The Drive Down the Vote (DDTV) campaign

What happened last week? Did a cabal of Lefty columnist get together and draw lots to see who would write an attack ad to go after a segment of the Republican base to demoralize a bit of them and drive down their vote? I am not a Black Helicopter guy (I like my gray), but this is too much. Just a sample.

Thomas L. Friedman: (not R. Skippy) Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence. Is assigned the military sector. Hopes to get folks like Skippy all lathered up. Skippy is already sold, as are most of the folks that took this hook-line-and-sinker... and that' OK, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

Is it just me, or does that opening line sound like he is talking to an 8-yr old? Well, none of us in the military ever went to school after then, so it fits.

Nicholas D. Kristof drew the pro-life crowd. Abortion, Condoms and Bush.

In 2003, the institute estimates, there were 1.29 million abortions in the U.S., 26,000 fewer than in President Bill Clinton’s last year in office.

Yet abortions fell much faster under Mr. Clinton, and the evidence shows that condoms do more to bring down abortion rates than pious moralizing. That’s why staunch “pro-life” presidents like Mr. Bush or Ronald Reagan have accomplished far less in reducing abortions than a “pro-choice” president like Mr. Clinton.
...
Bush family members were pioneers in supporting the family planning services that can reduce abortion rates. President Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, lost an election for U.S. senator in Connecticut in 1950 partly because he was denounced for his ties to Planned Parenthood.

Later, George H. W. Bush was, as a young congressman, a prime sponsor of the 1970 public health program that provides family planning services in the U.S. He was so enthusiastic that his nickname then was Rubbers.

I like Poppy better.

Frank Rich picked the wild card and was allowed to write without his medication in Throw the Truthiness Bums Out where he gets to do some old fashioned Leftist queer gibbeting.

When Mr. Blitzer brought up “Sisters” on live television, Mrs. Cheney went ballistic, calling Mr. Webb a liar. The exchange would have been a TiVo keeper had only the CNN anchor called Mrs. Cheney out by reading aloud just one of the many “Sisters” passages floating around the Internet: “The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage — no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were.” But you can’t have everything.

What else would you expect from a theater critic (or is it 'theatre'?).

Paul Krugman of course has to get a mention as he is the type that always invites himself to a party, he goes after, oh, I don't know, the "Soccer Moms who never read a newspaper until the week prior to the election day" in Limiting the Damage.

At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all of his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.

In other words, he’s the sort of man who should never have been put in a position of authority, let alone been given the kind of unquestioned power, free from normal checks and balances, that he was granted after 9/11. But he was, alas, given that power, as well as a prolonged free ride from much of the news media.

I don't care what side of the fence you are on - that last line is from a parallel universe.

So, there you go. Just a sample, there are more out there. Nothing positive. Nothing forward looking. Nothing but smear and drag down. Sounds familiar. Shame, there are some positive things you could talk about - I guess. I was waiting all summer to hear them.