Issues that knock your opponent off message are good, and the government shutdown idea seems tailor-made for a good embarrassing issue ad or specific ad. I'd love to see candidates pressed on whether they would go along with a government shutdown.The idea of the shut down needs to be humanized and targeted.
I’m not someone who puts together video, so anyone who does would probably find lots of ways to improve this. Here’s the rough outline...
A few clips of Repubs talking about shutting down the government, either from 1994, or current (Current choices: Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., Newt Gingrich in 2010, Joe Miller, probably others as well)
Voice over and visual of the question
What happened last time the Republicans shut down the government because they didn’t get their way?
Resulted in at least 800 million dollar additional cost to taxpayers
Then we have to find individuals to illustrate, on the order of
"My father couldn’t enter a clinical trial that was his last hope to stop his cancer, because the trial funding was stopped"
New patients were not accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center
National parks closed, with local communities losing an estimated 14.2 million dollars a day – best illustration is someone who lost their business or home due to loss of income from tourism.
200,000 U.S. applications for passports went unprocessed;
Illustrate with someone who couldn’t visit a loved one overseas, preferably for something time sensitive such as a birth or illness, or who lost a business opportunity.
Veterans - Major curtailment in services, ranging from health
and welfare to finance and travel was experienced.
Preferably illustrate with something health related, but financial hardship would work well also.
400 border patrol agents due to be hired – cancelled
Then at least one more clip of one of a current repub talking about shutting down the government.
With or without an ending...
"Ask candidate x to promise that he/she won’t go along with his/her party’s dangerous/costly plan to shut down the government.