My 2006 talking points and strategies for winning the election.

1) Refer to them as the Republic Party every time you are asked.

If the reporter/pundit says "do you mean the Republican Party?" Respond "on if you mean with a small R". If the want to call us the Democrat Party we will call them the Republic Party. Respond to small insults.

2) When forced to take middle of the road positions Rebrand them as Liberal and run them as State initiatives.

An example would be. All health insurance plans issued by non-religious entities that must cover birth control for woman over 18 years old. The plan here is two folds. One I want the middle/independents to start agreeing again with positions seen as liberal. They need to start feeling comfortable with the term again and positions that have broad support are the best. Secondly I want democrats to change the issue from pro-choice/pro-life to family planning vs. pro-life. We will win this every time. Also it will bring out the extremist conservatives who oppose family planning and birth control which helps to make the GOP look bad. Liberals also need to start to run more ballot initiatives, this is part of the way conservative have built up their huge GOTV volunteer base.

3) The GOP has had success by conflating the Muslim world. The Democrats should do the same.

When talking on a personal level (not on TV say some of the following). Why are we in the middle east when the whole place has been fighting each other for 4000 years? They have been fighting each other in Iraq for 1000 years, and you thought Bush the great intellect would solve this?

4) Every time the GOP brings up fighting terrorist, Dems should respond "that’s why we need the same energy program Brazil and South Africa have".

Respond with "Saudi Arabia is a bigger funding source for terrorism then Iran or Syria and Bush and the GOP are their biggest friends. Dems want to break our dependencies on undemocratic kingdoms and crack pot dictators, the GOP wants oil company campaign cash." Ask the question if other countries can do it why are we still researching it. Dem’s hawkishness is most authentic on economic issues.

5) A Liberal aligned 527 should run commercials on Spanish language media replaying what Tom Tancredo, Michael Savage, and Shawn Hannity say all day long. Ask the question "do you want to be in the same tent with these guys?"

The GOP has won many Latinos (Bush picked up most of his Latin vote gains amongst mainly Spanish speaking Latinos) by narrow casting to them. The best way to combat this hypocritical GOP Message is to let the general public hear them. 1) The GOP does this with Michael Moore so it’s not a low blow it’s just hardball 2) The GOP will claim the Dems are playing the race card so the commercial should prominently display the line "It’s not playing a Card it’s just replaying their words! Why do conservative say these things if they don’t want them repeated?" 3) The Dems should follow up with a print add, saying they think your to stupid to notice the difference between the conservative mainstreams opinion and some fringe Democrat. Why? Because the GOP will run an add with some minor Democrat somewhere saying something offensive, and the MSM will abet them by replaying it. Thinking they are playing both sides of the story (remember Jack Abramoff’s "contributions" to Democrats?) If you know what your opponents counter attack is going to be why not cut it off? This type of attack is what 527 were made for.

6) Every Democratic Candidate needs a false accusation monitor!

As we saw in Minnesota in 2002 with the Norm Coleman campaign Neo-Cons (and now Neo-Liberals like Joe) have mastered the technique of the false accusation the so called "late hit". For those who have forgot the audio at Paul Wellstone’s funeral was digitally altered amplify the "booing". The main stream media, picked up on the altered audio being played on Talkshow host Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson, and reported it as the actual audio. All Democratic candidates need to have one guy on their campaign in the closing days who is responsible for late hit investigations. Lamont should have had a guy reading Kos and he could have had Lamont report what really happened. This would have made Joe Lieberman look foolish. Lamont shouldn’t have just reported what happened but also explain very quickly how he was able to confirm it, and then ask the reporters why they couldn’t do it? Yes in the last days of a campaign there are a million things going on, but one person needs to be there to monitor these things, and get the candidates ear. This si a good learning lesson for all Democrats be ready for the late hit.

7) State ballot initiative for the right to privacy.

I know some people will think we are playing with fire if we tried to run state ballot initiative for constitutional amendments stating there is the right to privacy. I think they are wrong. The wingnuts of course will be all over this saying that it gives the right to abortion, but what will Moderates and Independents do? Could this be a counter to the wingnut legislatures in many states? Do we really have to fear a "red tide" that mobilizes the same way the anti-gay marriage initiative worked to the GOP advantage in 2004?
The most important aspect to making this work is in selling it. We would need to have a very savvy media campaign. One that focuses on Terry Shiavo, companies selling peoples information, companies running credit searches for hiring purposes, and people feeling there is too much private of their private information "out there". We all know that this would also give woman the right to abortion, and that the Media will try to focus on the abortion aspect of the initiative. But we can and should fight this and win. The answer to the Media’s question of "isn’t this really about abortion?" Will be answered by "it’s the same as us supporting free speech but not supporting what Ann Coulter says, just that that she has the right to say it!" Any spokesperson for this initiative needs to stay on message about this.

Another reason this would work is that initiatives work because they are votes on people opinions on an issue, not their sometimes-contradictory partisan feelings. For example in Ohio, the GOP has gerrymandered a 12-6 congressional advantage, based on this one would thing it’s a very Republican state. But looking at voter registration one would see that it is really nearly a 50/50 state. Gerrymandering at the state level produces similar results, where the legislature doesn’t support laws that reflect public opinion. Polls show American support abortion by 60-40 margins. Polls also show that by 70-30 margins Americans are afraid that too much privacy is being lost. I think we could benefit by conflating the two issues.

8) Focus more on winning State Seats & we will win more US House seats!.

This goes along with the 50 States strategy. I have allot of Diaries on why winning local races matter. I have been screaming for years at BIG Democratic donors to PLEASE start giving big donations to State level PAC, 527’s, and Think Tanks. This is how Democrats won the Colorado Senate and State House. Two rich Donors got the 4 wings of the Democratic party to work together, along with seed money they provided an VOILA.
I vote for winning local races as part of the 50 State strategy. It is much cheaper to win State Senate races, and State House races, I have several of diaries on why spending on regaining local state houses makes more sense on a dollar for dollar basis. A State Senate Seat and a State House Seat Campaign in most states can be run on the order of several $100,000 verses the several $1,000,000 to win a Federal election.. Let me explain why winning the State level races are so big especially with 2010 coming up.

Winning the ONE GOP NY Senate seat would mean we could eliminate by Gerry mandering 4 GOP seats. (Staten Island, Peter Kings in LI, and 2 GOP upstate seats with Moderate Republicans. The loss of 4 Republicans and a gain of 4 Democrats is a swing of 8 seats.

Pennsylvania with 3.8 million Democrats to 3.5 million Republicans. A Democratic Governor, a Liberal GOP Senator, and which has voted Democratic in the last 4 presidential elections has 12 GOP to 7 Democrats in Congress. A Democratic legislature could make it easily 11 Democrats to 8 GOP.

Michigan is even worse 2 Democratic Senators, a Governor, and 5 of the last Presidential Elections, yet it has an 8 to 6 GOP edge! It should be 9 to 3 Democrats.
As far as Red (or rather Pink Sates) Ohio with its 12 to 6 GOP edge could be made 11 to 7 Democratic. Florida with its 16 to 8 GOP edge could be made 12 GOP 12 Democratic.
If any one is wondering why Democratic gerrymandering is less effective in the above case? It has to do with civil rights voting laws. You can’t dilute the minority vote as much to make Democratic safe seats. If you could you could make a bunch of 40+% Black Districts in VA (even in Mississippi, and Alabama!) that would be Death to the GOP. (Winning 25-30%% of the White Vote would be enough to win them!)

9) If the GOP is giving Joe Lieberman money why can't we do the same for Mr. Schlesinger?

The GOP is giving the Greens money in PA to help try and save Rick Santorum. I say fight fire with fire! Let’s give Alan enough money to get on TV. Also lets blanket evangelical churches in Connecticut with the fliers talking about how Joe is pro-choice, and all his other liberal votes! (I know may people hate this one)

10) Democrats can turn out the Black and Latino vote if they...

I will say one thing about the GOP they do woo and coddle their base. As much as it turns me off, the Republicans do know how to milk their base and give them plenty of attention. (note. Don’t confuse giving them attention, and giving them what they want). This giving them attention, even if when the GOP never deliver the goods, helps explain why in my opinion the GOP has much higher voter turn out. Now lets see how a similar action by Democrats could turn out the most loyal parts of the Democratic party. African-American and a Democratic leaning group Latinos.

The typical Democratic GOTV (Get out the Vote Operation) in Minority Neighborhoods basically work in following manner, the Candidate raises money for several months (because of Americas economic divide this usually happens outside of Minority neighborhoods). Then in the closing weeks the Candidate pops up in Black Churches and ask for them to vote for him. Now granted this work in one sense, that Democrats capture the majority of Minority voters 85%+ Black, 70%+ Latino (I know someone will say Bush got 41% of Latinos, I’m referring to all the candidates on the ballot), but it also explains why Blacks and Latinos TURN OUT IN LOWER NUMBERS! How so? Because the most common complaint many Blacks and Latinos have, is that candidates only show up when they want their vote. Yes, to be fair much of that has to do with the need to fund-raise, but voters don’t see it that way. So how do we get our Minority base voters to the polls in the same number the GOP fundies show up? I will explain some new strategies to do so.

a) Show up and ask questions. Every elected official has some interns. Bright eyed and bushy tail young people eager to volunteer. I envision a candidate announcing the following. "Every vote, and every voter counts. Once a month I am sending some canvassers into (insert minority neighborhoods) to solicit questions, comments and general opinions." The key here is not to ONLY go to Black churches. Yes in many Black neighborhoods the church is still the most powerful community center. But it’s not the only one. The other one is the hair salon/barber shop. More politics get talked about in a Black barber shop than just about anywhere ( I also know this to be the case for many Latinos because I have a good friend for the DR who own a barber shop). Bill Clinton’s popularity among Blacks soared after he played his Saxophone on the Arseniol Hall Show. I watched the show that night and I don’t even remember him saying anything on the show. I just remember that for weeks afterwards every Black person was talking about it. Arseniol ratings only represented a small number of Blacks, but the buzz

b) Clinton created was quickly spread.

It’s not the size of the gift, but the thought that counts.
Democrats need to hold fund-raisers at Minority private clubs. Sometime candidate gets entranced with large donors. After all money is a huge deciding factor in who wins elections. But the GOP has for the last 20 years also collected large numbers of small donations. Many of the people who do this are Blue Collar GOP types of modest means. They are no better off economically then the typical Black Blue collar voter. So why do they give? The GOP has mastered the art of showing up at large rural picnics. They don’t raise much at these event’s, but it makes the base feel wanted, and a part of the team. (They usually hold a big dollar fund-raiser later that night). Democrats in my opinion greatly underestimate how much money minorities, yes even blue-collar minorities posses. At time they become so focused on directing economic aid to these areas they miss out on minorities in these areas who could also donate. The GOP can get $25 dollar donations out of their Blue-collar districts we could do this also if party leaders approached it the correct way. Naked solicitation no, but a big Democratic Party Barbecue that also included information on community service along with politics. I think it would have very positive effects.

Key words:
Grand Oil Party GOP
Republic Party (not Republican)
Pork-for-donation congress
CEO and Hollywood - tax cuts
Health Care deficit
Bush disapproval rating not approval ratings
By the way Please ignore Pundits who restate Conventional Wisdom such as "Democrats need to appeal to Rural White Voters" and then don’t tell you specifically how to do it! That a little like a person saying "poor people need to make more money to enter the middle class" and then don’t say how to create better paying jobs.