A Big Idea is Worth More Than Big Money

Steve Soto, at the Left Coaster, has been talking a bit about Joe Trippi's fear that BushCo will opt out of public financing:

... it was not out of the realm of possibility that Bush would wait until Kerry committed to the $75 million and its limits and then opted out himself at the GOP convention, thereby catching the Democrats flat-footed and engaged in unilateral disarmament.

I don't think that's what Rove has planned. BushCo isn't going to further entrench the perception that he's only interested in helping the rich, by raising a mint of money from the elite and using it to pound Kerry, who is bound by the limits of public financing. The corporate media would probaly not be able to make such an obvious grab clear to the American people, but the Kerry campaign might. And why would Rove hand them an issue?

The greater fear is that Karl Rove, or whoever it was that concocted the laughable plan to annex Mars (or whatever that loser of a policy was about) will be able to think up a Big Idea that isn't the stupidest thing we've ever heard. Rove isn't the genius he's given credit for being as much as he's a bully and dirty trickster who really knows how to pander. But he does have the glimmering of an idea of what it will take to set one of these candidates apart from the other in the minds of voters. Team BushCo is running on fear now but they know that it won't stand a chance in the face of a long-range, optimistic community-building project with a goal that inspires all of America. I've been thinking that they can't touch renewable energy, but the more I think on it, the more I think that it would be exactly the right thing for this oil-soaked administration to promote. It's not as if they are constrained by feeling obligated to follow through on any of their promises or plans.

We got very lucky the first time around, when they decided to go with building Arby's on Mars. They dodged a bullet at the convention when Kerry let the opportunity to inspire us slip away. Heaven forbid if Rove figures out something that will stick.

Comments

[sean]

Rove isn't the genius he's given credit for being as much as he's a bully and dirty trickster who really knows how to pander.

Ain't that the truth.

[PusBoy]

I hate to disagree with you, but I can easily see BushCo raising a mint from the wealthiest Americans and getting away with it, because the unwashed masses that form the remainder of the Republican Party would not care.

They'll vote for Bush because Jesus would want them to.