The defeat of Ohio’s Issue 2 should give warning to the Republican Party not to count their chickens before they hatch. If the unions were able to defeat a bill which by all calculations should have passed, they can do the same thing in next year’s presidential election. The extreme left and public employee unions play hard, they play dirty and their guns are loaded. Republicans have never been able to compete with those kinds of tactics. They better learn how if they expect to defeat Obama next year.
Issue 2 highlights the weakness of the Republican approach to politics. Senate Bill 5 which went down to defeat as Issue 2 today, should have passed. During the campaign, most polls showed Issue 2 continuously behind in the polls by as much as 22%. Yet when broken down item by item, Ohio citizens were overwhelmingly in favor of everything that was in the bill. How can an issue go down to defeat when citizens are in favor of what’s in the bill?
It’s not hard. The anti SB5 folks ran a campaign based on lies, threats, and emotion. And those in favor of SB5 ran the single worse political issue campaign I have ever seen in my life. You can’t win by rolling over resting on the false assumption the public knows what it is voting for. Whoever was in charge of this campaign should be fired....and now!!!
Television ads were relentless from the anti Issue 2 folks showing nurses claiming you would die in the hospital corridors if Issue 2 passed. Your house would burn down with you in it if Issue 2 passed. The police would be unable to respond if Issue 2 passed. Your children would not know how to read if Issue 2 passed. Granny would be unable to buy medicine if Issue 2 passed. And all of our firefighters and police would die on the job if Issue 2 passed. Tell the lie long enough and often enough, and people will believe it. That is extreme politics’ oldest trick in the book.
Had the Republicans made half an effort to explain to the public what Issue 2 did, and broke down the components parts in a meaningful fashion, Issue 2 would have passed easily. Even after defeat, Ohioans support what is in the Senate Bill 5 when asked about each item on an individual basis.
Ohio Republicans have handed over to Barack Obama and his leftist cadre their first victory in the 2012 presidential campaign. And it was achieved by using the usual leftist playbook. Lie to the public. Play on emotion. Do it often with feeling. That is going to be the playbook for the next election.
Republicans be warned. The economic mutilation of America by the Obama administration will look like sweet cakes and sugar in the campaign. Republicans can’t assume the public will vote against Obama simply on the disastrous economy and massive debt. Expect more of the Occupy Something movement which is rooted squarely in Obama’s White House and Obama’s training. That is what he did before he became President. He knows how to turn a sows ear into a silk purse.
Ohio’s Issue 2 was the canary in the coal mine. Republicans should take heed.
1 comment:
"Lie to the public. Play on emotion. Do it often with feeling. That is going to be the playbook for the next election."
You're right, the right-wing would never use any of those tactics (swiftboat). That would be lying to the public (mission accomplished). We should be thanking the republicans, not scientists, for enlightening us on today's important fact-based issues (same-sex marriage is the biggest threat to America today). After all, the republicans know they're on the side of truth (creationism). Republican candidates don't have the kind of horrible backgrounds that those terrible democrats have either (National Restaurant Association payoffs for sexual harrassment). Face it, Mark, this entire blinders-on diatribe could be launched at either party, so don't hand me this republicans-are-the-righteous-ones crap, at least the democrats don't watch The Flintstones as if it was a factual documentary (man and dinosaurs lived together). Kasich himself claimed he was born into a blue-collar family and came to Ohio after failing on Wall Street for "the opportunity" that Ohio provided (anonymous attack rumors against Rahm Emanuel are ok to air on Fox News but mainstream media anonymous rumors about Cain are inexcusable). The opportunity to do what, line his pockets and those of his cronies with money at the expense of those of us who were too stupid to get out of town (corporations are people too)? Gimme a break (Sarah Palin supporter-funded vacation)!
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