"The race is over – and we've got bigger problems than that"

The title is Democrat pollster Patrick Caddell, quoted at Powerline. I am actually not sure that he is correct: I suspect that the problem is more likely at CBS than at the Kerry campaign. That is, I suspect that the DNC and the Kerry campaign were not involved. (Purely, mind you, on the basis that I think that both the Kerry campaign and the DNC are venal, short-sighted and partisan, but not so ineradicably stupid as to forge documents implicating a sitting President.)

I will say that if these documents originated at the DNC or the Kerry campaign, Caddell is correct. In political terms alone, it's possible that the Democrats would lose pretty much every contested House and Senate election, as well as the Presidential election. In more fundamental terms, it's not inconceivable that the Democrat Party would schism over this, with someone like Zell Miller or Joe Lieberman starting up an alternative Party.

Worst case for the Democrats would be if this were a result of Kerry bringing on the old Clinton hands, because that would almost certainly split the Party wide open.

But CBS? If I were a CBS shareholder, I'd be dropping stock as fast as the market could buy it, and at any price. With the audience drain that will likely occur, advertisers will be dumping them or bargaining down the rates, and it's not unlikely that Dan Rather will resign or be fired.

It's the coverup that kills you. And CBS is in on the coverup whether or not it was committed by CBS or by the Kerry campaign or the DNC.

Posted by Jeff at September 10, 2004 05:03 PM | Link Cosmos