They were up in the polls and now they are dead tied. Was stopping weird the only thing to do that? No probably not but their swing to the opposite of just trying to convince people they are themselves Republicans doesn't seem to be working effectively.

Except at losing

It was effective because Republicans get a lot of mileage out of pretending to be the "everyman" - and since they can't claim it on economic grounds, they claim it based on pure vibes. But really anyone who's at all involved in Republican politics is actually a freak far beyond either your average republican voter, or even a center to left political freak. Their policies are incredibly unpopular to the point where if you even tell a conservative voter what the policies are, they think they're so outlandish that you're literally lying to make your opponents sound insane. It made cons mad because it was working. Then the Clinton people broke down the door and put a stop to it

They don't have policy. They don't have a charismatic figure. They don't have a cool slogan. The only things they have are name calling and promising to be more ghoulish than the opposition; I can't imagine the electorate is more likely to be swooned by the current Dick Cheney strategy than the previous name calling strategy.