First Tuesdays Strategies

By J. Warren Tompkins

Not since Richard Nixon has a president been so combative with a particular news organization. But, the Obama administration is doing its best to go after Fox News, with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel saying it isn’t a news company. Strategist David Axelrod went on a Sunday morning program and said roughly the same thing, adding that the White House is treating Fox like an opinion outlet.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs defended these statements on Tuesday. ABC’s Jake Tapper asked, “I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a ‘news organization’ – why is that appropriate for the White House to say?” Gibbs responded, “That’s our opinion.”

Mind you, this is at the same time Gibbs regularly fields questions from The Huffington Post reporters at press conferences. That Web site is almost exclusively a liberal journal of opinion.

At a time when there are numerous crises besetting the country, and two wars going on abroad, the Obama administration seems to be spending a large amount of time worrying about what’s going on at a news outlet. Maybe it’s because Fox has actually taken Obama to task over his liberal policies.

Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” said famously, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The plan of Obama’s push-back looks like, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the critics”

It’s yet another example of how out-of-touch Obama and his advisors are. This crew looks like they’re working out of the wrong building – they shouldn’t be in the West Wing, they should take their rightful positions in an ivory tower. Fox News Channel routinely beats its competitors in ratings by massive margins. There’s a reason for this, and it’s that the vast majority of people just don’t trust what they’re getting from the other guys.

I used to read The New York Times and watch CBS Evening News daily, but I stopped both because of their obvious slant against conservatives. But, that was my choice. The government shouldn’t be making those choices for us. But, time and time again, Obama shows that he thinks the government is better at making your decisions than you are.

Less than 10 months into his presidency, Obama’s agenda is getting shot down and the frustration is clearly showing through his staff. The American people have already had enough as the White House fumbles from one issue to the next. It now seems they will work to silence anyone who points out those fumbles.

by J. Warren Tompkins

An article in the Oct. 12 edition of the Wall Street Journal detailed how the National Republican Campaign Committee is trying to use Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the proverbial “albatross around the neck” of Democratic candidates. A poll cited in the piece shows Pelosi with a 44 percent unfavorable rating.

That’s all well and good, but it didn’t work in 2006 and it didn’t work in 2008. Just about every poll you look at these days show bad markings for Congress in general and the Democrats in particular. The two latest polls on Congress both show disapproval hitting the 60 percent mark. A Rasmussen poll of 3,500 likely voters had a 43-39 Republican lead in a generic ballot for the House.

These are signs that the national party shouldn’t be adding an anti-Pelosi page to its playbook, but rewriting it altogether. The reason Republicans are moving up in the polls and Democrats moving down them is that the public saw what it got with a Democrat-controlled Congress coupled with an Obama presidency – liberal policies coming from out-of-touch, liberal politicians.

If it hasn’t been one thing, it’s been another with Washington liberals, not the least of which is their big-government, “I know better than you” health care plan they’re trying to force on a nation that doesn’t want it. Then there’s cap-and-trade, a scheme made up to look like a way of protecting the environment, when it’s really just more taxes and more bureaucracy. And we can’t forget the bailouts, in which it seemed that Ft. Knox got raided to give money to people who made bad business decisions.

These examples, and more, are why the voters are increasingly fed up with the way liberals have been running the country. And let’s face the facts folks – the Democrats aren’t the only one’s at fault. We gave them the opportunity to retake the White House and Congress because our Republican leaders fell flat on their conservative promises.

That’s what needs to be addressed in the 2010 House campaigns. Voters aren’t angry with individuals. They’re angry at the system as a whole. People are tired of empty promises and big government agendas being put before private industry and working families.

People already don’t like the policies that have been coming out of Washington, and they know why. It should not be a problem for a Republican in a competitive district to say, “My opponent, if sent to the House, will raise your taxes, help stunt the economy and misspend your money. How do I know that? Democrats in Congress have been doing it already, and show no signs of stopping.”

But…and this is the most important part…Republicans must take the next step too. We must offer real ideas to our nation’s most pressing problems. We have to promote ideas that reward private industry and entrepreneurship. Republican candidates must carry the banner of free enterprise and remove regulations on the American sprit.

The playbook for victory next November should be built on opposing big-government policies while promoting ideas that will put America back to work. The 2010 election cycle must be about ideas, not personalities.