How not to play Rove style politics

[NJmaverick]

Rove is a very intelligent man. He seized on the crude tactics employed by the Clinton White house and took them to a whole new level. This level allowed the Republicans to seize the White House for 2 terms and Congress for 6 years. While these tactics were wildly successful, they can be tricky to use. If used improperly they can backfire. Now Hillary is an almost text book example of a candidate ready and willing to employ Rove's tactics, but failing to do it right. Consider some of the tactics:

1) Lean heavily on Mole Hill politics- Understand that the media is lazy and desperate for news. With skillful manipulation almost anything can be made into a major "issue". Now Hillary has leaned heavily on this tactic, since she fell behind in the primary race. Unfortunately for her, she failed to understand the one condition required to make this tactic work- The candidate should NEVER be the one creating the mole hill. The candidates roll is to stay above the fray. The occasional "that's a good question" or "I would like to know more" is OK, but never be the one making the accusations. That's why it was the SWIFT BOAT LIARS, that went after Kerry's war record. Bush didn't do that, because he knows how bad that would have made him look.

2) Learn to lie skillfully- Again the media is lazy and rarely will check the facts. So there is no problem with playing fast and loose with the truth. Hillary has employed this tactic as well, but again she failed to realize an important rule when using this tactic- Don't tell a lie that the disproving of can be news itself. In other words, it's OK for Cheney to deny saying something, he did. The media is not in the business of boring corrections, so they will not make a story out of your simple lie. If on the other hand you make up an elaborate story about snipers and danger, and there is a video of you getting a flower from a little girl...

3) Find negative personality traits that you can attribute to your opponent. Better yet take a positive and spin it as a negative. For example Kerry is a thoughtful man that is capable of admitting he had a wrong view or opinion and will correct himself. Spin that into he is a flip flopper. You can affix other negative traits to your candidate, if their appearance allows for it. In other words, they were able to affix the elitist label on Kerry, not because he was an elitist, but rather his awkward appearance could be misinterpreted that way. Now the key here is to take what they give you. While you would love to affix other traits on your opponent, they have to work.
Here Hillary messed up because she tried to paint a very charming, charismatic and personable man as an out of touch elitist. That didn't work, because there was no believability factor. Had they gone for arrogant, they might have had more success, as Obama's confidence could be spun as arrogance.

[writes3000]

1. Great analysis. You're so right about #1 but I think Clinton...

was so desperate to drum up any controversy, she couldn't wait to be on the front lines crying wolf every time. Big mistake. Oh well.

[Swamp Rat]

2. 'How not to be seen.'

"I said some things I knew not to be the case" - Hillary at last night's debate.



"Mrs. Smegma has not learnt the first lesson." :D

[4themind]

3. Totally agree on point 1 especially

George bush was not pushing the Mccain "black-baby" deal direcly, instead just leak out rumors across the "internets". He had a 527 group of swiftboaters to damage kerry, not george harping on it 24/7, rather he'd burnish up his own so called "credentials" as CIC. Rove would let the hounds attack, while letting the candidate propose the "logical" alernative. I abhor these kinds of poliics, bu hillary's a relative amateur when it comes to playing them.

[NJmaverick]

4. That's pretty much it, Rove understood the importance of letting

others do the dirty work. It's not unlike a message board. If someone attacks another person, the victim is lessened, but the attacker much more so. So Rove realized if he let others do the attacking, he could lessen the opponent, with out suffering any damage. The attackers become nothing more than highly effective pawns to be sacrificed.

[PoliticalAmazon]

5. If you are a solid candidate, you don't need Rove tactics. It's only when you are weak...

...and can't run on your own merit that you must stoop to Rove tactics.

Bush Jr was weak so needed Rove tactics.

Hillary Clinton obviously feels she could not win on her own merits, so is using Rove tactics.

[NJmaverick]

6. Good point, that's why Obama has been successful

with out using these tactics.

[IsItJustMe]

7. K&R