For years, at least as long as I've been alive, all Republicans, and by association the conservative movement, have been successfully labeled by the political left as one of three things. It has become one of my favorite games. As soon as anyone from the right gains any kind of popularity, he is affixed with at least one, and quite possibly more of these three labels. He is either stupid, senile, meaning old, or evil. So let's look at a few examples of this game.

Barry Goldwater, upon becoming the Republican nominee in 1964 was instantly labeled as evil.  A massive campaign took place to show how, if Goldwater became President, small children and daisies on playgrounds everywhere were no longer safe.

Richard Nixon, do we need to even discuss this one, Evil. What about Gerald Ford? He fit firmly into the Stupid category, and Chevy Chase did what was probably the single worst impression in SNL history which was basically a Three Stooges Slapstick festival in which Ford was portrayed as a man who couldn't walk from here to there without flopping like a child struggling to hop onto the short bus. Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest Presidents of our 236 year history, well, he was old and stupid.

George H.W. Bush was old and evil, as was Bob Dole. Discounting entirely the concept of heredity, George W. Bush was just plain stupid, with a touch of evil thrown in for good measure. John McCain, not evil or particularly stupid, seeing as how he spent most of his time as a Republican Senator making it a point to antagonize his fell GOP Senators, was merely too Old to be elected. Of course once he became the GOP nominee, he lost that bipartisan maverick label and was evil for 60 days or so.

What about today's figures? Scott Walker is evil while Karl Rove is definitely evil, both of whom bow to the evil that is Dick Cheney who actually has his entrances accompanied by the Darth Vader Music from Star Wars. Sarah Palin is too easy, anyone who says betcha or uses any colloquialisms in their speech at all can only be stupid. Never mind the fact that this woman has given some of the most intelligent commentary on energy and economic issues during the last three decades, our game's rules are really very simple. All Republicans must be labeled as either stupid, old, or evil.

The beauty of the entire strategy of course is that it makes every election a plug and play as far as strategy is concerned. Every campaign turns into a barrage of ad hominem attacks. Substantive issues need never be addressed. Not a single battle in the arena of ideas need take place, if the person on the other side is either stupid, senile, or evil. It allows the campaign speeches to be so generic and the script remains so unchanged, that an empty suit who's sole talent is reading copy from a teleprompter is all that is really needed for the purposes of representing your side of the debate.

No, it doesn't always work, but when you lose every single foray into the arena of ideas, what is left to you?  This template has been successful in enough races for a long enough time that very little thought is needed in terms of whether or not it should be replaced. Then, on top of this template, we need to have endless whining about the, "mean republican attack machine," and endless calls for civility and compromise in our national discourse.

Side note:  For all of you moderate rinos, and various other inhabitants of the political left, my vote in 2010 was not cast in order to facilitate the two major parties coming together to sing kumbayah and accomplish Barack Obama's agenda in a more palatable manner, but rather a cease and desist order designed to inflict gridlock upon the Legislative Branch. Our House, the result of an historic election which saw 63 House seats, 11 Governor's mansions, 7 Senate Seats, and 700 State Legislature Seats change from D to R, has done reasonably well in that regard. Your calls for civility and compromise are empty and hypocritical. What you mean by them is nothing more than shut up and let us have our way.

Team Obama was all over this strategy as we moved into full swing for Obama/Biden 2012. They wanted to face Mitt Romney from the beginning. Mitt is not so old as to be labeled senile, and he clearly is not stupid, and according to our rules, that leaves evil. Newt Gingrich would have worked for the purposes of wishing to face evil as well. Never mind that Romney is a member of the Mormon Church, a group of people so annoyingly nice that South Park felt it necessary to parody that niceness on one of their episodes.

Vanquishing evil is preferable to picking on the old or stupid. You can be mean to evil people, and in fact, people in general prefer it. As President, Barack Obama has amassed one of the most horrendous records history has to offer. His victory in a second Presidential election depends on his ability to run a scorched Earth campaign that will leave not one single area of sleaze unexploited. President Obama knows this all to well, and his entire tone to date confirms this as well. From Mitt Romney terrorized his dog to he is a felon evading his taxes to he killed a former employee's wife by giving her cancer to Romney wants to put all Black people back in chains, there literally is nothing that is in too poor a taste for the Obama campaign. Chicago thugs doing Chicago thuggish things, all while Barack Obama claims to be the adult in the room rising above the fray calling for a more enlightened tone of civility. (If you feel the need to wretch, I'll understand and even wait.)

The Problem For Team Zero With Regards To Paul Ryan:

So giddy was Team Zero with the Ryan pick that I believe I actually heard champagne corks being popped from almost every Obama headquarters in each of the identified battleground states. We already had the Ryan is evil advertisements produced, and we used those ads for the 2010 campaign.

The problem that Team Zero has with this line of attack is three fold. First, these ads did not work the first time they were used. Americans are beginning to become numb to the mediscare arguments being leveled. Grandma did indeed survive the Reagan years, and without resorting to a cat food diet. Secondly, Paul Ryan's demeanor will remind voters more of Jimmy Stewart starring in, "It's a Wonderful Life," than the Grinch who Stole Medicare. The more people see him, the less this will play out as the leftists wish it to. Nor is he old or stupid. Portraying him as any of those things will not work, and what's more, those attempts will backfire. This is a phenomenon that is already becoming painfully clear to the Chicago team, who has been having some major attacks of panic recently. When you are a Democrat who winds up on the wrong side of a story appearing both in Politico and Newsweek during one calendar week, you are in major league trouble. Thirdly, the debate ver who is being more truthful about their plan to fix or destroy Medicare is an easy one to prove or disprove. This has been well documented and chronicled over the last couple of years, and it ain't pretty for the Bamster.

What the Ryan VEEP pick does do is force the debate firmly back into the arena of ideas, precisely where the Democrats have lost each and every time they've played there. There is no doubt that they are far superior in the land of straw men, ad hominems, non sequiturs, and unicorns. Each and every time they bring up the claim that Ryan proposed destroying Medicare, they run the risk of people actually reading Ryan's plan for Medicare which proposed no such thing. Each time this charge is leveled it will be countered with the Republicans bringing up Obamacare's own looting of the Medicare funding accounts to pay for the Obamacare's growing list of expenses. While they will claim that this fact is a lie, it is also a matter of public record, and they run the risk of citizens actually taking the initiative to find out for themselves what is true and what isn't.

While team Zero may have been giddy originally, the chaos of having been forced into a corner is quickly descending upon their leaders. The Obama people are looking at their every attack backfiring, and as of right now, they have less cash on hand than Mitt Romney, and are consistently being out raised by him. Mitt Romney and his team will be able to access their campaign funds as of August 30. Until now, Barack Obama has been outspending Mitt Romney by a sizable margin, and hoping to score a knock out punch prior to the conventions, making the official 60 day campaign season a mere formality leading up to his second coronation. while the efficacy of this strategy has been debated, with some polls showing the beginnings of success, and others showing bupkis, one thing is certain, no knock out blow has been delivered.

Know this those of you on the political left, we are not sending Mitt Romney to the White House to compromise with you on how best to advance the Progressive nightmare for America. We are sending him there to undo the disastrous policies you managed to inflict upon us for the last hundred years. We'll start with those from the last four. Enjoy the upcoming national debate, I know I will.

Oh, and one more thing, just in case any Democrats are reading this! Is Joe Biden stupid, old or evil?

Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.