With enemies like these Bush doesn’t need friends.

Indeed.


Update (8/14): Theoria has some advice for the RNC protestors, which, if followed, could help minimize the problem.


On Lawyers, Guns and Money, DJW is afraid I could be prescient about this:

Any excuse at all to associate Kerry and Bush opposition generally with something radical, fringish, or generally unappealing to those mythical normal Americans will not only be seized upon by GOP spinners, but flogged to death by the rest of the media as well. Now they try this sort of thing all the time and it generally fails to get much traction (you don't hear much about the Whoopi Goldberg "hatefest" anymore), but that doesn't mean we should underestimate the potential for bad press here. The media wields enormous power in presidential elections (as 2000 showed quite clearly), and this would be the sort of thing they'd love to flog as a "turning point" or some such thing.

And Mike at Apeiron agrees as well:

I think it is obvious that the media will cover heavily protests of any kind that take place outside Madison Square Garden. Certainly New York protests will get more air time than protests from Boston. And while I want people to be able to exercise their rights to assemble and speak their minds, I'm cognizant of the fact that the GOP, in its desperation, will do anything necessary to smear and misconstrue the motives and messages of protesters.