Quote from ZZZzzzzzzz:
Not that the democrats are smart enough to keep it simple...
But what is required is to pick a couple of simple phrases that the average dumbed down American can grasp, and repeat them over, and over, and over again.
It is a proven fact that if people hear something repeated enough times, whether or not it is true, they will come to believe it is true.
Personally, I would hammer on McCain's relationship with Bush.
Show the photos of McCain hugging Bush over, and over, and over again.
In debates, Obama should call McCain, John McBush.
Associate McCain as much as possible with Bush, and hammer, hammer, hammer it home.
The details are unimportant. Americans obviously don't focus on details or facts, they don't care about facts or details...they just need to be programmed to know that 4 years of McCain are another 4 years of Bush.
That's all they need, and they need to take Ohio.
It really is that simple.
People don't need to be told the economy is bad, they are living it.
They don't need to know gas is high, they are paying.
They don't need to know Iraq is a colossal screwup, it is obvious.
All they need to know is that a vote for John McBush is a vote for 4 more years of Bush and his failed policies...
I agree. McCain is a weak target.
Here is how Obama can win:
1) Identify McCain as a beliigerent war-hawk, in favour of sending more to die in the streets of Baghdad, and who knows, maybe Iran next? Ask lots of questions about Blackwater. Ask where he stops - N Korea, Syria? Ask him to definitively rule out a draft. Middle America will sh*t their lily-livered pants at the thought of a foaming-at-the-mouth McCain drafting their sons to be packed off to another Vietnam in the Middle East.
2) Identify McCain with soaring gas and food prices. This one is easy: link McCain with Bush and therefore with Big Oil. Slogan: wanna pay $10 for gas? Vote John McCain.
3) Emphasise Obama's protectionist policies in the industrial heartland (like Michigan). Make them think that free-trade McCain is going to keep the borders open to underpriced goods from China and the rest of the world, exporting jobs and favouring outsourcing by faceless corporations. Make the working class American nervous about the Republican trade policy.
4) Emphasize the economic record of the Republicans: lack of regulation allowing free-market capitalism gone to excess, with CEOs earning millions by creating reckless lending bubbles which throw ordinary Joes out of work. Quote every source he can on how Bush & the Republicans have a bad economic record - cite the current slowdown/recession and housing slump, and label it the Republican legacy. Point to the gigantic deficit and the debt load which has *doubled* under Bush. This is the perfect ground to battle McCain in debates on. McCain knows *nothing* about economics, he will look like a dumb 15 year old high school dropout.
5) As soon as he gets the nomination, Obama should hang all his leftie friends out to dry. Go mainstream, capture the centre. Right now he needs them to beat Hillary. Once he's nominated, he has them locked up anyway - who are they gonna vote for, a right-winger?
6) Keep the election about slogans and propaganda, not policy details. Bush, and before him Goebells, have proved time and time again that slogans work better than intellectual debates about policy intricacies. The average voter is dumb, uninformed, and uncritical. They vote on emotion and hope rather than reason or facts. Obama is great at pitching slogans in prepared speeches, like other charismatic politicians (e.g. JFK, Reagan, MLK). He should stick to that, and keep debates or interviews with prepared media experts at a minimum.
