Are They Automotons?

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Last night I viewed the segment between Paul Hackett and Van Taylor on Hardball with Chris Matthews.I cannot recall last time I heard such a littany of evasions, obfuscations and misdirections from a candidate running for office. Oh...I forgot...the last Presidential election!!

Van Taylor is the Republican candidate for office in the 17th Congressional District in Texas...George W. Bush's home district. He must have had some pre interview pointers from Bush's brain because it was evident that the Karl Rove theory of political strategy was being employed. Don't answer the questions, respond with one of your catch phrase talking points and avoid any statements that may come back to haunt you. Mr. Taylor managed to follow that advice to a tee...almost.

He replied to each and every one of Chris Matthew's questions with a stock response...al Quaida did it...al Quaida is responsible for all the violence in Iraq, al Quaida will fight us in the United States if we don't fight them in Iraq and, of course, the conflation that, somehow, Iraq was also complicit in 9/11.

Each time Mr. Hackett challenged Mr. Taylor, the candidate responded by repeating his talking points, avoiding the subject being cited, and continued to parrot the answers he was told to supply regardless of what he was asked. Van Taylor was NOT to contribute any independent and thoughtful material to the discourse, if it can be called a discourse.

An example of Mr. Taylor's distorted thinking was in evidence when he asserted that al Quaida was responsible for the sectarian violence in Iraq. Chris Matthews responded by asking the candidate if it was al Quaida killing Shi'a and Sunni...Mr. Taylor was unable to answer...he hesitated...then repeated his talking point that if we didn't get them there, we have to fight them here. Mr. Matthews asked how many al Quaida members were in Iraq and were they there before the conflict. Mr. Taylor responded that it doesn't matter at this point...all that matters is that if we don't get them there, we'll have to fight them here.

Both Mr. Matthews and Mr. Hackett called Mr. Taylor on the fact that his rejoinders were nothing more than a series of disjointed and non-responsive talking points meant to reinforce a strategy that Mr. Rove has laid out for the party, namely that Democrats cut and run and that Republicans stay the course. There was no mention of the al Quaida leader, Osama bin Laden because that is a sore point amongst Republicans following upon their failure to capture or kill him. Rather, they just repeat the same pap coming out of the White House. We all know that George Bush's assertion that "if we think things are bad now...just wait to see what will happen if we pull out" will be a new talking point as will the Ken Melman catch-phrase "Adapt and Win".

It is obvious that these Republicans have no stable platform, no cohesive plan for success, no understanding of what is really going on in Iraq, and that the American public has heard their policies and talking points ad nauseum and is no longer listening.

It is obvious to the American public that this administration and the candidates it supports for the mid term elections are inept, incompentent and unqualifed.

It is obvious to the American public that it is time for a change and a new direstion.

trickster108