Swiftboating as Political Strategy

Good article sumac.

Give the media a better story to cover and the swift boating blows up.

When the issue is the one raised by the attackers, then you lose. When the issue is the attackers, you win because they can't withstand real media scrutiny.

Let's hope that lessons have been learned, and that every campaign manager knows the importance of how to respond, and when, and why.

And it has to go beyond that. The very nature, intent, of these tactics has to be put out for the general electorate to know and understand.

You have a better shot of immunizing people when they know in advance how the attempt at influencing them is designed to work.