I just got done watching James Carville on Cspan Book TV giving a speech about his new book "Fighting Back". During his speech, Carville emphasized the importance of framing issues and focusing on big issues during a campaign. I couldnt agree more. So far, Bush had had the advantage of setting the agenda of how the issues of the campaign will go- the war in Iraq and the state of the economy.
Pundits keep repeating the meme that if the situation settles down, Bush wins next year. If the economy sees significant progress or even minimal progress by next year, Bush wins. Bush is setting the terms of debate and setting the terms of what expectattions should be to decide whether or not he should be reelected.
However, if the democrats want to win they have to reframe the debate. Expectations for Bush are way too low. This election should not be decided on Bush's performance in Iraq. Who gives a shit about Iraq? Who really gives a shit about Saddam's capture? How does all that affect regular Americans lives? Not very much. Bush wants to make Iraq the central front of focus on terror and national security. Sorry, but the war of Iraq was not about national security. It was about nation building. Bush went into Iraq as for humanitarian purposes and disguised the reasons as having national security importance. Millions of Iraquis were freed from the rule of Saddam. Great. Maybe Bush will get a nobel peace prize. But this election should not be about Iraq or Saddam, it should be about national security.
Furthermore, the candidates need to stop bickering about who voted for what, when, and how. The vote on the Iraq war resolution is a important but its a small issue. Reframe the debate back about national security in big terms.
More on this later.............