No one's at the wheel, Dems say Go after Bush on 'competence'

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/399357p-338259c.html

Democrats sound like they've coined a new slogan to turn President Bush's stumbling second term against Republicans: It's about the incompetence, stupid.

With the White House facing plummeting poll numbers, fallout from the Dubai ports debacle and the third anniversary of the Iraq war that hasn't gone as predicted, Democrats are staying on the attack.

"There's no chief operating officer in the White House - there's not anyone there making sure the government works," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

"Forget the compassionate conservative," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told The Associated Press. "Some of us would settle for just a competent conservative at this point."

[babylonsister]

1. Add lack of competence, RE: Katrina, too. Their frightening

ineptness was a bellwether for many people.

[Warpy]

2. Balls. Go after them on WAGES

because there is no indication to the man in the street that the Democrats are any more competent than this bunch are.

Joe Paycheck doesn't care about the trade balance, the deficit, or how much more it costs to go to Europe this year than it did last year because of the falling dollar. What he does care about is having to take a shit job that doesn't pay the bills under any circumstances, but which sends him deeper into credit card debt every month because prices for everything he needs to stay alive are rocketing upward at five times the official figure.

A living wage for everybody who works full time is the wedge issue that will blow that GOP coalition of the rich and the religiously ignorant to the hell it so richly deserves. That is the real centrist issue today, and if the Democrats are too timid to jump on it, they don't deserve our votes. Ever.

[Armstead]

3. And basic philosophy -- Conservatism encourages failure

CONservatives want to gut the publi sector and non-buisiness civil society.

So having incpmpetence at the top of the government is not a failure in the CONservative worldview.

[Warpy]

5. That's the kind of stuff that LOSES

I'm sorry, but statements about philosophy won't do the trick.

Talk about how bad the other guy is at his job if you want to lose. Talk about conservative philosophy if you want to lose. Talk about fiscal responsibility if you want to lose.

Talk about WAGES if you want to win.

[Armstead]

7. You can;t seperate them or you'll just get more of the same.

CONservatism is based on Cheap Labor, turning everything over to business and getting rid of all the rules that protect society and individuals -- including labor laws.

If you just focus on "wages" in a vacuum, you will never get people to make the connection becuse the CONseratives also promise a better standard of living and opportunity.

There IS a difference in the philosophies that DIRECTLY affect people's lives. Pretending the choice is some battle of placating cliches is just goign to increase voter apathy and empower the next charasmatic CONservative who comes along.

And if the Democrats don't act on a labor-oriented message and strategy with philosophical teeth, they won't help workers either.

[Warpy]

8. Talk like that and lose

or say "Repuglicans have a long standing policy of keeping wages down. It's time for the minimum wage to rise to a level that will support a full time working person, the way it was originally designed to."

Yapping about the bankruptcy of GOPism is true, but it won't win any elections. Pointing fingers at the other guy doesn't do any good unless you tell 'em what YOU are going to do.

GOPs won elections by saying they'd cut taxes, and they did, sort of. That has now run its course. They won elections by saying they were going to stop picking a working man's pocket to feed "welfare queens." They did the latter, sort of. Democrats have done NOTHING and if they continue to whine about the incompetence of the GOP, they'll continue to lose.

Wages are the wedge issue. Ignore it if you want to lose.

[Armstead]

9. The GOP won by attacking Liberalism

They capitalized on public dissatisfaction, and they blamed it all on liberals, and more specificlly Democrats.

Ronald Reagan, for example, based his whole campaign on attacking the basis of liberalism, and offering conservatism as an alternative. Any "positive" promises made were all based on that foundation of saying: "The liberls have screwed everything up and is a bad ideology. We conservatives offer something that will be better for you."

You ever listen to Rush Limbaugh, for example? About a qu=arter of show is "positive." The rest of the time he is attacking liberals and liberalism.

That's how they kept winning elections, and why they now hold all of the levers of power.

The Democrats can and must do the same. I agree with you that our side also has to offer positive solutions that will actually help real people. But that can't be done in a vacuum. Unless there is a context, it will continue to be the CONservative GOP being on offense, while liberals and Democrats are on defense.

[Nostradammit]

4. I'll stick with Malfeasance, thank you

I think GW has milked the "well-intentioned but hapless" angle for all it's worth.

He's really just a two-bit mafia thug working for daddy.

[AtomicKitten]

6. incompetence - corruption - credibility

There is much material to choose from.