The ARG poll yesterday showing that the Bush administration has all but lost the middle has already resulted in a great deal of blog activity. I gave my thoughts and the thoughts of a couple of others over at Middle Earth Journal but today I want to discuss what the Democrats should and more importantly shouldn’t do to take advatage of it.
The Bush administration cannot improve their approval rating based on their policy. In spite of continued rosy assesments from the administration the majority have figured out that things are not going well in Iraq and that the economy is not really as great as the moronic John Snow would like us to believe. As a result expect the Rovian slime machine to kick into full gear. The only way the administration can hope to come out of this is to make the Democrats look worse. There are indications that it may backfire this time. It is essential that the Democrats are very careful not to give the appearance that they are climbing into the same slimy gutter that Rove resides in. There was nothing inaccurate about what Dick Durbin said about GITMO but he could have avoided the inflammatory references to gulags and the Nazis. Howard Dean should continue to criticize the Republicans but should avoid the Rovian inflammatory generalizations that may inspire the base but turn off everyone else. If you fight Rove using his tactics you will lose.
My advice to the Democrats is you can win this round; the polls show that not nearly as many are drinking the kool-aid now. But you won’t win if you you try to out-slime Karl Rove. Take the high road, it’s a winner this time.