Where's Our Karl Rove?

(this is from a Diary I posted on Daily Kos last week because it's Friday and I'm lazy.)

I've been exhaustedly watching the election coverage for the midterms, and I'm getting very, very anxious and disheartened.
It seems that the only articles coming out on the subject are all about the Republican war chest and their opposition research, and the Bush P.R. blitz, and Rove mobilizing the base.

My question is, where is the Democratic equivalent to Karl Rove? Who is the one political genuis who is capable of uniting the entire party and fighting off the attacks of the GOP, and just maybe putting the Republicans on the defensive for once?


All of the rhetoric is that the Republicans are on the run from Bush, that the Dems are going to possibly take back the House, and maybe even the Senate. Yet, each passing day, we're losing ground. It's closing by a few points here, a few there, but, we're still pretty far away from election day. And I'm getting very worried about our prospects. It's ours to lose, and from the looks of it, that's where it is headed.

We need to be on the attack. We need to get angry. I understand the rationale of the positive populist ads and message, but I don't think that that's entirely effective anymore. Our culture reflects that. We want the strong candidate to win, the tough candidate. Negative ads come off as tough to the average voter. The polling data in the midst of negative campaigning reflects that. During the last Swift Boat campaign, the numbers increased in favor of Bush and the Republicans. I don't think that's coincidence.

I live in NE Ohio, which is a very watched area as far as elections go. As many know, the DeWine/Brown race is uncomfortably close, and Brown's lead dwindles each day. DeWine is positing himself as an Independent candidate for Ohio. You don't see the word Republican anywhere near his ads*. I'm curious to know in how many other state races are following this trend. Why not, when speaking of your opponent, just throw the word Republican in front of their name at every mention? Just a thought.

(*although I'm not sure it's the best strategy. You can't really erase that big (R) next to your name on the ballot.)

I'm trying to be positive. I really hope that we can pull it off. With all the strikes against the Republicans: Abramoff scandals, Domestic Spying, Iraq, the War on Terror, the Economy, Education, Gas Prices, etc., it seems crazy that we aren't ahead in every race in every state and by double digits across the country. We need the candidates to use all of this against their opponents. Every one of these things should be thrown right back at them every time. It seems that we are still on the defensive.

All of the talk of Democrats being compared to Nazi's, and pro terrorist, and anti American will seep in to the American conciousness as we get closer to the election and as more Republican ads saturate the airwaves. We need to unite and attack them at their own game. I know that that's not a very popular opinion, but as history shows, it works. I'm afraid that if we don't, if we stand back and try to win on the Republican's record and the country's attitude toward their failures, they'll just spin it in their favor by November. They do it every time. I understand that we want the moral high ground and we want to win on our merits, be the party of change, but by taking no action, we'll again be the opposition party.

This is our election to win or lose, and this is probably the most important election I've yet seen. If we fail at this, if the GOP remains in control, the Republicans will use that as a sign that they're policies are what the country wants. I think the country will swing so far right, that it may be too hard to dig the U.S. out of any hole which we will inevetibly dig ourselves into, and we will be powerless to stop it. We need to win this at all costs.

I'm hoping the Dems have a plan that I don't know about yet that they unleash in the coming months.

I just needed to get this off of my chest in a public forum. I'm sorry if it was so disjointed and negative. I still do have hope that our citizens will choose to get this country back on track and out of the hands of fundamentalists and radicals. I love this country and I just want to see us back in a positive direction.