You're in charge of any campaign you want (post 1980), and you can change one thing. What is it?
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  You're in charge of any campaign you want (post 1980), and you can change one thing. What is it?
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Author Topic: You're in charge of any campaign you want (post 1980), and you can change one thing. What is it?  (Read 1425 times)
darklordoftech
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« Reply #25 on: February 13, 2021, 07:24:01 PM »

To Bush 2000: Don’t bother with No Child Left Behind. Nobody cares about that.
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Spark
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« Reply #26 on: February 13, 2021, 09:08:40 PM »

Trump 2020. Tell him to be consistent about masks and wear one from the beginning.
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #27 on: February 13, 2021, 09:29:32 PM »

Romney 2012, I would have him go more economically populist combining immigration and currency manipulation with some direct policy to boost incomes, and this means not picking Paul Ryan as his running mate obviously.

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darklordoftech
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« Reply #28 on: February 14, 2021, 01:24:38 AM »

Is there anything that Reagan’s 1980 primary opponents could have done to stop him?
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AlterEgo
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« Reply #29 on: February 14, 2021, 11:07:10 AM »

Romney 2012, I would have him go more economically populist combining immigration and currency manipulation with some direct policy to boost incomes, and this means not picking Paul Ryan as his running mate obviously.



Color me skeptical that Romney could actually pull that off and have it not be seen as disingenuous pandering.
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dw93
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« Reply #30 on: February 14, 2021, 04:16:05 PM »

It's kind of hard to limit it to one thing considering in all cases it was more than one thing that cost a candidate an election or made one closer than it should have. So here are my answers:

1984: Tell Mondale to not utter the words "Mr. Reagan will raise your taxes and so will I. He won't tell you, I just did." Also, I'd have him pick a different running mate. He'd still lose, but not 49 state lose.

1988: Keep Dukakis the hell out of that tank, have him hit back when he's attacked, have him give a better, less cold, response to Bernard Shaw's question, and have him pick Gephardt or Gore as his running mate, as to not have someone that overshadows him. A dash of populism might help to.

2000: Tell the White House to not hire Monica Lewinsky as an intern, tell Bill Clinton and Janet Reno to allow Elian Gonzalez to stay in the country, have Gore pick Bob Graham, Jeanne Shaheen, or John Kerry as his running mate instead of that tool Joe Lieberman, and have Bill Clinton active on the campaign trail.

2004: Have Kerry hit Bush and Cheney over the head with their downplaying and ignoring the threat of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the first 8 months of their administration, and hit them over prioritizing Iraq over Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and tell Kerry to not utter the words "I was for it before I was against it." Also, I'd have him pick Gephardt as his running mate instead of Edwards (who Kerry supposedly ended up regretting picking), and, as was the case with Dukakis, have him hit back when attacked.

2016: Tell Obama to not talk Biden out of running and have him rally the party apparatus behind Biden  instead of Hillary. If that doesn't happen, tell Hillary to pick Jeff Merkley (the only Senator to back Sanders) to be her running mate as an olive branch, rather than picking Kaine, who was a middle finger to Bernie voters and who proved to be Joe Lieberman 2.0. Also, tell the Clinton campaign to not write off WI (which was razor thin in 2000 and 2004), PA, or MI, and instead have her focus on those, as well as FL and NV like a laser beam, and have her attack Trump's business record, similarly to how Obama attacked Romney's, and run on Kitchen table issues, rather than run on "Trump's a racist meanie, I'm not, vote for me" and all the other "woke" bs she chose to run on. I'd also have her get ahead of "but her emails" early in the campaign and have someone tell Comey to shove his investigation up his ass sometime in October.

2020: Have the Biden Campaign, while still stressing the importance of Criminal Justice reform and working toward a more racially equal society, more forcefully denounce ANTIFA and the rioting and looting, and have the entire Democratic apparatus forcefully denounce (and downright bitch slap) any member of Congress or surrogate of the party that uttered the words "Defund the Police." Doing so would've prevent most, or maybe all of the loses the Democrats suffered in the House and might've even flipped North Carolina.
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« Reply #31 on: February 14, 2021, 05:04:17 PM »

It's kind of hard to limit it to one thing considering in all cases it was more than one thing that cost a candidate an election or made one closer than it should have. So here are my answers:

1984: Tell Mondale to not utter the words "Mr. Reagan will raise your taxes and so will I. He won't tell you, I just did." Also, I'd have him pick a different running mate. He'd still lose, but not 49 state lose.

1988: Keep Dukakis the hell out of that tank, have him hit back when he's attacked, have him give a better, less cold, response to Bernard Shaw's question, and have him pick Gephardt or Gore as his running mate, as to not have someone that overshadows him. A dash of populism might help to.

2000: Tell the White House to not hire Monica Lewinsky as an intern, tell Bill Clinton and Janet Reno to allow Elian Gonzalez to stay in the country, have Gore pick Bob Graham, Jeanne Shaheen, or John Kerry as his running mate instead of that tool Joe Lieberman, and have Bill Clinton active on the campaign trail.

2004: Have Kerry hit Bush and Cheney over the head with their downplaying and ignoring the threat of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the first 8 months of their administration, and hit them over prioritizing Iraq over Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and tell Kerry to not utter the words "I was for it before I was against it." Also, I'd have him pick Gephardt as his running mate instead of Edwards (who Kerry supposedly ended up regretting picking), and, as was the case with Dukakis, have him hit back when attacked.

2016: Tell Obama to not talk Biden out of running and have him rally the party apparatus behind Biden  instead of Hillary. If that doesn't happen, tell Hillary to pick Jeff Merkley (the only Senator to back Sanders) to be her running mate as an olive branch, rather than picking Kaine, who was a middle finger to Bernie voters and who proved to be Joe Lieberman 2.0. Also, tell the Clinton campaign to not write off WI (which was razor thin in 2000 and 2004), PA, or MI, and instead have her focus on those, as well as FL and NV like a laser beam, and have her attack Trump's business record, similarly to how Obama attacked Romney's, and run on Kitchen table issues, rather than run on "Trump's a racist meanie, I'm not, vote for me" and all the other "woke" bs she chose to run on. I'd also have her get ahead of "but her emails" early in the campaign and have someone tell Comey to shove his investigation up his ass sometime in October.

2020: Have the Biden Campaign, while still stressing the importance of Criminal Justice reform and working toward a more racially equal society, more forcefully denounce ANTIFA and the rioting and looting, and have the entire Democratic apparatus forcefully denounce (and downright bitch slap) any member of Congress or surrogate of the party that uttered the words "Defund the Police." Doing so would've prevent most, or maybe all of the loses the Democrats suffered in the House and might've even flipped North Carolina.

This. All of this.
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Asenath Waite
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« Reply #32 on: February 15, 2021, 09:08:41 AM »

For Sanders in 2020, I would tell him to:

-Reach out to black voters more (especially older ones)

-Go after his primary opponents as aggressively as Obama in 2008

-Focus more on the “electability” argument more

[He didn’t have to change his stances on the issues; he just had to frame his arguments in a different manner.]

I think a good way of turning the electability argument on it's head would have been by actually playing up issues that he was genuinely more moderate on (like gun control) then other Democrats and making the case that that would make him uniquely well positioned to peel back rural voters then other Democrats. Instead he picked hills to die on (like felon voting) that were morally correct IMO but politically short-sighted.
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AlterEgo
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« Reply #33 on: February 15, 2021, 12:40:21 PM »

Is there anything that Reagan’s 1980 primary opponents could have done to stop him?

If you want to keep Reagan out of the WH, I think the best thing to do is get him the GOP nomination in 1976. Fundamentals and issues on the ground were going to give Carter the edge no matter who he was facing. At that point, I don't think it's super likely that Reagan gets another chance in 1980. I think 1976 was a poisoned chalice election, so even in a worst-case where Reagan wins, we only get 4 years. And that actually might not have been so bad as it could have set up the 1980s as a decade of Democratic dominance.
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LtNOWIS
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« Reply #34 on: February 19, 2021, 08:06:32 PM »

Jeb Bush 2016. I'd tell him to ask his brother Billy to look up a 2005 Access Hollywood interview with Donald Trump, which can be released shortly before Iowa to sink him.

Bush still loses but the country is better off without Trump as president.
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brucejoel99
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« Reply #35 on: February 19, 2021, 08:13:34 PM »

Jeb Bush 2016. I'd tell him to ask his brother Billy to look up a 2005 Access Hollywood interview with Donald Trump, which can be released shortly before Iowa to sink him.

Bush still loses but the country is better off without Trump as president.

*cousin
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darklordoftech
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« Reply #36 on: February 19, 2021, 08:21:38 PM »

I’d prevent Gary Hart from meeting Donna Rice.
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« Reply #37 on: February 19, 2021, 10:47:14 PM »
« Edited: February 19, 2021, 10:51:19 PM by laddicus finch »

Sanders 2020:

1. Tone down the specifities on new big spending programs, which made him vulnerable to the idea that he's unrealistic and unelectable. Instead, focus your rhetoric on taking on real and perceived corruption in Washington and Wall St. I think the latter would have helped him with a lot of self-identified moderates and some minorities. (EDIT: also, he always seemed more comfortable with the populist stuff than the wonky stuff)

2. Hire better people. Folks like David Sirota and Nina Turner really seemed to believe that the centrist lane would remain divided long enough that Bernie would emerge as the clear frontrunner, which was risky at best and foolish at worst.
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laddicus finch
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« Reply #38 on: February 19, 2021, 10:49:35 PM »

Yang 2020 (not that he would ever have won, but his influence on the party may have been greater):

Don't make UBI the flagship campaign promise. I get that he needed a shtick to get traction, and I'm not entirely sure what that could have been, but "free money for all" made him seem completely unserious to most voters.
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laddicus finch
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« Reply #39 on: February 19, 2021, 10:55:00 PM »

Dukakis '88: "Bernard, that's a loaded question and you know it."

The cold response is just his personality though, it's really hard to see him give a good response to that. Plus I don't think the Dukakis team expected such a question to be asked.

More broadly though, being more "tough-on-crime" would have helped him and probably saved him from being asked that infamous question. I know that wasn't his ideological conviction on crime, but this was the 1980's baby, tough on crime was in vogue.
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Chips
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« Reply #40 on: February 20, 2021, 10:51:09 PM »

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The Houstonian
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« Reply #41 on: February 22, 2021, 12:27:38 AM »

Sanders 2016: Improve outreach to black voters
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EJ24
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« Reply #42 on: February 22, 2021, 04:48:11 PM »

Sanders 2016: Improve outreach to black voters

This was arguably even more important in 2020. Bernie had the wind totally at his back before South Carolina, in which the black vote decimated his chances.
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The Houstonian
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« Reply #43 on: February 22, 2021, 07:57:12 PM »

Sanders 2016: Improve outreach to black voters

This was arguably even more important in 2020. Bernie had the wind totally at his back before South Carolina, in which the black vote decimated his chances.

2016 was his year, 2020 was not
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Flyersfan232
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« Reply #44 on: February 24, 2021, 07:51:37 AM »

convince jared kushner to  cheat to on invanka in 2019 and get then blackmail him into retirement.
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If my soul was made of stone
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« Reply #45 on: February 24, 2021, 09:58:34 AM »

to Carter in 76: trade Mondale for Udall (Church might be even better, but he might have also overshadowed Carter a bit, much like Dukakis/Bentsen later on)
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darklordoftech
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« Reply #46 on: February 24, 2021, 11:18:28 AM »
« Edited: February 24, 2021, 11:50:33 AM by darklordoftech »

To Gore in 2000: Talk about Bin Laden/Al-Qaeda/terrorism whenever possible. Don’t talk about guns, music, or video games.

To Senator Hillary Clinton: Vote against the Iraq War and the bankruptcy bill.
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dw93
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« Reply #47 on: February 24, 2021, 11:28:12 PM »

to Carter in 76: trade Mondale for Udall (Church might be even better, but he might have also overshadowed Carter a bit, much like Dukakis/Bentsen later on)

Why? Mondale ended up becoming the best Vice President of the last 50 years and one of the best in history.
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