DU debate preparation?

[Julien Sorel]

(Inspired by another thread)

Here is a link to ABC's polling after all three Gore-Bush debates, along with a story. Problem right off the bat: More Republicans watch debates than Democrats. That means they will be in a better position to influence post-debate spin in casual conversations with friends and so on. Is it possible for people here to start trying to figure out how to counter that?

[PretzelWarrior]

1. Tell them the live 2nd coming of Christ will be on E! Channel

then they'll only have our talking points to go on and we'll have the added benefit that they'll be depressed having maxed out their credit cards thinking the rapture was "right around the corner"

[JI7]

2. i think the lowering expectations is a good thing

but after the debate, say things like "you know, i was surprised by how well kerry did considering bush has always done so well in debates and won all of them". and then say things like "it probably is because things really are worse off and we really do need to change directions" or something else. these are mostly aimed at trying to convince the true swing voters rather than aimed at debating commited right wingers.

[Julien Sorel]

3. That's a start.

Another one: remind people of the Bush-Gore debates. In the first one, Gore said Bush's proposed tax cuts grossly favored the wealthy, not the middle class. Bush called that "fuzzy math." Of course, we know that to Bush, any math that doesn't revolve around counting bottles of beer on the wall is fuzzy, but the fact remains, Gore was right. A recent Congressional Budget Office report found that the Bush tax cuts overwhelmingly favored the rich.

So when Bush tries to trot out his next version of "fuzzy math" in the debates, it's simple to say something like, "Yeah, I remember in the Gore-Bush debates when he denied his tax cuts would favor the rich by calling it 'fuzzy math.' This reminds me of that."