Use Obama slogans as weapons, GOP told

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110717/NEWS02/307160049/Use-Obama-slogans-weapons-GOP-told

4:40 AM, Jul. 17, 2011

The campaign slogan President Barack Obama rode to victory three years ago is one Republicans should flip on its head in 2012, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told a large crowd of Republicans in Nashville on Friday.

Daniels said the president’s campaign slogan, “Change You Can Believe In,” is “an empty phrase” that “can mean whatever the listener invests in it.”

“I think we as Republicans, at least figuratively, need to turn that phrase,” he said. “We need to really present ourselves in Indiana and Tennessee and places elsewhere as people who favor change that believes in you, that believes you are an individual of dignity and a person who is fully up to the task of leading your own life, and we want you to have the maximum amount of your earned income to keep.”

[SidDithers]

1. Sounds like the same instructions went out to the "professional left" too...nt

Sid

[Safetykitten]

6. I'm sorry, I missed my PL section meeting. Can I video confab our goals for August?

[AC_Mem]

2. They will still lose

Americans are waking up. It's going to be a GOP bloodbath in 2012 because of their actions since 2010.

I'm in Tennessee - we are organizing in a BIG way. There will be no sitting back in this coming election, that I can guarantee you.

Funny - they have so little "good" that they can use as a slogan that they have to twist the President's words to get attention. Petty little pigs.

Annette - who's group signed up really great numbers of new voters and new volunteers this weekend in Memphis. Yes, we were met with nasty and hateful GOP'ers, but we answered their rudeness with smiles, telling them that we support our president and HAVE A NICE DAY. Boy it pissed them off :rofl:

[spin]

8. Much depends on the economy ...

If the economy hasn't improved by election time, Obama and the Democrats will take a shellacking at the polls unless they can find a way to blame Republicans for the situation.

Blaming Bush will not cut it. However the Tea Party Republicans are determined to stand their ground on "no new taxes" and major spending cuts. The American people are looking for compromise not partisanship. Obama may be able to use the stubbornness of the Tea Party to explain why he hasn't been able to turn the economy around.

All he has to say is "If lower taxes on the rich cause job creation, we should have plenty of jobs today."

Obama has offered to slice spending as long as the rich have to pay a little more. His position is reasonable. Independents and Democrats will agree with him as well as many Republicans who find the Tea Party far too conservative for their taste. The Tea Party will have managed to shoot themselves in the foot and will take the Republican Party down with them.

Still this is a dangerous game. It wouldn't take much at this point for the voters to decide to throw everybody out and start over clean. If our country losses its AAA rating or defaults, the backlash will be nasty for both parties and for many incumbent politicians.

[Tennessee Gal]

3. "maximum amount of your earned income to keep"

if you are wealthy.

[Overseas]

4. And apparently Change Republicans Can Believe In involves emergency managers taking over from

officials you all voted in in your states.

Apparently Change Republicans Can Believe In means women giving up the liberty to decide what happens with their own bodies and having the state government decide instead.

Apparently Change Republicans Can Believe In means letting their governors give millions of state business to their friends while cutting community clinics and other assistance to the poor in their own states.

Apparently Change Republicans Can Believe In means keeping corporate jet deductions and cutting low income heating assistance instead.

[Zenlitened]

5. Some of Pres. Obama's most ardent supporters are using that tactic already.

Too often, they respond to criticisms of presidential policy or politics by informing the critics that they have deluded themselves.

That they projected their own hopes or desires onto Mr. Obama's campaign statements.

That they they are mistaken to believe certain commitments were ever made at all.

In essence, these supporters argue, "Change You Can Believe In... can mean whatever the listener invests in it."

So, the republicans aren't exactly breaking new ground here.

That talking point has already been deployed all over the blogosphere.

Fortunately, it has been shown to be a pretty weak argument, and has failed to gain much traction.

[Capitalocracy]

7. When Republicans say "change you can believe in"...

I certainly believe they'll change things.