Ray Malone's Commentary

Ah yes, the great right wing logic. As a majority of the nation's voters move to the left, it is better for the Republican party to move to the right so they can lose by an even bigger margin. Lets do it the Barry Goldwater way!!!!! What part of Goldwater lost the presidency, the house and the senate by unprecedented margins don't we understand? Going right in a leftist year gave LBJ a filibuster proof Senate and a huge majority in the House.

A candidate too stupid to tell the voters what the voters want to hear, is going to lose big time!!! Why can't the right wing of the Republican party understand that simple fact?

Voters believe that Republicans have been in power for 8 years. They firmly believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. So now some think Republicans can propose to change directions and voters are never going to ask why Republicans are now saying they are are going to change? Voters will ask, "Why didn't Republican's change things before things got his bad?"

It has been proven many times in our history. Views on our political philosophy change slowly. And if the voters are thinking we are going in the wrong direction, the only successful strategy for the incumbent party is to convince the voters that the other party will only make it worse. They will not buy the story that REPUBLICANS HAVE CHANGED THEIR WAYS. It is like a criminal asking the parole board to believe he just got religion, and has decided to go straight. And he has done it , praise the LORD, just one week before his parole hearing. Neither the voters or the parole board will believe it.

Let me ask you a question? If a majority of the voters are of a one mind set, and one candidate tells them things that reinforce the voters views, and the other candidate tries to change their minds about how to vote, which candidate do you think will win?

What a great strategy for losing....Do you really think that telling the voters, "We may have been wrong yesterday, but we will do it right tomorrow!" will work?

Unknowing people always think that a voters minds can be changed. It is not true. Almost always independents don't get close to a decision until after the party conventions, and many don't make a decision until the final days of the campaign. In the usual case the independents in the battleground states determine who becomes president and campaigns focus on wining a majority of the independent vote

In 2004 both parties internal polls showed the independents had decided how they were going to vote by June. More than 9 out of 10 had made up their minds on how they were going to vote. They were evenly divided between Bush and Kerry. Did either party put money into trying to change their minds? They did not. Decades of research shows that is almost impossible to get someone to change their mind. To change their mind they have to admit they made a wrong decision. People don't like to do that. It is not a way to win an election.

So in 2004 both campaigns spent tons of time and effort on two strategies.. Get as much of their base out as possible and register as many new voters as possible. Bush won that contest. Karl Rove was not dumb enough to think he could change minds with new proposals to do things differently in the next 4 years.

I talk about the 2004 election for two reasons. First to make the point that all elections are different. Secondly to make the point that voters minds once made up, can't be changed by a campaign.

A third point is the Contract with America worked. Bull excrement!!! The contract with America got barely a minute and a half of network TV coverage before the election and just one day of print coverage before the 1994 election.. I don't know of a single house member that ran on the Contract with American in 1994. It was not a factor until after the election.

After the Republicans won the house, Newt Gingrich was there to take the credit with his Contract with America. The Republicans won the house in 1994, 1996. 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004 because they had Gerrymandered 27 states so that a large majority of the house districts were 53 percent Republican to 47 percent Democrats. But in 1992, Ross Perot, and in 2006 unhappiness with Bush changed things so that 53 to 47 was not enough to gain or retain control of the house. A new contract with America is not worth a warm pitcher of spit.

At this point the voters have decided.. REPUBLICANS ARE BAD!! We have three special house races to prove it. You will not convince voters that REPUBLICANS SUDDENLY CHANGED.

But Obama is not defined. He has purposely used the Dewey strategy of being just for change with out specifics. Who he is and what he will do is not really known by the voters. But there is evidence that the more they know about him the less they like him. Voters must be convinced that OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS ARE WORSE THAN REPUBLICANS.

The Media has given us OBAMA as a perfect target. Defining Obama and his Democrat lovers as worse for America then McCain and the Republicans is the way to victory. To paraphrase a WWII song, "Praise the LORD, and pass the negative commercials."

But many want Republican candidates to in effect say, we have been wrong but now that we are about to lose an election, we have decided to straighten up an fly right. Think a moment. Have you ever heard a more stupid strategy?

What is a strategy that would work? Can you ask yourself what the Democratic National Committee and tons of other Democrats are trying to accomplish?

Why do they want Hillary out of the race? Because the more she keeps the focus on Obama and Democratic party, the worse the Democratic party will do. They want to stop the flight of white working class Democrats and women who will want to punish the Democrats for what they have done to Hillary. They want to stop Hillary and Bill from defining Obama in a very negative light. They want to take Obama out of sight so they can get to their real strategy of trashing Bush and the Republican agenda.

Democrats know they must make the Republicans the ISSUE IN THIS ELECTION! And many right wing Republicans answer, "Sounds like a good idea to me!!!!!!"

If Hillary had dropped out when it was obvious she could not win, Obama would not be getting the degree of scrutiny he is. Obama could make Bush and the perceived Republican failures the issue. For Republicans to win, OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS RECORD MUST BE THE ISSUE!!

Why should we make Obama the issue? Because Obama is someone a large number of Democratic voters will fear more than McCain or a Republican controlled congress. If Obama gets his liberal way, then there are many Democratic voters who will get hurt. Democrats don't want the voters to think about affirmative action, or what Rev .Wright said yesterday, or how big a fan Obama is of Farrakhan and which former American terrorists Obama calls friend.. Democrats want to make REPUBLICANS DEFEND THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA.. Why would some Republicans respond to that by saying lets do just that!!!!.

DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT TO A NEW REPUBLICAN AGENDA! I can't stand to see Republicans make Democrats weep with Joy..

There is no way to make voters believe that Republicans will actually do the things FOR THEM that they want done. Voters CAN be made to believe what terrible things Obama and the Democrats will do TO THEM.

This election is not about getting Republicans to vote for a Republican. That was 2004. This election is about getting Democrats to vote for a Republican or not vote at all.

Those that try to refight the last election are like those that try to fight the last war. It is a sure way to lose. STOP FIGHTING PREVIOUS ELECTIONS. Lets do what it takes to win this one.