Got Our Mojo Workin' -
Got Our Mojo Workin' - Jeff Fecke writes Blog of the Moderate Left.
He did a piece last Friday, claiming that the left - lefty blogs - had seized the initiative:
"Before the war, the righty blogs had all the mojo. Reading Insty or Lileks or Mitch Berg's site was fun, because they were so damn giddy. They knew they had the momentum, they knew the big issue of the day favored them, and they were joyous.
Meanwhile, the lefty blogs were either dispairing or furious or, in my case (and a few more notable cases, like TPM), circumspect. The left knew we were on the wrong side of the White House door, and while not all of us opposed the war outright, most all of us were leery, to say the least, at the way the war was sold and prosecuted.
Fast-forward six months, and look around. Kos is at the top of his game, Josh Marshall is witty as Hell, Pandagon has found his voice, Atrios rules, and...well, pretty much any lefty blog you stumble into is sweetness and light, while righty sites grumble about media coverage and why people don't see things like they do.
And I realize something:
We've got the mojo now."
A couple of key points here:
- Kos is at the top of his game - and his game is channeling DNC spin directly through his blog.
- Atrios rules...but rules what?
- Marshall is witty as hell - and he's going to need to be, because he's rapidly shaping up as the only left-of-center site anyone will take seriously. And that's assuming people really do take him seriously - accusations that he operates more from ideology than reason are piling up.
- More seriously - no, the right still has the mojo.
Although I really hate the term "mojo" - it's such an ephemeral notion. The better metaphor is "Possession Time".
Conservatives have the ball. Once you get the ball - and get over the giddiness of fielding the punt - you have to move the ball down the field.
- The election was a messy punt return that got us out of the endzone to the 10 yard line.
- Pushing through the incremental tax cut was a messy squib that the President managed to scramble out of bounds for four yards on first down.
- September 11? A broken-field tip (caused by crowd interference) that ended up as a 20-yard gain.
- Afghanistan? The prez led off on first and ten with a surprise reverse to Rumsfeld via Powell, that broke through on first for a dime, getting to the GOP 44.
- Iraq? A blitz broke into the GOP pocket, and part of the crowd started to boo - just as Bush rifled the fastest screen of all time to Wolfowitz in the right flat, for 14, to the Democrat 42.
- The occupation? Phase one was a fullback-up-the-middle that got three yards in a cloud of dust for second and seven.
- Phase two - a lateral to Powell - ended with a two yard gain (which the New York Times sports reporter Paul Krugman called "A Thousand Yard Loss") and an injury on the play, as Annan (the left end) decided to tell the rest of the team that he didn't want to run his pattern (instead opting to stand immobile at the line of scrimmage, where he got blindsided and left the field with a bloody nose).
So it's third and five, and Bush knows he has to convert. A field goal is not an option.
And the hogs on the front line - conservatives and Republicans nationwide, in the streets and on the internet - are hunkering down, listening to the Democrat cheerleaders prancing about the left sideline: "We got the mojo! Look at the polls!", waiting for the snap, listening for an audible ...
Mojo, Schmojo. We've got the ball. Until they get the ball away from us, it's our game to lose. By the same token, it's ours to win.
We're in that in-between time - no major news is going on, just the daily grind of winning a limited counterinsurgency war, conducting a war on terror that's moved to the shadows, out of media range, and carrying out politics-as-usual in a country that barely realizes it's at war, getting ready for an election (against a full-court hostile media press). It's not a time for giddiness, for "mojo"; it's a time for hard work and grim determination.
Third and five is not about giddiness or mojo. It's about toughing it out.
Posted by Mitch at
August 25, 2003 09:07 AM
