Adrastos, Campaign Notes, Political Crack

On Bedwetting

Lyndon Johnson called them Nervous Nellies. A friend of mine calls them Chicken Littles. According to the Political Dictionary, David Plouffe added the term bedwetting to the political lexicon during a down phase of the 2008 Obama campaign:

It may not be a pleasant image, but that’s the phrase used inside Obamaworld when Democrats start worrying about their political fortunes.”

A reminder that Barack Obama won the popular vote by 9.5 million votes, 7 percentage points, and the fakakta Electoral College 365-173 in 2008. There was still bedwetting because it’s how far too many Democrats react to the slightest reverse in their candidate’s fortunes. Campaigns have ebbs and flows. Bedwetting is the worst way to deal with them.

Back to David Plouffe. He’s currently a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, which is coping with an epidemic of bedwetting and Chicken Littleing. Why? There’s been a small shift to Trump in some but not all polls. I wrote about my poll agnosticism two weeks ago, How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Hate The Polls. I stand by that post and reaffirm my refusal to live and die with the latest poll or aggregator.

The latest bedwetting outbreak has prompted Republicans to pile on with bullshit and bravado about how they’re winning the election. Pollster and Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg rose to prominence in 2022 with his clear-eyed assessment of that race. Remember the red wave? It was a red mirage.

Cue gratuitous musical interlude:

I’m not sure whether or not to call Simon a bed-drier but his Hopium Chronicles on Substack provides a frequent antidote to the extreme agita felt by far too many Dems:

Republicans have dropped over 60 polls into the battlegrounds over the last two weeks to try to move the polling averages towards them. They would not be doing all this if they believed they were winning the election.”

Instead of freaking out, MAGA Republicans are feeding voters a steady diet of junk food polls to skew the polling averages. Why? They know that the legacy media will pile on with Democrats in disarray pieces, which will lead to a bedwetting epidemic in the more squeamish quarters of the left.

The featured image is of Kamala Harris with Liz Cheney. Her endorsement and that of other GOPers has wet beds across the country for no reason whatsoever. Republicans welcome newcomers to their party: Ronald Reagan was not only a registered Democrat until the Sixties, he campaigned for FDR and Truman before moving across the aisle. MAGA Republicans have even welcomed renegade Dems Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Junior to their repulsive ranks.

In 1972, there was a backlash among older Democrats against what they saw as the hippie infestation of the McGovern campaign. That led to the creation of Democrats For Nixon, which included such luminaries as James and Eliot Roosevelt. I don’t recall the GOPers of that day bitching about FDR’s sons supporting their Dick. They wanted every vote. That’s how you win elections.

Repeat after me: Elections are about addition, not subtraction.

The Crunchy Granola Machiavelli Jill Stein is back with stale cliches calculated to sway some low-information far left voters:

That’s a bald-faced lie. There have been no deals struck with Liz Cheney or any other Republican. Stein has also claimed that there’s a neo-conservative takeover of the Democratic party led by Kamala Harris. Say what? The only thing she’s offered to any Republican is a possible cabinet post. Liz Cheney has received nothing for her vote except the gratitude of sensible Democrats.

One of the stalest cliches peddled by Jill Stein is the notion that Dems and GOPers are two sides of the same coin. That’s never been true and is even less true than ever. Have these people never heard of Project 2025? Have they ever heard Harris talk about immigrants poisoning the blood of our country? As General Mark Milley told Bob Woodward: Donald Trump is a fascist to the core. Kamala Harris believes in democracy as do the Republicans who have crossed the aisle to support her. Strike the word aisle, it’s more like a precipice, which threatens the future of our country.

I understand the anxiety people feel over this election. The Trump-MAGA freak show has gone on too long. He should never have been elected in the first place. I understand why people ask: how can anyone support this blatant con artist?

Worrying, lamenting, and bedwetting won’t defeat Trump. Positive thinking and action are required. You can donate money, phone bank, or if your handwriting is legible unlike mine, write postcards. Whatever you do, don’t wet the proverbial bed. It only helps the MAGA Maggots spread their poison.

I remain optimistic about the election. Democrats have under polled since Dobbs. The legacy media and its pollsters tend to discount the importance of abortion as an issue and women voters in general. Don’t fall for Team Trump’s flooding the zone with shit. It’s another con.

My bed is dry.

The last word goes to Mr. Spock: