Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:20 PM

Everyone loves a winner

In a recent NYT article (free registration required, or use BugMeNot), Jim Rutenberg discussed the way the Republicans are winning the war of words. A couple of choice examples:

“I need members of Congress who understand that you can’t negotiate with these folks,” Bush said recently at a fundraising dinner. The implication, which Democrats were quick to react to, is, of course, that the Democrats are all about negotiating with terrorists, which, as we all know, is a no-no.

Or there's the interview where Bush recently said that in Iraq, "Most people want us to win." The implication is that the Dems are losers. They didn't take too kindly to that either.

I figure that there's plenty of room for other players in that arena, though. Here's a sample: "Most people thing the Iraqis should have the final say about how their country is run." Okay, it's not quite as as short, but someone can clean it up, maybe use the buzzword "democracy" in there and nail it. Then, when an Administration official says that, why, the U.S. is there to ensure this very thing, we can point to the Washington Post article, aptly titled: "Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show". Who conducted these polls? The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. And, oh yeah. The State Department. Whoops!

Here's some other kick-'em-while-they're-down soundbites you can try on your friends: "Most people want *de*-escalation of the violence in Iraq." (After that, cite the BBC overview of just how bad things are getting over there.)

Or "We need a foreign policy that doesn't breed new terrorists." Seen the NIE report lately?

p.s. Yes, I know that it's damn quaint of me to use * instead of actual HTML markup for emphasis. Shut up and go micromanage your own damn blog :-P