The Smell of Fear

I'm watching Zell Miller on Meet the Press. It's pretty surreal. He comes across as nothing more than a bitter old man. Tim is pretty much ripping him to shreds - in his kittenish way, of course. Still, it's a pretty pathetic performance. Sounds like a whiny little jilted lover, 14 months after the break up. You know, well after you've heard both sides of the story and are now just sick of hearing the same petty and twisted complaints over and over and over?

Geez, Zell. Grow up and stop your bitching and just join the Republican party. So the democratic party has changed. Big Fucking Deal. Take your bags and join your new friends. Just get off the frickin' television and let the adults discuss things.

Speaking of whiny weasels, I caught Howie Kurtz on CNN's Inside Politics this morning. What a sleazy whore. Still when Kurtz is going to discuss "are the media over reacting to Kerry's speech", you just have to have a big grin. Kurtz is going to bitch and whine about something, and so when he's bitching and whining about how the media is going overboard praising Kerry, then I just have to thank the fictional gods I worship and pray for more rain on this information parched wasteland we call America.

It really does seem that the only power these jackals have is the power of seeming certain. And now that same power just makes them look like out of touch bozos who don't live in the same universe as the rest of us. And the disconnect is reaching stunning levels, isn't it? I was reading about the record breaking 445 Billion Dollar Deficit we're going to have this year. And the Bush party line was truly pathetic. The major talking point seemed to be that it wasn't as big as they projected it was going to be. Like they had done something drastic, wise and staved off even worse disaster than the news currently is.

Like I said, incredibly weak. The only thing that pathetic does is at best confuse the dim witted Donald Luskins of the world, who are a lost cause anyway. The more brighter bulbs in the bunch will scratch their heads and kind of wonder at the fact that things could be even worse. Which I suppose could be seen to be working for Bush's advantage. Digby seems to be arguing that the whole fear thing plays in the Republican's favor and lord knows he could be right. But me, I think they're strumming the wrong harp strings when it comes to economic fear and uncertainty. Bush may win on the security issue when they play the Terrorism card, but with the pocket book, Kerry wins hands down.

And lord knows that Iraq isn't the bed of roses that everyone was painting back in 2002. JHCORFC. Two bombings today. Everything still seems to be a mess. People getting assassinated left and right. Yea. I'm really sure that whole mess is going to be cleaned up before the Republican national convention.

In any event, I'm getting real impressed with the campaign that Kerry is rolling out. They really seem to be running an excellent campaign and a positive campaign. It's really boxing in the right and making them look like whiny, bitchy bullies. We'll see if it works, but I must say that it's by far the best idea I've seen and it's a hell of a lot better than the 2000 campaign - and "Bob" only knows it's a zillion times better than the Democratic 2002 effort.

Biden is really great on the media. Tim is trying to play the "Gotcha" game and what's hilarious is how Russert is flailing around trying to find something to smear Kerry with and everything keeps landing on Bush. Biden, when he speaks from the heart, is really compelling. He's talking about our international relations and restoring our national credibility with a passion I haven't seen on the TV for some time.

Myself, I think Biden's line regarding "Nobody believed they would so badly misuse the powers that we gave them" is pretty weak. Here in the US we rely on the system to keep us safe. We don't depend on the sheer luck of getting the right person in the right office at the right time to do the right thing. We don't depend on heroes here in the US. We depend on our constitution and the system of government. We depend on people doing their job. Which is what the Congress of the US failed to do with respect to Iraq.

Still, as weak as the line is, it still looks worse on Bush. People can relate to being duped - seeing as they were all in the same boat, too. But they do resent those that duped them. No one likes to be duped.

And perhaps the dim, collective unconscious of the American body politic is waking up to the fact that they've been duped multiple times by these jokers. It's been quite a while since the recession (one of the mildest in history) was officially over, and most people have lost their earning power, if not their jobs. Growth is slowing and it seems like the tax stimulus wad has worked its way through the system. Given the record deficits, the well is bone dry for more tax cuts. And even if they wanted to, they'd have to personally hand deliver them next month to have an effect at this point. DOW is hovering close to 10,000 and the economic growth has slowed. Things don't seem to have changed very much. The high price of oil has sucked all the life out of the economy. We seem to be - at best - in the doldrums.

The polls are not great for Bush - and Republicans in general. They didn't expect to be fighting for their lives at this point - they were expecting Champaign and roses. They were expecting a ticker tape parade down main street with throngs of adoring crowds, riding the success of Iraq and Afghanistan into a November victory. And this bitter reality is very bad for moral. The sycophants love to be on the winning side and when things go sour, they start to bitch. They start to whine. Happened to the Democrats and now it's happening to the Republicans. The cracks are now well established and no longer talked about in hush whispers. Everyone's worrying about them getting bigger.

Nostrils are flaring and the faint ammonia-like smell of fear is in the wind.

And it's not coming from the Democrats.