For a political operation that is supposed to stand with some of history’s best, Bush’s machine has had a rough couple of months.
Just this year, they’ve crafted a State of the Union address that’s been widely panned, they’ve chosen a manufacturing czar who’s laid off workers and built factories in China, and they’ve rolled out a series of slick and expensive TV ads that don’t make any sense.
Which leads me to the coordinated White House attack on Richard Clarke.
Unlike most political crises, this one came at Karl Rove & Co. in slow motion. Clarke finished his book last year and submitted it to the White House security review three months ago. As Clarke said on the Today Show this week:
“This book could’ve been published three months ago if the White House had let it. The White House sat on this book for three months as part of their security review of the text, and now blame me that it’s coming out in March. The book could have been out in December, which is what I wanted to do. I’m not trying to put it in the middle of the election. They put it in the middle of the election.”
Right. Clarke’s book could have come out in the midst of the Democratic primary fight, when it would have received some attention, but not the blockbuster status it’s achieved this week.
The reason the White House sat on the book is, I believe, fairly obvious: they wanted to go through it carefully so they could create the most effective response possible. With that in mind, why are they doing such a terrible job in attacking Clarke?
With its vaunted reputation, the White House smear machine should be able to put together a better message than this when given three months to prepare.
So far, their best shots have been either wrong, contradictory, or both.
What happened to the modern-day Machiavellis that struck fear into the hearts of liberals across the country?