Dems To Push GOP’s Historic Unpopularity As Key Talking Point
With some polls showing erosion in support for some Obama policies, Democrats tell me they’re going to ratchet up their attacks on the GOP’s historic unpopularity, in hopes that the media will take the focus off Obama’s numbers and start raising questions about the GOP’s credibility with the public.
A Democrat sends over this graphic from a forthcoming polling “memo” — read: press release — which telegraphs the coming attack and pulls together four recent polls finding Republican numbers at unprecedented lows (click to enlarge):
The core argument the Dems will be making, according to the memo, is this barbed line:
To put it simply, the GOP’s take on Obama’s poll numbers is a lot like the owner of a 1987 Buick pointing out the dents and potential engine trouble of a 2008 BMW sedan.
The cranking up of this line of attack seems born of of frustration with the media’s heavy focus on Obama’s slightly-sagging numbers. Dems view Obama’s limited travails as a natural expenditure of political capital, and see them as inconsequential when compared with the GOP’s historic depths of popularity. Or at least that’s how they’re hoping the story will be told.
****************************************
Update: Top House Dem communications aide Doug Thornell emails another data point about the new WaPo poll, specifically that it shows “the public supports the President over Congressional Republicans on the most important issues, including the deficit, the economy, combating
terrorism, and health care, by an average of 24 points.”
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
I think the problem with this line of attack is that there is nothing new here. This is old news – there’s no ‘hook.’ “Yawn. Tell us something we don’t already know.” (Shouldn’t they be using an American-made car in place of a BMW?)
sbj, on the car thing, I think you found their Achilles heel.
Dems=BMW? Elites!
.
(There’s a hook for Godwin’s law there, too, but my 10-foot pole isn’t insulated.)
Have to agree on the BMW line… But, based on the JD Power initial quality results put out yesterday, the Dems should just substitute Cadillac for BMW.
Good god, who runs the democrats communication shop?! “Buick is stupid and old! Ha ha!” And oh yeah, the democratic government just bailed out GM to the tune of, what, $20 billion or more? Who are these people? Seriously. The “historically bad” line of attack is a perfectly good one. Go ahead and paint the GOP as on the verge of complete collapse as a movement – like the whigs, or the confederates, or… the communists if you really want to push their buttons. But attacking a GM name plate at this point in time. Epic fail. Greg – can you tell us who exactly is pushing the BMW/Buick line? These people need to know how idiotic this idea is.
foo
.
bar
.
your uninsulated 10′ pole put the zap in jzap.
Actually Buick I believe was discontinued in the restructuring but I am not sure. But here is the thing, the majority of Americans aren’t going to think that hard about it. And the analogy works for anybody who isn’t a politics junkie like us. Usually a Mercedes or a BMW is the gold standard. So you go with the car company that rocks, not the one you own.
Buick lives. Pontiac dies. I hear ya, SG, but the repubs will run with it. in nyah, nyah psyche pep rally way. Like the etrade commercial where the one baby says my dad’s friend is a broker, and the rest of the babies bwahhaha.
Kathleen
.
If you mean the same Repubs that were calling for a boycott of GM and wanted them to fail I certainly hope they try to make hay out of it. In fact maybe its a trojan horse. Maybe they used those cars on purpose so Repubs would open their mouths and end up sticking their foot in it yet again.
SG, in honor of Ed McMahon–you are correct, sir!
Yes, nothing new Greg. We should move on. No need to remind everyone just how unpopular Republicans have become. Maybe if we move on, everyone will forget and think the GOP has entered the 21st century and is in charge again. Actually what we ought to do is remind the GOP just how unpopular they’ve become.
so according to the wapo poll, obama has 65 percent
job approval the rating. the other 35 percent are
the beltway commentocracy and right wing.