Among the things that I harp on with students is that each slide in their pitches should be explicitly “conclusive” or “prescriptive”.
That is, tell the audience the answer, don’t make them figure it out on their own. Otherwise, they might draw the wrong conclusion or no conclusion at all.
I wish McCain had taken one of my courses. Last night, Obama artfully dodged and weaved. He gave McCain opportunities, but McCain never went in for the kill. For example,
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On the subject of tax cuts to 95% of Americans, here’s what I was hoping McCain would say:
“Senator, since 40% of workers don’t pay any income taxes (thanks largely to the Bush tax plan) how can you give them tax cuts? You’re not giving tax cuts, you’re rebuilding the welfare system that Pres. Ciinton dismantled. What don’t you just call it what it is — welfare?” , or
“Senator, the core of you tax plan is to tax businesses — large and small — and give $500 credits to 95% of workers. That works out to be about $1.37 per day. Higher taxes on businesses will raise prices (which is bad for all) — and will cut jobs. Do you really think that workers are willing to bet their jobs for a little over a buck a day?”
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On the subject of Obama’s sleazy associations:
“Senator, you attended Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years and didn’t hear his anti-American rants — the Rev. Wright of today isn’t the man you knew; you worked with and for Bill Ayres — a self-admitted terrorist — who isn’t the man you knew; you funneled government money to Tony Rezko — a convicted felon — but not the man you knew; your campaign gave almost $1 million to ACORN — an organization that has been tied to voter fraud in the last 2 presidential elections and is being investigated in 11 states as we speak — but that’s not the organization you knew. Senator, if these despicable characters can fool you for so long, why should we have confidence that you won’t be fooled by people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?”
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Instead, McCain let it to the audience to draw their own conclusions. My bet: they concluded “so what?”
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October 16, 2008 at 6:02 pm |
Ayers is such an interesting issue.
I can’t tell anybody how to feel about Ayers, but I certainly hope people will at least do their own research and draw their own conclusions about his terrorist status (c’mon, all you need to do is put his name in google!).
In 2008 Vietnam still seems to carry more significance than the Iraq war we are currently fighting. I assume that we would all feel differently if there were a draft rather than an all volunteer army.
How on earth has it become so easy for our government to fight wars and squander tax-payer money with little or no feedback from the people? How many of us will feel like Ayers 30 years from now – that we should have done more?
Maybe we all agree with Ms. Palin. Somehow seeing our country as imperfect is not patriotic…