Drinking Koolaid, Serving Koolaid

This morning Mara Liasson continued shilling for the Republican's incredible disappearing-votes machine. But it was her attempt at hip lingo that made me laugh. When Simon asked if Democrats are being unrealistic about winning one of the houses of Congress on November 7th, Liasson said, "Well, I think the Democrats do have a chance to pick the next speaker, but I do think there’s a little 'drinking the Koolaid' out there. People are looking at these national polls and assuming that the Democrats are about to make huge gains." It was funny to hear those words coming from Mara Liasson. As Wikipedia describes it, the phrase means "to become a firm believer in something; to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly." I think we know who's drinking the Koolaid!

Then this evening on ATC I was treated to extra large cup of Koolaid by NPR's David Greene who spends far too much time "traveling with the President." Greene was with Bush in southern Indiana at a campaign rally which he described as Bush's "first open, old-fashioned campaign rally" of this season. He said he was "really feeling the kind of electric atomosphere" and that Bush drew "an excited crowd." I wondered if it was like those good old-fashioned campaign rallies of 2004 where dissenters with the wrong tee-shirts got hauled of to the pokey? Or maybe it was like the "town-hall" meetings on Social Security where a bumper sticker could get you booted. But who wants to live in the past when you can hear our own cult leader-in-chief (rumored to be buying land in Paraguay!) "talking about the War on Terrorism, really getting the crowd revved up." Drink up...