Catching Up . . .

Blogging has been light while I’ve been doing non- political consulting in Geneva, Istanbul and Manila.  What I’m posting today is from notes made during my trip.

I have decided to cease all commentary on ObamaCare.    Whatever disaster or miracle will ensue will ensue in accordance with rules and perceptions concerning which I have written sufficiently. 

Planning for 2012

A coherent plan for 2010 and 2012 would be wise.  As I write these words, I feel like the parent of a teen-age child – self-conscientiously understating a fact that seems overwhelmingly self-evident although the child cannot or will not see my point.

The GOP tends to be uncomfortable with political principles, focusing on “issues.”  “Issues” and “values” tend to be synonyms for single-issue and special-interest constituencies. 

If the GOP holds to this pattern, the 2010 campaign will be built on justifiable voter outrage . . . and 2012 will be (barring foreign crisis or another recessionary dip) a Democratic resurgence.

A far better plan would be to cultivate some principled affinity among the angry 2010 voters.  This is unlikely to happen because the GOP is quite comfortable with outrage and quite uncomfortable with principles.

Most of my campaign plans are for-sale only. 

Here are a few that I’m willing to give away . . .that I’ve already given away.  Look down this blog page for these entries.

1. Take a look at “The Importance of Defining Failure Before the 2012 Election” – my post of July 14.  It is the most important posting I have made here.
2. Meme of the Week, Oct 28: “Reality, reason, experience and empathy.”  The GOP can win consistently if it uses these four factors in its appeals.
3. Values Voters Vex Validity, Verity & Verisimilitude.  Nothing is wrong with the values or the voters.  Their approach to the good folks in the middle is severely, severely flawed.
4. The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney – five little words that will cost the GOP ½ of 1% of what it will save them in campaign expenditures (and may save them the election in toto!). 

Among the items that are for-sale behind my magic curtain:

5. Two little tricks for Sarah Palin that will calm the resistance she finds with the good folks in the middle.  The resistance on the left is irremediable and irrelevant.
6. Of course, the Magic Words About Bush/Cheney.
7. Budget and battle-plans for 2012 – rethinking what hasn’t been thought of, yet.  It’s almost too late to use them for 2010.

A Fine Mess You've Got Us In !

Just Because a Meme Sounds Terrific (jobs, growth, stimulus)

That Doesn't Mean It's True !

One month ago, I published a post entitled "Near-zero Interest Rates are The Won's Drug of Choice," which was an off-hand, micro-economic look at the fine mess he's got us in. The conclusion was that near-zero interest rates are the economic equivalent of crack-cocaine.

Here we look at the macro-economic mess, at the ingredients of the economic hash being dished out in DC:

• Gotta have jobs
• Gotta keep interest rates low to stimulate business
• Gotta remain competitive
• Gotta have free trade

I hate suspense . . .here's the punch-line:

Multi-national corporations are borrowing money in the US at near-zero
 interest and using those funds in other countries.  
(This out-flow of funds is one source of the downward pressure on the dollar)

That money is going where it is most productive . .
. to the borrower – to low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation, 
low-uncertainty environments and growing markets.

Low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation, low-uncertainty 
are not words that aptly describe the U.S.under leadership of The Won - 
the country that is financing this economic activity.

Put it all together:  

The government of the Obamessiah is creating the high-cost,
 high-uncertainty environment and then . . .
financing the job loss to better corporate environments 
and to growing markets

What remains to be said?

How dumb is that?

This is a bi-partisan dumbness, but The Won is making policy now.  The fact that he has support on both sides of the aisle does not absolve him of his failure to lead wisely. 

A little metaphorical whimsy for a Friday

The bottle-opener on the right contains a flash-drive.  (And, the hat on the left contains a bottle-opener.)


Having noted that, let me offer these two examples of how the GOP must adapt to overcome.


You figure it out.

photographs courtesy of www.dockera.com

Memes for Monday Morning . . .

(after losing the vote on ObamaCare in the House by 220-215; that’s a swing of only 3 votes out of 435)       

Really and truly, now – more than ever – 

we need LEADERSHIP from the GOP leadership.

The GOP must show confidence that 1)the GOP represents the Good Folks in the Middle, 2)the Pelosi Majority has sealed its own fate and 3)the GOP will give comfort and cover to the conservative "Blue-Dog" Democrats who voted "no."  Now is the time to project strength and confidence.

The GOP can and should now pander to every legislator's top priority: re-election.

Memes for inside the Beltway (directed at the House and Senate):

Now, more than ever,

we need LEADERSHIP from the GOP Leadership !!!

~  ~  ~

The electorate will see it is the GOP 
who has the “big tent”

because we’ll welcome the Blue-Dog Democrats

who voted “no” to nationalizing health care.

~  ~  ~

Memes for Outside the Beltway (directed at the electorate):

Can the Senate save us from ObamaCare?

~  ~  ~

Pelosi will be gone as speaker in less than a year. We're gonna win by a mile !!!

~  ~  ~

After taking over banking, cars

 and healthcare,

will Obama take over energy, too?

~  ~  ~

New rules and new taxes do not create new jobs and new wealth!

Both inside and outside the beltway:

Planning for the 112^th Congress  --

We’re Gonna Win 2010 By a Mile  !!!

More about The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney

An earlier blog (Sept. 15) explained why these magic words are not free.  However, I failed to explain their importance, thinking their importance was obvious.


The importance of The Magic Words about Bush/Cheney is that the GOP will be fighting uphill in 2010 and 2012 without them.


The Good Folks In The Middle are still angry and confused by Bush/Cheney - by the muddle of the events, policies and consequences of those years. 

The Won uses Bush/Cheney as an excuse for everything.

They know that.

But the good folks in the middle are still angry and confused.

The GOP has the choice to take my magic words or fight a fight much more difficult and much more expensive and much more risky than it has to be.

And, without those magic words, Liz Cheney, her very-own-self with her very-own ambitions, will be fighting uphill wearing an 80 lb. knapsack.

Five little words - a little magic spell –

and everything becomes

much simpler and much easier and much cheaper *

~ ~ ~

* just as Turkish-Armenian relations were re-opened, after three generations, by another simple phrase from memetics k marketing™!

Governor Barbour gave the wrong speech on Saturday morning

November 8, 2009

The Honorable Haley Barbour

P.O. Box 139

Jackson MS 39205                       

Dear Governor:

Your Saturday GOP radio speech was pretty good yesterday – apart from that funny mixed metaphor at the end.

But it didn’t do the trick in Congress . . .because it was the wrong speech.

Telling people that you are right doesn’t change anything in that situation.  It was a “going down with my ship” speech.

At that point, you should have threatened.  A little Winston Churchill “We will fight them on the beachheads . . .” might have given a few more vulnerable Democratic Congressmen enough to worry about that the world would have been a better place, come Sunday morning.

On September 29, I sent two proposals to your attention (via both e-mail and snail-mail via Paul Hurst) in Jackson and to Mike Schrimpf at RGA.  It is a great, great loss that I received no response.

Spend a little money and send your communications to me for editing.  It’s a matter of winning . . .or losing.

Respectfully,

Pelosi maneuvers while the GOP huffs & puffs:

Saturday's planned ObamaCare vote in the House 

= The Battle of Gettysburg

check it out at: http://sayingnicedoggie.blogspot.com

The GOP is railing that the Democrats are losing support.  That's an argument that carries no weight inside or outside of the Beltway.  The GOP should be pounding what John Boehner and I pounded out over the weekend:

“Medical care is your medical care. The issue is to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain high quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on individual families or impossible debt on all of us together.”

Be careful. Go slow.

It’s your healthcare.

And, it can’t be free.

Fox News has a good headline today . . .but, not good enough . . .

House Republicans Find 111 New 'Bureaucracies' in Health Care Bill

"111 new boards and commissions" looks good as a battle cry. "111" is a big number and a good number to use.

111

But . . .the good folks in the middle will look at "111" and then they'll realize that their medical bills are even bigger numbers. "111" won't do the trick.

Less coverage. Higher taxes.

Death Panels. Longer Waits.

All of that is true. None of it is sexy enough.

You gotta give 'em a hook:

Just Say "NO"

Nancy Reagan nailed it a long time ago.

Just say "NO" and then go on to sell what John Boehner put into his radio address on Saturday and what I rewrote for him (see below, Nov. 1 entry):

“Medical care is your medical care. The issue is to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain high quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on individual families or impossible debt on all of us together.”

Be careful. Go slow.

It’s your healthcare.

And, it can’t be free.

Ultimately, this isn’t about healthcare. That’s why today’s election is so very important.

It’s about power.

The GOP leadership hasn’t done a very good job of recognizing that. And, I’m surprised that Newt failed to recognize the importance of this situation.

Those folks who backed Doug Hoffman were fighting this battle against ObamaCare, too.

Don’t call it PelosiCare because general voter outrage is only a vague threat to Nancy Pelosi, where it is an enormous threat to The Won.

Is 2009 the new 2008 ? I don't think so.

Whatever happens today in the odd-year election, it is important to note that the Democratic efforts in NY-23, against the Conservative Doug Hoffman have culminated in this door-hanger straight out of 2008.

It would seem that the Democratic Party, which regards this election as a very important referendum on Obama, could come up with nothing more compelling than this recycling of ideas that have become . . .

in Washington bureaucratese: O.B.E.

Overtaken By Events

Today we'll see how deep they are in.

We've seen the fraud and corruption . . .

Now introducing the concept we have all been waiting for . .

The QUANGO !

The QUANGO - per Wikipedia: The term has its origin in a humorous shortening of quasi-NGO, an ostensibly non-governmental organisation performing governmental functions, often in receipt of funding or other support from government.

The QUANGO - No, it is not a new dance, in the traditional sense.  This is a long-needed term to describe how government evades responsibility, hides public aid and conceals financial liabilities.  It is the public equivalent of the investment banks' off-balance-sheet entities that brought so much kaka into the financial storm a year ago.

Al Franken's very close election as senator was accomplished by ACORN voter registrations; hooray.

The QUANGO - like ACORN, below the radar, funded by the government and destroying The Republic . . .like FANNY MAE and FREDDIE MAC spreading financial destruction with a federal government guarantee.


The QUANGO -  much more sophisticated and more specific a word than BOONDOGGLE, don’t you think?  A bi-partisan cross between a mango and a quagmire, with a hint of rhythm and romance . . .and fattening! 

Today’s admittedly silly meme on this essential issue is:

Tango, Yes!

Quango, No!

Why is the GOP playing Pelosi's silly game ???

2,000 pages -

 JUST SAY IT !

Say that the ObamaCare bill is two-thousand-pages long.  Say it.  Rounding is perfectly respectable.  Why are you being shy? (1,990? Really!)

If you say "two thousand" and Speaker Pelosi objects, who do you think wins in the ensuing playground-quarrel over "Yes, it is." versus "No, it isn't."?

Congressman John Boehner's GOP weekly radio address - re-written by Memetics & Marketing™

Steven Bassion -- memetics k marketing™

publisher@agoodbook.com – Oct 31 GOP radio address re-write

I’m House Republican Leader John Boehner. At the beginning of this year, I told President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Republicans would be ready to work with them whenever possible to address the nation’s biggest challenges. I also said that, where there are differences, it was our obligation as a party to explain to the American people how we would do things better. And on the "stimulus," the budget, the energy bill, and health care, we have done exactly that.

Instead of using Republican ideas, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have made each of the problems facing the United States worse.

They have passed thousand-page bills to spend enormous amounts of money to make the economic statistics look better but they haven’t fixed the economy. Americans continue to lose jobs in record numbers.

They have proposed dozens of conflicting ideas for taxes and rule-changes, making it impossible for businesses and employers to plan for recovery.

They have bowed to union pressure and union campaign contributions to make it impossible for industries to make meaningful changes (including the American auto industry).

But President Obama and Speaker Pelosi claim that the Republican Party is being obstructive because we refuse to help them make things worse.

As a matter of fact, only Republicans have offered real solutions to each of the problems facing the United States. But, today I want to talk about just medical care.

Medical care is your medical care. The issue is to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain high quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on individual families or impossible debt on all of us together.

We first released our health care plan in June, and over the last six months, we have introduced at least eight bills that, taken together, would implement this blueprint.

There is no need to fix everything at once. A massive law and a massive change create pointless confusion. This is your medical care. We should be careful with it.

We have proposed four three major changes:

Number one: let families and businesses and insurance companies compete nationally, instead of only within a single state. This increases competition and lowers costs.

Number two: Lower insurance costs by allowing individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together for better health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do today;

Number three: end junk lawsuits that may constitute one third of your current medical bills (in unnecessary procedures and sky-high doctors’ premiums). Replace it with a fair compensation system for the small number of patients who are actually harmed by medical care. This is resisted by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi because the Trial Lawyers Association – like the labor unions – is among the Democrats largest financial supporters.

Instead of four three simple and fundamental modifications to health care in the United States, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi propose a complete takeover of healthcare – your healthcare - by means of a 2,000-page law that they haven’t read, more bureaucracy, more rules, more limits, more taxes, unelected boards, bureaus and commissions ruling on what drug and what treatment you get when.

The estimated costs of this takeover of healthcare are enormous and no one believes that the published estimates are high enough. Who will pay for it – when and how? New jobs will be killed by costs and regulations. Senior citizens’ Medicare will be cut.

The answer to the takeover of medical care by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi is “NO.”

This coming week, Republicans will continue to stand on principle, defend freedom, and fight for our better solutions to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.

Thanks for listening.

~ ~ ~

#3 in the original address was vague to the point of meaninglessness; moreover, in number one you want a national market and here you want to give tools to the states without a simple explanation.