Signs that the Bush campaign is falling apart

All along in the fake furor over Kerry's remark about Mary Cheney, I've thought that the very fakeness of the furor was evident in the fact that there's furor at all. If in fact the Republicans want to hide her sexuality so badly, they would not be furiously reminding you of the fact that she's a lesbian from the op-ed pages of every newspaper in this country, making sure that every single person who didn't know before knows that she's a lesbian now. If they were truly worried, they'd be sweeping it under the rug right about now.

Jake's post about how frustrating it is to hear that this is all anyone is talking about so close to the election when there's a war and health care issues and all sorts of things that are the real issues are not being talked about made me realize something. The Bush campaign no doubt swept that debate back and forth looking for a quote to single out and spin to death so that they didn't have to talk about everything that Kerry brought up on domestic issues, jobs and health care in particular. It took them a couple of days--remember how the Republican noise machine didn't start squawking about this immediately? Sadly, the news media gave it right to them by repeatedly asking the Cheneys about it, making them realize that if they played along, they could be assured that no one would slip up and start talking about jobs and health care and all those things that will make people vote for Kerry.

That they are making sure that everyone is talking at length about how the V.P.'s daughter is a lesbian demonstrates that they are desperate. Anything is better than talking about this issues at this point--even talking about something that is probably going to drive away a few Republican voters is better.

If Kerry loses this election, let's be calm and not dogpile the poor man. Seriously, what is he supposed to do? He's up against a President who outspent him by twice, has a propaganda minister who clearly models himself on Goebbels (Don't invoke Godwin's law on me--it's obvious he does. Two of Goebbels' favorite techniques were to scapegoat and to conflate the party with the local religions.), and a media that is complicit with the Republican party, no doubt because they prefer their spectacle to the Democrats' dryness. That Kerry will surely win the plurality of the vote speaks to us as Americans, that we still have some independent thought in this country under a deluge of propaganda that would bury a nation that didn't value freedom and independence the way we do.