And they have to make it as frightening as possible. From the Daily Caller [Emphasis mine]:
President Barack Obama’s aides have poll-tested new phrases and themes for their “Mediscare” strategy, which seeks to persuade Medicare-reliant seniors to vote against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the critical swing-state of Florida.
The Medicare reform plan pushed by Romney is “a dangerous plan to strip seniors of their Medicare guarantee,” said Ben LaBolt, press secretary for Obama for America, said Aug. 16.
“These plans would give seniors on Medicare a much worse deal that members of Congress have,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrats’ top-ranked member of the House Budget Committee, said during the Aug. 16 press-conference with LaBolt.
You hear that?
Romney’s plan is “dangerous” to seniors and it offers them a “worse deal” than they had before. On the authority of President Obama’s press secretary.
This is a tactic that the Obama campaign has used before in order to gain the approval of the American people for bad policies. Remember how many jobs would be “created or saved” by the stimulus? I imagine there is some leeway on what exactly constitutes a job that was “saved.”
Or perhaps you can recall the degree of specificity with which the Democrats proposed Obamacare to the American people:
The battle to define medicare and whose plan will shape its future is in full swing. The Romney and Obama campaigns have recently released ads making their respective cases, and there will certainly be more to come.
If history is any guide, you can bet we’re going to see more puffed up “Mediscare” rhetoric from the Obama campaign that isn’t quantifiable in any meaningful sense.
The Romney campaign’s success will likely be based on whether they can adequately refute the misinformation of the Obama campaign, and distill the important details of Ryan’s fairly complicated budget into something comprehensible to the average American.
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Nobody…including Ryan…is pushing the Ryan budget any longer.
Instead, Romney has crafted a much more generalized (and politically marketable) budget thingy, which STARTS with killing off ObamaCare as a lynchpin.
When we get right down to it, a budget can be crafted that does what the Ryan budget intends, and maybe better.
He’s a filthy, compunctionless liar. His power — in the absence of the totalitarian authority he so desperately craves — is the Big Lie and the exploitation of naivete and good-faith instincts of the American people who do not like to believe their president is an utterly conscience-less liar. As such, he is about as close to evil as a leader of a free country can get. This abuse of our good faith and his willingness to tear apart our commonweal in the name of his authoritarian cravings is obscene. But he has pushed it now to the breaking point. Too many people are figuring it out.
This election really IS the turning point for this country. It’s no platitude.
This type of fear mongering by Obama and Biden campaign shows contempt for the American people and is not unlike SPLC’s organized fear mongering.
Romney & Ryan – Clear & Concise, American made.
Obama / Biden : what’s a budget, where’s Joe?
When seeking to impel human political behavior – to make folks choose to vote for or support your agenda – you are best armed with policies born of facts, good math, and records of previous successes. Obama’s policies enjoy none of those attributes. Lying, fear-mongering, obfuscation, and hiding an unsellable agenda behind vague, gauzily inaccurate descriptions is all that is left to him. He cannot help but see the end is near.
I’ll honestly feel sorry for him – on November 7th, 2012.
Obama/Biden are so desperate for a message other than “The other guys are mean” I wouldn’t be surprised to hear them spouting “9-9-9” before it’s over.
If I knew for a fact that Obama wasn’t lying to me and would PASS a 9-9-9 plan with a Constitutional Amendment limiting Federal Taxation to those maximum parameters, I would actually consider voting for him to do it, because it would be worthwhile. The Social Issues actually CAN be undone (although difficult) by a subsequent President and Congress, and I would suffer through four more agonizing years to guarantee a maximum tax rate of 27 percent FOREVER while pinning Obama down through Operation Counterweight.
Since I know for a fact Obama would be lying to me, it’s irrelevant.
“… much worse deal that members of Congress have,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrats’ top-ranked member of the House Budget Committee,much worse deal that members of Congress have,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrats’ top-ranked member of the House Budget Committee,”
Of course it is a much worse deal. Congress exempted itself from ObamaCare. We would not want our elite to have some bummer of a plan. It might affect their work and empathy.
“Congress exempted itself from ObamaCare.”
One might darkly suspect that they DID know what was in it, before they voted on it, or had a pretty good idea.
I talked to our Pueblo county GOP Chair earlier today. She said it is really getting ugly. Pueblo is a dem city. She says when a dem goes apostate ,they hang a picture of them at dem HQ to throw darts at. They take pictures of people to intimidate. When Obama was in Pueblo a week ago , press reports put the crowd at 3000. Pueblo is a larger city than where R,R were pulling 10 , 15000. Obama staying overnite here is telling.
Obama can’t BS his way out of 8.3% unemployment.
A demonstrated strength of Sarah Palin is evidenced in her exposure of Obamacare “death panels.”
In doing so, Sarah out Obama-ed Obama and did it with the truth.
These Chicago thugs are craftsmen at the art of nebulous BS using short sound-bytes and hammering it home.
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Anyone remember that catch phrase from the OJ trial?
Americans agree, Obama is guilty of failing to deliver.
You can be absolutely, 100% sure the moderators of the debates will also talk in vague language or avoid difficult subject altogether. If there is an error made by Obama or Biden, it will not appear to be an error the next day. If our guys make a point they don’t agree with, that point will be picked apart and denigrated and by the big news of how the GOP lost the debate. The GOP should be flogged for agreeing to this group of partisan twits. You wonder why we can’t get the message out? You wonder why we can’t win?
You buried the lede: you’re right, the GOP SHOULD be flogged for agreeing to those moderators.
You’d think the GOP was some minor party that was lucky to be invited, the way they roll over on these kinds of things.
Your posting doesn’t say under Romney they’ll have worse benefits. It says they’ll have worse than CONGRESS. I’m not even sure what Congress has, other than it must be gold plated.
How the hell do they test these phrases for their fear component? Do they have old folks in a cage, to whom they read these and then observe their behavior? Do their ads state clearly, “No Senior Citizens were used in research for these ads?” I demand they stop this testing NOW!
Seriously. All joking and hyperbole aside. The people running the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party are about the most reprehensible, unprincipled, nasty people in America. Hell, they could export ‘smarmy’. They even bring disrepute upon the phrase “sorry, dirty, low-down, rotten co*ksucker”.
Sorry. I spewed. I’m all better now. Here’s my co-pay. 😆
The Romney campaign needs to hit this hard. Some suggested language for a future ad:
“The Obama Campaign is talking a lot about claims that we’re going to “End Medicare” if elected. Notice they never give you any DETAILS of what we’re going to do. There’s a reason for that: We’re NOT going to end Medicare; we’re going to SAVE Medicare FROM Obama stealing over $700 BILLION from it to fund his ill-conceived nationalized health care gamble, aka ObamaCare. Don’t let them lie to you. Get the facts, and join us in SAVING Medicare FROM Obama.”
Something akin to that, which is simple, straight-forward and clearly calls out Obama for the theft from the Medicare Trust Fund and that clearly says that Romney will SAVE Medicare FROM Obama.
That would be something to see, and would put the Obama Campaign on it’s heels. It’s WELL beyond time to press the attack.