Establishing Interpretive Dominance: The GOP in 2012

Earlier today, I referred to an article in The New York Times Weekend Magazine that attempts to save the honor of John McCain, while attacking his operatives and Sarah Palin. This is not the only article to preemptively establish blame for the Presidential race, if McCain were to lose.

In The New Yorker, Jane Mayer examines how McCain selected Palin. While this is not a definitive, or even an "insider" piece, it sets blame on the conservative "elite," I mean commoners that write serve thr Republican Party in Washington [and write for The Weekly Standard and The National Review]. This article ends on the idea that McCain and his campaign was betrayed by the Palin pick as it sunk his campaign. Consequently, McCain is uncomfortable with everyone, including himself. According to the article, a top Republican close to McCain [and hence, not Palin nor the Washington Insiders], stated:

“John’s personal comfort level is low with everyone right now. He’s angry. But it was his choice.”

Yet, with two articles seeking to protect McCain against Palin, it would not take long for a response. At Politico, a Senior GOP Adviser attacks McCain for attacking Bush instead of attacking Democrats:

One of the most senior Republican strategists in the land warns the McCain campaign after reading the WashTimes interview: “Lashing out at past Republican Congresses instead of Pelosi and Reid, and echoing your opponent's attacks on you instead of attacking your opponent, and spending 150,000 hard dollars on designer clothes when congressional Republicans are struggling for money, and when your senior campaign staff are blaming each other for the loss in The New York Times [Magazine] 10 days before the election, you’re not doing much to energize your supporters. The fact is, when you’re the party standard-bearer, you have an obligation to fight to the finish. I think they can still win. But if they don’t think that, they need to look at how Bob Dole finished out his campaign in 1996 and not try to take down as many Republicans with them as they can. Instead of campaigning in Electoral College states, Dole was campaigning in places he knew he didn’t have a chance to beat Clinton, but where he could energize key House and Senate races. I think you’ll find these sentiments shared by MANY of my fellow Republican strategists.”

Instead drawing from the Palin playbook and running the Rove style campaign, the McCain camp avoided the Wright issue.

The focus of this article suggests that McCain will not win because he did not follow the Rove style campaign. If the GOP is to win in 2012, then the eventual nominee will need to follow this playbook. And Sarah Palin will. Of course competence does not matter but we already knew that. See Bush, George W.

By privileging Palin, the "forces of Rove" seek to symbolically preserve the future with Palin and, more importantly, preserve a style of campaigning: Rev up the base and engage in forces of the Culture War.