Twin Cities – Three Goals – Four Days (RNC Convention)
Last week, the Democrats had one mission to accomplish and that was to nominate Barack Obama. This week, the Republican Party has three main issues to address to have a successful convention: attack Barack Obama, nominate John McCain, and introduce Sarah Palin to the American people.
Refuting the vision Barack Obama laid out Thursday night is important because no one has really given any significant airtime to deflating the rhetorical balloon he floated from Denver last week. In nominating John McCain, the Republicans must do a better job of crafting an understandable policy message. After eight years of the Bush Administration, it will not be enough for McCain to say that he is not Obama. McCain has to tell us why we should vote for him instead of why we should not vote for the other guy. If he cannot communicate that to the American people this week, the campaign for the presidency is over.
Introducing Sarah Palin to the country is going to be more complicated than the other two goals combined. How much time do you give to this task? Do you focus on her conservative ideas or to try to make the connection to disaffected Clinton voters?
Also, the media will be splitting their focus between the Convention and Hurricane Gustav. With all of these pressures, the dilemma is that you only have four days to fulfill all three goals and less time to present your vision than the Democrats had last week. The more time you spend on introducing Governor Palin, the less time you have for attacking Obama or promoting McCain. I hope someone at the RNC Convention is really good in time and message management skills.
Pre-season is over. Next Sunday, the NFL will start its regular season schedule and the race for the presidency gets serious. The two greatest contact sports in the world are just about to begin…all I have to say is “play ball.”
4 Responses to “Twin Cities – Three Goals – Four Days (RNC Convention)”
Think about what the RNC is missing today. Yes, no speech by Bush and Cheney is good for the GOP. But they also miss Giuliani and Schwarzeneggar and lots of other people who could have fired up the party and set the stage for the convention.
The slogan for the RNC was going to be “Not Read '08,” a total mockfest of Obama's credibility. It was going to be a fruition of the last two months' worth of attacks on Obama as an empty celebrity. And now Palin throws the campaign a curveball, and Gustav doesn't give the RNC any time to pivot.
What is the new message now? Nobody thinks the old experience argument will work anymore. So if it's all about reform now, where are the speeches laying out the case for McCain's style of reform? And how does Palin plan to incorporate her lessons of Alaska into national politics?
You missed one. McCain must also prove to the national audience that he is not a continuation of the current administration. That's hard to do when you've voted with them 95% of the time. It becomes even harder when you choose as your VP candidate someone who agrees with the Administration on the few points that McCain disagrees with them on. And the lawsuit against the Administration in order to keep the polar bear off of the endangered species list doesn't fly that well with many people in the Lower 48.
[...] I hope someone at the RNC Convention is really good in time and message management skills. Pre-season is over. Next Sunday, the NFL will start its regular season schedule and the race for the presidency gets serious. …[Continue Reading] [...]
[...] Twin Cities – Three Goals – Four Days (RNC Convention) 8 hours ago [...]