Hotline After Dark -- Hurricane A Coming
Hurricane Dean dominated TV news last night but there was still some political talk -- a bit on the 8/19 Dem debate in IA and on Karl Rove's obsession with Hillary Clinton:
Newsweek's Alter, on Rove attacking HRC: "He knows exactly what he is doing. You know, this was what they did in 2004 with John Kerry. They were very afraid that John Edwards would be the nominee and that he would have a much better shot of unseating President Bush. They were less worried about Kerry. So, in the primaries, the Republicans turned their firepower on John Kerry, knowing that that would create a reaction where people rally around him and he went on to win the nomination, just as they hoped."
More: "If Hillary is not the nominee, those Republicans don't have nearly as much to work with. She is the playbook that they know and they are prepared to run against. The other candidates are blank slates. They'd have to go back to the drawing board. With Hillary Clinton, they know exactly what to do, exactly how to take her apart. And those are factors that Democrats have to consider" ("Tucker," MSNBC, 8/20).
THE DEMS MAN IN NEVADA
And FNC's Vogel profiled NV Assmb. Ruben Kihuen:
Vogel: He's "the one Nevadan every Democratic presidential candidate wants to talk to." More: "Kihuen got into politics just last year. ... He went door to door in his tiny Las Vegas district and sent thank you notes to every one who gave him five minutes. He unseated the incumbent and tripled Hispanic turnout. Now party leaders want his endorsement, because they believe the first-term assemblyman holds the key to the Hispanic vote."
Kihuen: "It is nice to get all these headlines, being called the king maker. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that I'm going to have to get people out to vote."
Vogel: "And that's what makes Ruben Kihuen so important. His demonstrated ability not only to reach his Hispanic voters, but to get them to the polls. ... Kiheun has yet to make his choice. And Obama, Edwards and Richardson are hoping he'll endorse one of them, turning January's Nevada caucus into a horse race" ("Special Report," FNC, 8/20). [EMILY GOODIN]
Alter is wrong: Rove had nothing to do with Kerry becoming the nominee. As usual, it was nothing more than a big head fake.
OpenLeft.com:
"The idea that this played any role in Kerry becoming the Democratic nominee is absurd. As Pollster.com shows, that ship had already sailed by "late January" when supposedly rove and Dowd began messing with our feeble minds...
"So, when exactly did the great wave of effectively anti-Kerry attacks from the Bush campaign start? Was it during the week after the Iowa caucuses when Dean was facing character assassination over the "scream," and when Kerry was riding a huge wave of post-Iowa momentum after that win? If it wasn't during that one week, then it didn't matter, as that was when all of the meaningful movement in national polls took place (Kerry went up 30, and Dean went down 15). In fact, if it was during that week, it didn't matter either, because the only news stories that week were about Kerry's victory and Dean's scream. The idea that Karl Rove had any impact on this is nonsense, as is the idea that they are having any impact on the 2008 Democratic nomination campaign."
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=902
And Rove is "STILL" afraid of John Edwards. The GOP has to hold in its laughs when the media say, "Is that what Rove is doing this time? Are they going after Clinton because they are really afraid of Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton?"
No, they "STILL" only fear John Edwards.
Rove could care less about Barack Obama, just like he "essentially" told David Gregory. You could see the gleam in Rove's eyes when David Gregory asked him if he was scared of Obama. Rove almost couldn't contain his laughter.
It was John Edwards they feared in 2004, and it's John Edwards they fear now, period. Not Clinton or Obama. Edwards, only.
Alter is wrong, Edward's was so strong why didn't he win the primaries- voters chose Senator Kerry over Edwards in every one. And by the time the Republicans began going after Senator Kerry he was already the Democratic nominee. before that they assume Gov. Dean was going to take the nomination. Alter does this all the time-gets his facts wrong about Senator Kerry -and when he does Alter comes off as an ass rather than an expert.