Thursday, February 27, 2014

Heh

Rand Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, is getting pretty good at this game:
Sen. Rand Paul still believes Bill Clinton is a detriment to Democrats as the former president is reprising his role as super surrogate for the party.

Speaking to Fox News Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican and potential 2016 White House contender said that the Democrats are mistaking Clinton’s popularity after the former president spoke at a campaign rally for Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat challenger to Sen. Mitch McConnell.

“We have a lot of conservative Democrats in our state who go to church each week and really don’t approve of his behavior, what he has done with sexual harassment in the workplace,” Paul said, referencing the Monica Lewinsky scandal. “A lot of Democrats in our state don’t approve of that kind of behavior.”
But that ain't all:
Talking about Clinton’s appearance at Grimes’ rally, Paul said Democrats should return money he has raised and that they should be “embarrassed” to be seen with him.

“I think he’s a bad role model for the workplace, for women’s rights, for all of that, and I think really they ought to be a little embarrassed to be associated or being seen with him,” Paul stated.
This would be what's known in the trade as Alinsky Rule 4, to wit:
“The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
The Dems use the War on Women meme all the time. Bill Clinton has quite the horndog history and it's especially effective to throw that in the face of female candidates. After all, if Bill Clinton isn't a good role model, why is he speaking on your behalf, ma'am? This works on Grimes and it will work with Mary Landrieu (in Louisiana) and Kay Hagan (in North Carolina), among others.

I don't know if Rand Paul is going to be able to do much in 2016, but if he can minimize Bill Clinton's value in 2014, it will pose problems for Hillary Clinton down the line. Politically, a very smart play.



2 comments:

Gino said...

much of this effectiveness will have to do with how the non-fox media covers it.
i wouldnt expect too much in the way of that if the past is any indication.

Mr. D said...

much of this effectiveness will have to do with how the non-fox media covers it.
i wouldnt expect too much in the way of that if the past is any indication.


Right — which is why the early attacks are smart. The Clintons are thin-skinned and don't like getting tweaked. He's trying to get them to react to him, because the non-Fox media will cover the reaction. The Clintons can ignore it for now, but if their history is any indication, eventually they'll want to lash out and then it's game on.

The key thing is to be on offense.