- Bring up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac repeatedly (don’t wait for the moderator to bring it up) and hit him (and his fellow Democrats) hard during tomorrow’s debate and the debate afterward.
Tell of the contributions, of his work for ACORN suing CitiGroup for rightfully not giving loans to people who could not pay them back. Attach his name to Fannie Mae CEOs Jim Johnson (who he gave the task of picking his VP) and Franklin Raines (his self-admitted adviser on housing issues – ha!).
Tell the whole world about the multiple accounting scandals at Fannie and Freddie. About the $122000 hush money he got from Fannie Mae executives, second only to Chris Dodd. Rinse and repeat. It will never get old.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If Obama tomorrow tries the “same as Bush” canard at any point in time, pointedly remind him that the Bush Administration issued warnings on the need to deal with the risks posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac every year from 2001 to 2007, and tried to bring Fannie and Freddie under control under a new Agency in the HUD in 2003 but Senate Democrats blocked it. - Not one single McCain/Palin surrogate should fail to mention this on the talk shows and on the stump from now until Election Day. Democrats are as close to a 100% responsible for this mess as it gets. The talking point to counter their “deregulation” nonsense is that, strangely enough, they actively prevented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from being regulated even after it was revealed that they were cooking the books in multiple investigations. Why? Because they were essentially being paid off i.e Chris Dodd, Barney “Roll the Dice” Frank et al.
PS: Unleash Sarah Palin on this – at rallies, Press Conferences and any further interviews. Make up for not letting her injure Joe Biden with this issue during the debate. - Ads. The McCain campaign and the RNC (what’s all that money for, anyway?) should blanket the air waves with them – that’s the only way to beat back the conventional wisdom blaming Republicans for this mess. You need not have multiple Congressional Democrats in one ad. You can have one for each (just to draw it out), with the money he/she got and his/her ‘D’ highlighted and enlarged for all to see. Jim Johnson proudly calling the Democrats/Obama Campaign “family” appearing in each ad would be great – call the series “Family Business – You’re Paying For It.”
Intersperse all this with the Bush Administration’s 2003 effort to rein the GSEs in and the McCain-Sununu 2005 effort to bring Fannie and Freddie to order. Run these all through to Election Day – this will do wonders for down-ticket races. - Make sure to pound out a daily message of how a McCain Administration will never allow anything like this to happen again. Announce plans to reform and even shut down the GSEs. Announce modifications a McCain Administration would push going forward to make the rescue bill less of a burden on the taxpayer. Announce that win or lose, Senator McCain will push for the appointment of Special Counsel – I would suggest a certain Mr. Rudolf W. Giuliani – to investigate into what happened and how come Dodd and co. could always be counted on to shield Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from necessary scrutiny.
Repost: McCain’s task tonight – no more Mr. “Bipartisan” on Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac
McCain *MUST* to go for the jugular tonight.
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Debate Tactics
Strike_Twice (Diary) Wednesday, October 15th at 7:50AM EST (link)We know that the MSM will not ask Senator Obama any meaningful, substantive questions. Senator McCain must therefore use tonight’s debate to ask Mr. Obama the questions. As is good debate practice, he must pre-empt his answers by anticipating what Mr. Obama might say, and by stating why such an answer is not acceptable.
The American people are fed up with government in general. Indeed, the financial crisis (which is not an economic crisis) has put most of us over the proverbial top.
We know that Mr. Obama wants government to play an even more intrusive role in our lives. Mr. Obama’s plan for an overreaching govennment must be exposed.
Senator McCain must turn the debate into a debate, not a glorified press conference. Take Mr. Obama off of his prepared script.
Questions should be addressed directly to Mr. Obama. He should tell him that the American people have not been afforded the opportunity to hear directly, in laymen’s terms, exactly what Obama’s plans are for our country.
He should ask directly whehter he beleives that the approximately forty five percent of Americans who do not pay any income taxes should recieve direct payments from the government as called for in his “tax cut” plan. Senator McCain should call it what it is…a handout and a “share the wealth program” where you are taking from hard working Americans and giving to those who in many cases are not working and in many cases are choosing not to work. Tell him the American people, like our every day plumber, are starting to see through to Obama’s inner socialistic beliefs. McCains should ask Obama whther he really believe that the low wage earners in America want his handouts. He should tell Obama that Americans are proud people – Americans don’t want handouts. Americans don’t resent the upper class. Most Americans respect the upper class and admire their achievements and want to be in the upper class. That’s the American way. He should tell Obama that no one, except perhaps Obama and others with socialistic tendencies, begrudge Bill Gates because he made it on his own. That’s what America is about. Americans regret being held back.
McCains should press Obama on “economic injustice” and Obama’s promise to cure economic injustice. He should look for a definition and he should ask Obama whether in fact Obama is a socialist, or leans that way and then, before Obama answers, tell him why he is a socialist. McCain should tell him, before he answers, not to talk about jobs – that unemployment has remained at historic lows over the last ten years and that oportunity is knocking for all Americans. Americans need to open the door and walk through, without government interference, without government social programming and then Senator McCain can tell Obama what the Fannie and Freddie social programming resulted in.