Satan weighs in

By "Satan" I of course mean the left's favorite Satan, in the form of Karl Rove (author of every last sinister scheme to disrupt, divide, and destroy the Democrats -- the recent "Crash the Convention" plot being a perfect example).

Today, Rove fiendishly offers the Democrats free advice on Barack Obama's candidacy, in a WSJ piece provocatively titled "Is Obama Ready for Prime Time?" (Hint: that's a rhetorical question.)

Citing numerous problems with Obama, from the "bitter" remarks to the preacher who says AIDS is government genocide, to problems with blue-collar working class voters, to Obama's increasingly vanishing credibility, Rove concludes with observations about Obama's style, and some advice:

...He has been manifestly unwilling to expend his political capital on urgent issues. He has been only an observer, watching the action from a distance, thinking wry and sardonic and cynical thoughts to himself about his colleagues, mildly amused at their to-ing and fro-ing. He has held his energy and talent in reserve for the more important task of advancing his own political career, which means running for president.

But something happened along the way. Voters saw in the Philadelphia debate the responses of a vitamin-deficient Stevenson act-a-like. And in the closing days of the Pennsylvania primary, they saw him alternate between whining about his treatment by Mrs. Clinton and the press, and attacking Sen. John McCain by exaggerating and twisting his words. No one likes a whiner, and his old-style attacks undermine his appeals for postpartisanship.

Mr. Obama is near victory in the Democratic contest, but it is time for him to reset, freshen his message and say something new. His conduct in the last several weeks raises questions about whether, for all his talents, he is ready to be president.

Will this advice be followed? Of course not! Because it comes from Rove, it will be seen as deliberately disruptive, and regarded as about as trustworthy as advice coming from Rush Limbaugh (now pompously calling himself the "C.C-in-C USOC: Commander-in-Chief US, Operation Chaos").

The way the magic works is that by being Karl Rove and actually offering Obama and his supporters some very good advice, he pretty much guarantees that they will reject it! (Similarly, if Satan told a devout Christian to help an old lady cross the street, he'd probably respond by pushing her into oncoming traffic. Such reverse psychology is why the Communist Party went out of its way to work for integration in the segregated South, and it is one of the operative principles of culture wars.)

Hmmm....

Maybe I shouldn't be revealing Satan's secret here. I mean, what if an influential Democrat were to read this blog and tell his fellow Democrats how the Rove plan works?

That would be bad.

Or would it?

Only Satan knows for sure.....

posted by Eric on 04.24.08 at 12:53 PM





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Comments

"Such reverse psychology is why the Communist Party went out of its way to work for integration in the segregated South, and it is one of the operative principles of culture wars."

Are you saying that the Communists were following the Stalinist notion that "worse is better," and only supported integration because they knew it would lead to racial conflagration?

I have long worked from the following approach: (Some) black preacher-leaders wanted integration, in order to expand their political power; Communists wanted to conscript poor blacks to serve as their revolutionary army; thus, Communists supported integration, in order to get the black preacher-leaders to fool the poor blacks into serving the Party. And the preacher-leaders delivered.

Nicholas Stix   ·  April 24, 2008 05:09 PM

But suppose you are working for Rove and trying a double reverse psychology?

Or suppose you are being diabolical (heh) and trying to get some to follow the Rove strategy and others to do the opposite? Conflict and Chaos. A Devil's Specialty.

Well now I'm totally confused. The Devil at work for sure.

M. Simon   ·  April 24, 2008 06:30 PM

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