perfidy

While following the Kerry bimbo eruption trail, I ran across this link to a Kausfiles from back in the double M. The Feiler Faster Thesis is simply that:

The news cycle is much faster these days, thanks to 24-hour cable, the Web, a metastasized pundit caste constantly searching for new angles, etc. As a result, politics is able to move much faster, too, as our democracy learns to process more information in a shorter period and to process it comfortably at this faster pace. Charges and countercharges fly faster, candidates' fortunes rise and fall faster, etc. [Italics in original.]

Kaus mentioned this today in the context of the public's seeming unawareness of such basic Kerry facts as the fact that he threw someone else's medals over the White House fence. This is likely going to be overshadowed by the new bombshell - though hints are now coming out that this particular weakness has been known, at least in theory and in some quarters, for a while now. We shall have to see how this all plays out.

This primary season has had more twists and turns than a sidewinder with MS. We had the magnificent entry of Gen. Clark, then the Dean implosion, now this Kerry thing - along with the usual run of campaign bizarreness. Clark might be endorsing Kerry - even though he apparently knew of the coming bimbo eruption - to angle for a VP slot if Kerry survives the battle. Dean has stayed in, possibly because of his knowledge of it. Edwards must be dancing a jig, because there was little hope that the media or Dean would cut into Kerry enough that he could take the driver's seat. Only Al Sharpton has nothing to gain from this.

If this story has legs, it seems unlikely that Kerry will be able to reposition himself before the next round of primaries, because this story won't be leaving the front pages. Momentum is a thing of the past, as Dean has already discovered.

Click the more link for some fun stuff back from the 2000 election.

It also follows, if you buy the FFT, that Wilentz is wrong: Bush has plenty of time to reposition himself for the general election. His strategists will deploy the cliché that from March to November is "an eternity in politics." (Look at how Bush Sr. went from Gulf War hero to general-election loser! Look at how Clinton came back from the brink of disgrace! Look at how Gore went from being a stiff to unstoppable!) But if the Feiler Faster Thesis is correct, from now to November isn't an eternity anymore. It's more like five eternities. Bush probably has time to move to the center, move back to the right, feint at protectionism, convert to Catholicism, divorce his wife, admit he dropped acid, denounce vivisection, embrace Lenora Fulani, enroll in Bob Jones University, then tearfully apologize for all of the above on Meet the Press and still move back to the vital center again before November. OK, I'm exaggerating. But you get the point. We have no more idea what the public image of Bush will be in November than we have of what Chicago will look like in the year 2100.