What will the dems do when Saddam is executed?

There is a problem on the horizon for the Democratic Party. I am sure somebody has already commissioned strategy studies and position research, but the problem is a loser for them no matter what.

Someday in the near future, probably before the end of the year Saddam Hussein will be found guilty and sentenced to death. And then it will happen. Saddam will be executed. The republican position is obvious and simple, tail-gate parties.

The democratic position will be nuanced. I remember the next day after Saddam was captured Katie Couric on the Today Show looked and dressed like she was at a wake. Her disappointment was projected by a sullen almost “poor Saddam” tone when she talked about it. It was so obvious that Bill O’Reilly who happened to be scheduled that day said (paraphrasing) “if you are an American and you don’t see the capture of Saddam as good news you need to look inside your heart to see what motivates you”.

How will the main stream democrats keep the liberal kooks from defining the party for the next decade as the “it’s cruel to execute a tyrant” party? Of course we will be treated to the “save Tookie” crowd on the talk shows. But what will the more moderate democrats say?

By even acknowledging Saddam’s execution they have to “judge” it as right or wrong. They will be damned by their own party if they acknowledge a success of the Iraq war and damned by the moderates if they call the execution of Saddam any thing but a triumph. And if they say that the execution is just, then how can they hold the position that the removal of Saddam was anything but prudent? If they say it is not just, that will play very badly to the moderates who still see execution of murderous tyrants as a positive thing.

Will they nod and say “I heard about that but it is an internal Iraqi matter and I won’t comment”? Will they say “the end has come for a brutal dictator who murdered his own people” thereby lending support to the case for his removal and thereby validating a war that is unpopular with their own base and reminding moderates why we invaded in the first place? Will the democratic leadership say nothing?

People who measure things use metrics. A metric is some category of fact like a speed or a color. Metrics are boring for the most part and don’t lend themselves well to the 5 second sound bite on the evening news. So the positive metrics of this war, the rebuilding of infrastructure, education, and civil rights in Iraq does not get any play on the nightly news.

The execution of Saddam may be the only positive metric from Iraq that makes the main stream news. Now certainly, that is a sad position to be in. And I am sure the liberals will say that things are so bad for the President that his only good news is that he managed to kill somebody else. But the overwhelming majority of Americans and Iraqis will celebrate the execution of Saddam.

Somebody in the Republican Party needs to be looking at how the democrats can be held accountable to the moderates when that day comes. Don’t let them get away with just pretending it didn’t happen. Make them acknowledge it and be forced to place a value judgment on it. Then the democrats will have to take a position that the invasion of Iraq was a good thing or a bad thing for Iraq and the United States.

And make the media bring focus on the cheering Iraqis in the streets. Tell every republican to mention the cheering Iraqis and only the cheering Iraqis for at least a couple of days. Use that moment to show that for some Iraqis this may be an occupation, but the vast majority sees this as liberation. Get them into press conferences and capitalize on a good thing in Iraq for once, damn it!

And don’t let them get away with the “well the execution of Saddam is a good thing but we were lied into this war” crap either. Show the public again and again the congressional resolution that approved the use of force in Iraq for the express purpose of regime change. Most people still don’t even know that. Tell them in the news.

I have this image that fifty years from now some historian is going to make news by finding the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq and say “if only the public had known about this at the time the Republicans wouldn’t have lost the White House”. Use it Republicans. Tell the people that with the execution of Saddam, we have closure on a major objective for invading Iraq, the establishment of some form of democratic government ruled by the people of Iraq.

Michelle Malkin with the death of another tyrant

Austin Bay has a comparison of Saddam and Milosevic.

Comments

[Dave Fourputt]

Very good post.

Thank you.

[Ray Robison]

thanks very much