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Jan. 9, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Why there's hope amidst the destruction
Martin Peretz: At War, Not at War
Charles Krauthammer: Will Olmert screw it up yet again?
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Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Arab regimes secretly rooting for Israel?
Larry Elder: Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David, Who's Goliath?
Jeff Jacoby: Yes, it's anti-Semitism
Jan. 7, 2009
Jonah Goldberg: Who are the real Nazis?
Anne Applebaum: Pointless Peace Proposals
Jan. 6, 2009
Caroline B. Glick: Iran's Gazan diversion?
Dennis Prager: Dissecting Dershowitz
Jan. 5, 2009
Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists
Mona Charen: The So-called International Community
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Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Having a holy tongue
Caroline B. Glick : Hamas' march to victory
Dec. 31, 2008
Dore Gold: Is Israel Using 'Disproportionate Force'?
Renee Enna:: Succulent 'stewp' is quick, easy fix
Dec. 30, 2008
Jonathan Mark: Israel's Response Is Disproportionate
Wesley Pruden: It's time once more to blame the Jews
Dec. 29, 2008
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Chanukah: 'Give me Judaism or give me death'
Michael B. Oren: A crisis and an opportunity
Dec. 26, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: When the past meets the future
Caroline B. Glick: Iran and Hamas do Christmas
Dec. 24, 2008
Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Judaism's Santa problem
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman CHANUKAH FORK-FINGER FOOD FEAST
Dec. 23, 2008
Caroline B. Glick: Repeating failure in Gaza
Dec. 22, 2008
Rabbi Boruch Leff: Too many Jews today are missing the intended purpose of one of Judaism's most beloved holidays
Barry Rubin: Liar, liar, pants on cease-fire
Dec. 19, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Final Battlefield
Caroline B. Glick: Betting on a dead horse
Dec. 18, 2008
The Kosher Gourmet
by Steve Petusevsky: Juicy Chef's hella top, hella bottom, hallelujah in the middle
Craig Crossman : More gifts for geeks --- and those who love them
Dec. 17, 2008
Dion Nissenbaum: Israel kicks out outrageously biased UN official
Craig Crossman : Gifts for geeks --- and those who love them
Dec. 16, 2008
Jonathan Rosenblum: The Gift of Joy
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Uncle Shariah
Dec. 15, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Expert witnesses who put themselves first
Barry Rubin: What they say isn't what you hear
Dec. 12, 2008
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Can the Bible be a secular language?
Caroline B. Glick: What a PM Netanyahu faces from Washington
Dec. 11, 2008
Rabbi Leiby Burnham: Our role in the Divine's global corporation, World Inc.
The Kosher Gourmet
by Steve Petusevsky: A retro-tasting pareve pot pie made with a light hand
Dec. 10, 2008
Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn: Groom admits he was caught "red handed"
Kara McGuire: No money for gifts? No problem
Dec. 9, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Can I make my boss treat me fairly?
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Next Steps in the Indo-Pakistani Crisis
Dec. 8, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: 'Chanukah Bush' flap and graciousness
Mark Steyn: Jews get killed, but Muslims feel vulnerable
Dec. 5, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Truth --- The Key to Gratitude
Jeff Jacoby: UN's obsession is grotesque and Orwellian
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
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Jewish World Review
August 4, 2008
/ 3 Menachem-Av 5768
August is the time to take Obama down
By
Dick Morris & Eileen Mc Gann
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When is the McCain campaign going to get serious? It seems to be marking time with softball ads, more appropriate to the soundbites campaign media spokespeople exchange with one another than to strategic paid media hits. One ad talks about how the media loves Obama. Another mocks him as a celebrity. Each throws pitty-pat punches, far short of the kind of knockout blows one would expect from a presidential campaign. Were I a donor to McCain's campaign, paying for these pathetic spots, I would demand a refund. Or sue for malpractice.
Yet despite this softball nonsense, Obama remains vulnerable, no better than two points ahead despite the bounce from his overseas trip.
Are the McCain people waiting for September to get serious? If so, they are making a big mistake and missing an important opportunity. History indicates that the best time to beat a new candidate is in the summer. August to be precise.
Dukakis, Mondale, and Kerry all were destroyed in the summer, long before the fall campaign began. In 1984, the offensive against Geraldine Ferraro crippled Mondale well before Labor Day. In 1988, the pledge of allegiance, revolving door, and Willie Horton ads all ran in the summer. Dukakis was dead by September. And the swift boat attack on Kerry defeated him well before the summer was over.
McCain needs to make voters afraid of Obama. Not, as he suggests self-servingly, by emphasizing that he "doesn't look like all the other presidents on dollar bills," but by hitting him on the two fronts where it would really hurt the economy and national security. Obama's inexperience and the wildly liberal proposals he has made in his primary campaigning, both set him up for a crippling blow this month.
Oil drilling is an issue, but it does not provoke the fear that the McCain campaign needs to elicit to win. It's just an issue disagreement with bad consequences for the nation. Obama's position on the issue is not a recipe for national disaster.
But his tax plans and their likely economic consequence are very much a plan for catastrophe. Doubling the tax in invested capital, and ratcheting up the top tax bracket to an effective 60%, will plunge the nation into a real depression. Not a recession or a downturn or a correction or a slowdown. A depression. McCain needs to hammer this point home again and again and again in his advertising. He has to put top level economists on television talking about what the Obama tax program will mean to America. Obama is suspect as an ideological liberal, anyway. And nobody thinks he has the experience to be a good president. So the potential to scare voters by accurately elaborating what his tax plans will mean to the entire country not just the rich on whom the burden will directly fall is enormous.
When Obama says he will only tax the rich, it's like saying he won't shut down the entire ship, just the engine room. If McCain just talks about Obama's tax program in the abstract, most voters will shrug and note that the tax hikes won't really apply to them. Only 2% of Americans earn more than $200,000 a year and only 6% make more than $100,000. But if McCain explains the economic impact of Obama's tax proposals on all Americans, he will score points and could score a knockout.
The national security offensive should have two parts. First, McCain's ads should portray Obama as naive. By taking off on his comment that Iran is a "tiny country" that couldn't hurt the US much, he can show how the Democrat is not prepared to cope with the serious national security problems which will face the next president. The more the crisis with Iran ratchets up, the more dividends this approach will reap for McCain. But, as with the argument of an impending depression if Obama wins, McCain needs to begin the argument now and let it pile up by the fall.
Secondly, McCain should take Obama's proposed changes in the Patriot Act and show how they would weaken us in the face of domestic terror threats. Don't let the liberal media fool you. Bush's domestic security initiatives are very popular. How will Obama explain his legislation to notify suspected terrorist groups seven days after Homeland Security begins an investigation of them? Or how will he explain his opposition to the wiretapping that saved the Brooklyn Bridge from destruction. McCain needs to paint Obama as weak on homeland security.
This race is there for the winning, but McCain is using his paid media ads as mere press releases, touching on the events of the day without really using them as a strategic tool to destroy Obama. He needs to start doing so now.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Fleeced: How Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies ... Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.
Dick Morris Archives
© 2008, Dick Morris
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