Psych-check rounds

RedState's Erik Erickson is in a deepening clinical funk--"something needs to happen in Boston and I am less and less hopeful anything will"--which, at least in part, he seems to have caught from the fevered scrawlings of Jennifer Rubin, who just recently plunged from the propagandistic heights of unbounded triumphalism to the bottommost pit of a vast despair.

Moans Erickson: "Jenn Rubin and I are on the same page. That’s either a sign of the apocalypse or there is something really dysfunctional happening within the Romney campaign."

Erik, has it ever occurred to you that, insulated as you are in your pseudoconservative bughouse, both are possible?

But, first things first. What "page" is Jennifer on? Five of them, actually--"five things the [Romney] campaign is doing or not doing that dull and dampen its message and drive conservatives nuts." Ready? Worry not, I've condensed Jennifer's pathological prolixity and kept the staggeringly obvious replies even shorter:

Poor surrogates: Where are the best voices, and why are they not day in and day out coordinating on a single message? [Because Romney hasn't one.]

Too much delay: The campaign takes too long to put Romney in a position to expound on major issues and key developments [Such as his erratic, wildly off-base hysteria regarding the embassy?]

Too little explanation: ... Tell them what Obama did wrong.... Tell them what Romney-Ryan will do. Tell them how it’s going to improve their lives. Then repeat and repeat and repeat. [Those inconvenient facts mostly indicate what Obama did right, and repeating and repeating and repeating an empty message in response has no effect.]

Not enough leadership talk: Bob Woodward’s book paints a portrait of a president unable to work with others. [Your tit, Jennifer, for others' tat, eg Michael Lewis's "Obama's Way."]

Not enough context: Obama, aided by the media, has largely convinced voters that voting against Obama is tantamount to going back to the bad old days of George W. Bush. [Because if Romney has any message at all, that, in fact, is it.]

You see they--the Romney campaign and its Erik Ericksons and its Jennifer Rubins and the GOP at large--have no way out of their own meticulously constructed bughouse. They have cornered themselves into tax cuts uber alles and mindless Ramboism and the electorate just isn't buying it. Not again.

They could always concede their madness by digging out rather than in deeper, but that would be, would it not, a self-help sign of lucidity.

Comments

[Janicket]

Even shorter:

"It's not working!"

"Do it harder!"

[Robert Swartz]

Obama on the stump last week, building on a highlight of his convention speech (as I best remember it):

"The GOP has one answer for everything: Tax Cuts;

"Economy is strong? Tax Cut!;

"Economy is weak? Tax Cut!;

"We're at peace? Tax Cut!;

"We're at war? Tax Cut!;

"Want to lose a few pounds? Tax Cut!;

"Want to spice up your love life? Tax cut!"

This is great. It's making the absurdity of the GOP's monomanical obsession on cutting taxes patently absurd. It's the rhetorical equivalent of the GOP's devastating "We're running out of gas"/Tip O'Neill spot from 1980.

What's more, keeping the focus on the tax plan is the right thing to do - just saw Romney's new "more specifics" rollout, and the truth is, he can offer up some substantial-sounding bromides about cutting government employment, etc. which will satisfy the casually informed. But he simply can't explain the arithmatic behind his tax plan in any detail without cratering what's left of his campaign. I can hardly wait to watch him dance around this point of discomfort in the upcoming debates.

[Robert Swartz]

FYI, the 1980 ad I referenced above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh7WA7WwX28

[majii]

Erick Erickson is the worst type of partisan political hack. I have intimate knowledge of his hackery because he was a member of my city council. He'll tell any lie and push any conspiracy theory that he thinks will create an advantage for republicans. He writes about one op-ed per week that appears in our local Middle GA newspaper, and I spend about 20 minutes each week tearing his lies apart and providing links that debunk them. If Erickson is feeling discomfort about the Romney campaign's chances of winning in November, I'm a very happy camper. He's an odious, small-minded, divisive, vindictive, pandering, little man with an inferiority complex he's spent most of his life trying to overcome and failing miserably in the endeavor.

[Janicket]

But tell us, majii, tell us what you really think -- don't keep holding back, now.