A couple days ago an unnamed Democrat stumbled upon a 72 page document on the floor of the Gasparilla Inn & Club in sunny Florida.  They sent a copy to Politico who in turn made the thing public and now the Republicans — especially their chairman Micheal Steele — are trying to distance themselves away from it.  What exactly was this juicy packet found naked on the floor of a posh resort?  Politico‘s calling it a “fundraising presentation”.  It outlines the GOP’s strategy to raise money through the upcoming election cycles and into the 2012 presidential race.  The problem is how the presentation demands to go about that goal.  Word for word, this is what appears on a PowerPoint in the document: “What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate…?  Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”  As Politico mentions, this is obviously nothing new.  Playing on fears and painting opponents with a wide brush are two of the party’s go-to weapons when it comes to raising money, sometimes even winning elections.  But this is just so obviously outrageous, I’m wondering if anyone will fall for it. The top of one page is labeled “The Evil Empire”.  Below are caricatures of Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s “Joker”, House speaker Nancy Pelosi as “Cruella Deville”, and Senate leader Harry Reid as “Scooby Doo”.  On one page, the document outlines fundraising from small donors versus large donors: it says small donors will contribute out of “fear” and “reactionary… visceral giving”, and large donors would contribute out of “peer to peer pressure” and “ego-driven… calculated giving”.  The RNC chairman, Micheal Steele, claims to denounce the fundraising campaign and even claims to have no previous knowledge of it.  Suuuure.  But hey, at least they aren’t putting Hitler mustaches on Obama’s face.  I guess……..

-D