My party is full of wimps

1 November 2004

For the past year, cynical Democrats have anticipated that Karl Rove, evil genius that he is, would lock up the election with an “October surprise” to push up Bush’s approval ratings and win the election. The most popular October-suprise theory predicted a conveniently-timed announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death or capture. Surely, the cynics said, that dastardly Bush Administration has Osama locked up already, waiting to be unveiled at the most dramatic possible moment.

And then, on Friday, we had our surprise: a video of a tanned, well-rested, statesmanlike fugitive declaring, “We’re at war, and because Allah has granted you an incompetent Commander-in-Chief, I’m winning. I’m Osama bin Laden and I approved this message.” This, after two other surprises that only a wing-nut could spin as good news for the Bush campaign: the flu-vaccine shortage and the vanishing al Qaaqaa explosives.

Yet Joshua Micah Marshall, a blogger who used to work for Clinton—and therefore, I assume, has plenty of connections among other Democratic wonks—reported that on the emails he received after the tape was released, “the opinions ranged the gamut, from panic to indifference…” He also bemoaned Democrats’ “tendency to fret that all is lost, almost to indulge in it, when the car hits a simple bump in the road.”

Panic? Bump in the road?!

Is there something in the DC drinking water that makes Democrats afraid of their own shadows? Sheesh!

• Later: New! Improved! 100% more divinity!
• Earlier: What is to be done?