Republicans need a leader, not a target.

tarpon on March 24, 2009 at 1:55 PM

+1

This is a good little ad, and it’s useful to hammer the “all Obama statements come with expiration dates” line, particularly since it’s a line of attack likely to rattle him personally – he always looks surprised when his own words are thrown back at him. I think he expected the MSM to handle this stuff for him. Narcissists and egomaniacs love to talk about themselves, but they rarely do well on pop quizzes about their favorite subject.

Having said that, a positive agenda and display of leadership are what the GOP needs to put in front of the public. To a certain extent, the bad track record of politicians as a class immunizes them from charges of hypocrisy – it’s like criticizing a raccoon for rooting around in your garbage. It’s what they do. The GOP should also remember that they couldn’t make aggressive criticism of an impeached felon stick in the late 90s, even after the media had begun falling out of love with him and nursing feelings of betrayal. They won’t have much success getting a love-struck media to report critically on what Obama’s doing wrong, and even less success getting them to report what he should be doing, but they can compel coverage of their own ideas and let the public decide.

Doctor Zero on March 24, 2009 at 2:09 PM

Great ad. Now we need another one that focuses on some of his other promises:

Fix America’s damaged reputation with our allies by:
-snubbing the British Prime Minister with lame gifts
-snubbing NATO on the Supreme Commander appointment
-cozying up with Iran

Ending partisanship and being the first “post-partisan” President by:
-ramming through a stimulus bill with no Republican support to speak of.
-pandering to Pelosi and Reid, the two most parisan congressional leaders in recent memory
-attacking Rush Limbaugh (not even in any government possition)in highly partisan tirades

Scrappy on March 24, 2009 at 2:09 PM

Excellent ideas! I’d like to see the Republicans run some adds asking a few inconvenient questions, along the lines of Captain Kirk asking why God needs a spaceship:

Why shouldn’t we tax Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Barack Obama at 90% to recover the huge amount of money THEY took from failed financial institutions?

If Obama places a high priority on resolving the financial crisis, why is there only one person appointed to a position at Treasury 90 days into his administration?

Why is it bad for banks to loan too much money, to people who can’t repay it, but good for the government to borrow trillions of dollars from our children with no intention of repaying it?

If no one is allowed to earn bonuses at AIG, is this also true of other government-run businesses and departments? If not, why not?

When the government hires people to work at AIG, and the other companies it is taking over, does it tell them they might need to return a portion of their earnings at the end of each year, based on public outrage?

Stockholders are entitled to see a business plan from the company’s management. Now that the American people are partners in the auto companies, and majority stockholders in AIG, when do we get to see the business plan to turn them into profitable enterprises?

What made the Obama Administration think it would be a good idea to tax military personnel for their health benefits? What made them decide to withdraw this proposal?

Besides votes on whether or not to form a labor union, what other votes does Barack Obama believe should NOT be conducted in private?

Stockholders in a company insist on assurances that incompetent management will be terminated. Why does the Obama Administration insist on recycling so many obviously incompetent people into positions of power? What part of Jamie Gorelick’s resume did they find attractive?

Doctor Zero on March 24, 2009 at 2:57 PM