American Voters, Please Don't Throw Me In The Briar Patch

American Voters, Please Don't Throw Me In The Briar Patch

In the run-up to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when it was not yet
clear who Bush's opponent would be that November, Rove and his aides had begun
to fear that their most dangerous foe would be then-Sen. John Edwards of North
Carolina... But instead of attacking Edwards, Rove's team opened fire at
Kerry.Their thinking went like this, [Rove lieutenant Matthew] Dowd explained [after the election]: Democrats, in a knee-jerk reaction to GOP attacks, would rally around Kerry, whom Rove considered a comparatively weak opponent, and make him the party's nominee.

There are two things that I want to say about this, first of all it looks like this tactic worked. While we will never know who would have won if another choice had been made by republicans. The second thing, is that while many on the left are going to get upset about this, don't blame republicans, blame yourselves. If you voted on ideas, and who you thought would be the best leader for the country, this ploy would have been useless. In the future you can be sure that they will attempt other such tactics. The easiest way to get the best candidate is to vote for the person you think will do the best job.