GUYS: STRATEGY NOTES: To Win and to Head Off October Surprises:

[calimary]

I've posted this here, picking up from something I wrote in LBN. Submitted as a way to arm us as "surrogates" for John Kerry and our fellow Dems, to capitalize on bush's slumping poll numbers and to anticipate and counter-act any hysterics or dirty tricks or Osama captures or further 9/11s that the republi-CONS might try in desperation as they see themselves on the verge of losing it all:

Consider it a "Silver Bullet Strategy," or a Stake in the Heart of the Evil Ones, whichever you prefer.

I was talking to a "recovering republican" today. His wife is a Dem, about as rabid as I am, and well-read/well-informed. He told me they joked with each other about her being his "commie wife." Throughout our conversation, he kept mentioning how his wife had said the same thing, his wife had been telling him something about this, and so on. He's among the many who are waking up and coming around, and HE TOO used the same terminology I heard from some people yesterday - "bush has really messed things up in Iraq." It's IRAQ and bUSH - grappled together as surely as a bee hive is stuck to a tree limb. The words/terms "bush," Iraq" and "messed things up" or "sure has made a mess" are ALL in the SAME SENTENCE. That notion needs to be reinforced.

Now: Reinforce it with NOTHING BUT FACT. The facts are our best allies. BECAUSE: the hannitys and limbaughs of the world are going to start picking up the latest White House spin: A vote against bush is a vote for al Qaeda/Zarkawi/Saddam/Osama/Hamas/whatever. And there is always the "October surprise."

To be ready for this: MAKE SURE YOU'RE INFORMED AND HAVE FACTS ON THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE. Frankly, you only need a few of 'em. What we need to do is keep the enlightenment going so it's thoroughly imbedded and reinforced, so that people will see through any capture of Osama or other smokescreen/diversion the republi-CONS throw out there. If we secure in their minds the reality that these people have trumped stuff up, lied, cheated, manipulated the media, preyed upon people's 9/11 fears, and distorted the facts and the record, the ground will NOT be fertile and softened and accepting when they sow their seeds of baloney bushes onto it. At this point, we have to make sure any potential "farming fields" are dry, hard, and unusable, so that what they try to plant will NOT take root. My "recovering republican" friend had heard a little bit about PNAC (from his wise, informed wife), and a little bit about limbaugh and a tiny tiny bit about richard mellon scaife and others who have bankrolled the rightwing and the Clinton persecutions et al.

A VERY useful item to remind them/enlighten them about what kkkarl rove and the bush campaign did to John McCain in South Carolina - with the character assassination and lies about his having fathered a black child out of wedlock." McCain still has BEAUCOUP CURRENCY with just about everybody. People seem all the more acutely aware of his service to his country, his service in Vietnam, his suffering and POW years in Vietnam, and his rather unassailable status as a man of integrity. THEY ALL LOVE JOHN MCCAIN, no matter who they are. This is a GREAT way to get their hackles up and their mouths to drop open. Sure worked today for me, especially since my friend had not heard about that whole sordid business, even while he did know at least a little bit about most of the other stuff I told him about.

What you do, VERY basically, is you SOUR THE MILK so it's unusable by the time the enemy tries to add it in to their recipe. Then, this potential pool of voters cannot be reached. You SOUR the person you're talking to, so that they are naturally, and deep-to-the-bone PREDISPOSED to believe that the bush machine - and all its assorted tentacles - is BAD, DEVIOUS, SNEAKY, MEAN, DECEITFUL, and MANIPULATIVE. I mean, (gasp!!) if they'd DO THAT to JOHN MCCAIN!!!!!
You plant THAT seed in his or her mind. You let it fester. You add a little more water and nutrients to it. It will grow and do the rest for you. It'll thoroughly infuse their thinking about all the rest of it, eventually. People HATE it when they hear how McCain was savaged by the bushies in South Carolina (they besmirched HIS reputation, HIS WIFE's reputation, THEIR INNOCENT, UNDERAGE ADOPTED CHILD's reputation, AND HIS MARRIAGE IN GENERAL). And you MUST refer to it in that way. These guys hit McCain WAY below the belt, and didn't stop there. They attacked his wife, their marriage, and their adopted child. The details MUST - repeat - MUST be mentioned as well. If you wanna slam the door shut on the bushies, and lock it behind you, you MUST include that wording, or words to that effect, in your assertions. And, of course, you could always throw in the old WAR HERO, POW, SUFFERED FOR HIS COUNTRY, SAW COMBAT - versus - pissant who ran off to hide in the Texas Air National Guard, never left the country, and when he transfered to Alabama, he ran off and hid from THERE! And this is the guy who slandered our Good Guy, McCain!!!

Again, it's not that you're pushing McCain so much as you are providing a small illustration that is indicative of a LARGER reality. People who would pull that shit on our hero, McCain, would INDEED be willing and able to do a lot more, to Kerry and whoever else. Throw in Max Cleland, if you like - a triple amputee from Vietnam, WHOSE PATRIOTISM WAS IMPUGNED in the last Senate race in Georgia, by a guy (Saxby Chambliss) WHO IS A BIGTIME CHICKENHAWK who avoided the war, never wore his country's uniform, and never saw combat, and who beat Cleland (and threw him OUT OF A JOB - a triple-amputee veteran of Vietnam)!!!!! Yep, you gotta play it a little shamelessly, I'm afraid. GET OUT THOSE VIOLINS!!! Appeal to their sense of fair play and decency.

You SOUR THE MILK, AND THE GROUND. POISON THE FIELDS so nothing can be planted, and nothing will grow - no matter if bush goes around and personally hands every voter a thousand-dollar bill and the keys to a new SUV. You raise suspicion and promote an air of negativity toward the republi-CONS by doing this. And you will effectively ward off any further incursions the bushies might try to make. You want potential voters looking askance at anything the bushies do, and smelling something fishy - somewhere. ENCOURAGE THAT IMPRESSION. It's a perception. It's very veiled and smoky and misty and intangible. But it's a safeguard for us, for sure.

[ewagner]

1. Good advice

I've already used this on a couple of "moderate" repubs I know. It works well.

[displacedtexan]

2. The analogy of the hornet's nest seems to work for me.

I've had greater success comparing Bush* to the kid who refuses to heed sound advice from his elders and hits the hornet's nest with a stick... which means wiser folks have to deal with the hundreds of angry wasps while the kid washes up for supper.

Don't get me wrong: facts are great! However, the bottom half of the bell curve can't handle facts (my Texas relatives are living proof); they can only handle analogies.

[calimary]

3. No argument from me.

You do have to tailor your approach to your audience. MINE was aimed at an upper-middle-class real estate guy - the "recovering republican" - who is somewhat aware of a few things (in this case because he has a VERY alert and well-informed wife) and who has seen enough already to know something smells REALLY bad. Admittedly, a guy like him was already halfway there. You certainly know best about what works with your own "target audience."

The most important overall objective is to "poison the well" so that, when something strategic happens that's designed to woo the waverers back, they'll be long gone and unreachable by then.

If we can keep the Bad Guys worried about, and most focused on shoring up their base, then we win. Their base does NOT constitute a majority of the vote. Besides, their base is likely to become discouraged when they see the rats deserting the ship (like I saw, this very morning, with quotes taken from Robert Novak and George Will of all people, PLUS Tucker Carlson last night, that shows some heavyweight conservatives are publicly rethinking their support for the war and/or blank-check-for-bush), and just give up and stay home on election day. THAT is the best-case scenario of all, because that means we're likely to make more gains in the House and/or Senate, also.