Rove goes for Warren’s strength

by digby

You have to give Rove credit. One of the things he does really well is confuse the hell out of low information voters. Here’s a good example:

He thinks this could work at this juncture because the only details most voters know is that Warren has something to do with the banks and that she worked for Obama. So far they see it as a positive. If he can plant it in some people’s heads that she’s actually one of the bad guys (mostly through his surrogates in the press and presumably in the Massachusetts GOP) he can begin to chip away at her crusading image. They always used to say that Rove went right for his opponents’ strength and in this case, it appears to be true. He’s doing it early, while people are still learning about the candidate, trying to define her before she gets a chance to do it.

It’s amazingly dishonest, but that’s how these people work. The Republicans are going to put everything they have into defeating Warren. I’m sure this is just the beginning.

Update: Greg Sargent reports on the data that might be driving this:

A new University of Massachusetts/Boston Herald poll finds that Warren has jumped to a seven point lead over Brown, 49-42. Here’s the key finding:

Asked who would do a better job of looking out for middle class families, 43 percent of voters cite Warren and 33 percent identify Brown. Nearly half of Massachusetts voters also say Warren would do a better job of regulating Wall Street institutions. And more than a third of Massachusetts voters say they are less likely to back Brown because of campaign donations from Wall Street, a main theme of the Democratic attack against the incumbent.