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Palin should talk about management and government reform

Submitted by Soren Dayton on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 14:56
in

Sarah Palin has a strategic advantage in this race. She's run something: a state with 15,000 employees and a multi-billion dollar budget and a small town. It seems to me that she should adopt a positive message hitting that that bottles together government reform, government competence, management, etc. Jonathan Martin notes that she already mentions government reform on the stump. I see several advantages to this.

First, this scratches an itch that the American people actually have. They saw Katrina. They saw Iraq. They see right now the mismanagement of the financial system regulatory framework. She can bring up examples from her own time as governor cutting budgets, etc.

Second, it attacks one of her perceived weaknesses by focusing on her strengths. Barack Obama and his campaign attack her for not having experience (never mind that he has less). By talking about what she has done here, it addresses that uncertainty. This does not weaken the reform message.

Third, it expands the positive contrast with the other ticket. With John McCain, we have leadership and reform. Palin has reform and adds management. This is in contrast to "change" (and what?). This is more meat on the bones of the McCain-Palin ticket. At the same time, this inverts the "experience" attack by talking about the category of government experience that none of the other national candidates have.

Fourth, I think that it continues to innoculate against the Obama attacks of McCain=Bush. I was struck by this from Joe Trippi:

The brilliance of the McCain strategy and messaging is that it includes a trap for Obama. To push back on the McCain claim of "country first" and "the original mavericks who will shake up Washington" the Obama campaign's attack of "four more years of George Bush" becomes a problem. In a country that yearns for post-partisan change the Obama campaign risks sounding too partisan and like more of the same.

Emphasizing management and attacking Bush examples slides into that post-partisan and anti-Bush space that makes it harder and harder for these attacks to stick.

Imagine how this might work. A big event on government management rolling out some plans and bio material. Carli Fiorina, Mitt Romney, Rob Portman and others could validate it with examples of their own government management. An event every other week through the end of the campaign.

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Comments

Great strategy by the GOP, too bad it's all lip service as usual

Submitted by ThinkingAhead on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 18:12.

Nothing against small towns. I love small towns and I grew up in a small town. But the reality is that people in small towns are out of touch with the world and they like it that way. That's why they live there. Nothing wrong with that. But it's wrong for a VP candidate to be this out of touch. For example, more people live in my immediate neighborhood than the entire town of Wasilla, Alaska. In fact, more people live in my immediate city than the ENTIRE state of Alaska. Four times more people! Can we say, "out of touch with the world?" (Outside of Alaska there is a whole other world and it is EXTREMELY complex and full of nuance.) Now, I'm sure there's lots of small town mayors who would love to be Vice President. There's probably lots of mayors of cities with a population of over 500,000. Heck, lets make them VP too. They're "folksy." They resonate with voters. Great idea if you're just trying to dupe people into voting for you.

As for Sarah Palin's leadership style, to make decisions about state government policy she didn't consult with top legislators. She consulted with her husband, Todd, who was a member of a party that wanted Alaska to secede from the United States. Can we get any more insane here? I mean c'mon. I'm begging on my knees. Listen to reason. If Jill Biden was ever a member of the Delaware Secessionist Party (if there is such a thing). They would be the subject of ridicule and their candidacy would be instantly disqualified. Don't you want a VP with bucket-loads of foreign policy experience? I sure do.

McCain as a "change candidate" is a joke wrapped in a lie. He's still out of breath from running to hop on that bandwagon. The Republicans do not deserve the White House for four more years. Their slogan should be, "We know things are really bad, but look at this guy, he's old and he voted the same, but trust us he's actually new, give us a third chance and we promise we won't screw it up a third time." Or my favorite and this was in a movie where a guy gets caught in the act of cheating on his girlfriend he screams, "Are you going to believe what you see, or are you going to believe what I'm telling you?!" They must think we're stupid.

Obama is the only candidate who's been running for reform from the very start. If you want the real change candidate who will bring real reform and solve our ever-mounting set of real problems caused by Bush. Vote for Obama.

Ah yes, more Obama Kool-Aid drinking

Submitted by Big Ben 4 liberty on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 10:36.

Keep attacking smal town America.  Keep lying about Sarah Palin's record as part of your hatred of real conservative reform. Keep up the "meaningless" change mantra.  You won't answers the question "change to what?" Your guy is part of the corrupt Daley Chicago political machine, he is tied to Black racist socialists, former left-wing radical terrorists and even middle east terrorists (as evdienced by his support by Palestinian groups).  He and his running mate are the kings of earmarks.  Keep attacking McCain's age.  And keep bringo out the Holloywood left celebritards.  I'm sure it will be such a winning strategy in November.

bring it on!

Submitted by qwrrty on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 19:13.

Making her executive experience as mayor of Wasilla a campaign point might not be a bad idea.  It will give Obama an excellent opportunity to ask what someone's executive experience is worth if they increased the debt load of their town by 69 percent.  It's fortunate for the McCain campaign that rampant fiscal irresponsibility is not a big deal this election cycle, or that might become a real story!

But let's talk about why we're really talking about Palin now, and that's because it distracts the media from McCain's own inept campaign.  Frustrated by what they saw as Obama's "celebrity," McCain essentially chose to invent his own celebrity to compete.  It was actually a very, very clever move, if an insanely irresponsible one.

So, yes, let's go on talking about Sarah Palin.  In the meantime, Obama and Biden appear to have wised up and are making McCain the story again.

I agree, seeing is believing.

Submitted by davidfarrar on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 10:30.

Both Obama and McCain have taken large campaign contributions from Bear Stearns and Fannie/Freddie. While, technically, these contributions cannot be considered "public'" funds as a result of the government's takeover of these financial institutions, these funds should nevertheless be given to a worthy cause, let's say to The Paralyzed Veterans of America as a form of political payback.

Interestingly, both candidates have professed their willingness to clean up this mess after they are elected.  The real question is, which candidate will see their moral, ethical and political obligation to do the right thing and donate these funds to a worhty cause before the election, so we, as voters, can see whom to be believe in on election day?

ex animo

davidfarrar

Why, Carli, Why?

Submitted by misschiff on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 17:22.

If only Carli hadn't said that Palin wouldn't be able to run a company as big as HP ... Who isn't keeping her on message??? I don't think her MSNBC attempt to fix her comment was all that effective either.