Selfish Hedonist

Hey kids! Time for some amateur pop psychology!!

I've seen it written that the greatest skill of the president's chief political advisor is his penchant for going after his opponents' strengths. E.g., Kerry and Vietnam.

To me, however, the president and Karl Rove are really impressive at projecting Bush's weaknesses onto his political opponents. To wit:

* Bush changes his mind (Yes on the Dept. of Homeland Security! No on the Dept. of Homeland Security!) at the drop of a hat? Go after Kerry as a flip-flopper.

* Bush bungles the Global War on Terror while failing to invest appropriately in actual homeland security efforts? Go after Kerry as threatening to American security!

* Have a vice president who was one of the least accomplished legislators in the history of Congress? Go after Kerry as not having his name attached to enough bills!

* Go to Harvard and Yale, vacation in Kennebunkport, own a pretend "ranch" in Texas, and have a "job" resume straight out of Bluebloods Monthly (honestly, who owns baseball teams??)? Go after Kerry as an out of touch elitist!

See how easy this is? Everyone can play...

I have to wonder, however, if this is truly an intentional political ploy or if his unconscious self (or, rather, the collective unconscious self of Bush, Rove, and the rest of the GOP heirarchy) really is doing some textbook projecting without realizing this. I mean, we all do it, right? And the tricky thing is, it's very difficult to counter in the context of political war. "You're just projecting your own insecurities and failures onto me!" doesn't work too well in relationship arguments, let alone mediated debates.

I'm sure this theory has been expounded upon in multiple other places but I'm frankly too lazy to investigate. So I'll just say I came up with it.