“The Republicans have now given us their plan. And they’ve been pretty straightforward all along. I’ll give it to them. They’ve said, if you vote for us, we want o repeal healthcare, we want to repeal financial reform oversight, we want to repeal the student loan reform, we want to begin to privatize Social Security and Medicare. And whatever other things they’ve said.
I think that the Democrats ought to put on one card no more than five and no fewer than three things that will be their priorities. We’ve still got a chance here. We’ve got 30 days to have an honest debate. We ought to do it. So far this election has been about stuff that’s not going to affect people’s lives now, at least not directly.
Secondly, I know how easy it is to lose control of the debate. It happened to me in ’93 and ’94. But remember the gift Newt Gingrich gave America, political science gift. Newt Gingrich proved with that “Contract For America” that you could nationalize midterm elections. So, I think that the president and the Democrats, even at this late date, should view this as an opportunity and an obligation to say, ‘All right, they’ve organized their national plan. Here’s what ours is. If you hire us for 2 more years, here’s what we’re going to do.’”
The Pledge to America campaign is one that the republicans hope will give them a stepping stone for the 2012 presidential election as well as the smaller elections taking place this November for Senate seats and Governor seats. Whether it works, we don’t know, but a lot of democrats seem to realize that the republicans are on to something with this latest pledge. Clinton happens to be one of them.
Will the democrats counter punch the pledge made by the GOP or will they simply sit back and hope that the republicans make some mistakes?
