Take This and RunTen things the McCain campaign needs to do to win.
By Lisa Schiffren
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWM3YTNhNjYyNjczMWI4NGVhYzU0OWQyZTAxNTk1OWU=At this point, the McCain campaign’s goal should be to raise doubts about Obama’s trustworthiness, and thus ability to lead. This will require a strategy and a tactic.
The campaign’s strategy should be to attack from all directions: character, past associations, political practice in Chicago, “present” votes, lack of a record of accomplishment. It should question what it means for a law professor to leave no academic paper trail, yet produce two well-written autobiographies.
Tactically, it should have Sarah Palin and surrogates — Giuliani, Gingrich, Romney, Pawlenty, Crist, and Sanford — blast away from a few different angles a day. Have the articulate ones make complete, coherent cases on each issue.
Make Barack Obama defend himself, fill in the mysterious gaps, and list concrete outcomes from his work. We shall see how much grace he brings to that situation. Attack hard enough to make the American people pay attention. Any wavering voter should know the reasons that a vote for Obama is a risk, and they should know what it guarantees.
McCain must rise to this moment and be crystal clear about his future economic policy. And it has to be good. Let people know he understand the pain we are all facing together. Because making voters wary of Obama, which they have resisted pretty strenuously heretofore, doesn’t get them to the polls for the Republican candidate.
Here are ten suggestions for the campaign:
1: The economy. Democrats are blaming the current crisis — the one requiring the now-$800 billion bailout — on McCain’s aversion to regulation. Explain the difference between more regulations and useful regulations. Explain that all the regulations in the world, applied to financial institutions, won’t help if government policy mandates that banks issue mortgages to people who can’t repay them. Explain who wanted so badly to expand homeownership, and why, and who benefitted from the work of Freddie and Fannie. List the top three recipients of Freddie and Fannie’s campaign donations.
That’s the history. Here is the abstract point to move to: Obama and his allies truly, deeply believe that markets are bad, and a small group of smart, good-hearted people — them — should be running things. The smart people had the good intentions of having the poor own homes. So they overrode traditional banking norms, which they called racist. Now we are all paying for their leftist ideology. For a real fight, mention the Community Reinvestment Act. Ask what happens in the near future when the “A team” — Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, and Barack Obama — are in charge of the economy, during the coming recession.
Don’t sugar-coat the economic situation. If McCain wins, he presides over tough times.
2: Taxes. Contrast McCain’s tax policies with Obama’s by explaining the difference between letting people (and businesses) keep their own money, and giving them benefits at taxpayer expense. The former is what it means to have economic freedom. The latter is a real cost to taxpayers. McCain would not “spend” $300 million dollars, as Obama alleges, by failing to confiscate $300 million from businesses or individuals.
Also explain that Barack Obama’s tax ”cuts” for the poor consist of straightforward, massive redistribution of taxpayer dollars to people who already are not required to pay taxes. Hammer the point that only about 60 percent of American earners even pay taxes. Taxes for the working poor are called the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is the opposite of a tax. Cite statistics indicating that decided “tax recipients” are pro-Obama, support higher taxes for those who pay, and want bigger checks.
Ask why Barack Obama wants to make us all wards of the state, with state health care. Is this a good moment to embrace 20th Century Socialism Lite, even if we are facing a year or two of belt tightening? Shouldn’t the future be freer, with less state interference in our lives? And on the matter of the recession we are facing — explain in language a 10-year-old can understand that we will get through it faster if we don’t gum up the job-creating process with new taxes.
3: Spending. McCain should say he will cut spending because he believes that government should be smaller for both practical and philosophical reasons. Enough about earmarks. They are bad. But Obama won when he said they were only $18 billion — a small percentage of federal expenditures. Point out that the “bridge to nowhere” was egregious — but even with more legitimate projects, choices have to be made. Note that when Jim Lehrer asked what new programs each candidate would be willing to cut, Obama offered none but said we should be investing more money in early-childhood education. Here’s a phrase: magic thinking. We’re broke. Ask voters if they personally are focused on cutting spending or buying better services right now, going into this recession.
On Tuesday night, have McCain look at Obama and say, “You think early-childhood education is important? That $972 million you spent on local nonsense, money that went to Tony Rezko, programs administered by your Reverend Wright, and, by the way, the hospital where your wife works, could have paid for a fair bit of it.”
4: A little populism. McCain will have to defend much of the bailout by explaining that Wall Street and Main Street are two sides of the same coin. Of course McCain is not a fan of massive CEO salaries, though he doesn’t think it is the president’s job to level them. Admonish that this is the time for executives to tone down the greed and boards to makes sure they do.
5: Run McCain as his own man, not as a senator. McCain should stop saying “maverick,” and stop being sentimental about the Senate and his place in it. Most voters despise Congress. Stop with the “my dear friend” and “I love him, but . . .” What does he think an insider sounds like?
6: Bill Ayers and other close friends. Discuss the details of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers’ long-term relationship with Obama. Ayers served with the candidate on the Woods Fund board, and Obama was handsomely paid for that work. Who introduced them, and when? Make Obama explain why the Woods Fund gave grants to racial programs (“Juneteenth education”) rather than basic education for deprived minority kids.
Speaking of terrorist buds, Barack and Michelle were close with Rashid and Mona Khalidi, convicted terrorism supporters. What was that about? Make the analogy to the Reverend Wright. Hit the larger point that there are so many of these long-term social relationships with people who hate this country and find it mean-spirited and racist. What does Barack enjoy about hanging with these types?
7: Arrogance bordering on treason. On his listening tour last summer, Senator Obama attempted to undermine Bush administration policy in Iraq. In personal conversations he asked that the Iraqi leadership wait for the next administration (his) to begin serious troop withdrawals — as Amir Taheri has documented. Apparently, he wanted to make it look as if the troops were coming home due to him.
8: Women. Why are women on Obama’s Senate staff in lower positions, and making less money, relative to the McCain campaign’s women? McCain is a feminist now, what with his VP choice.
9: Smart but wrong. McCain has a relatively inexperienced running mate. She’ll be a swell veep, but she isn’t really ready to be president right now. When it comes up, note that judgment matters. Your ticket can boast of no Harvard degrees. But experience teaches that people who are smart and wrong are far more dangerous than people who have solid instincts and less grad school. But by far the worst combination is an inexperienced intellectual who has absolute conviction that his radical ideas are superior.
10: What he’s for. While leveling attacks, McCain should simultaneously convey real empathy for Americans who are in tough economic situations. He can share tales of suffering, show that his heart goes out to his fellow citizens, and promise to do his utmost to help. But it is not possible for the federal government to fix everyone’s problems. Discuss health care, business formation, jobs. Announce that McCain will assemble a new team, and name a few reassuring leaders. Offer a comprehensive economic plan to firm up the economy, shrink government, foster job creation, and make sure that safety nets are in place. In other words, a plan to tweak, not reinvent, the economy.
