[Posted by Karl]

The Occupy Wall Street protester photographed relieving himself on a police car may be symbolic of the mob’s immature rage against the machine, not to mention the group’s hypocrisy regarding green politics (the ongoing anti-corporate demonstrations are filled with corporate products as well).  But the incident also illustrates the way OWS agitators against Big Corporations have alienated the small businesses in the neighborhood, frequently by wrecking their restrooms.  Even Nanny Bloomberg feels compelled to speak out against the way OWS is making life difficult for those still working hard and playing by the rules.

Nevertheless, prominent Democrats, Big Labor and the establishment media (including the NYT editorial board) are hoping to coopt the movement to further their own political agenda.  White House CoS Bill Daley isn’t so sure it helps.  Granted, it makes sense that Team Obama, run and funded by the banksters OWS detests, would be wary of exposing its own hypocrisy in this area.  However, Daley is also correct to see risk for the establishment beyond the possibility that OWS will reject being absorbed into the establishment lefty Borg. 

Team Obama wants to borrow the Bush 2004 campaign playbook of using wedge issues to split independents from the GOP (the reality was more complex than that, and the economy was better, but whatevs).  The latest polling from Democratic groups like Democracy Corps and Third Way also point to a strategy of trying to convince swing voters in purple states that the GOP candidate is too tied to the Tea Party.  Embracing OWS has the distinct possibility of backfiring, particularly when likely voters already see the Democrats’ agenda as a bit more extreme than the GOP agenda.

–Karl