(sigh) Democrats ARE STILL NOT in "campaign mode." They (yet again) GIVE AWAY the campaign HIGH GROUND to Repug attack ads and talking points!
<< What will it take for Dems to go into campaign mode? This week, Bush's Big Budget Lie is giving us an open shot to inflict serious damage on the GOP's November hopes. In fact, an opportunity like this has come up almost every week, but EVERY TIME WE FAIL TO TAKE the SHOT. >>
------------------------------
We've been reading the James Carville book, "We're Right, THEY're WRONG."
Everything in the book is just awesome... intelligent, hard-hitting, truthful, observant, decisive.
Unfortunately, James Carville is married to MARY MATLIN - and you could_NOT_ask for a better example of a Republican on the WRONG SIDE of EVERY ISSUE than Mary Matlin.
Indeed, when Vice President Cheney actually arrived in the deep-doo-doo he so richly deserves for so many other issues (in that particular case, shooting a fellow hunter in the face as the sun was setting on a Texas pheasant hunt), it was MARY MATLIN who was seen escorting, talking with, and managing Dick Cheney, and softenning his "blast away!" image to the US press-media and voters.
Look, we HATE to pile on to Jim Carville - he was one of THE principle architects of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign victory, the MIRACULOUS one which took a candidate with known weaknesses (on avoiding Vietnam War, on smoking marijuana during the 1960s, and above all, for having affairs while married) and defeated a SITTING Republican president who not only had been president for 4 years and Vice-President for EIGHT years before that (for a total of 12 years in the White House), but George H.W. Bush (Sr.) had recently seen STRATOSPHERIC APPROVAL RATINGS of 80%+ when the US military and an international coalition DEFEATED Saddam Hussein's army and expelled it from Kuwait.
BUT Carville is the PERFECT METAPHOR for the Democratic Party: (paraphrasing) "We're Right, THEY are wrong... except when it comes to really, really, REALLY MAKING a STAND and CALLING them on on their wrongs, sins, LIES, incompetencies, corruptions [and, yes, sigh, CRIMES]."
Carville is, literally in bed with the enemy (or so one would hope in a healthy marriage); as Democrats donate hard-earned money to Democratic candidates and campaign committees, they (the Democratic 'leaders') ARE TONING DOWN their rhetoric, challenges, and CONFRONTATIONS of the Republican Party and Bush White House, because to do a THOROUGH job of CONFRONTING Republican policies, one MUST call out the Republicans AS LIARS.
Now, obviously James Carville can not call Dick Cheney and his own wife "LIARS!" and have any semblance of a normal marriage.
BUT DOES THAT MEAN THAT WE Democratic Voters and supporters must sign-on to CASTRATED, EMASCULATED, GELDED, LAP-DOG campaigns?? (Heck, in the case of Lhaso Apso lap-dogs, THEY, at least, are famous... or infamous.. for NOT being emasculated!)
Zack Exley points out how the BUSH MESSAGE "we have cut the budget deficit in half" IS ALLOWED TO SIT OUT IN MEDIA LAND, like, well, a big puppy 'mistake' on the kitchen floor - a message that is a COMPLETE LIE, is ALLOWED to completely PERVADE America's news and TV viewer's perceptions.
Another even worse example (if you could be worse than a 100% lie) was broadcast on radio yesterday during one of those "news' blips at top and bottom of the hour on talk-radio stations. An announcer came on to say, "I'm ___ ____ with the Palm Beach Post news-minute, and White House officials complained that the recent press story about the government spying on terrorist banking transactions HAS HURT our ability to track terror cells, and that the media has voluntarily AGREED NOT TO REPORT on that program in the future."
THIS IS A COMPLETE LIE! #1. Terrorists have ALWAYS KNOWN that the US government and our allies are TRYING to track their every financial transaction. The story referenced in this Palm Beach 'news' tidbit is that the government now asserts the 'right' to TRACK EVERY SINGLE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION IN AMERICA - that is, by and between Americans. The New York Times, LA Times, and Wall St. Journal casually mention this MASSIVE DATA MINING story in their "news" reporting - information that had ALREADY BEEN PUBLICLY DISCLOSED - BRAGGED ABOUT! - by the Bush White House...
...yet the Palm Beach Post (and radio station) REGURGITATE the White House talking-points "to disclose our massive spying on American citizens is to HAMPER THE WAR ON TERRA!"
And, like puppy-doo, there it sits in America's living room, the Democrats too COWED, CLUELESS and AFRAID to even DREAM of CONFRONTING George W. Bush on his massive BUDGET LIE, much less anything even tangenitally associated with "MUST HAVE A DICTATOR-leader to fight the WAR ON TERRA!"
Or, as we read on a discussion-group post board,
"The New America: START A WAR. ANY war. Declare war will last forever. Crown President King. Forever."
the end.
THANK YOU, Democrats, in your waffling, support-Lieberman stupor and say-no-evil-of-Bush hypnosis, for signing on to that agenda...
Mind you, this is not just us ranting away here at C-dems.blgspt.com... this is writer Zack Exley asking a routinely inquisitive and timely question, "WHEN WILL DEMOCRATS GO INTO CAMPAIGN MODE?"
Remember (as we have pointed out a dozen times), in the summer of 2000, Washington Post cartoonist Pat Oliphant drew up John Kerry and John Edwards as SLEEPING through the entire election summer of 2004... Kerry SO DISARMED his own campaign, that when, during the 3rd televised presidential debate, President Bush sneered at the cameras "MY OPPONENT IS A FLIP-FLOPPER!", johh kerry sat there, like a box of rocks, too cowed or too stupid to answer with the obvious retort "PRESIDENT BUSH PROMISED to 'GET OSAMA bin LADEN DEAD OR ALIVE, and it is the PRESIDENT who has FLIP-FLOPPED on HIS words."
IT IS BAD ENOUGH WHEN a puppy makes "a mistake" on the kitchen floor or living room carpet. The JOHN KERRY/DLC Dems WANT TO SELL US THE SAME **** THREE national elections in a row!
--------------------------------------------------------
<< What will it take for Dems to go into campaign mode? This week, Bush's Big Budget Lie is giving us an open shot to inflict serious damage on the GOP's November hopes. In fact, an opportunity like this has come up almost every week, but EVERY TIME WE FAIL TO TAKE the SHOT. >>
Bush's BIG BUDGET LIE is that he has "cut the deficit in half." He's crisscrossing the country celebrating this achievement, and the message is sinking in with voters. Of course, HE DID NO SUCH THING. Here's what's actually happened: his own revised projected deficit for 2008 is close to half of his own previous projected 2008 deficit. He has not cut the actual deficit in half. He has not cut it at all. In fact, by his own projections, the total DEFICIT will continue to GROW LARGER at a breakneck pace through 2008.
BUT the sound bite he's pounding into people's living rooms and local papers everyday is unambiguous, "I cut the budget deficit in half." AND IT IS WORKING, because NO ONE IS HEARING A STRONG, CLEAR CONTRADICTION from Democrats. >>
(i.e, Democrats are REPEATING the "go soft on Bush" mantra of Gore's 2000 campaign, Daschle/Lieberman's 2002 midterm, and John Kerry's "Rip Van Winkle SLEEPING through summer of 2004" 'strategy.')
----------------------------------------
How can we get the Dems to snap into campaign mode?
Zack Exley
July 12, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/how-can-we-get-the-dems-t_b_24873.html
What will it take for Dems to go into campaign mode? This week, Bush's Big Budget Lie is giving us an open shot to inflict serious damage on the GOP's November hopes. In fact, an opportunity like this has come up almost every week, but every time we fail to take the shot.
Bush's Big Budget Lie is that he has "cut the deficit in half." He's crisscrossing the country celebrating this achievement, and the message is sinking in with voters. Of course, he did no such thing. Here's what's actually happened: his own revised projected deficit for 2008 is close to half of his own previous projected 2008 deficit. He has not cut the actual deficit in half. He has not cut it at all. In fact, by his own projections, the total deficit will continue to grow larger at a breakneck pace through 2008.
Bush is careful (sometimes) to explain the fine print of his accounting acrobatics, but it's usually in the fashion of the speed-talking used car ad. But the sound bite he's pounding into people's living rooms and local papers everyday is unambiguous, "I cut the budget deficit in half." And it's working, because no one is hearing a clear, strong contradiction from Democrats.
Importantly, this is a place where the Democrats can call Mr. Bush a liar without the threat of being hauled off and tried for treason. (Unless The Terrorists turn out to be behind the budget deficit too... Oh wait...! Well, that's for another post.) The L Word attack would generate news and, if it is sustained daily for a few weeks, then the truth about Bush's budget mess would sink in with the public. But, again, this only works if the charge is: 1) strong and clear, and 2) sustained.
If the Dems could act as one team, then high profile Dems in safe seats could make headlines with the L Word, and less-safe Dems in hot races could use all the interviews generated by the controversy to slam Bush with or without saying "liar."
But it takes all guns a blazing. We should have learned this lesson years ago from the GOP's impeachment campaign against Bill Clinton: they chose a line of attack and just kept repeating it. The fact that they were so determined (not the content of the charges) was what made the press sit up and take the story seriously -- they saw a big fight coming. In fact, Dems have a long history of being the better party at this stuff: LBJ, JFK, FDR -- they all knew how this worked and were masters.
If the GOP could derail our whole party for a decade by sustaining an attack over some minor false charges. Then why can't we at least get a good hit in with all of their outrageous crimes and failings to choose from? We've got so much to work with: The deficit, airline security failings, port security failings, cooperation with private contractor corruption in Iraq, and the practice of openly bragging about "secret programs" and then charging treason against reporters who report it. Just to name a few.
Between now and November, each of those topics will be pushed into the news by events or by Bush's own brazen spinning. Dems need to sort out a way that they can all seize those opportunities in a coordinated way and hit hard.
For individual office holders it may mean putting off the bill on a pet issue you were hoping to launch. It may mean talking about something that is not the top issue in your constituency. It may mean taking a leap and talking about something that is not (on the first day of the attack) a major news story. That is called "doing the work of holding government accountable" -- and it's not only the best way to get back into power it's also their role and duty in our democracy.
OK, fine. We all know this is what the Dems need to do. And they know it too. So what's the problem? Is there anything we (the Democratic base) can do to help them switch into campaign mode? I'd love to hear some suggestions.
------------------------------
We've been reading the James Carville book, "We're Right, THEY're WRONG."
Everything in the book is just awesome... intelligent, hard-hitting, truthful, observant, decisive.
Unfortunately, James Carville is married to MARY MATLIN - and you could_NOT_ask for a better example of a Republican on the WRONG SIDE of EVERY ISSUE than Mary Matlin.
Indeed, when Vice President Cheney actually arrived in the deep-doo-doo he so richly deserves for so many other issues (in that particular case, shooting a fellow hunter in the face as the sun was setting on a Texas pheasant hunt), it was MARY MATLIN who was seen escorting, talking with, and managing Dick Cheney, and softenning his "blast away!" image to the US press-media and voters.
Look, we HATE to pile on to Jim Carville - he was one of THE principle architects of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign victory, the MIRACULOUS one which took a candidate with known weaknesses (on avoiding Vietnam War, on smoking marijuana during the 1960s, and above all, for having affairs while married) and defeated a SITTING Republican president who not only had been president for 4 years and Vice-President for EIGHT years before that (for a total of 12 years in the White House), but George H.W. Bush (Sr.) had recently seen STRATOSPHERIC APPROVAL RATINGS of 80%+ when the US military and an international coalition DEFEATED Saddam Hussein's army and expelled it from Kuwait.
BUT Carville is the PERFECT METAPHOR for the Democratic Party: (paraphrasing) "We're Right, THEY are wrong... except when it comes to really, really, REALLY MAKING a STAND and CALLING them on on their wrongs, sins, LIES, incompetencies, corruptions [and, yes, sigh, CRIMES]."
Carville is, literally in bed with the enemy (or so one would hope in a healthy marriage); as Democrats donate hard-earned money to Democratic candidates and campaign committees, they (the Democratic 'leaders') ARE TONING DOWN their rhetoric, challenges, and CONFRONTATIONS of the Republican Party and Bush White House, because to do a THOROUGH job of CONFRONTING Republican policies, one MUST call out the Republicans AS LIARS.
Now, obviously James Carville can not call Dick Cheney and his own wife "LIARS!" and have any semblance of a normal marriage.
BUT DOES THAT MEAN THAT WE Democratic Voters and supporters must sign-on to CASTRATED, EMASCULATED, GELDED, LAP-DOG campaigns?? (Heck, in the case of Lhaso Apso lap-dogs, THEY, at least, are famous... or infamous.. for NOT being emasculated!)
Zack Exley points out how the BUSH MESSAGE "we have cut the budget deficit in half" IS ALLOWED TO SIT OUT IN MEDIA LAND, like, well, a big puppy 'mistake' on the kitchen floor - a message that is a COMPLETE LIE, is ALLOWED to completely PERVADE America's news and TV viewer's perceptions.
Another even worse example (if you could be worse than a 100% lie) was broadcast on radio yesterday during one of those "news' blips at top and bottom of the hour on talk-radio stations. An announcer came on to say, "I'm ___ ____ with the Palm Beach Post news-minute, and White House officials complained that the recent press story about the government spying on terrorist banking transactions HAS HURT our ability to track terror cells, and that the media has voluntarily AGREED NOT TO REPORT on that program in the future."
THIS IS A COMPLETE LIE! #1. Terrorists have ALWAYS KNOWN that the US government and our allies are TRYING to track their every financial transaction. The story referenced in this Palm Beach 'news' tidbit is that the government now asserts the 'right' to TRACK EVERY SINGLE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION IN AMERICA - that is, by and between Americans. The New York Times, LA Times, and Wall St. Journal casually mention this MASSIVE DATA MINING story in their "news" reporting - information that had ALREADY BEEN PUBLICLY DISCLOSED - BRAGGED ABOUT! - by the Bush White House...
...yet the Palm Beach Post (and radio station) REGURGITATE the White House talking-points "to disclose our massive spying on American citizens is to HAMPER THE WAR ON TERRA!"
And, like puppy-doo, there it sits in America's living room, the Democrats too COWED, CLUELESS and AFRAID to even DREAM of CONFRONTING George W. Bush on his massive BUDGET LIE, much less anything even tangenitally associated with "MUST HAVE A DICTATOR-leader to fight the WAR ON TERRA!"
Or, as we read on a discussion-group post board,
"The New America: START A WAR. ANY war. Declare war will last forever. Crown President King. Forever."
the end.
THANK YOU, Democrats, in your waffling, support-Lieberman stupor and say-no-evil-of-Bush hypnosis, for signing on to that agenda...
Mind you, this is not just us ranting away here at C-dems.blgspt.com... this is writer Zack Exley asking a routinely inquisitive and timely question, "WHEN WILL DEMOCRATS GO INTO CAMPAIGN MODE?"
Remember (as we have pointed out a dozen times), in the summer of 2000, Washington Post cartoonist Pat Oliphant drew up John Kerry and John Edwards as SLEEPING through the entire election summer of 2004... Kerry SO DISARMED his own campaign, that when, during the 3rd televised presidential debate, President Bush sneered at the cameras "MY OPPONENT IS A FLIP-FLOPPER!", johh kerry sat there, like a box of rocks, too cowed or too stupid to answer with the obvious retort "PRESIDENT BUSH PROMISED to 'GET OSAMA bin LADEN DEAD OR ALIVE, and it is the PRESIDENT who has FLIP-FLOPPED on HIS words."
IT IS BAD ENOUGH WHEN a puppy makes "a mistake" on the kitchen floor or living room carpet. The JOHN KERRY/DLC Dems WANT TO SELL US THE SAME **** THREE national elections in a row!
--------------------------------------------------------
<< What will it take for Dems to go into campaign mode? This week, Bush's Big Budget Lie is giving us an open shot to inflict serious damage on the GOP's November hopes. In fact, an opportunity like this has come up almost every week, but EVERY TIME WE FAIL TO TAKE the SHOT. >>
Bush's BIG BUDGET LIE is that he has "cut the deficit in half." He's crisscrossing the country celebrating this achievement, and the message is sinking in with voters. Of course, HE DID NO SUCH THING. Here's what's actually happened: his own revised projected deficit for 2008 is close to half of his own previous projected 2008 deficit. He has not cut the actual deficit in half. He has not cut it at all. In fact, by his own projections, the total DEFICIT will continue to GROW LARGER at a breakneck pace through 2008.
BUT the sound bite he's pounding into people's living rooms and local papers everyday is unambiguous, "I cut the budget deficit in half." AND IT IS WORKING, because NO ONE IS HEARING A STRONG, CLEAR CONTRADICTION from Democrats. >>
(i.e, Democrats are REPEATING the "go soft on Bush" mantra of Gore's 2000 campaign, Daschle/Lieberman's 2002 midterm, and John Kerry's "Rip Van Winkle SLEEPING through summer of 2004" 'strategy.')
----------------------------------------
How can we get the Dems to snap into campaign mode?
Zack Exley
July 12, 2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/how-can-we-get-the-dems-t_b_24873.html
What will it take for Dems to go into campaign mode? This week, Bush's Big Budget Lie is giving us an open shot to inflict serious damage on the GOP's November hopes. In fact, an opportunity like this has come up almost every week, but every time we fail to take the shot.
Bush's Big Budget Lie is that he has "cut the deficit in half." He's crisscrossing the country celebrating this achievement, and the message is sinking in with voters. Of course, he did no such thing. Here's what's actually happened: his own revised projected deficit for 2008 is close to half of his own previous projected 2008 deficit. He has not cut the actual deficit in half. He has not cut it at all. In fact, by his own projections, the total deficit will continue to grow larger at a breakneck pace through 2008.
Bush is careful (sometimes) to explain the fine print of his accounting acrobatics, but it's usually in the fashion of the speed-talking used car ad. But the sound bite he's pounding into people's living rooms and local papers everyday is unambiguous, "I cut the budget deficit in half." And it's working, because no one is hearing a clear, strong contradiction from Democrats.
Importantly, this is a place where the Democrats can call Mr. Bush a liar without the threat of being hauled off and tried for treason. (Unless The Terrorists turn out to be behind the budget deficit too... Oh wait...! Well, that's for another post.) The L Word attack would generate news and, if it is sustained daily for a few weeks, then the truth about Bush's budget mess would sink in with the public. But, again, this only works if the charge is: 1) strong and clear, and 2) sustained.
If the Dems could act as one team, then high profile Dems in safe seats could make headlines with the L Word, and less-safe Dems in hot races could use all the interviews generated by the controversy to slam Bush with or without saying "liar."
But it takes all guns a blazing. We should have learned this lesson years ago from the GOP's impeachment campaign against Bill Clinton: they chose a line of attack and just kept repeating it. The fact that they were so determined (not the content of the charges) was what made the press sit up and take the story seriously -- they saw a big fight coming. In fact, Dems have a long history of being the better party at this stuff: LBJ, JFK, FDR -- they all knew how this worked and were masters.
If the GOP could derail our whole party for a decade by sustaining an attack over some minor false charges. Then why can't we at least get a good hit in with all of their outrageous crimes and failings to choose from? We've got so much to work with: The deficit, airline security failings, port security failings, cooperation with private contractor corruption in Iraq, and the practice of openly bragging about "secret programs" and then charging treason against reporters who report it. Just to name a few.
Between now and November, each of those topics will be pushed into the news by events or by Bush's own brazen spinning. Dems need to sort out a way that they can all seize those opportunities in a coordinated way and hit hard.
For individual office holders it may mean putting off the bill on a pet issue you were hoping to launch. It may mean talking about something that is not the top issue in your constituency. It may mean taking a leap and talking about something that is not (on the first day of the attack) a major news story. That is called "doing the work of holding government accountable" -- and it's not only the best way to get back into power it's also their role and duty in our democracy.
OK, fine. We all know this is what the Dems need to do. And they know it too. So what's the problem? Is there anything we (the Democratic base) can do to help them switch into campaign mode? I'd love to hear some suggestions.
posted by verifi at 8:21 AM
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