It’s a new strategy for the GOP: everyone loves the underdog. The party that currently holds sway over all three branches of our government will spend the next few weeks blaming the diminished returns of the American economy, the failed Road Map process in the Middle East, and the woeful state of American national security on their critics in a bid to fashion themselves as underdogs in the upcoming election. The President and his top advisers this past week framed critics of the administration – morally and intellectually confused adherents to the “blame America first” school of thought – as the chief cause of domestic and foreign policy failures.

In a stunning invocation of Godwin’s Law, President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld equated those who oppose the administration’s handling of the War on Terror with Nazi appeasers and Communists sympathizers. It was an attempt to portray to the public a well-meaning administration hamstrung in its efforts to fight the good fight not by sheer incompetence and hubris, but by feckless naysayers who just don’t “get it.”

For the first time in six years the GOP is approaching the American voter like a ne’er-do-well spouse asking for just one more chance to make things right. Without a single successful venture to point to in six years of power the GOP is blaming everyone but themselves for failures under their watch.

Will it work? Can the election spin machine turn a brash-talking cowboy president into a sympathetic Joe just trying to do right by his heart? It’s already started. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough – a former GOP member of Congress – led off the first salvo with his “Is Bush an Idiot?”(video) piece a couple of weeks ago. The normally hawkish Scarborough caught some flack for the piece but it served its purpose. Those inclined to defend the President did, and the undecided in the crowd stopped thinking of President Bush as world’s only nuclear armed six-gun slinger and started to wonder if maybe folks were being too hard on the guy. Phase one was complete.

Phase two came with the announcement that more GOP Congressional seats than previously believed are up for grabs in this year’s midterm election. These members of Congress don’t need to associate themselves with the president or his administration – that’s a losing proposition – they only need to follow the President’s lead and attack their morally and intellectually confused opponents who either don’t get it, or simply don’t take threats to American national security seriously.

Which leads me to phase three: seriously. Expect to see this buzzword, or at least the concept, in more frequent use. The electioneers know they have a major problem with satirists like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Stephen Colbert(video). These commentators reach an audience of tens of millions of people showcasing the failures and ineptitude of the administration weekly. In the GOP underdog strategy, their impact will be marginalized by the notion that their dissent is a stumbling block to what might otherwise be successful GOP policies. Furthermore their criticisms will be wholly discounted not because they are without merit, but because they come from comedians out only for laughs. In short, these critics of the administration do not take the threats America faces seriously. The goal of this phase of the underdog strategy is to diminish, if not neutralize, the impact of any observations contrary to the GOP party line: stay the course, no matter what.

If you see the underdog strategy at work in your own state races post relevant links and your observations in the comments section below.

When criminals in this world appear,
And break the laws that they should fear,
And frighten all who see or hear,
The cry goes up both far and near for
Underdog,
Underdog,
Underdog,
Underdog!