The NYT reports Rove wants Republicans to run on national security in 2006. That is an opening for Democrats, because the Republicans are weak on security right now:
. Republicans were asleep at the switch on 9/11 and didn’t protect us from one of the worst attacks in our history.
. Republicans have botched the Iraq invasion. Thousands of our soldiers are dead and wounded, $235 billion has been spent, new terrorists are being minted, there is no convincing exit strategy, and the price of oil is going through the roof.
. Republicans are so incompetent at national security intelligence that not only were they blindsided on Iraqi WMDs — now they want to spy on us without warrants rather than follow the law.
. Terrorism is up in the past year, according to the State Department.
Security is the last thing Republicans should claim in 2006.
And they didn’t help us then.
If you mean the Kerry campaign:
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1. They never directly blamed Bush for 9/11.
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2. They never directly attacked Bush for Iraqi intelligence failures (In fact, he basically endorsed Bush’s intelligence by saying he would have invaded even if he knew Saddam did not have WMDs).
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3. They never directly repudiated the Iraq invasion.
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In fact, in MHO they never really attacked the Republicans as weak on national security. The most they said, for example at the Boston convention, was that they would be strong.
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The worsening of our position in Iraq since 2004, the rise in global terrorism last year, and warrantless wiretapping are new issues.
The word that need to be repeated again and again is indeed, weak.
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The Republicans in Congress are too weak to stand up to their own president and protect people’s civil rights.
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The Republicans were too weak to tell Rumsfeld to get our troops some armor that matches their courage.
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Bush is too weak to take accountability for his mishandling of the war.
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Republicans are too weak to demand accountability for the looting of funds by contractors in Iraq.
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etc. And it all happens to be true.
The problem is that the “weak democrats” meme is repeated far more than it’s being countered in the media. It’s not that the Republicans are too weak, it’s that they’re not concerned with secondary effects of their actions. We have to give off the ability to defend this country in light of an attack or disaster, and we have to insist on playing hardball with the other side.
…to tie my first post and Bob’s response together. We (the Dems) did try this same meme in ’04, but as Bob pointed out, never directly. Therefore, our attempt to do this in ’04 was weak and depending on how we attempt it again (and by whom), I’m afriad the results will be the same.
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We all hope there is not another attack on the US again. If there is not, then all the Republicans have to do is play the trump card…”what we’ve done is prevented another attack”. Game over. There is a reason Rove wants to run on national security agian…it worked the last time.
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This discussion wants me to do a diary on the “Democrats and National Security” issue. But right now I’m enjoying the weather. Maybe later.