This is really too good not to share. Patrick Ruffini, the republican e-strategist, describes the blinding power of the Democratically controlled media and pundit classes. This appears to be the domestic side of the fugue state that finds us always simultaneously winning *and* losing in Iraq, always both the strongest and best country *and also* the weakest and most degraded and in need of renewal and protection. Its a wonder to me that these people can get up in the morning with their heads spinning this way:
[oops. Losing the plot here.]The good news is that all this attention to offline means that McCain is probably outraising Obama through events.
[Does it mean that? Don't they generate numbers on this stuff? And even publish them?]
But that doesn’t do much good when we’re getting killed 10-to-1 online and Obama doesn’t need to spend any time doing events.
[Co-rectto. Keep going. ]
I get that this is not apples to apples. The Democrats are in the midst of a nomination fight. Obama is more personally inspiring, etc. etc. But this doesn’t relieve the tremendous burden that we face as a party to get this right. We need an Apollo program to make the Internet the engine of Republican campaigns in the 21st century. I don’t intend to spend the next fifteen years explaining how we failed to seize upon the Internet as a transformative medium in the same way that Democrats failed with direct mail and grassroots activism in the ’70s and ’80s.
[Hey, that makes sense. Good boy.]
We can make all the excuses we want. The Democrats will always be portrayed the beneficiaries of a perfect storm, no matter what we do.
In 2003, they were portrayed as doing better online because they were penniless and the underdog. In 2008, when we are penniless and the underdog, Democrats are winning online because they’re ascendant. Figure that. In 2004, John Kerry was supposed to win on the backs of millions of landline-chucking young voters who didn’t get polled.
The Democrats and the media will always try to psych us out by saying it’s not our time, that all the energy is on their side.
[uh...oh...wait for it.]
(Look how they duped the smart Beltway money into thinking 2008 would be another wave, holding back Republican recruitment and triggering a flood of retirements.)
[That's right, we sucessfully duped the republicans into retiring in a flood.]
It doesn’t matter how many polls say John McCain is winning in states like Pennsylvania and Oregon, just as the grassroots army the Bush campaign built in 2004 didn’t matter… until Election Day.
[OK, now for the wind-up. They don't call them warbloggers for nothing. ]
Maybe we won’t win in absolute terms. But there is nobility in trying. In throwing the kitchen sink at the problem. In closing the gap as much as is humanly possible, so that those who come after can build it even better.
[Yes, its nothing less than a "noble cause" and though they are dwarves (apologies to the height challenged among our readers) yet a whole pile of them in a kitchen sink will surely be a firm foundation for the next generation.]
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