Bush-Cheney Chair Marc Racicot went up against Kerry ‘04 Chair Jeanne Shaheen on Fox News Sunday yesterday. Generally, I think those sorts of rock’em-sock’em robot segments are useless and this one was not much of an exception. Although I think Racicot clearly emerged the winner.
Anyway, one point he didn’t rebut effectively is this liberal bugaboo about a “Republican attack machine.” Basically the Kerry camp’s position is that any charge about Kerry which emerges anywhere is the result of the orchestrated conspiracy known as the “Republican Attack Machine.” This is a very effective technique because it means that anything negative about Kerry much be the product of a partisan operation. So somehow the Bush campaign is responsible when anybody “questions” Kerry’s patriotism. Racicot should have kept asking Shaheen for specific examples of how the “RAM” was responsible. My guess is that if she had specific examples, they’d be petty and unpersuasive; websits and radio show hosts with no obvious connection to Bush.