The Et Cetera Post

It always baffled me how the Bush-Rove machine managed to constantly get away with accusing their opponents of the very flaw they themselves exemplified. Take for example one of Karl Rove’s favorite charges, that of being “elitist”. This accusation was one he made against John Kerry in particular, even though it was Bush who, behind the artificially-created facade of Crawford Ranch, most exemplified the traits of an elitist (from a rich oil family and ivy-leaguer who avoided the Vietnam draft).

Now it looks like McCain is using a variation of the very same tactic. His recent ad accuses Obama of seeing himself as “the One”, America’s new messiah. Yet McCain himself recently has come out with a poster that depicts him looking more like the second-coming than anything I’ve ever seen hanging on a Sunday School wall.

This pot-and-kettle politics move is usually a pretty effective tactic. After all it allows you to innoculate  yourself from being called on one of your weaknesses by being the first to point it out in someone else. And it seems that the facts rarely get in the way of the perception that is ultimately created. As long as the accusation has an air of truth about it and you say it often and forcefully enough, you’re on your way to some good character assassination.