I guess we could easily go around calling the GOP a bunch of inbred idiots who have destroyed the U.S. economy and damaged our military but I choose not to do that.

Instead I'll just say that the GOP makes a habit out of giving handouts to the rich and stealing from middle and working class families.  They would rather give tax-cuts to the rich and spend 20% of tax revenue paying interest on the national debt and loans to the Chinese, than providing our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with the kind of benefits that they deserve.

but then you'd be sticking to the facts.  What kind of craziness is that?  :-)

Pointless (and mindless) word association games are the tactics of the Republican Party - which says a lot about the low disregard they have of their own core constituency.

I'm equally appalled at the notion that a Presidential candidate (much less any regular citizen) can't use their middle name without people associating them with a terrorist.  Er, technically an executed dictator, but I suspect those who project traits based upon names wouldn't appreciate the difference.

I sure hope people are paying more attention to JPTERP's facts than foolishness like this.  And I hope Obama does use his middle name instead of hiding from it to woo the votes of a few numbnuts.

The fact that they are calling attention to the fact that they are not going to use "Hussein" is, in fact, calling attention to the name they said they wouldn't call attention to.

Besides, I didn't see a press release by the VA GOP saying they won't discuss Obama's trout fishing habits.  Or lack thereof.  Why?  Because it isn't relevant at all.  So if his middle name was irrelevant to them, they wouldn't be discussing it at all.

It obviously is relevent, to voters, to the Obama campaign, to everyone, in the sense that it can be used pejuratively.

(Almost like George "Felix" Allen, but I digress).

I think you're reading far too much into this. The statement released said we will conduct a civil campaign against Senator Obama. It then later details the shameful actions of another state's Republican Party.

If you honestly think that this was a hidden smear attempt, I think you dramatically overestimate both how many people read these press releases, and how much influence they have.

but if they're going to run a clean campaign, then why not just make that statement and then go run a clean campaign?  Why even bring up examples of dirty campaigning?  Or, if they felt that need, why not list all the dirty tricks they could think of (there are plenty of them out there).  

Ultimately you're right, that this will receive little if any play outside of political circles so very little damage could be done.  

I think the point we're seeing is that they just couldn't help themselves and had to mention that middle name thing even though a mention was completely unnecessary to make a point about campaigning cleanly.  

Do you know what John McCain's middle name is? I don't. Because who cares, right?

So why put out a press release about Obama's middle name if not to draw attention to it? The way to prove you're not a racist is to act like it doesn't matter. I'm surprised they didn't include in this press release that McCain has a black friend.

but it's Sidney...

What you're describing is just a linguistic game -- the intention is obvious enough.

The Catch-22 rests in the fact that many in the Republican base forget the real "Catch-22" -- that the GOP at the federal level and even at the state level -- has done absolutely NOTHING for them.  In fact they are worse off under 7 years of GOP leadership than they were before.

So the state party pulls out some linguistic games to keep the base amused rather than actually working to make a positive difference in their lives (part of the problem is that the GOP base is easily duped by the GOP leadership).

I'm not banking on them figuring out the game, but quite a few of us are wise enough to the games that the GOP leadership plays with its base.

Why would the RPV post a press release about a fundraising letter?

The press release matter was in reference to the Tennessee GOP.

... RK can never talk about anything negative the GOP says, because that would just be "continuing the smear." From now on if, say, a US senator calls a guy "macaca," we'll just pretend it never happened. Great plan!

How is this different than the Felix references from two years ago

This crap is going to go on no matter what.  

I will note that RK has been much better in avoiding the use of disparaging names over the past year or so than how it used to be.  Bravo for staying above the fray.  

"Felix" used in fundraising letters by the state Democratic party?

Do you think "Felix" and "Hussein" carry the same resonance with audiences?

Part of the irony here is that the whole joke is one that is being played on the GOP base -- they were the target audience for both attacks (Webb's campaign strategists also used the name "Felix" in press releases in part to tweak Allen who by his own admission didn't like his middle name).

I think it is also quite a statement about how both Virginia GOP leadership and Webb's Democratic strategists seem to share nearly the same views about the GOP base's appreciation of "strange" and "different" middle names.  If strange middle names didn't have such power over the GOP base, I think both the GOP leadership and Webb's Democratic strategist wouldn't have even bothered using the middle names in the first place.

"Walker". Yeesh.

I remember macaca well. Up until that point when George Allen handed us the election, we wern't catching on with our parodying "felix the cowboy yeeehah." I think voters yawned at that as it was in summer when no one was paying any attention to a dismal race that George Allen,the clear favorite was going to win anyway, and besides,who pays attention to those non Presidential races anyhow. Then macaca happened and changed the race forever. So back to my origanal point.  I think its apparent, the country wants to move forward, not just beyond this administration but beyond slavery and the civil rights issues.  Also, Bush is not the most popular president right now, even with independents.  If the GOP talk about Barak Hussein Obama's terrorist sounding name, it might focus attention on the fact that we haven't found Osama yet because we went after Saddam Hussain-who is now dead, and we're stuck in a costly war.  Then there's the fact that the radiowingnuts have already made a big campaign about how many times John McCain has stabbed the GOP in the back-as Rush were to say it. So the GOP will still have the issue-as it does right now-all over Washington media publications-of how to suck in their gut and vote for a guy they despise.  And by the time the working on the base to vote for McCain campaign is done, the election will be over with.  

clever way to get under George Allen's skin.  Looks like it worked, by the way...

Given the susceptibility of the great American middle class to advertising cliches, the Republican employment of Madison Avenue techniques, including branding, is perfectly logical... so where are the Democrats in responding? It has been proven repeatedly that rational discussion of facts does not, repeat not, wash out and overcome the relentless Republican branding and advertising (i.e. "smear").

While Obama's response to McCain's jab about Al Qaeda-in-Iraq was appropriate and well done, it does nothing to respond to and overcome the 527's and the RNC's gimmicky but effective smears, and Obama cannot afford to lower himself to respond specifically himself in most cases. It will be up to the Democratic Party and progressives to do so, and on two levels. One, by devaluing and undermining the anti-Obama smears and Two, by going after McCain with similar catch phrases and reducing any perceived superiorities he has.  That is, attack his strengths.  Such as? Straight talk, maverick, military expertese, reputation as a moderate on the one hand and on the other, highlighting to conservatives what they don't like about his record. Key words to emphasize might be "old" and "ill," "windjammer" or "McSwitch" (for his flipflops to please Bush and the base), "if you liked Bush, you'll love McCain" and so on for example. Any other ideas?  

Come on guys, this is a great opportunity to mention all the things we'll never mention in the campaign. Oh yea, ya mean like how John cheated on his first wife and went off with Cindy, who's had a real tough bout with drug (pain killer) dependency. Let's see what else should we never mention, oh yea, what about the Keating 5....come on let's fill this out...

when the GOP was at the helm on 9/11, let bin Laden escape, invaded another country that did nothing to us at the cost of $ 2 trillion and counting, single bid the vice-president's company to rebuild what he ordered bombed, bungled the occupation of Iraq, bungled Katrina, tortured, trashed the Constitution, sent the country trillions into debt, trashed this country's reputation worldwide, got hoodwinked by the Pakistanis, practiced GOP laissez-faire economics with the price of oil and subprime mortgages etc etc etc?

Senator McCain wants us to occupy Iraq for another hundred years.

He admits to being weak on economics, but apparently feels that's no detriment to him presiding over the world's largest economy.

Presumably he can count and do some basic addition.  So, lessee, we've been in Iraq since 2003 and we've spent or are on the hook for, oh, to be generous and rounding down, say, $ 2 trillion.  That's about $ 400 billion a year for the first 5 years of this debacle.  95 years to go x $ 400 billion = whoops, my virtual calculator just started sparkin' and smokin'.  It's real simple:  just ask McCain how exactly he intends to pay for it.  And keep asking.

Here's the deal, gang.  It's in the interests of the forces of darkness to drag Senator Obama into penny ante BS.  Don't cooperate.  The GOP is the party of oil and war and national debt and corruption and incompetence.  Just keep reminding the voters of that.

When it comes to reasons why not to vote for either candidate, we have a laundry list of failure, incompetence, and corruption on Republicans while they've got, um, name games.  So even though they're playing dirty with the Hussein and Obama/Osama name games, I'd gladly play our cards against those any day.

1.  No attack on the 'homeland' since 9/11.

2.  Helped persuade -- along with the Brits and Kaddafi's sons -- Libya to cease their wmd programs and foreswear supporting terrorists.

Plus, hmmm, urrh, ummm, well, something else ...  ?  Drawing a blank here.  Anyone?  Am I leaving something off the list of GOP accomplishments?

Its the old..."In our campaign, we will stick to the issues and not discuss the lurid details of candidate's XYZ's infidelities and multiple DUI's ..we just won't do that."..Well guess what..they just did.

Just like campaigns of the past... there will be plenty of 527's and other groups waiting in the wings to share their views on the matter.  
 

"Hussein" as in "He's sane", "McCain" as in "In Pain"...