely. you all recall: his 'math' he sneered at Robert Siegel on NPR back in 2006. well, Karlie, you clearly couldn't add or subtract right that year as you guys lost resoundingly. with someone who employs, nay invents, slash/burn politics and character assassination as regular tactics in running campaigns, he should be careful decrying what he 'thinks' he sees in other campaigns. he's clearly just projecting, but as he is a cut and runner who left Washington early to 'spend time with his family' (ego) who cares what he thinks...no one...he's a failure and a loser and he's fat and ugly.
Outsider.... insider....
So it comes down to this.... the Turd doing the hokey pokey.
Karl seems to get more & more stupid with each passing week. These neocons must be scared shitless knowing Karma's creeping closer & closer to them.
Sometimes I think maybe it's not ALL bad that we made torture legal.
this was all talk radio bushit, created with the coordinated uncontested repetition only possible with the talk radio monopoly. the groundwork of swiftboating of obama will be done on talk radio, as it was done for gore and kerry, and progressives, media analysts and political strategist, who cant listen to talk radio, will attribute these phenomena to social movements instead of the fact that rush libaugh and hannity and co have complete access to 50-70MIL americans with NO risk that they will get called on their lies and exaggerations while they create a huge red velvet bandwagon of GOP talking points and framing for the lazy celebrity talking heads.
Barack Obama is what I call a Purple State Democrat, in that he triangulates like the Clintons, trying to combine liberal, progressive Democratic Party policies with those espoused by Blue Dog Democrats, who are far more conservative than liberal.
Thus, Barack Obama has done some things that have confused both sides of the Democratic Party base, creating concern that he, as president, will not be liberal, progressive enough to offset the ultra-conservative horror of the Bush/Cheney years (as some liberal, progressive Democrats feel), or as some of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats feel, he, as president, will not be conservative enough and will not nominate ultra-conservative, right-wingers to the Supreme Court, thus leaving Roe vs. Wade in place.
So, Barack Obama is walking a Purple State tightrope, trying to appeal to both sides of the Democratic Party base, while not trying to piss off too many of the same people.
Of course, until Obama selects his running mate, we won't really know which way he actually leans. If he chooses a Blue Dog Democrat to be his running mate then we will no doubt see little change from Bush and Cheney. If on the other hand, he chooses anyone but a Blue Dog Democrat to run with him, someone with a longstanding liberal, progressive resume, then "change" and "hope" will actually mean something.
If it were only a matter of disproving, the Republicans would never have been so successful with their memes. I'm very surprised that as sophisticated a political observer and commentator as you, Steve, doesn't know that.
Republican memes are successful because they resonate with emotions, often petty and hateful ones, and cannot be dispelled with logic. Besides, there's almost always a kernel of truth in those memes, even if it's only perceived truth.
There's a lot more work to be done to improve the Democratic "brand" before a lot of the hateful Republican memes can be overcome. I've been shouting it from the rooftops for almost eight years, and nobody will listen.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark LeVine, and probably George Bush never sat at the cool kids table.
The entire country is paying for it now.
You don't get elected as a dog catcher in Chicago without the vetting of the Daley Political Machine. By definition, representing the Daley machine, Obamais an outsider in present day Washington, the machine having lost most of it's influence.
But considering it is ran by a second generation Daley, "Change" is not what it is about with Obama. Old style patronage and race-based government programs, as preached in his church and exemplified by the disfunctional and race based leadership of the Chicago school system what his "Vision" is about. Sorry, Obama is a politician and politics is what they do. He is not a "fresh face", but a survivor of one of the toughest and most corrupt political environments in the country.
Now, McCain, the choice.
There are two things the lobbyist running his campaign let him do whenever he want to - use the bathroom and talk "military sounding stuff". That and his carefully created reputation as an "Independent Maverick" is one of the reasons he is such a valuable front man. When it comes to cash money clients, like getting the military contract from Boeing for the Airbus clients, ( public record ), or going down to Columbia to meet with other clients ( public record ), you see how the decision making process is done there.
I'm sorry Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.
As I was saying,
Your Brain Lies to You
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27aamodt.html
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
But his true color is green, Obama can only speak from the viewpoint of a elitist propped up by big money from the lunatic fringe left of the Democrat Party.
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