What advice would you give the candidates?

[JaJae]

If you were the campaign manager for each of the major campaigns, what advice would you give them?

McCain:
He needs to drop the POW references in every one of his ads and focus more on the economy and foreign policy experience. By the time November rolls around everyone will know he is a POW, the pundits will drive it home without his assistance in every speech and ad. I respect him for what he went through, but I don't like that he consistently uses it as a political crutch and I think if he keeps driving this issue home eventually people will get annoyed. He has two major issues going in his favor, foreign policy experience and trust with the economy. This is what he needs to focus on and he needs to explain why the Hillary and Obama's proposals would be damaging to our economy. If he can explain it to the American people in a way that shows he knows what he is talking about, he has a very good chance of winning in November. If he continues to promote his POW status and run non-effective self flattering TV spots he'll lose.

Clinton:
She obviously needs to stop lying. That's the first thing she needs to do and it will have the greatest effect on her campaign. It may have gone too far and gotten too out of control by now for her to fix it though. The other major issue is she needs to fix her image on "experience." A lot of people bought her rhetoric of experience and now her image is ruined. What's the first image that pops in your head when she says she has foreign policy experience Obama doesn't have? If you said, Bosnia, I'm willing to bet you're in line with most Democrats. Hillary needs to correct this issue immediately. This was her strongest issue and now it seems it's gone into the gutter. Obama is beating her by larger margins than ever, and this is after the Wright situation.

Obama:
He needs to focus on McCain. He did that for Super Tuesday 2 and got his tushy kicked, but he's developed enough of a lead that he should start to focus more on McCain. To do this and to help deflect some of Hillary's assaults without actually responding to every charge he should get on national television and give a speech regarding the math of the race. He should spell it out plainly and realistically being fair to Clinton at every chance he can. If he does this the Democratic party will realize that Hillary doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the primary, unlike what the media has been saying. At that point he'd be justified when he focuses on McCain. If he does a good job at explaining the numbers and being overly fair to Hillary, I think the media will respect it and they'll repeat it. The plain reality is that it's virtually impossible for Hillary to win the delegate count or the popular vote. And her odds of being handed the nomination by super delegates without either of these is slim to none.

[kinggovernor]

McCain - Drive home how liberal Obama is.
Clinton - Save whatever face you have left and drop out
Obama - Stop worrying about Hillary and move on to McCain

[7960]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

Obama - Stop worrying about Hillary and move on to McCain

How awesome would it be if he just ignored clinton and started his campaign against McCain...if he just pretended she already dropped out, didn't acknowledge she's even in the race.



clinton: quit
obama: gather a group of experienced people in every facet of govt and let everyone know that yours will be an open administration and these are the people you can count on for answers

McCain: write down everything hillary says, write down everything obama says, read the applicable card at the debate

[7960]

Originally Posted by 7960

How awesome would it be if he just ignored clinton and started his campaign against McCain...if he just pretended she already dropped out, didn't acknowledge she's even in the race.

I should run a campaign.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VP7C400&show_article=1

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama is talking about the elephant in the room—Republican rival John McCain—and all but ignoring the Democratic donkey who stands between him and his party's presidential nomination.

[RMNIXON]

McCain needs to shore up his views on the economy. The Democrats are already getting away with very vague talking points about how the government will fix everything. He needs to explain why this simply will not work and could drag out a recession. His VP pick should have solid economic credentials like Jack Kemp, but perhaps not so old. And don't overdue the POW stuff as already suggested.

Clinton might save herself for another run if she does not tear the party apart in her desperation. My bet is she won't follow good sound advice from anybody! The younger Obama crowd has her thinking this is her only chance and she may be right?

Obama needs to play it cool and let Clinton make more mistakes. They can't touch each other on issues, so they wait for the mistakes of the other. He wants to keep a solid lead in both popular and electoral votes. He may also want to show McCain he is ready to take him on, but it will be issue driven and he needs to be careful. I don't think his previous attempt to distract from his own views on Iraq with the B.S. 100 years war remarks went over very well outside of far leftists who eat up false anti-Republican talking points. He needs to make this an honest debate.