Monday, February 19, 2007

Blowback

The positive reviews of Harper's stubborn decision to keeping running dishonest ads continues:
The Smear's Golden Era

He behaves as if he is never wrong, and his opponents -- Liberals, at least -- are never right. He never apologizes for anything because, unlike the rest of us, he never makes mistakes. He treats politics like war, not the more civilized surrogate that it is supposed to be. There is little lightness, or play, in his responses to inevitably overblown opposition claims -- we are as likely to see sour contempt.

But sometimes the prime minister's refusal to concede an inch just looks petulant. Example: his response to the vindication of Ralph Goodale last week.

Harper's vitriolic partisanship has nothing to do with ideology.

Pretty flattering stuff, which is mirrored by several other news outlets. Harper's arrogance may cost him this time, because the optics of holding steadfast to a dishonest ad are obvious. The Tories look mean-spirited, stubborn and the "gutter politics" meme takes hold. The Prime Minister sets the tone, the era of hyper-politicism cemented.

The Tories should pull the ad, but they clearly won't. Now that the reaction pours in, from a tactical point, it might be better to let the ad run- it serves as a powerful symbol of the Harper hypocrisy of claiming to restore honor and dignity to government. A small prediction, the Tories must sense the blowback, look for the ad to slowly fade away, in such a manner as not to admit a wrong.

UPDATE
They are pulling the ads, using a convenient excuse. For the good of Canada, cough, hack.

11 comments:

wilson said...

I would think that all of the ads have to be pulled once Charest officially calls an election.
Do you know?

Sinestra said...

I don't think so. It's a completely separate set of 'campaign' expenses.

Anonymous said...

Too bad people couldn't see this for what it really is.

If Harper's numbers were going up and people were happy with his policies he wouldn't have to resort to this.

This is almost like an admission of the failure of Harper to connect with Canadians.

Harper obviously can't please Canadians on his good policies and how well he's run a government - so has resorted to "desparate" means.

If only people and especially thos in Quebec would understand what this is all about.

Anonymous said...

Imagine if he had such firm faith in the parliamentary governmental model and the good that can come from a minority session -- how he could tailor some specific policies to be joint agreements that better the Canadian effort, inspire and engage the public with a fusion of positive and depth.
Instead, he whittles away at little trifles, and when he steps forward most of the time its begrudgingly, in fact he has to reach into his newly minted 'New Canadian Gov't trash bin' and bring out the policies of his rivals...
Imagine, if he would spend as much energy on making good gov't instead of trying to blackjack the Liberals, maybe his polling numbers would reflect the public's public faith and trust in its 'new gov't.'
Well, let's not imagine too hard...

Steve V said...

burl

Dare to dream :)

JimBobby said...

Whooee!I'm a Greenie so I ain't got a dog in this fight but Harpoon's sure lookin' punier an' punier, sez I. He's soundin' sorta like a manure salesman with a mouthful o' samples. Polyticks-as-usual, I figger.

JB

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Even if Harper disagrees with the Liberals in terms of ideology, his vindictiveness towards them is absolutely disgusting. I have no problem with him pointing out what he sees is wrong with Liberal policies since politics is about debating different ideas, but his nastiness towards his opponents is totally overboard.

If anything this just turns voters off, but also might explain why fewer and fewer people want to go into politics. Despite my interest in politics, this type of mudslinging is the main reason I refuse to go into it and instead plan to stay in the private sector.

Steve V said...

miles

Isn't the vitrol striking? Harper doesn't disagree with Liberals, he downright HATES them. As a matter of fact, the whole team is just nasty, maybe as a consequence of so many years in the wilderness.

burlivespipe said...

Really, since he was a card-carrying member long back when, it leads one to wonder exactly what was the turning point? Did he have a childhood girlfriend -- let's call her the red-headed girl ala charlie brown -- who spurned him for wage and price controls? Maybe his first job was lubbing crappy vegas and pintos at the local Petro-Canada? Or perhaps that long stay in the hospital made him despise the public health system, which allowed lower income people to mingle with him (tho averagely middle class, he likely envisioned himself as belonging a rung above) and his like... Sounds like Dr Phil or at least Rosie O'Donnell should sit down with him to figure out that burr up his ass...

Steve V said...

I blame Coach's Corner.

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

Burlivespipe - Harper switched to the Progressive Conservatives from the Liberals in 1981 in reaction to the National Energy Program. After the National Energy Program it was pretty much impossible to be a Liberal and live in Alberta. With Alberta's more conservative culture, I sometimes wonder how long it would take before I would become a conservative. As much as we like to think we come to our political opinions on our own, where we live does have a great influence.

Still he needs to get over his hate of the Liberals and realize they are good people too who want to make Canada a better country, just with a different vision. The nastiness of the neo-cons is what ultimately drove me out of the party over to the Liberals (I was a Conservative up until 2004, then left and in late 2005 switched to the Liberals, while joined the party in 2006). Pretty much after the party choose Harper, I became convinced I could not feel comfortable in the new party.