Not Your Sweetie

Sam Perry's Guide for Democrat Media Bashing:

A Future Guide

If the past is any guide, Democrats should expect that:

-- The attacks will be personal, not issue-based. Personality quirks or flaws will be used
to "define" the Democrats so these traits can be easily transformed into laugh lines for
the pundit programs and the late-night comedy shows.

-- The attacks will be thematic, rather than specific. For instance, the Democratic
challenger will be described as "Clintonian" -- or in Edwards's case an "ambulance chasing
trial lawyer" -- rather than someone who supported or opposed a specific policy initiative.

-- The attack machine will be relentless. Every utterance by the eventual Democratic
nominee will be examined to see if it fits one of the thematic patterns that have been
chosen as effective attack lines.

-- Statements or issues that fit a "theme" will be repeated again and again in every
media venue, from Web sites to radio to TV pundit shows to newspaper columns. Every
right-wing pundit – and many mainstream commentators – will use nearly identical
language until the "theme" becomes "conventional wisdom."

-- The mainstream press will incorporate the attack lines into regular news stories by
using the objective-sounding criticism that the Democrat has failed to counter the
attack and committed the political sin of letting his enemy define him.

-- Most importantly, it will not matter who the Democratic nominee is. No one is immune.
The attack machine will find a thematic pattern for each potential nominee and will pound
the Democratic candidate into the ground with it.