TPM JB on our ridiculous political world …
As I watch TV news and commentary and listen on NPR, I see the face of Fred Kagan, Dan Senor, even the voice of Richard Perle, and I wonder if it is a new year at all. We have seen some of these faces before, and they all represent past failures. We have seen these before when the Bush administration was attempting to sell us a product, a box of goodies with 3 word slogans on the label and inside there was nothing( unless you count death and debt as a product). After reading the Lugar interview on Fox, it would appear that the Republican establishment, such as it is, needs to go sit down with Bush and tell him that the American Enterprise Institute was not on the ballot in November and won no elections. The few politicians that represent it’s views do not hold a majority. If it takes Bush more time to develop a strategy, perhaps it is because they cannot come up with a suitable 3 word sell phrase( as war on terror, cut and run, stay the course) with which to package the product. Once again we are being treated as mindless consumers that do not notice the product in the box is the same old tired thing that did not work the first 6 times it was tried.
How do these same jokers still get on television? This seems to illustrate one of the perverse disincentives built into tv chat show ‘balance’. As support for their nostrums falls lower and lower, the odds of their getting on the tube to talk grows apace. Because they’re the only ones available who will take their side.
