Bravo! "HOW do Dems win in '06?" ans.- BY GOING ON THE ATTACK against GOP mismanagement, fraud, and corruption!
"HOW do Dems win in '06?"
Answer: BY GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE against GOP mismanagement, fraud, incompetence, and corruption!
Well, here's the money-quote in another terrific op-ed by Brent Budowsky posted at HuffingtonPost.com:
<< Go right in the face of Republican opponents and make them answer this: for every war position you advocate, where do you get the troops? Are you supporting more involuntary service and if there is another significant war would you support resumption of the draft? And to voters: the best way to prevent this, is bring back the check and balance of a Democratic Congress that will do its job, which the Republican Congress has not done. >>
Here's another terrific quote from Budowsky's op-ed:
<< I come from the JFK school of winning. When I was a very young Senate aide, my bosses were JFK guys and would take me periodically to the old Mayflower Hotel where the great Kenny O'Donnell would hold court and talk about JFK and Bobby. They knew how to win, they played to win, and they won because they always TOOK THE INITIATIVE, they ALWAYS TOOK THE OFFENSIVE, they believed in STRIKING FIRST and STRIKING HARD first, and TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE OTHER GUY. Qualities modern Democrats have largely lost and must regain. >>
----------------------------------------------
Well, "BRAVO!" and a 'long-overdue' for that!
You could not possibly ask for a better example of a "modern Democrat" NOT striking first and NOT striking hard and NOT taking the fight to the other guy, than the image of John Kerry standing, like a box of rocks, at his podium in the third presidential debate in 2004 as George W. Bush sneered into the TV cameras "my opponent is a FLIP-FLOPPER."
We Democrats and Bush-opponents are STILL, in the late weeks of campaign 2006, portraying the DEBACLE Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld created in Afghanistan by ALLOWING Osama bin Laden to ESCAPE from Tora Bora [previous post], because JOHN KERRY REFUSED TO bring that failure to America's attention in 2004!
This failure of Kerry to respond FORCEFULLY to Bush's "FLIP-FLOPPER" sneer was political incompetence bordering on criminal negligence for a nation STARVED of a meaningful and articulate OPPOSITION to the ongoing, serial, chonic, and relentless incompetence, corruption, fraud, and deceit of the Bush administration.
Getting away from Kerry's "modern Democrat" stand-there-like-a-box-of-rocks as Bush sneers at you and your party (and the MILLIONS of Democratic voters who ferverently DISAGREE with Mr. Bush's agenda) moment, and getting back to Mr. Budowsky's op-ed plan for Democrats in 2996, there are many systematic or institutional reasons why the Democrats have fared so poorly against the Rove-Bush-Cheney GOP machine these past 3 elections.
#1. (to repeat) is the Democrats' selection of candidates (Gore and Kerry) who could not or would not FORCEFULLY rebut and expose the lies, cons, deciets, and distortions (and smears) of the Rove-GOP machine. Even with Gore's wishy-washy 'say no bad things about Bush' 2000 campaign, the Bush-Republicans still had to steal the election with massive Katherine Harris/Jeb Bush voter DISENFRANCHISEMENT - criminal vote fraud - in Florida. And, had John Kerry picked up Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, or Florida in 2004, he, also, would have won the White House. (The final vote count in all of those states was well within the margin of suspicion that Republicans might well have done in 2004 what they had done in Florida in 2000.)
#2. But almost as important as the Democrat's nomination of "polite" candidates against the felonous Rove-GOP smear machine, are the other systematic or institutional shortcomings of the Dem. Party. As, for example, the Republican AND major media's SUCCESSFUL campaign of scorn and derision that for almost an entire decade - from roughly 1994 and Newt Gingrich's Contract on America to the present - that turned the word "LIBERAL DEMOCRAT" into a perjorative or curse word. Democrats were portrayed by those "on the Right" as coddling criminals, encouraging welfare, 'selling out to China,' being WEAK on national security, and of course the catch-all accusation, being "TAX AND SPEND Democrats."
Now that the Bush admin. has piled, literally, TRILLIONS of national debt on the backs of middle- and working-class Americans, we know who the REAL "TAX AND SPENDERS" are. Which points out another huge structural deficiency of the Democrats:
#3. WHERE is the Democrats MEDIA MACHINE? As Bush-Cheney co. pile billions upon trillions of dollars of DEBT on the back of America's working-class and middle-class taxpayers, WHERE ARE THE MEDIA HEADLINES pointing out those DEFICITS on a daily, or at least weekly, basis? In early to mid-2001 G.B Trudea penned some Donnesbury cartoon panels, showing Florida's DEFICITS going into the billions of dollars under Republican rule in Florida. (As with the US government, in Florida the state house, state senate, and governor's office are all owned by Republican majorities/governor.) THIS INFORMATION (Florida's deficits, the national deficits) is NOT broadcast on a daily or systematic basis, because Republicans CONTROL the media!
Fortunately, this structural deficiency - the Republicans literally OWN some major media outlets (Murdoch's Fox and Sung Yung Moon's Washington Times, and Melon-Scaife's Pennsylvania media empire among others) and CONTROL most of the others (CNN, AOL, Time-Warner, GE/nbc, ABC, etc) CAN BE OVERCOME simply by having strong, forceful, articulate Democratic candidates and aggressive campaigns.
The text-book example of course is the 1992 Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM, as produced by James Carville and George Stephanopolous. Fast forward to 2006, and talk about co-opted! Stephanopolous has been co-opted by the "corporate media" he once challenged, he is now the Sunday anchor for ABC's news/talk show, and James Carville is literally sleeping with the enemy, his wife Mary Matlin (the couple has two children) is a major Republican media consultant and propaganda-meister, the one Dick Cheney turned to to coordinate his media response after he had shot a fellow hunter in the face in a hunting accident in Texas in 2005.
BUT the LESSON of Carville-Stephanopolous and the Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM of 1992 lives on: Democrats can use JUDO or Jui-Jitsu against the bigger, stronger Republican corporate media machine, by FORCING IT to RESPOND to an 'aggressive,' forceful, dynamic, CONFRONTATIONAL Democratic message.
Quite simply, in 1992 the Carville-Stephanopolous WAR ROOM had distilled the campaign down to about a dozen major, vital issues, and had not only a UNIFIED Democratic message on those issues, BUT WAS PREPARED to REBUT the Republican LIES and MISINFORMATION media campaign.
AS SOON AS THE Bush (Sr.) Republicans PUT OUT A MISLEADING TV ad, the Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM would RESPOND with a tailor-made ad REBUTTING the Republican talking points, sometimes using video from those very Republican ads!
For example, the MOMENT George Bush derided John Kerry as being a "FLIP-FLOPPER" in the 2004 debates, Kerry's media team SHOULD have put together a video montage of George Bush saying about Osama bin Laden "We're going to get him dead or alive" juxtaposed with Bush saying at his own March 2002 press conference
<< Question to President Bush: But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I TRULY AM NOT THAT CONCERNED ABOUT HIM. >>
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html
This same press conference, from the White House in March of 2002, illustrates the GLARING MYOPIA of the Bush administration, and also highlights Mr. Budowsky's suggestion that the Democrats make A FUTURE MILITARY DRAFT into a major issue in this current election:
<< QUESTION: Mr. President, don't you think... that the military WILL BE STRETCHED TOO THINLY, as some people feared?
As we all know, 18-year-old men in this country, when they turn 18, they're required to register with the draft, which is now dormant, but could be activated again. At this time, and we're looking at sort of an unlimited situation with this war, should the country expect the same of women in this country?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean in terms of the draft? Well, the country shouldn't expect there to be a draft. I know they're registering. But the volunteer army is working. Particularly when Congress passes my budget, it's going to make it more likely to work. There's been a pay raise and then we'll have another pay raise. And the mission is clear, the training is good, the equipment is going to be robust. Congress needs to pass this budget.
So I don't worry about, and people shouldn't worry about a draft. We do have women in the military and I'm proud of their service. And they're welcome in the military; they make a great addition in the military. >>
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html
IN SUMMARY, THIS HAS BEEN A LONG but not overly complicated post: ALL Democrats have to do to win resoundingly and convincingly in 2006, is resurrect the WAR ROOM from the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign:
#1. REBUT Republican lies and talking points THE MOMENT THEY ARE BROADCAST on TV and radio;
and,
#2. ALWAYS have at hand the distilled and refined Democratic TALKING POINTS which AGGRESSIVELY and articulately CONFRONT Republic mis-management (to give the benefit of the doubt) if not gross incompetence, fraud, and corruption.
=======================================
LET'S LANDSLIDE: Memo to Democratic Senate and House Candidates and Staff
Brent Budowsky
08.23.2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/lets-landslide-memo-to-d_b_27891.html
In recent weeks I have received quite a number of private calls and emails from people involved with a number of House and Senate campaigns asking for advice based on ideas posted here and elsewhere.
I have tried to help every one of them, pro bono I would emphasize, because this is a moment of historic destiny for America that will leave
us with a continuation of one party goverment and all the disasters that will follow, or a renewed American idealism and spirit with a rejuvenated progressive movement while the Republicans snarl against each other about how they blew it.
This note will lay out specific initiatives involving ideas, message, taking control of the debate, and winning. A subsequent note will propose ways that Air America, the Party, individual candidates and the blogosphere can fight and win in unison on matters such as mobilizing the vote and instant reaction to Republican vote manipulations and their inevitable October Surprise. Though I emphasize again we must have OUR October surprise.
I come from the JFK school of winning. When I was a very young Senate aide, my bosses were JFK guys and would take me periodically to the old Mayflower Hotel where the great Kenny O'Donnell would hold court and talk about JFK and Bobby. They knew how to win, they played to win, and they won because they always took the initiative, they always took the offensive, they believed in striking first, and striking hard, and taking the fight to the other guy. Qualities modern Democrats have largely lost and must regain.
And when I worked for the House Democratic Leadership we won, we controlled the House, we did battle every day with New Gingrich and the same tactics Rove uses today, with Dick Cheney who was then our counterpart in the House Republican Leadership. We did not answer them, we counter-attacked by attacking them. I cannot tell you, how many countless conversations I had with Democratic candidates and Congressmen and women from tough districts about how to win.
Lets make 2006 a Tsunami. Lets make 2006 a landslide. And understand the math: we can win seats but remain in the minority; and we can win a slight majority of popular votes but emerge with a landslide gain of seats. Do not believe what the compensated consultants or pundits say on television. They have almost nothing to do with the real America. On the Sunday before the 1994 Republican landslide the Hotline and Sunday Washington Post polled 21 alleged experts. 17 of them, many of the same people in the punditry class today, said the Democrats would retain control of the House. 48 hours before a Republican landslide they had it totally backwards. When you see them on television today, ignore them.
Here are some ways to take the right issues to the voters to win:
1. Iraq: to repeat my earlier post, candidates can propose that if Democrats win control of Congress our first act will be to name leaders on national security such as Senator Sam Nunn and General Zinni to meet with the Joint Chiefs and Iraq commanders and develop a rational exit strategy.
Understand the politics of Iraq. The voters who will decide this election have lost confidence and trust in Bush, but do not yet have strong confidence in Democrats. Every candidate now has some position, which is fine, but understand what the voter sees today, is that 465 Democrats running for the House and Senate have 465 plans, with a national leadership without a clear plan. This is hard to communicate, and easy to demonize.
The way to handle this, is talk sense to the voters, state that if Democrats win Congress the obvious truth is that we will have a Democratic Congress and a Republican President and obviously they will sit down. Our simple message is this. If Democrats win some of the most credible and respected national security figures in the Nation will be working with us, to get out of the mess Bush created. Vote for us, that is what voters get. Vote for Republicans, Bush has promised two more years of the same and the only people making these decisions are named Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove.
The American people are tired of polities so obsessed with Iraq, that the President cuts and runs at Tora Bora, and lets Bin Laden escape, and runs his policies so poorly that he ends up recruiting more terrorists, making the world more dangerous, and playing into the hands of Iran.
Trust me, folks, we win that debate.
2. This is the big sleeper issue: Bush is bringing back the draft through involuntary military service, the most recent example being the involuntary recall of Marines. He is doing this because he has mismanaged the war, the reserves and our force structure.
We take this issue to the voters: listen to the news of what Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rove want to do, if they continue having total power. They seem to want war everywhere, and having started one war in Iraq that we did not have to fight, if they have total power for two more years, and push for more unwise wars, they will have to find more troops and that means more involuntary service which is in fact a draft.
Go right in the face of Republican opponents and make them answer this: for every war position you advocate, where do you get the troops? Are you supporting more involuntary service and if there is another significant war would you support resumption of the draft? And to voters: the best way to prevent this, is bring back the check and balance of a Democratic Congress that will do its job, which the Republican Congress has not done.
3. Lets have a pro-American energy policy made in public not anti-American energy policy made in secret in Dick Cheney's office. Understand the Cheney link, make this link at every opportunity, Cheney is less favorably viewed than the bird flu. We must be honest about it, and if we are, media will report it.
Draw brutally hard and true comparisons: it is wrong for executives of major oil companies to have severance and compensation packages where they make hundreds of millions of dollars in personal profit while our troops risk their lives for inadequate pay. It is wrong for major oil companies to have the largest profits in the history of capitalism while some Americans have to choose between buying food or paying gouge prices at the pump, while veterans find military hospitals closed, and oil speculators use our money to buy mansions in the Hamptons and weekend trips to ski in the Swiss Alps.
Challenge Republicans to give back campaign campaign donations from oil companies who are more loyal to despotic Middle Eastern business partners than Americans on Main Street. Call for an energy policy that is truly powerful and pro-American and creates new energy sources and attack an oil-dominated Republican Congress that favors an oil- dominated energy policy, and then recycles their bloated profits into Republican campaigns so they can buy the next Congress, too.
Use aggressive, patriotic terms. Take the fight to them. Ask questions they must answer. Do the attacks the way Republicans do, except we tell the truth. Lump the Republican President, the Republican Congress, major oil companies and Dick Cheney into one big bed and say its time to throw the bed out of the house.
4. Go to the voters and say on the first day of the Democratic Congress we will pass a bill to help homeless veterans of America.
Understand this will win support and acclaim from liberal groups who want to help the homeless, military families who care about these issues passionately, and religious groups of every denomination. There are ways to communicate this position that cost nothing, that reach huge audiences of Middle America that determine not only who wins, but create the possibility of a giant landslide Tsunami election. This is a compelling moral issue and a powerful political issue.
5. And yes talk about challenging all of our people to work against homelessness and hunger throughout the land. Quote the Sermon on the Mount, and Hillel, and JFK saying that God's work must truly be our own. Do public announcements where the candidate stands next to a Minister, a Priest and a Rabbi in whatever combination is appropriate for the constituency. People care about these issues, we have a decent and noble people in America, and liberal politicians and their consultants sell them short as well as Republicans.
Bill Clinton won a majority of the evangelical Christian vote, and we should go after every vote of every person of faith and be just as aggressive taking our case to them, as we are taking our case for a pro-America energy policy and rational military policiies. Just for emphasis I repeat: at every opportunity have a public announcement with the candidate standing next to leaders of different faiths, and communicate this to the local church or temple newsletter as well as local radio and television.
6. Speak in terms of the American Family, to be united, rather than rabid partisanship of the far right Republican Congress. Use this phrase at every opportunity, use language and ideas that average Americans relate to.
Our American Family supports wounded troops whether or not we support the war; our family helps the poorest among us because as JFK said God's work must truly be our own; the American Family wants to give our children a better world, not a world of endless war leaving them with shameful debt.
7. Look for opportunities to say nice things about some Republicans when possible, such as John McCain and Colin Powell. And yes, yes, I will get some comments about how evil they are, but I know how to win elections in tough states and districts. I certainly have my differences with McCain and Powell, but they are better than Bush and Cheney, and they have stratospheric favorable ratings, and this dramatizes the kind of America we get with a Democratic Congress of unity and respect versus a Republican one party government of intolerance, disunity, extremism and failure.
8. Go right in Republican face on homeland security and level these charges directly: Where were you, Republican Congress, for six years doing nothing on immigration and creates the crises we have today? Where were you, Republican Congress, refusing to protect our ports from the day after 9-11 until today? With a Democratic Congress we will have more American protection for American security, while one party Republican Congress has nothing better than Dubai port deals.
Every Democratic candidate and campaign manager should get the book by Clark Kent Ervin, former Inspector General of Homeland Security, a Republican and a good guy I know. Page after page, issue after issue, lets tell the country who will really make America safer.
Where were you, Republican Congress, trying to cut money for airport screening? Where were you, Republican Congress, shortchanging local police and firefighters when you should have been supporting them since 9-11? Where were you, Republican Congress, when instead of supporting nuclear non-proliferation you were asleep at the switch while Russian nuclear materials remain unsecured today, Pakistani proliferators work secretly with terrorists, and and the FBI still cant get a computer system that works?
Vote for us, American people, and we will take this fight to them every hour, every day, from the first day of the new Democratic Congress.
I end Part I with this. The American people have rejected Bushism and the Republican Congress. The only tactic left for them, is to demean us and slander us, to make us look like we are alien, radical creatures who will endanger America. They are so low they cannot win by elevating themselves; all they can do, is try to drive us down to levels below theirs.
The American people love underdogs and fighterss; lets take the fight to them.
The American people are tired of anger politics, fear politics,and partisan vindictivenesss; lets stand for an American family with pro-American policies, pro-American unity, and the American spirit of courage and bravery. The American people do not want to substitute our anger and vindictiveness for theirs; they want to end this era of Bushism and Republicanism and all it represents, and bring back the good old USA with a can-do spirit, a country that comes together, and a democracy that is respected throughout the world.
With overwhelming disapproval of the status quo, the President, the Congress and the media the American people are giving us their message loud and clear. If we listen carefully to what they are saying, we will win an epic victory and send a message that will rocket through America and rocket around the world.
Answer: BY GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE against GOP mismanagement, fraud, incompetence, and corruption!
Well, here's the money-quote in another terrific op-ed by Brent Budowsky posted at HuffingtonPost.com:
<< Go right in the face of Republican opponents and make them answer this: for every war position you advocate, where do you get the troops? Are you supporting more involuntary service and if there is another significant war would you support resumption of the draft? And to voters: the best way to prevent this, is bring back the check and balance of a Democratic Congress that will do its job, which the Republican Congress has not done. >>
Here's another terrific quote from Budowsky's op-ed:
<< I come from the JFK school of winning. When I was a very young Senate aide, my bosses were JFK guys and would take me periodically to the old Mayflower Hotel where the great Kenny O'Donnell would hold court and talk about JFK and Bobby. They knew how to win, they played to win, and they won because they always TOOK THE INITIATIVE, they ALWAYS TOOK THE OFFENSIVE, they believed in STRIKING FIRST and STRIKING HARD first, and TAKING THE FIGHT TO THE OTHER GUY. Qualities modern Democrats have largely lost and must regain. >>
----------------------------------------------
Well, "BRAVO!" and a 'long-overdue' for that!
You could not possibly ask for a better example of a "modern Democrat" NOT striking first and NOT striking hard and NOT taking the fight to the other guy, than the image of John Kerry standing, like a box of rocks, at his podium in the third presidential debate in 2004 as George W. Bush sneered into the TV cameras "my opponent is a FLIP-FLOPPER."
We Democrats and Bush-opponents are STILL, in the late weeks of campaign 2006, portraying the DEBACLE Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld created in Afghanistan by ALLOWING Osama bin Laden to ESCAPE from Tora Bora [previous post], because JOHN KERRY REFUSED TO bring that failure to America's attention in 2004!
This failure of Kerry to respond FORCEFULLY to Bush's "FLIP-FLOPPER" sneer was political incompetence bordering on criminal negligence for a nation STARVED of a meaningful and articulate OPPOSITION to the ongoing, serial, chonic, and relentless incompetence, corruption, fraud, and deceit of the Bush administration.
Getting away from Kerry's "modern Democrat" stand-there-like-a-box-of-rocks as Bush sneers at you and your party (and the MILLIONS of Democratic voters who ferverently DISAGREE with Mr. Bush's agenda) moment, and getting back to Mr. Budowsky's op-ed plan for Democrats in 2996, there are many systematic or institutional reasons why the Democrats have fared so poorly against the Rove-Bush-Cheney GOP machine these past 3 elections.
#1. (to repeat) is the Democrats' selection of candidates (Gore and Kerry) who could not or would not FORCEFULLY rebut and expose the lies, cons, deciets, and distortions (and smears) of the Rove-GOP machine. Even with Gore's wishy-washy 'say no bad things about Bush' 2000 campaign, the Bush-Republicans still had to steal the election with massive Katherine Harris/Jeb Bush voter DISENFRANCHISEMENT - criminal vote fraud - in Florida. And, had John Kerry picked up Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, or Florida in 2004, he, also, would have won the White House. (The final vote count in all of those states was well within the margin of suspicion that Republicans might well have done in 2004 what they had done in Florida in 2000.)
#2. But almost as important as the Democrat's nomination of "polite" candidates against the felonous Rove-GOP smear machine, are the other systematic or institutional shortcomings of the Dem. Party. As, for example, the Republican AND major media's SUCCESSFUL campaign of scorn and derision that for almost an entire decade - from roughly 1994 and Newt Gingrich's Contract on America to the present - that turned the word "LIBERAL DEMOCRAT" into a perjorative or curse word. Democrats were portrayed by those "on the Right" as coddling criminals, encouraging welfare, 'selling out to China,' being WEAK on national security, and of course the catch-all accusation, being "TAX AND SPEND Democrats."
Now that the Bush admin. has piled, literally, TRILLIONS of national debt on the backs of middle- and working-class Americans, we know who the REAL "TAX AND SPENDERS" are. Which points out another huge structural deficiency of the Democrats:
#3. WHERE is the Democrats MEDIA MACHINE? As Bush-Cheney co. pile billions upon trillions of dollars of DEBT on the back of America's working-class and middle-class taxpayers, WHERE ARE THE MEDIA HEADLINES pointing out those DEFICITS on a daily, or at least weekly, basis? In early to mid-2001 G.B Trudea penned some Donnesbury cartoon panels, showing Florida's DEFICITS going into the billions of dollars under Republican rule in Florida. (As with the US government, in Florida the state house, state senate, and governor's office are all owned by Republican majorities/governor.) THIS INFORMATION (Florida's deficits, the national deficits) is NOT broadcast on a daily or systematic basis, because Republicans CONTROL the media!
Fortunately, this structural deficiency - the Republicans literally OWN some major media outlets (Murdoch's Fox and Sung Yung Moon's Washington Times, and Melon-Scaife's Pennsylvania media empire among others) and CONTROL most of the others (CNN, AOL, Time-Warner, GE/nbc, ABC, etc) CAN BE OVERCOME simply by having strong, forceful, articulate Democratic candidates and aggressive campaigns.
The text-book example of course is the 1992 Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM, as produced by James Carville and George Stephanopolous. Fast forward to 2006, and talk about co-opted! Stephanopolous has been co-opted by the "corporate media" he once challenged, he is now the Sunday anchor for ABC's news/talk show, and James Carville is literally sleeping with the enemy, his wife Mary Matlin (the couple has two children) is a major Republican media consultant and propaganda-meister, the one Dick Cheney turned to to coordinate his media response after he had shot a fellow hunter in the face in a hunting accident in Texas in 2005.
BUT the LESSON of Carville-Stephanopolous and the Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM of 1992 lives on: Democrats can use JUDO or Jui-Jitsu against the bigger, stronger Republican corporate media machine, by FORCING IT to RESPOND to an 'aggressive,' forceful, dynamic, CONFRONTATIONAL Democratic message.
Quite simply, in 1992 the Carville-Stephanopolous WAR ROOM had distilled the campaign down to about a dozen major, vital issues, and had not only a UNIFIED Democratic message on those issues, BUT WAS PREPARED to REBUT the Republican LIES and MISINFORMATION media campaign.
AS SOON AS THE Bush (Sr.) Republicans PUT OUT A MISLEADING TV ad, the Clinton-Gore WAR ROOM would RESPOND with a tailor-made ad REBUTTING the Republican talking points, sometimes using video from those very Republican ads!
For example, the MOMENT George Bush derided John Kerry as being a "FLIP-FLOPPER" in the 2004 debates, Kerry's media team SHOULD have put together a video montage of George Bush saying about Osama bin Laden "We're going to get him dead or alive" juxtaposed with Bush saying at his own March 2002 press conference
<< Question to President Bush: But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I TRULY AM NOT THAT CONCERNED ABOUT HIM. >>
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html
This same press conference, from the White House in March of 2002, illustrates the GLARING MYOPIA of the Bush administration, and also highlights Mr. Budowsky's suggestion that the Democrats make A FUTURE MILITARY DRAFT into a major issue in this current election:
<< QUESTION: Mr. President, don't you think... that the military WILL BE STRETCHED TOO THINLY, as some people feared?
As we all know, 18-year-old men in this country, when they turn 18, they're required to register with the draft, which is now dormant, but could be activated again. At this time, and we're looking at sort of an unlimited situation with this war, should the country expect the same of women in this country?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean in terms of the draft? Well, the country shouldn't expect there to be a draft. I know they're registering. But the volunteer army is working. Particularly when Congress passes my budget, it's going to make it more likely to work. There's been a pay raise and then we'll have another pay raise. And the mission is clear, the training is good, the equipment is going to be robust. Congress needs to pass this budget.
So I don't worry about, and people shouldn't worry about a draft. We do have women in the military and I'm proud of their service. And they're welcome in the military; they make a great addition in the military. >>
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html
IN SUMMARY, THIS HAS BEEN A LONG but not overly complicated post: ALL Democrats have to do to win resoundingly and convincingly in 2006, is resurrect the WAR ROOM from the Clinton-Gore 1992 campaign:
#1. REBUT Republican lies and talking points THE MOMENT THEY ARE BROADCAST on TV and radio;
and,
#2. ALWAYS have at hand the distilled and refined Democratic TALKING POINTS which AGGRESSIVELY and articulately CONFRONT Republic mis-management (to give the benefit of the doubt) if not gross incompetence, fraud, and corruption.
=======================================
LET'S LANDSLIDE: Memo to Democratic Senate and House Candidates and Staff
Brent Budowsky
08.23.2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/lets-landslide-memo-to-d_b_27891.html
In recent weeks I have received quite a number of private calls and emails from people involved with a number of House and Senate campaigns asking for advice based on ideas posted here and elsewhere.
I have tried to help every one of them, pro bono I would emphasize, because this is a moment of historic destiny for America that will leave
us with a continuation of one party goverment and all the disasters that will follow, or a renewed American idealism and spirit with a rejuvenated progressive movement while the Republicans snarl against each other about how they blew it.
This note will lay out specific initiatives involving ideas, message, taking control of the debate, and winning. A subsequent note will propose ways that Air America, the Party, individual candidates and the blogosphere can fight and win in unison on matters such as mobilizing the vote and instant reaction to Republican vote manipulations and their inevitable October Surprise. Though I emphasize again we must have OUR October surprise.
I come from the JFK school of winning. When I was a very young Senate aide, my bosses were JFK guys and would take me periodically to the old Mayflower Hotel where the great Kenny O'Donnell would hold court and talk about JFK and Bobby. They knew how to win, they played to win, and they won because they always took the initiative, they always took the offensive, they believed in striking first, and striking hard, and taking the fight to the other guy. Qualities modern Democrats have largely lost and must regain.
And when I worked for the House Democratic Leadership we won, we controlled the House, we did battle every day with New Gingrich and the same tactics Rove uses today, with Dick Cheney who was then our counterpart in the House Republican Leadership. We did not answer them, we counter-attacked by attacking them. I cannot tell you, how many countless conversations I had with Democratic candidates and Congressmen and women from tough districts about how to win.
Lets make 2006 a Tsunami. Lets make 2006 a landslide. And understand the math: we can win seats but remain in the minority; and we can win a slight majority of popular votes but emerge with a landslide gain of seats. Do not believe what the compensated consultants or pundits say on television. They have almost nothing to do with the real America. On the Sunday before the 1994 Republican landslide the Hotline and Sunday Washington Post polled 21 alleged experts. 17 of them, many of the same people in the punditry class today, said the Democrats would retain control of the House. 48 hours before a Republican landslide they had it totally backwards. When you see them on television today, ignore them.
Here are some ways to take the right issues to the voters to win:
1. Iraq: to repeat my earlier post, candidates can propose that if Democrats win control of Congress our first act will be to name leaders on national security such as Senator Sam Nunn and General Zinni to meet with the Joint Chiefs and Iraq commanders and develop a rational exit strategy.
Understand the politics of Iraq. The voters who will decide this election have lost confidence and trust in Bush, but do not yet have strong confidence in Democrats. Every candidate now has some position, which is fine, but understand what the voter sees today, is that 465 Democrats running for the House and Senate have 465 plans, with a national leadership without a clear plan. This is hard to communicate, and easy to demonize.
The way to handle this, is talk sense to the voters, state that if Democrats win Congress the obvious truth is that we will have a Democratic Congress and a Republican President and obviously they will sit down. Our simple message is this. If Democrats win some of the most credible and respected national security figures in the Nation will be working with us, to get out of the mess Bush created. Vote for us, that is what voters get. Vote for Republicans, Bush has promised two more years of the same and the only people making these decisions are named Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove.
The American people are tired of polities so obsessed with Iraq, that the President cuts and runs at Tora Bora, and lets Bin Laden escape, and runs his policies so poorly that he ends up recruiting more terrorists, making the world more dangerous, and playing into the hands of Iran.
Trust me, folks, we win that debate.
2. This is the big sleeper issue: Bush is bringing back the draft through involuntary military service, the most recent example being the involuntary recall of Marines. He is doing this because he has mismanaged the war, the reserves and our force structure.
We take this issue to the voters: listen to the news of what Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rove want to do, if they continue having total power. They seem to want war everywhere, and having started one war in Iraq that we did not have to fight, if they have total power for two more years, and push for more unwise wars, they will have to find more troops and that means more involuntary service which is in fact a draft.
Go right in the face of Republican opponents and make them answer this: for every war position you advocate, where do you get the troops? Are you supporting more involuntary service and if there is another significant war would you support resumption of the draft? And to voters: the best way to prevent this, is bring back the check and balance of a Democratic Congress that will do its job, which the Republican Congress has not done.
3. Lets have a pro-American energy policy made in public not anti-American energy policy made in secret in Dick Cheney's office. Understand the Cheney link, make this link at every opportunity, Cheney is less favorably viewed than the bird flu. We must be honest about it, and if we are, media will report it.
Draw brutally hard and true comparisons: it is wrong for executives of major oil companies to have severance and compensation packages where they make hundreds of millions of dollars in personal profit while our troops risk their lives for inadequate pay. It is wrong for major oil companies to have the largest profits in the history of capitalism while some Americans have to choose between buying food or paying gouge prices at the pump, while veterans find military hospitals closed, and oil speculators use our money to buy mansions in the Hamptons and weekend trips to ski in the Swiss Alps.
Challenge Republicans to give back campaign campaign donations from oil companies who are more loyal to despotic Middle Eastern business partners than Americans on Main Street. Call for an energy policy that is truly powerful and pro-American and creates new energy sources and attack an oil-dominated Republican Congress that favors an oil- dominated energy policy, and then recycles their bloated profits into Republican campaigns so they can buy the next Congress, too.
Use aggressive, patriotic terms. Take the fight to them. Ask questions they must answer. Do the attacks the way Republicans do, except we tell the truth. Lump the Republican President, the Republican Congress, major oil companies and Dick Cheney into one big bed and say its time to throw the bed out of the house.
4. Go to the voters and say on the first day of the Democratic Congress we will pass a bill to help homeless veterans of America.
Understand this will win support and acclaim from liberal groups who want to help the homeless, military families who care about these issues passionately, and religious groups of every denomination. There are ways to communicate this position that cost nothing, that reach huge audiences of Middle America that determine not only who wins, but create the possibility of a giant landslide Tsunami election. This is a compelling moral issue and a powerful political issue.
5. And yes talk about challenging all of our people to work against homelessness and hunger throughout the land. Quote the Sermon on the Mount, and Hillel, and JFK saying that God's work must truly be our own. Do public announcements where the candidate stands next to a Minister, a Priest and a Rabbi in whatever combination is appropriate for the constituency. People care about these issues, we have a decent and noble people in America, and liberal politicians and their consultants sell them short as well as Republicans.
Bill Clinton won a majority of the evangelical Christian vote, and we should go after every vote of every person of faith and be just as aggressive taking our case to them, as we are taking our case for a pro-America energy policy and rational military policiies. Just for emphasis I repeat: at every opportunity have a public announcement with the candidate standing next to leaders of different faiths, and communicate this to the local church or temple newsletter as well as local radio and television.
6. Speak in terms of the American Family, to be united, rather than rabid partisanship of the far right Republican Congress. Use this phrase at every opportunity, use language and ideas that average Americans relate to.
Our American Family supports wounded troops whether or not we support the war; our family helps the poorest among us because as JFK said God's work must truly be our own; the American Family wants to give our children a better world, not a world of endless war leaving them with shameful debt.
7. Look for opportunities to say nice things about some Republicans when possible, such as John McCain and Colin Powell. And yes, yes, I will get some comments about how evil they are, but I know how to win elections in tough states and districts. I certainly have my differences with McCain and Powell, but they are better than Bush and Cheney, and they have stratospheric favorable ratings, and this dramatizes the kind of America we get with a Democratic Congress of unity and respect versus a Republican one party government of intolerance, disunity, extremism and failure.
8. Go right in Republican face on homeland security and level these charges directly: Where were you, Republican Congress, for six years doing nothing on immigration and creates the crises we have today? Where were you, Republican Congress, refusing to protect our ports from the day after 9-11 until today? With a Democratic Congress we will have more American protection for American security, while one party Republican Congress has nothing better than Dubai port deals.
Every Democratic candidate and campaign manager should get the book by Clark Kent Ervin, former Inspector General of Homeland Security, a Republican and a good guy I know. Page after page, issue after issue, lets tell the country who will really make America safer.
Where were you, Republican Congress, trying to cut money for airport screening? Where were you, Republican Congress, shortchanging local police and firefighters when you should have been supporting them since 9-11? Where were you, Republican Congress, when instead of supporting nuclear non-proliferation you were asleep at the switch while Russian nuclear materials remain unsecured today, Pakistani proliferators work secretly with terrorists, and and the FBI still cant get a computer system that works?
Vote for us, American people, and we will take this fight to them every hour, every day, from the first day of the new Democratic Congress.
I end Part I with this. The American people have rejected Bushism and the Republican Congress. The only tactic left for them, is to demean us and slander us, to make us look like we are alien, radical creatures who will endanger America. They are so low they cannot win by elevating themselves; all they can do, is try to drive us down to levels below theirs.
The American people love underdogs and fighterss; lets take the fight to them.
The American people are tired of anger politics, fear politics,and partisan vindictivenesss; lets stand for an American family with pro-American policies, pro-American unity, and the American spirit of courage and bravery. The American people do not want to substitute our anger and vindictiveness for theirs; they want to end this era of Bushism and Republicanism and all it represents, and bring back the good old USA with a can-do spirit, a country that comes together, and a democracy that is respected throughout the world.
With overwhelming disapproval of the status quo, the President, the Congress and the media the American people are giving us their message loud and clear. If we listen carefully to what they are saying, we will win an epic victory and send a message that will rocket through America and rocket around the world.
posted by verifi at 9:18 AM
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