Category Archives: Political Strategy

Whitehouse Press secretary Dana Perino, before taking off for Thanksgiving, laid the blame squarely on the Democrats for not giving President Bush his war money with no strings attached.

The past week featured a Senate flap around the confirmation of Michael Mukasey. I say flap because it’s not really a fight as his confirmation seems all but inevitable given his past support from Senator Chuck Schumer. Glenn Greenwald wrote that Democratic Senators seem to lack conviction in many of […]

Last night’s presidential debate featured a great one-line from Senator Joe Biden. When asked a question based on Giuliani’s suggestion that Hillary Clinton may not be qualified to be President. Biden attacked Giuliani: “The irony is Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the Presidency, […]

In the picture shown, who would you say is the Republican and who the Democrat?

I heard an account executive once use the phrase “Don’t fight the alligator in the water” to describe how he would change a sales conversation with customers to play to his strengths. The idea is to get the alligator out of the water and onto your turf where you at least stand a fighting chance. This is a very simple concept yet very difficult to execute because the temptation is to want to fight anywhere, to want to argue head to head.

President Bush issued a press release this past week about our economy. In addition to talking about the great shape the economy is in, he took a jab at critics of his heavy-handed interrogation strategy. His message? If you want to be safe, trust us. This is basically the message […]

It’s like the schoolyard all over again. Republicans calling Democrats names and Democrats backing down again and again in the hopes that this strategy will keep the Republicans from calling them names. Does everyone seem to understand this except the Democrats? Tim Grieve asks, “Will the Democrats ever learn?” In […]

General Petraeus returned this week trumpeting victory in Iraq (as if anyone expected anything different).

Isn’t it odd that Bush is going to get credit for sending over more troops, achieving nothing, then bringing them home as if he were withdrawing troops? Yet the strategy is somehow working and once again Democrats are on the run, about to propose a compromise that will allow Bush […]

As America prepares for the Petraeus report on Iraq, the Bush administration goes on the offensive. Last week, Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq. This week he gets ready to announce his “vision” for Iraq.

Notice that the Republicans are talking about vision in the article. While the Democrats, once again, appear to be complaining.

The successful strategy that the Republicans are using is to brand themselves as seeking victory and protecting our national security and to label Democrats as Defeatocrats.