The ungovernable election?
The campaign is getting nasty, and Kevin Drum thinks this is bad for whomever wins: If McCain wins, he’ll face a Democratic congress that’s beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk. They won’t ...
The campaign is getting nasty, and Kevin Drum thinks this is bad for whomever wins: If McCain wins, he'll face a Democratic congress that's beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk. They won't even return McCain's phone calls, let alone work with him on legislation. It'll be four years of all-out war. And what if Obama wins? The last time a Democrat won after a resurgence of the culture war right, we got eight years of madness, climaxing in an impeachment spectacle unlike anything we'd seen in a century. If it happens again, with the lunatic brigade newly empowered and shrieking for blood, Obama will be another Clinton and we'll be in for another eight years of near psychotic dementia. Am I exaggerating? Sure. Am I exaggerating a lot? I don't think so. McCain, in his overwhelming desire for office, is unloosing forces that are likely to make the country only barely governable no matter who wins. Meh. Kevin might be right. In this Feiler Faster Principle age, however, Labor Day memes can get washed away pretty damn quickly. What matters is whether these tactics actually work -- and no, a post-convention bounce does not count as working. If this stuff works in November, then Kevin might have a point. I have my doubts, however. Question to readers: is Kevin exaggeraing a lot or a little?
The campaign is getting nasty, and Kevin Drum thinks this is bad for whomever wins:
If McCain wins, he’ll face a Democratic congress that’s beyond furious. Losing is one thing, but after eight years of George Bush and Karl Rove, losing a vicious campaign like this one will cause Dems to go berserk. They won’t even return McCain’s phone calls, let alone work with him on legislation. It’ll be four years of all-out war. And what if Obama wins? The last time a Democrat won after a resurgence of the culture war right, we got eight years of madness, climaxing in an impeachment spectacle unlike anything we’d seen in a century. If it happens again, with the lunatic brigade newly empowered and shrieking for blood, Obama will be another Clinton and we’ll be in for another eight years of near psychotic dementia. Am I exaggerating? Sure. Am I exaggerating a lot? I don’t think so. McCain, in his overwhelming desire for office, is unloosing forces that are likely to make the country only barely governable no matter who wins.
Meh. Kevin might be right. In this Feiler Faster Principle age, however, Labor Day memes can get washed away pretty damn quickly. What matters is whether these tactics actually work — and no, a post-convention bounce does not count as working. If this stuff works in November, then Kevin might have a point. I have my doubts, however. Question to readers: is Kevin exaggeraing a lot or a little?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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