(no subject)
The apparently Rove-originated bandaid in response to media anger at McCain's recent flurry of lies = evil genius. The Republican talking point is that both candidates need to start being nice and stop fibbing about each other. Creates an artificial sense of parity, rechannels some of the well-deserved scorn (before critical mass is reached) into the "they're all like that" stereotype about politicians. Actually only a psychologist could have come up with this. Defenses of one's own side's bad behavior that implicate the other side in ways that sound like they might be plausible but that aren't immediately backed up by facts WORK, like so many similar tactics, because they delay. Other things will happen, people will forget. The hivemind only holds so much. Things have not been very good since that smaller hivemind discovered this.