Republicans In Denver: Ready To Strike

Salon today has a story about the Republican strategists in Denver who have "established a position behind enemy lines."

Two dozen GOP operatives have taken over an accounting firm's office for the week, barricaded themselves in behind a gate monitored by security guards and revved up for a few news cycles' worth of 24-hour rapid response during the Democratic convention. (The office is, even by Republican standards, pretty nice; Republican National Committee communications director Danny Diaz was reveling in the massive wooden desk in his office, usually devoted to spreadsheets instead of spreading opposition research. There's a ping-pong table, too.) RNC staffers arrived on Friday, and some of John McCain's campaign aides will land Sunday night. "We're here to tell the other side of the story and set the record straight," RNC chairman Mike Duncan told me. They don't feel there's any time to let Barack Obama bask in the glow of the convention. "We're going to be sprinting to the finish those final 60 days."

With a satellite hookup ready to beam GOP surrogates to the world, nine flat-screen TVs tuned to cable news and a live video stream on their new Web site for the convention, the Republicans are going to try to get themselves into as much coverage as possible during the week. They're bringing in some heavy hitters -- Mitt Romney on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, Tim Pawlenty on Thursday. They've made up some signs that borrow the graphic design look of the convention, with the slogan "A Mile High, An Inch Deep." The idea is to stay relevant and visible in the media coverage of the convention; they're basically hoping for some moments they can pounce on to embarrass Barack Obama.

The New York Times' blog covering the presidential race also features a piece on the RNC "war room"

The "Citizens for McCain" press conference, as the Republicans are calling it, will feature R.N.C. victory chairwoman Carly Fiorina, Former Democratic Congressman Tim Penny of Minnesota, Wisconsin Hillary Clinton delegate Debra Bartoshevich, and Women for Fair Politics organizer Cynthia Ruccia. According to the R.N.C., the event will showcase why "many Independent and Democratic voters are supporting John McCain's positive vision for America."

...

The Democratic National Committee has plans to set up its own counter-programming operation when the Republicans gather for their convention in Minnesota next week.

Comments

[TrooAmerican]

[why "many Independent and Democratic voters are supporting John McCain's positive vision for America." ]

wha....what?? LOL McCain has nothing positive about his campaign. hes already told poor people and middle class that they'll just have to accept that their jobs wont be back. and that things are fine, and any complainers are whining all in their heads.

His whole campaign so far has been nothing but a lie filled fraudulent insult fest.

[TrooAmerican]

[ "We're here to tell the other side of the story and set the record straight," RNC chairman Mike Duncan told me]
... what? lol....what? yer kidding right?
the RNC is the source of all lies and fraud.
There is no other 'side' of this story. the story is that the dem party is trying to help the 280million of the 300million americans that need it, and the Repugs are out to destroy us and create a society of slaves and masters and them being the masters.

[numenprof]

I have basically two responses to recent events: first, whatever integrity John McCain had, he has wasted in my eyes. I find it hard to respect him, in spite of his military heroism, because of his audacious equation between his deprivation as a POW and what millions of hard-working, hourly-wage earning, pay-check to paycheck Americans deal with daily. How dare he say he knows what they go through. That's a bold-faced lie. I say to you John McCain, hundreds of POW's have suffered just like you did, but they didn't get to come home to a huge silver spoon in their mouths provided by a patriline of admirals that secured a spot for them among the American elite - you did! If you take into consideration where you started out in life and where Barack Obama started out, you, John McCain, haven't come close to overcoming the obstacles Barack Obama has overcome, and you haven't accomplished nearly as much. Second, I say to the Hillary Clinton supporters who say they're going to vote for McCain: you prove that you are nothing but frauds, not principled Democrats, just spoiled children. Grow up, stand for the principles of the Democratic party. Don't sell out to a party that has systematically guided our country into the biggest gap between rich and poor in our history. If you vote for McCain you betray the party and the person you supposedly support so loyally.

[deminmo]

"A house divided cannot stand." That applies to this
historic Democratic convention. Any chink in Obama's
campaign is going to be exploited. And that chink is Hillary.
She needs to really push her supporters to vote for Obama
and their doing so shows support for her.
I also wish the protesters that just want 15 minutes of fame
would disappear. They help no one's cause but their own.
People need to protest war, lack of health care and leave
the swear words out of the equation.

[Seattlenative]

what the hell is Romney doing there?: isn't he supposed to be busting up American companies, shipping good jobs overseas, destroying the middle class, trying to give SS to wall street and denying rightful benefits to veterans? Oh wait, that last one is for McCain. Besides, Mitts sons are far to busy (chicken) to be serving in Iraq, so I imagine Mitt will be dodging that question for a long time.

[cassidynj]

Do they even have time to wash their hands after they wipe? Smear squads like this belittle democracy. They have no interest in selling the positives of their candidate. They are only interested in finding disagreement to leverage, and anger to exploit.

This kind of behavior exploits and degrades democracy and our great nation.

[rwe]

The Dems will have their own war rooms next week... It will be MSNBC and CNN .

[HGS111]

I seem to remember that the RNC convention in 2004 put non believers in ( national security cages ) what will they follow that up with in MN next week ???

[yeswecancan]

The Republicans have their own skeletons galore ... check out this hilarious Cindy McCain parody ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT4tbdoZMmc

[BlackWidowPilot]

Skeletons? You have nooo idea:

http://www.armchairsubversive.org

"Party of conservative Christian family values" like the locals in THE HILLS HAVE EYES or the court of Roman Emperor Caligula, but that's about it.

Hypocrisy, thy name remains GOP. Or is that "Gang of Pedophiles" or "Greedy Old Perverts?"

Yeeach.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[MasterHurrikane]

yawn... who cares what these republican lames do... it will not mean anything significant

[truth2008]

The RE-pukes are sending out their slime army of fake pathetic protesters. Rush L-i-m-p-b-a-g has been calling out re-thugs to disrupt the convention. Hope we can return the favor at the Repub convention next week. Hey ST. Paul Dems, get busy next week...

Re-p-u-k-e-s believe in "any means necessary" , we Dems are mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore!

Obama/Biden 08

[NavyMom44]

Nah, that's not the real reason the RNC is in Denver; actually they want to see what a crowd of enthusiastic voters look like because the know the most people coming to St. Paul will be less than the number of people in Invesco.

[Liberoservative]

Celebs for McC?

I guess that McC doesn't know what "gasolina" really means or he would have thought twice about using this guy with a bunch of highschool girls

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/One_more_note_on_Yankee.html#comments

[ManInFull]

If McCain really wants to be slick, he will pick a female running mate.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Speaking of *running *mates, where *is* Vickey Isemann these days?

Did Exxon Johnny McCaineMutiny forget which chateau he stashed her in?

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[DinahMoeHum]

"A Mile High - An Inch Deep"
Heh heh,
The GOP just lost Colorado with that remark.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

Sounds to me like the BS coming from the Republicans will be very deep.