very very very bad advice

While I generally have more discipline than Rob and Scott about this sort of thing, I had to take a peek and see how our old friend Mickey Kaus was spinning/coping with the Edwards pick. Well, he hasn’t weighed in yet, but I was treated to a post from last night in which he teamed up with Peggy Noonan to give team Kerry some valuable campaign advice. Now, everyone knows that campaign advice for Kerry coming from these two ought to be greeted with a strategy not dissimilar to the one the landed George Costanza a job with the Yankees. This case is no exception. They begin with a potentially strong theme (a retreat from radicalism and a return to normalcy and calm). But the problem is, this theme suggests that Bush has been something less than a stellar president. So we’ve got to rewrite it in a way that praises Bush. The general idea is to suggest that Bush has been a source of exciting political adventures and history making leadership. Good for him, but we need to relax for a while. The analogy of Bush as Pedro Martinez is trotted out (Campaign slogan: Kerry/Edwards: the Williamson and Embree of politics! We have a decent chance of protecting a five run lead!).

Think no one could be shameless enough to try to pass off this “advice” with a straight face? Noonan isn’t really doing that this time, she’s framing this as a way to suggest that if we vote Bush out of office, it doesn’t mean we didn’t like his policies or leadership. It just means that after four years of wild partying with Bush, we decided to crawl back home to the dreary domesticity of Kerry.

It’s Kaus who can look us in the eye and present this theme as actual, real, live advice to Democrats. He suggested the Bush as Pedro Martinez in game seven line of reasoning before, and he’s at it again. He’s so impressed with this campaign he can’t think of a good response.

I don’t really have much to add, except to say that 1) It’s nice to see wingers start to spin a potential Bush loss, and 2) Kaus either more politically tone-def than I thought, or this is another sign of desperation.