Let me start by stating I admire Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. Manning is a class act, from a classy family. That said, there was plenty of expectation that the record-setting, No. 1 offense in the NFL would at least show up at the Super Bowl. The problem for Denver was they were tentative and Seattle was aggressive.
That seems to be the perpetual problem of the Republican Party as well; they’re afraid of their own shadow, and the Democrats are relentlessly pounding them 24/7. The Republicans are as accustomed to being beaten up as the Broncos were at halftime, with the score 22-0. What did Denver do to open the second half? Rather than kick the ball honestly as far as possible and running as fast as possible to destroy Seattle returner Percy Harvin’s attempt to return it, Denver got cute. They bounced the ball in an effort to keep it from Harvin, who got it anyway and ran it back 87 yards for a score. Game over!
The leaders of Denver’s team, who devised that strategy, were communicating to their team that Harvin was “unbeatable”; so much better than they were that trickery, cuteness and evasion were more desirable than an honest contest. The same thing is happening in the upcoming Virginia Senate race with all of the talk of Mark Warner being “unbeatable.” The Republicans’ “team,” including donors, may well respond like Denver did, with a half-hearted going through the motions.
For years, the Republicans have been “bounce kicking” to the Democrats and their comrades — like academia, entertainment, crony Wall Street, Demo-journalists, pulpit pimps and poverty pimps — rather than debating them with the confidence of a warrior/scholar.
The Grand Old Party has no faith in itself to win the argument, so they evade, play me-tooism, backpedal and attack their own teammates who do believe in fighting back.
