Message Strategery

Salon has an interesting article up about a fiery meeting earlier today at the Veteran’s Caucus where Wes Clark, James Carville and Max Cleland supposedly went off the reservation and got the vets all riled up. (This happened after an earlier caucus meeting where Sharpton allegedly went off the reservation and got the Black Caucus all riled up.)

“There’s another party out there, and they would have you believe that they’re the best qualified to keep America safe and secure,” Clark said. “I’m here to say it’s not so.”

In a building riff that brought veterans to their feet, Clark said: “That flag is our flag. We served under that flag. We got up and stood reveille formation, we stood taps, we fought under that flag. We’ve seen men die for that flag, and we’ve seen men buried under that flag. No Dick Cheney or John Ashcroft or Tom DeLay is going to take that flag away from us.”

Clark’s fiery performance knocked the GOP-style stuffing out of the veterans’ event, turning it into a Bush-bashing barnburner. By the time Carville reclaimed the stage he was in full sputtering ragin’ Cajun mode. “I know the Kerry people back there are having a heart attack,” Carville said. “They’re saying, ‘There goes Carville, the mad dog, the pit bull.'”

Uh huh.

It seems to me that the Kerry campaign’s public face of cheery optimism barely holding back the furious grassroots is a pretty good strategy. Everybody keeps parroting the party line like “positive” and “upbeat” when they’re talking to the celebcorps while even speakers like Jimmy Carter(?) allude to Bush’s national guard service and lying. You end up wondering what they’d be saying if Kerry hadn’t “given the word” to be disciplined. He shows leadership and the Democrats look like they’re ready for a fight. The Republicans are frustrated because they want the Democrats to make the mistake they made in 1992 and go over the top.

It’s as if the Party has Jack Nicholson’s smile.