--Regulation.
Obama's attacks on deregulation? Remind citizens of the tremendous operational inefficiencies that trucking, airlines, and long distance calls faced back in the 1970's, when even Kennedy and Carter backed deregulation. Remind people how much it cost the average investor to buy a 100 shares of stock before now. Explain you want to streamline the paperwork that small businesses have to wade through so they can spend more time growing their businesses and hiring more workers than wasting their time responding to the increasing appetite for an endless supply of paperwork from government bureaucrats and their money having to license expensive software systems, hire accountants and attorneys to cope with it all. Explain the government exists to support the American taxpayer and businessowner, not to be barriers to their success.
You don't object to regulation--but to overregulation. And the deregulation you're speaking of is from Democratic, bureaucratic overregulation, not necessary regulation. Explain there are things for which you want keep and expand regulation--food and drug safety, patient safety, work safety. Point out your air squadron command won a safety award during your tenure. Point out (like SNL did) that you want to bring down people like the Sandlers, whom in spite of funding leftist causes, late in the housing bubble sold a company to Wachovia with a large number of risky mortgages in the overheated California and Florida housing market, which have to date caused over $14B in losses to Wachovia stockholders. Perhaps John McCain, unlike SNL, doesn't think the Sandlers should be shot, but maybe Rudy Giuliani should investigate what they knew at the time they were selling houses to people whom couldn't afford them.
--Know Your Opponent
There's a reason that Barack Obama has ducked more than the bare minimum number of joint appearances: He is an ineffective debater, particularly in a time-constrained format; he is prone to gaffes, such as his ill-considered response in the Youtube debate to the question "would you meet, without preconditions". He has basically the following strategy in the upcoming debate: he will attempt to play his cards close to his vest.
He will be focusing on a predictable pattern of attack: McCain represents 4 more years of Bush policies; you proclaim you don't understand the economy that much; you pride yourself on deregulation, but the crisis was "caused" by deregulation; he will continue to trivialize McCain's focus on earmarks relative to the size of the federal budget; in response to McCain's questioning Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, he will attempt to minimize your sponsorship of reform legislation--and note that McCain wasn't successful in passing it; he will point out that Republicans were in control 6 of the past 8 years and don't have credibility in terms of spending. On the foreign policy front, he will say McCain following the same policies as Bush and claim those policies have isolated us.
--Know Yourself
Do not speak off the cuff, like suggesting investor Warren Buffett for Treasury Secretary; think, perhaps, a Nobel-winning economist from the University of Chicago or someone widely respected and knowledgeable about money like James Grant. Look into the camera. Don't smirk/laugh or point at Obama. Do not let yourself say the phrase "my friends" again. Show passion more like you did at the rousing end of your nomination acceptance speech and at the end of the first debate.\
RETURN OBAMA'S SERVE, ONLY FASTER AND HARDER THAN HE DELIVERED IT. You cannot let him get away with stuff like blaming deregulation for the sky falling. You've let too many boring overextended Obama talking points go unchallenged. If he pulls the Reaganesque crap about whether you feel better off after 8 years of Bush (I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts he will), you remind the American people that what Reagan was talking about resulted from an economy hosed by 4 years of a Democratic President (Jimmy Carter) and a Democratic Congress. Now you tell the American people, "Do you want 4 more years of where Carter and his Congress took us? Long fuel lines, high interest rates, high unemployment, and high taxes? Do you want to leave the fox in charge of the hen house? Don't you need a sheriff in the White House? They tell me I've been the Sheriff of the US Senate... I am ready to be the Sheriff of any Democratic Congress; I'm ready, willing and able to meet them part of the way, and I will bring the Republicans with me. But unlike Mr. Obama whom votes with them almost always, I will stand up to those big spenders and overregulators, I will keep them honest with my veto pen, and unlike George Bush, my veto pens will be used and run out of ink, and I'll order more to replace them."
--Some Objectives for the Upcoming Debate
- Make FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) a Major Theme. Point out that Bush and Obama have one thing in common--they both had a thin resume when it came to federal experience. What you want is someone with proven, reliable experience, but is a different type of politician in Washington, one whom has from the get-go refused earmarks as a matter of principle. What do you know about Obama? If you go back to his days in Chicago, you find a lot of poor judgment--associating with organizations like ACORN currently being investigated for voter fraud in almost every battleground state, convicted influence peddlers like Tony Rezko, even ministers and priests whom spout divisive rhetoric, while he says he wants to be an inclusive politician, William Ayers, a former domestic terrorist to this day whose only regret is he hadn't been more successful and whom wanted Obama to facilitate not better English, math and science, but a more political vision of education. McCain has been brought up with a traditional set of values of duty, diligence, hard work, and sacrifice; he has been willing to stand up for principle, even at the expense of his popularity and political success.
- Coopt Obama's Programs by Providing Bipartisan Alternatives. The basic idea is that you can bring deliver cost-effective solutions and the Republicans in Congress vs. without the risk of a largely untested leader with a thin resume. We will bring solutions to America's problems of energy independence, financial security, and economic development without excessive Democratic government costs and unnecessary rules and regulations that serve the interests of government bureaucrats instead of consumers and business.
- Preempt Obama's Predictable Attack by Negating It. For example, Obama wants to blame the financial crisis on deregulation. A typical whipping boy is the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagull. This is nonsense, and it would be helpful to debunk it. The purpose of the deregulation was to allow diversification of assets, to enable one-stop stopping for financial services and possibly new integrated products or bundling, and to promote new competition across sectors, e.g., banking, securities, and insurance. If anything, the 1999 repeal is making possible certain mergers or investments which have happened recently helping to stabilize the circumstances (e.g., Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Berkshire Hathaway's position in Goldman Sachs). Second, I would require any existing or new financial instruments to be properly collateralized. Third, I would consider extending the concept of federal insurance or reinsurance. Fourth, I would require certification of creditworthiness for home mortgages with a mandatory guaranteed fixed-rate conversion with payments capped at an acceptable percentage of income at the time of conversion. Anticipate the Obama "Bush Third Term" argument--and turn it on him. Notice all the comparisons to Bush--no active military service, no real foreign policy experience, mostly experience at the state level, the 40% of the time he voted with Bush--on things like the 2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Bill, which Obama himself promoted on his website with "goodies for Illinois" like federal subsidies for corn ethanol. Obama is going to attack McCain's campaign as run by lobbyists; response by pointing out there are 40,000 lobbyists in Washington, but Obama has to resort to lobbyists because he can't point to a single instance where McCain voted against his own positions because of campaign money.
- Announce an Economic Recovery Plan. Some polls show Obama winning over voters on the economy by default. Point out that the economy and jobs will improve with both consumers and businesses have a more favorite tax policy. Noting economists expecting up to 3 quarters of contraction, consider social relief extensions, such as a 13-week extension to unemployment benefits and a new stimulus package, and a suspension of capital gains taxes over the next 6 months.
- "Divide-and-Conquer". McCain must bite his bipartisan instinct and level an attack against Pelosi and Reid: how they have been part of the problem of polarization which Obama claims that he intends to overcome. Point out that Reid told McCain not to come back to Washington and Pelosi, before the first bailout vote, needing 100 GOP votes, went into an anti-Bush rant. Point out the Democrats are on the record for having opposed the Iraq surge from the get-go and cannot claim credit for its success: the military and political progress they opposed every step of the way. Note that Biden himself opposed Obama's refusing to support the troop funding in 2007.
- Swerve Obama. The element of surprise is probably the most effective technique to use against Obama's prevent defense. Last debate's surprise home mortgage plan completely caught Obama flatfooted, and they resorted to mischaracterize the plan. One example of a swerve would be to float out some names for McCain's cabinet, say, for instance, Paul Volcker or Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary, Mitt Romney as Secretary of Homeland Security, Michelle Rhee for Education Secretary, Boone Pickens as Energy Secretary, Bill Frist as Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Joe Lieberman as Defense Secretary, Meg Whitman as Commerce Secretary, J.C. Watts for Housing and Urban Development, Colin Powell for Veterans Affairs, and Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. A second example is to broadly outline a Financial Services Sector Reform Act.
- Pose Tough Dilemma Scenarios to Obama. Remember during the 1988 campaign when Mike Dukasis was asked whether he would back an irrevocable death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered? For example, would he favor banning federal funds for any school or city which attempts to restrict or ban military recruitment or ROTC activities or locations? If he discovered the pregnant housekeeper in his Chicago mansion was an illegal alien, would he promptly notify the INS? As someone who says he does not favor gay marriage, would he consider nominating gay-rights empathetic justices whom supported gay marriages from the Massachusetts, California or Connecticut state supreme courts to the federal judiciary, even the Supreme Court? Given the fact that your daughters attend private school, what would you say to the parent in an inner city, struggling to make ends meet, whom needs financial assistance so their child also has a real alternative to failed public schools?
Example Ads I Would Run
- The "Pro-Growth" Economy: Explain that McCain's vision of cutting business taxes is to stimulate local investment. Maintaining, strengthening, and adding necessary regulations to protect from unsafe products, services, environmental conditions and resources and consumer/investor fraud; simplifying or reducing anachronistic regulations that don't serve the benefit of consumers and businesses but for an overgrown government bureaucracy and get in the way of cheaper, better, and improved selection of consumer products and services. Point out that the Obama economy is no more than a rehash of failed liberal policies over the past 40 years of coercive union election techniques, protectionist trade, imposing more taxes and unfunded mandates on taxpayers and businesses, and trying to create government competitors to the private sector, in the same way that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac used an implicit government backing to expand its share of the US mortgage market--and ultimately the American taxpayer. Regulations to ensure people are treated by qualified doctors are good; regulations that get in the way of allowing insurance companies to offer their policies across state lines are bad.
- Obama's "Greatest Hits": Clips of Obama's gaffes e.g., the Youtube question on no preconditions, the San Francisco liberal Middle America bitter "clinging to their guns and Bibles", the House Democrats "we are the ones we've been waiting for", etc. There's a widely circulated video where Obama talks about unilaterally gutting the defense budget.
- The Resume Ad. I've mentioned this concept in an earlier post--point Obama's straight-line Democrat votes in Congress (96% on issues where Bush took a position), most liberal senator in Congress, his "present" votes in the Illinois state senate, his thin list of legislation, particularly involving controversial issues, his references (William Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Tony Rezko), his questionable professional associations (ACORN and their voter fraud issues). John McCain: war hero, 22 years in the military 26 years in Washington. A consistent proponent of lower taxes and lower spending, a strong national defense, extensive foreign policy experience with endorsements by several former Secretaries of State. A record of reform, bipartisan leadership, and in defending traditional American values.
- The Books Ad. Point out that McCain has authored volumes on character, hard decisions, and courage, while 47-year-old Obama was written two--autobiographies. Point out Obama's discussion of a Life Magazine story and pictures that affected him profoundly--but which never existed.
- The "I'm not Bush" Ad. Point out McCain has differed from Bush on Big Spending and Big Government solutions, that he opposed how Bush managed Iraq after liberation and doesn't not want to repeat the Iraqi mistakes in the future. Stress that he will be more engaged with Congress than Bush based on the most consistent bipartisan record in Congress.
- RUN AGAINST CONGRESS: I want you to run pictures of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, and ask America whether they are satisfied with the job Congress has been doing, and asking them whether they can trust the Democrats with the country's pursestrings. Remind them that the only Congress with a balanced budget or better over the past 50 years was with a Republican House. Remind the voters of the "good old times" of when the Democrats were in charge with both the Congress and the Presidency: the malaise of Jimmy Carter, problems with Iraq, high interest rates, high energy prices, high taxes, high unemployment. Do we REALLY trust the Democrats on the economy? And remember, what was the biggest achievement of the first two years of Congress under Clinton? A TAX HIKE. Remind the folks that Clinton, like Obama, ran on a middle-class tax cut; you want to make a bet whether Obama will suddenly decide he can give the people a tax cut AFTER November 4?
- "Which Obama will be President?" A twist on the John Kerry wind-surfing flip-flop ads. Whatever metaphor will do--maybe pancakes in the morning, each side with a contrary position and asking you to guess which side you'll be served at breakfast--the Obama during the Democratic primaries or the general election? The guy who thinks that the energy crisis can be solved with a tire gauge or the guy who says he now may consider offshore drilling? The guy in December whom said he wasn't a nuclear power plant guy or the guy whom claims he now wants them? The guy who says deregulation is the problem for the financial markets or the guy whom took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to look the other way while McCain wanted to reform the GSE's? The guy who supported the DC gun ban or the guy whom after the recent Supreme Court decision announced he was for second amendment rights?
- A New Variation on the Clinton "3AM Call". Point out that when a financial tsunami hit the country, Obama put his campaign first, not the country, and refused to postpone the first debate. His "answer" to the crisis was telephone calls: Paulson, the guy who proposed the biggest power grab in American history, Pelosi, Reid, Frank, and Dodd. YOU CANNOT DELEGATE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION. You sought to represent the House Republicans whose first instinct was to protect the American taxpayer. Point out how late Obama comes to the table: late on assessing the Russia-Georgia crisis, late on a cohesive strategy for Israeli-Palestinian issues, late on acknowledging the success of the surge and Gen. Petraeus anti-insurgency tactics, late on seeing the danger of the exposure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused by dominating unfairly the US mortgage market, late on a domestic energy exploration and production strategy when oil spiked to nearly $150/barrel.
