What we need to do to win in November.

[Hamlette]

I don't know about you, but all the talk about "the GOP might be able to keep the house AND Senate this year" is freaking me out. What is OUT message? I'm a complete political animal and I'm not hearing it.

Here's a great read from over at Josh's: http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/sep/15/election_endgame

The Democratic Party is still trying to figure out who its voters are, and flails about with slogans and props. Instead, the Democrats should enter the endgame and talk about a simple set of points: Iraq is idiocy, wages are terrible, and the corrupt Republicans are responsible for both. They too should be engaged in KITV (Keep In The Vote, keep the republican votes home and a companion to GOTV)- that is, attacking Republicans for not being Republican enough.

The reason is simple. The muddled moderates will be persuaded that whatever they think of "tax cuts" in the abstract, that the people who have sunk a decade in the sands of Iraq can't be trusted to do anything. The important play is to convince the angry Republicans to stay home, that this election isn't going to bring them closer to their real goals. This is going to be helped by the long term reactionary rhetoric that is trying to pretend that Bush isn't a reactionary. Corruption links the two - it is corruption that brought us failure in Iraq and failure in the economy.

snip

The backdrop of unfinished business, the "issues" that clutter recent statements from the Democratic Party are not effective GOTV or KITV. Health care, energy, security - all of these are matters that people have made up their mind. The idea is to give your people a shot of adrenaline.

That shot, as Josh Micah Marshall and others have pointed out - is Social Security. The simple meme to tell voters is that "Bush has a secret plan to cancel Social Security." It really is that simple - people need to go to the polls believing that if they didn't their Social Security checks are in danger. Since this is true, it is easy to say. Sure you can throw in Republican dirty tricks over 911, and the little issues like improving health care access on the margins. But that is the job of individual candidates in individual districts, each of which has its own balance of concerns.

[AndyTiedye]

1. Bush** Has a Secret Plan to Start Up The Draft

[johnnyburma]

2. How stupid do you think the American public is?

Do you think nobody out there realized that Bush couldn't even get his SS plan to a vote? And you think its genius to take the magnifying glass off of Iraq? Good call. Hey, why don't we bring up guns too?

[mikelewis]

3. Tell you what...

On Nov. 8th, after the Republicans win another seemingly impossible victory, will you at least consider the possibility that our elections are rigged?

[flaminbats]

4. not even with a Republican Congress?

actually it's neocon cranks in Congress, like John Linder and Rick Santorum, who are more likely than Bush to take the initiative on shredding Social Security and Medicare!

Actually allot of the people I know, who have been blaming Democrats in Congress for these problems, are finally starting to realize that Republicans are controlling everything! Its a good feeling when I see Republican voters, who in the past..blamed Clinton for taxes and Democrats in Congress for deficit spending, are finally putting the blame where it belongs. I can't believe how many Clinton hating Republicans I knew from the 90's have told me in the last few weeks they wish to become active in our local Democratic Party! They are sick of supporting Republicans who don't care, and want to know more about the candidates of our party.