One lesson we ought to have learned from Republicans by now is that pretty much any situation can be turned to your advantage in an electoral debate. Despite yesterday's depressing failures, there is no reason Dems can't make lemonade. I understand that people want to vent, but it really doesn't accomplish anything.
Another lesson is that being angry and tough and shrill is good (to a point). Despite all the MSM tut-tutting about Clinton, the fact is that he made a splash and millions of Americans heard his point and were highly entertained in the process. The GOP will always depict liberals as crazed and angry, when in fact they have won the propaganda battle in the last ten years by doing exactly that--getting all spluttery and bombastic on AM radio and Fox. We will never learn to show emotion effectively in political debate until we stop wetting our pants every time David Brooks calls us names. Besides, our use of strong emotion should be more effective, since we have the facts on our side.
So here are some basic talking points. My proposal is that we have to get a little dirtier. It is time to go out on the airwaves and use blunt words, and searing ad hominems.
Add nuance where necessary:
1) This president and his lackeys in Congress are THE PARTY OF TORTURE. They believe torture is an American value--torture, torture, torture. If you want innocent people from Canada to be tortured in your name, vote Republican.
2) The reason they want to torture innocent people from Canada and wiretap your phones is that THEY HAVE NO OTHER WAY TO HIDE THEIR FAILURES. This a failed government, with failed policies and failed leadership. They failed before 9/11, they failed on 9/11, and they failed after 9/11. They failed in Afghanistan--LOOK, THE TALIBAN ARE BACK! They failed to get Bin Laden. They failed after Katrina, and they've been failing for three and half years in Iraq. Failure, failure, failure.
3) Bush can't even read the 3 declassified pages from the NIE. Not only did he create this disaster in Iraq, he can't even understand it. The man is incompetent.
4) This president and his party of failures DON'T CARE ABOUT THE TROOPS in Iraq who are being attacked by IEDs every 3 hours.
5) The Republicans want to gut Social Security. They have made this very clear. They want to take money away from old people who are trying to scrape by, and give it to Wall Street.
You get the idea.