#rsrh A reminder: Obama for America staffer taking too many notes = secret defeatist.

This isn’t directed at anyone specifically: I just wanted to point out that anybody who is planning to write some variant of How Obama’s Defeat In November Of 2012 Was The Fault Of Everybody In The Universe Except Me for the political book trade would be needing to start cataloging the Litany of Shame And Failure right about, well, now.  And the books will arrive; there are a lot of people who are going to want to know why the Democrats threw away the Presidency.  Plus, it’s not like these people are Bush Republicans: they’ve not exactly been trained to think of loyalty as a virtue.  Crabs in a pail, folks: crabs in a pail.

Now, normally I’d just stand and cheer, except that I [expletive deleted] hate most political books, so why help these people out?  In fact, I’ll give out some helpful suggestions, for anybody who doesn’t want to be a chapter heading of their very own next year:

How to avoid being blamed after-the-fact for Obama’s loss.

1. Do not take any controversial positions.
2. If you must take controversial positions, do not write them down.
3. If you must write down your controversial positions, do not do so in electronic form.
4. Destroy all non-complimentary correspondence as soon as it is no longer immediately relevant to your job.
5. Do not socialize with your colleagues in any fashion that might involve the consumption of alcohol.  Discourage such activities when you can.
6. Do not offer any opinions ‘made in the strictest confidence;’ and do not listen to them, either.
7. DO NOT GOSSIP. About anything, including non-political activities.
8. You can trust your spouse – which is to say, you can trust the person with whom you’ve formally entered into a complex and comprehensive formal binding relationship that gives you some pretty potent legal protections against him/her being forced to testify against you.  The coworker that you’re just in a sexual relationship with?  That’s not a spouse.
9. Every organization has rules designed to foster proper and judicious workplace interactions and procedures.  Learn them.  Memorize them.  Make your superiors enforce them.  Because those rules are there to protect you.
10. And, most importantly: get everything in writing.

That should keep you safe.

Moe Lane