There is no doubt that this has been the most exciting, but yet exhausting election process history. People pretty much wrote Hillary Clinton off before the Ohio and Texas primary, but she surprised a lot of people with her victory on Super Tuesday the sequel. Nevertheless, the show goes on to Wyoming (March 8th), Mississippi (March 11th), and Pennsylvania (April 22). Here is a quick analysis on what each candidate needs to do in order to win the upcoming primaries.
Sen. Obama: Although he is still ahead in delegate counts, Sen. Obama has to find a new strategy. One of the main reason why he lost this past Tuesday was because his campaign failed to address the shot that was being thrown at them a day before the primaries. Most notable, the NAFTA comment by one of his surrogates and his ties with the Chicago business man who is now on trial. His campaign simple ignored those charges and act as if though voters were not paying attention. They were basically hanging on hoping to clinch the Texas and Ohio hereby, forcing Hillary Clinton out of the race. This is simply a rookie mistake.
Here is the new strategy that he needs to employ.
1. He needs to prove to the American people that he is actually strong on the issue of national security. His inability to articulate that to voters is what made “middle of the night phone call” ad by the Clinton campaign highly successful. He needs to calm down on his “I didn’t vote for the war” rhetoric but rather focus on communicating his plan for maintaining America’s economic and security interest in the world. The reality is that we are already in Iraq and the American people recognize that. I did not vote for the way rhetoric is not going to get us out of the quagmire that we are currently in.
2.He needs to balance his message about change and hope with a clear articulation of his policies to voters. This is his best chance of eradicating the critique that he is running his campaign on “false hopes.” He is going to have a very tough time in the general election against McCain if he does not start doing that now.
3.He also need to find a way to maintain his composure when responding to attacks from the republicans, Clinton campaign and the media. The speech he gave on Tuesday night is a manifestation of the effect their attacks has had on his style and demeanor. He cannot afford to let them throw him off his game, because come the GE, the republicans are going to be throwing all kinds of stuff at him.
4. Keep breaking the fundraising record.
Sen Clinton: She has run a very incredible campaign in the past week. Her team was able to take advantage of the pompous attitude of the Obama campaign by increasing their attacks on him, developing a very effective media strategy (attack on the media’s biasness, comedy show appearance, ect), and keeping Bill away from here. The reason why she lost 11 straight primaries was because she was using the same ‘ol strategy of throwing cheap political shots and not focusing on the real issues. However, she still has a lot of work to do. Here is what her campaign needs to do.
1. Stop crying about Florida and Michigan!!!!! Focus all your energy on winning the upcoming primaries and worry about the other states later. Her concern right now should be making it to the convention in a pretty good shape. She will also alienate a lot of supporter is she keeps asking for those states to be counted, because she clearly broke the rule by keeping her name on the ballots in those states despite agreeing not to.
2. Continue to make her case as to why she is stronger on keeping America safe from external threat.
3. Release her tax records as soon as possible. It can be easily predicted that her tax records are not going to help her campaign. She needs to go ahead and release it now so that people can scrutinize it now……it will all die down before the Pennsylvania primary.
4. Keep bringing in some cash. She is going to need all the money that she can to compete against Barack.
5. Call for a minimum of 2 debates before Pennsylvania primary.
Sen McCain: This has to be one of the luckiest men alive now. He has all the time in the world to get himself geared up and ready for the GE while the democrats work to sort out their mess. Here is what he needs to do.
1. Start building a relationship with the conservative base. He needs to let them know that he may not have a “conservative” record, but he will elect conservative judges to the bench. That is all they want.
2. Travel to Iraq and Afghanistan. His foreign policy rhetoric is his best chance for winning the GE. He need to go to Iraq and make some assessments on what needs to be done in the region to improve the political and security situation there. This will also help to bolster his argument that he is the most experienced person to lead this country in time of war.
3. Keep President Bush away from the campaign trail.
4. Find the most conservative running mate. I will definitely recommend Mike Huckabee or Fl. Gov Charlie Crist.
5. Reduce the attack on Sen. Obama. He can attack the dems’ policies, but need to stay away from attacking candidates. It’s simple not a wise thing to do.
Filed under: politics
