RE: RYAN DEBATE PREP
President Obama underperformed against Governor Romney for one simple reason: He tried to debate him. You must not repeat this mistake.
The Romney-Ryan campaign has a fundamental weakness: The candidates cannot, under any circumstances, be honest about their proposals. They have to lie. But your job in this debate, Mr. Vice President, is not to paint Congressman Ryan as dishonest. Let the fact-checkers do that. Your job is more subtle. Your job is to hammer home the following message: Paul Ryan is hiding something.
To this end, the most damaging statement Congressman Ryan has made thus far in the campaign is what he said on Fox News Sunday in regard to his tax plan: "I don’t have the...It would take me too long to go through all of the math." The "I don't have time" excuse is one that people are very familiar with in their daily lives. It's a red flag signalling that the person making it can't tell you what he's really up to.
In the upcoming debate, there is precisely zero chance that Congressman Ryan is going to disclose anything substantive, so don't waste your time on details. If you do, the Congressman will subject you to an endless game of Republican three card monte, leaving the audience hopelessly confused. Instead, you should simply lay out our policies, clearly and succinctly, and then tell the audience that Congressman Ryan is going to be evasive. Use the Fox News quote. Use Governor Romney's stonewalling on his tax returns. Above all, do not get in the weeds with numbers and sources. Forget that the CBO even exists. You, in fact, have only one real source in this debate: Bill Clinton.
The bottom line: Your goal on Thursday night is to get the audience to wonder what Paul Ryan and his boss are hiding. The human imagination is our greatest ally.
