With the Rethug primary process in full swing, it's hard to avoid seeing one or more Rethug candidates, or Rethug officials, on TV blasting President Obama with one false charge after another. Typically, the White House ignores the nonsense coming from the Rethugs, desperate not only with their feeble candidates, but because of an improving economy and increasingly popular President. Sometimes you'll see Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney respond -- someone not really projecting strength or confidence -- or someone from the reelection campaign. But the responses are few and far between, or ignored, perhaps due to the colorless messenger.
The Dems should get on this problem, because the Rethugs are masters at spin control and staying on message. Forget Dem leaders in Congress. We cringe when we see, for example, Sen. Harry Reid attempting to articulate the Dem position. If Central Casting was filling the role of a small town undertaker, Reid's the guy. Far better are people like former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Barbara Boxer, or even former New York Gov. Elliott Spitzer (despite his personal baggage). It's not that the Dems don't have surrogates, it's that they don't seem to use them as well as the Rethugs. That has to change.
