In boxing, one of the four basic criteria used to score a fight is ring generalship, which is vaguely defined as how well a fighter controls the pace, style and tempo of a fight.
Up until now, the Obama campaign has mostly been letting McCain control the terms of the debate. Obama's been playing defense fairly well, he's been counter-punching, but he needs to make a stronger attempt to frame the debate. He needs to control the issues the public is talking about. A lot of citizens see rising prices, lost jobs and stagnating wages; these people want real solutions, not opposing ads about who has 7 houses and who made $4 million last year. Americans are ready to hear about real changes that need to be made in this country.
I'm hoping the convention will be somewhat of a turning point for the Obama campaign. Obama needs to focus on the bigger, broader messages. Here are three themes I think he should be pushing in regards to the domestic agenda:
1. Bush tax cuts have given too much to the rich / Time for more fairness - This fits into a broader message about fixing the economy. Investing in infrastructure and education can help the economy in the long run, but in the meantime, the middle class needs a tax break to help them get by. It's time to cut middle class taxes and raise taxes on the rich back to levels during the Clinton years. I think it would be pretty easy to put together a 30 or 60 second ad for this issue, something like: "In the last 8 years, George Bush cut taxes for the wealthy by X%; the rest of America has only received Y%; John McCain's plan is to give even more tax cuts to the rich. Barack Obama's priority is to give the middle class a tax break, a tax break that is Z times higher than that proposed by John McCain."
2. Health Care - affordable health care for all! Remember when everyone was talking about universal health care during the Democratic primaries? Now, not so much. It's time to push this to the forefront. Because it doesn't force anyone to make any changes who doesn't want to, Obama's plan should be able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls that the Clinton plan fell into.
3. Global Warming - Obama needs to make it clear that he offers a broad solution regarding this critical issue. He should make the differences between the Obama plan and the McCain plan clear. On cap and trade - the message should be that it's not a tax, it's just a method to make polluters pay for their pollution; Obama will funnel the collected money into environmental investment and back to consumers so they won't be hurt by rising energy prices. McCain's system will just give out billions in corporate welfare (there's your talking point - McCain's in favor of corporate welfare!!!!!!)
Obama also needs to take control of the foreign policy debate. Why let McCain question Obama's judgment about the surge? Obama needs to question McCain's judgment for being such a strong supporter of this war in the first place, a war that has cost us over 4,000 American lives and $1 trillion while arguably making our country less safe. The Iraq issue has understandably dropped in importance to a lot of voters, but Obama needs to emphasize that he exhibited better judgment on Iraq, and therefore, can be expected to exhibit better judgement on Iran, Korea, Russia, etc.
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