In competitive debate, the second team gets extra time to lay out their case and respond to points made by the opening team. Such is President Obama’s task as he accepts the Democratic nomination for a second term tonight. He won’t actually get more network coverage than the Republicans, but he can choose not to waste primetime on an old man yelling at an empty chair. Instead, he must answer the best lines of the Republican convention while tearing up their case to voters and laying out his own.
My advice to the president, were I his debate partner:
“You built that.”
The attacks on “you didn’t build that” were contextually unfair, misleading and incredibly effective. Fix it by thanking entrepreneurs for creating the private sector jobs that have helped to end the recession.
“We …”
Most of the primetime Republican speakers laid off the direct attacks. Instead, they used the flattering gibes; political equivalents of “you’re pretty!” In so doing, they gave voters permission to like you, but see you as unable to complete the job. Revoke that permission by reminding voters that they have been in this mess since early 2008.
If you didn’t have a record, that would be a problem. But fortunately, “We …” accomplished turning the Titanic around. If former President Clinton has done his job at the convention, voters will realize how fast we were cruising in 2000, and how President Bush and tax cuts for the rich heaved our ship of state into the iceberg. Remind them that we have righted the ship; and are steady at the helm keeping it on a sure course back to prosperity.
“Killed Osama bin Laden.”
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a speech covering foreign policy, but sadly she isn’t on the ticket. Clint Eastwood attacked the empty chair for thinking the war in Afghanistan was OK, apparently forgetting that you didn’t start it and are ending it. Gov. Romney, in his interview for the position of commander-in-chief, didn’t even bother to address the fact that the nation remains at war – that 90,000 American servicemen and servicewomen are currently risking their lives in Afghanistan. Don’t spike the football; but remind voters that Afghanistan is winding down; Iraq is all but over; and Osama bin Laden is gone.
“… saved lives.”
Time to own Obamacare. Recap the personal stories: cancer survivors who got treatment despite preexisting conditions; students who thank their Obama posters that they are still on their parents’ insurance; and seniors who have medications instead of donut holes. And we can save more lives and more.
“… have our hands out.”
Voters elected you to work across the aisle and are understandably frustrated with your lack of success. Convince them that you tried, and smack down some of Paul Ryan’s erroneous knocks along the way. Medicare cuts? Republicans asked for them and then still wouldn’t vote for Obamacare. Simpson-Bowles? It didn’t go to Congress because Paul Ryan didn’t support it.
“… believe in freedom.”
One of Ryan’s best lines was “a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.” It’s bogus, but it can’t be left unanswered. Look straight, I mean directly, at the independents and talk about a smaller government, one that won’t get between Americans and the people they love, women and their doctors, and immigrant children and the only country they know and love.
That should pretty much do it. You might close by reminding voters that we disclosed our tax returns; and Mitt Romney is free to do the same. v
