I've been a little wrapped up over at WMD, but I haven't entirely forgoteen about the Dayton Daily Democrat and their sneaky editorial board.

Here's our old friend Marty Gottlieb taking a jab at Republican strategists:

It's 1988 all over. A vulnerable Republican has surged by painting a Massachusetts liberal who was strong in the polls but fuzzy on the issues the way the brilliant, experienced and ruthless Republican operatives wanted to paint him.

Last time it was Lee Atwater. This time it was Karl Rove. Both times, the Democratic candidates were slow on the uptake, were caught off guard, unlike the great Bill Clinton, who knew that you must hit back immediately.

As Atwater painted Michael Dukakis as too liberal to be president, Rove painted John Kerry as too liberal and too indecisive.

Going negative works.

Going negative? That is who the man IS, Marty. Funny how there is no mention of the Carville's or Begala's (and, oh, by the way, that whole Clintonista crew is BACK).

And Marty, you really need to talk to some, you know, actual Vietnam veterans if you think they are all part of some Vast Right Wing Conspiracy getting marching orders from Karl Rove.

True — the experts will say — Rove got some help from the anti-Kerry swift boat veterans. They got Rove the denunciation of Kerry that he wanted without saddling him with the task of defending the indefensible charges against Kerry. But, all will acknowledge, that was really Rove, whether it was Rove or not. His wealthy Texas friends knew what he wanted. Everybody knew.

These guys are seriously ticked off at John Kerry, the man who incited civilian hatred of the military in general and of Vietnam veterans specifically. We lost an entire generation of heroes. Even the ones that survived were scarred by what happened when they came home. Don't denigrate their service, Marty.

At least Marty gets this right:

[I]t's not the strategy that matters. It's the underlying circumstances of the year.

But what Marty doesn't tell you is that the partisan media is doing everything they can to create "news" that is negative for the President. They downplay the economy all the time. We hear more casualty statistics than good stories from Iraq (for some good stories, try Defend America - a journalist worth half his weight in donuts could find some stories that focus on the positive effects of our being in Iraq). CBS' Dan Rather just passed off forged documents in order to create a scandal.

I think Marty is running out of material. This is the second or third article in my recollection involving Dr. Lichtman and his predictions. Marty, get out there, man, see the world and, you know, report on it. Or opine if that's what you call it...