KCCCC Day 7: expect the unexpected
- The Stench of Death: That’s what we political hacks and hackettes call the unique odour that assaults our olfactory system when alighting in the campaign offices of a sure-fire loser: the stench of death. The candidate is off-balance and screwing up; the campaign is consistently misfiring; the voters are drifting away, or have, to the other side. I’m not saying that Stephen Harper’s Refomatories are dead – far from it, (a) they’re still a formidable election machine and (b) there’s still a month to go, which is four (4) lifetimes in politics – but, man oh man, are the Tories ever looking like losers. They’ll recover their bearings, I’ll wager, but for now – well, there’s a faint odour, and it’s unmistakable.
- Want proof? A proof is a proof. Here’s proof: here and here and here and here. Harris: “According to the latest Nanos tracking poll, Stephen Harper has managed something of a miracle: He has raised Michael Ignatieff from the political dead…If Mr. Harper goes on to blow a near double-digit lead when this campaign began, (either to win another minority or hand one to the other side), his substitution of messaging for communication will bear a large part of the responsibility. The prime minister uses language to create facts, not to convey them.” And, as I’ve noted in my coming Sunday Sun column, the Cons beleived their own anti-Ignatieff propaganda. Big-o mistake-o.
- Stephen Harper is a liar and a chicken: Rinse and repeat. David Olive, who is way more thoughtful and restrained than Yours Screwly, throws it down, right here. STEPHEN HARPER IS A LIAR AND A CHICKEN. I don’t know who were the morons who, reptilian kitten-eater-like, issued the now-infamous one-on-one debate challenge to Michael Ignatieff on the Conservative leader’s Twitter account. But I’m willing to bet they are now to be found under that infamous Parliament Hill bus – you know, the one under whose wheels so many other Tory staffers inevitably come to rest. “Jenni? Jenni Byrne? Senator Finlay is on the line, and he wants his office back!”
- Buck buck buck! Harper’s disdain and contempt for professional journalists is nothing new – some of us have been writing about it, and pointing out the likely consequences, for years. (To wit, as I wrote in the Post on March 30, 2006, the Harperite media-hatred was going to come back and haunt him – and I even found support for that with Mike Duffy! Said Mike, now a Conservative Senator: “Why would these guys want to get into a pissing match with the Gallery…before an election?”) Now, Harper’s decision to (a) take only five questions from the media every campaign day and (b) refuse to answer questions about that, or misfiring local campaigns, all point voters in one direction: he is, well, you know. And the media are paying him back at the worst possible time.
- The Harper-OLA connection: One of the Reformatory MPs closest to Stephen Harper is Scott Reid. Reid, with Harper’s blessing, was instrumental in last night’s Ontario political shocker – the dumping of Progressive Conservative Norm Sterling by a boss within the extremist Ontario Landowner’s Association. The OLA is slowly but undeniably taking over the Ontario PCs, and forcing out progressives. Who are they? Well, here’s a quote by Edward Kennedy, an OLA founder. It tells you all you need to know about our opponents in the coming provincial campaign: “Typical n****r behavior. Concealed carry would have made the outcome much different. Note if the perpetrators had been White, they would have all got the death penalty for a hate crime against n*****s. And the lieberals wonder why a large segment of Whites hate blacks and distrust them. I am surprised the black bastards did not try to rape them, that is standard fare for n*****s.“
- Internet toys are internet toys: Here we go again – more hysterical right-wing fulminating against the CBC for their “Vote Compass” Internet game thingie. Criminy! It’s for fun, rightist people – it doesn’t make you vote a particular way. If you don’t like it, well, um, don’t use it. And take a Valium, while you’re at.
- Pic of the day: We have two contenders, both featuring the PM, whose campaign images so far have been not so hot:
Caption contest! Mine: “Bring me my senior campaign staff!”
And there’s this one, from MontrealElite, which is my favourite:
“You two closely resemble my campaign co-chairs!”