TIME: The G.O.P.'s Secret Weapon

[kskiska]

You think the Republicans are sure to lose big in November? They aren't. Here's why things don't look so bad to them
By MIKE ALLEN, JAMES CARNEY

The polls keep suggesting that Republicans could be in for a historic drubbing. And their usual advantage--competence on national security--is constantly being challenged by new revelations about bungling in Iraq. But top Republican officials maintain an eerie, Zen-like calm. They insist that the prospects for their congressional candidates in November's midterms have never been as bad as advertised and are getting better by the day. Those are party operatives and political savants whose job it is to anticipate trouble. But much of the time they seem so placid, you wonder whether they know something.

They do. What they know is that just six days after George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, his political machine launched a sophisticated, expensive and largely unnoticed campaign aimed at maintaining G.O.P. majorities in the House and Senate. If that campaign succeeds, it would defy history and political gravity, both of which ordain that midterm elections are bad news for a lame-duck President's party, especially when the lame duck has low approval ratings. As always, a key part of the campaign involves money--the national Republican Party is dumping at least three times as much into key states as its Democratic counterpart is--but money is only the start. "Panic results when you're surprised," says Republican National Committee (R.N.C.) chairman Ken Mehlman. "We've been preparing for the toughest election in at least a decade."

Thanks to aggressive redistricting in the 1990s and early 2000s, fewer than three dozen House seats are seriously in contention this election cycle, compared with more than 100 in 1994, the year Republicans swept to power with a 54-seat pickup in the House. Then there's what political pros call the ground game. For most of the 20th century, turning out voters on Election Day was the Democrats' strength. They had labor unions to supply workers for campaigns, make sure their voters had time off from their jobs to go to the polls and provide rides to get them there.

Now, though, Democrats are the ones playing catch-up when it comes to the mechanics of Election Day. Every Monday, überstrategist Karl Rove and Republican Party officials on Capitol Hill get spreadsheets tallying the numbers of voters registered, volunteers recruited, doors knocked on and phone numbers dialed for 40 House campaigns and a dozen Senate races. Over the next few weeks, the party will begin flying experienced paid and volunteer workers into states for the final push. The Senate Republicans' campaign committee calls its agents special teams, led by marshals, all in the service of the partywide effort known as the 72-Hour Task Force because its working philosophy initially focused on the final three days before an election.

more…
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1541295,00.html

[jaysunb]

1. This is why we have to work like we're

losing.

And don't forget who's spinning this. :evilfrown:

[gumby]

2. Fuck Time.

This is the "official" back story for when the Repubs. steal the next election.

[gully]

3. I wonder if they knew about Foley before they finalized this story?

eom

[Cha]

10. I don't think the little shillers

DID!

[Erika]

4. The Christian conservatives showed up last election

and the fiscal conservatives.

Foley and W's unprecedented spending and growing of government are laughable to them. Vote for him and compromiset their principles.

[gumby]

8. It has been shown that those 'conservatives'

DIDN'T make the difference. That was the 'back story' for the stolen election.

Now, 'Time' is ALREADY providing the 'back story' for the next stolen election.

"Principles" no longer matter.

Voting Machines DO MATTER. No wonder the Repubs are Zen.

[pretzel4gore]

5. they lose by winning....

if the win, they remain at the helm of a sinking ship....no matter how the pigmedia lies, the facts will out in the end, and postponing it just makes it worse; and the nation is ruined real good. But, if they lose, the dems gain power, and will look at alot of what the busheviks have done: again the pigmedia will confuse and confound, but again the the facts will out, and bush and the goonsquad will face justice. the thing is, if the dems regain control, the 'justice' will be tempered by mercy and plain old arse kissing - a good thing for mr gopig. But again, if they win, otoh, an increasingly ruthless kind of 'justice' will hang like a damocles sword over their brainless heads! :) :) :)
i love the gopig dilemma- they must lose, but if they do, they face ruin; if they don't they eventually will face the hangman, that is unless they try to redo the usa as 'paraguay north'...hahaha.....

[joemurphy]

6. This doesn't sound good. n/t

[tridim]

7. If we can't win with polls showing us 15 points up..

Doesn't that prove there's something seriously wrong with our system of Democracy? Time? Anyone?

[yurbud]

15. it no longer is democracy

[Demeter]

9. I Believe "Time" Magazine Is the Secret Weapon, But Not Time

Time has proven itself an enemy of the GOP, with scandals overlapping and not cancelled out by spin. The game has been played to exhaustion, and the GOP is not coming back any time in the next 20 years.

[katty]

11. this is the dampen the Dems, 'don't bother' spin we have DIEbold

[maddem]

12. ?

What?

[yellowcanine]

13. Foley-Gate trumps all of this. October is going to be all about what did

Hastert know and when did he know it? Democratic wave will put seats into play that never would have been in play before, including the seats of House leaders, maybe even Hastert's seat. Wait until it comes out that Foley was having sex with underage boys whom he seduced on the internet - you know he did - the signs are all there. Hastert should have investigated Foley when he found out about the "overly friendly" emails - that is the m.o. of the pedophile and Hastert would have figured that out had he consulted an expert on pedophilia instead of sitting on his fat ass and trying to protect Foley's seat. When all of this comes out - and it will within the next two weeks - Hastert will be forced out as Speaker and maybe even forced to resign himself.

[TrogL]

14. They've forgotten black box voting

[oc2002]

16. Redistricting by the GOP will save them, and they know it. its not magic.

But it is mostly Democratic party incompetance to permit this in the first place. I do not expect sweeping change of house or senate, only an idiot would spout such rosey and unrealistic expectations.

If the dems keep pounding away, and building a real 50 state based party, there is still at least another DECADE before the Dems are even a MATCH to the GOP machine.

And thats the reality, so be patient. the dems did lose it all over night, but it will take decades to recover.