WI:Joe Biden in '88?

[Whanztastic]

I am trying to think of what the Bush team will attack Biden on, what Atwater would go for... he isn't an Ivy League liberal (Syracuse, Bush's Yale would be the elitist), he doesn't have the Willy Horton problems. If the plagarism charges never come up the only thing I can see being a target are Biden's possible off the cuff remarks or gaffes, whatever they may be.

I know in the Boogie Man, Ed Rollins and others said on multiple occassions Atwater was close to being fired from the Bush campaign, but his smears were working so Bush kept him on. If the Bush campaign has a hard time getting the message down on Biden, Atwater could be kicked off the staff and Bush likely looses. Ed Rollins is the probable replacement campaign manager.

 

[Andrew T]

I am trying to think of what the Bush team will attack Biden on, what Atwater would go for...

The same thing pretty much every Republican Presidential campaign always hauls out: "Joe Biden is the most liberal Senator in the country!." The fun part is, you can drop out "Joe Biden" and insert "John Kerry," "Barack Obama," and even "Al Gore," and keep crankin' out the classic hits.

he isn't an Ivy League liberal (Syracuse, Bush's Yale would be the elitist),

Dukakis went to Swarthmore, while Bush was in Skull & Bones. Didn't stop Atwater IOTL; wouldn't stop him here.

he doesn't have the Willy Horton problems.

Doesn't matter; Biden is a Democrat, therefore he's Soft on Crime. This is before the '94 crime bill, so Biden wouldn't have legislative accomplishments to rebut the charge. Oh -- and also, he's pro-gun-control, so obviously he's a crypto-fascist here to Take Your Guns.

If the plagarism charges never come up the only thing I can see being a target are Biden's possible off the cuff remarks or gaffes, whatever they may be.

Let me drop out of sarcasm mode for a second: Biden as "gaffe machine" probably is a real risk. But if you think for a second that the Atwater slime machine won't attempt to personally destroy Biden for things of which he's completely innocent, well, you should read up more on Lee Atwater.

I know in the Boogie Man, Ed Rollins and others said on multiple occassions Atwater was close to being fired from the Bush campaign, but his smears were working so Bush kept him on. If the Bush campaign has a hard time getting the message down on Biden, Atwater could be kicked off the staff and Bush likely looses. Ed Rollins is the probable replacement campaign manager.

Ed Rollins is a bare-knuckle fighter, to be sure, but -- unlike Atwater -- we at least have evidence that there are lines Rollins won't cross. For example: to this day, Rollins remains convinced that he had to resign as Perot's campaign manager for the good of the country. ("I got to know the guy, and he was just completely crazy," he once told me. "But if I had stayed on as his campaign manager, he would have been President. That scared the shit out of me.") I think Rollins expressed similar sentiments -- although not to me, personally -- when he quit as Michele Bachmann's campaign manager in the fall of 2011.

(Not explained: why you would agree to be Michele Bachmann's campaign manager in the first place.)

 

[Whanztastic]

Well done!

I suppose the question is what gaffes Biden makes and Atwater would stack the deck from there...

Rollins and Atwater had a history, with Atwater basically overthrowing him. Rollins is by no means clean (nobody who is good at politics is) but the way he talks about Atwater, he basically seems disgusted at what Atwater resorted to. Rollins at least has some standards.

I think with respect to Bachmann, he must have assumed the majority of her posturing was an act, until he was working with her.

Anywho, Bush may have more of a problem with Atwater making the attacks slightly more off base and on somebody who he at least knows and members of his party in the Senate have some professional respect for. The Sword of Damocles was hanging above Atwater's head during that campaign.

If he had pushed it too far off base or the attacks don't have the same result as they did with Dukakis, then I imagine Atwater would get sacked, Rollins would be back on, much to the irritation of George Jr., who was quite buddy-buddy with him by then.