Democratic Presidential Stand-in Candidates, Rallies, Needed

[metamars]

Although this suggestion is a little odd, even by my standards, it might be worth a try.

Since McCain is a done deal, but HRC will drag this out to the very end, you have an asymetrical situation. In this situation, the Democrats would do well to think like insurgents, and practice asymetrical warfare. :D

So, while Obama and Clinton are focussing on the remaining states, you can have Stand-In Candidates (SIC's - no pun intended) shadowing McCain outside of those states. (If it is impractical to shadow McCain, no matter. Real guerrilla warfare requires picking the time and place, anyway.) The SIC's would be speakers at combined campaign rallies, where they combine:
1) disclosure and reminders of McCain's negatives
2) proclamations and reminders of Obama's and Clinton's positions (which, we hope are construed as positives :D )
3) Obama supporters and Clinton supporters making nice
4) appeals for get-out-the-vote volunteers, and all sorts of other grass-roots efforts
5) appeals for the public to contribute to the candidacy of their choice - either Obama or Clinton. And to do so both before the convention and afterwards.
6) the events themselves could be fund-raisers, via a cover charge

With respect to "1) disclosure and reminders of McCain's negatives", where he is clearly at odds with Obama and Clinton, the SIC's can, and should, e.g., be making hay about his "staying 100 years in Iraq" stupidity. Certainly both Obama and Clinton would. Another meme that I think both Obama and Clinton would do well to emphasize is that in many respects, a McCain presidency would be a replay of the Bush presidency. In this regard, they should point out how much the national debt has soared, that it represents a tax on younger generations, and they should do the math for the not-too-bright American public to explain what another 8 years of fiscal irresponsibility will mean for their children.

Of course, if there's one idea, consistent with 1), that should be pushed above all others, its the fact that Bush's war on terror is a collosal failure. IIRC, the government found this so embarassing that they stopped keeping statical count, but I seem to remember that terrorism has increased by about 7 fold under GWB. So, McCain's outrageous strategy of trying to taint Democrats as surrenderers to terrorists should be the number one thing that should come out at every SIC rally. Bush has made the country less safe, all the while squandering a trillion or so that could have bought X, Y, Z for the American public. The fact that McCain will be happy to do likewise should alarm the public, which needs to be reminded of just how bad Bush's record is, all the while costing them 100's of billions of dollars.

With respect to "2) proclamations and reminders of Obama's and Clinton's positions", the SIC's can go into details regarding differences between Obama and McCain. The 'trick' here is to do so impartially and accurately. Since we are talking prepared speeches here, and not debates, this is extremely easy to do. For content, you just make sure that whatever talking point or issue is being elaborated has been vetted by the respective campaign organization. So, accuracy is no problem. Impartiality is no problem either - just make sure that both Obama's and Clinton's portions are quantitatively within 10% of each other (in terms of number of words), and that the order in which each candidates' remarks are read by the SIC's is alternated.

I don't think 3) and 4) need any elaboration. Actually, on proof-reading, I do. In order for Obama and Clinton supporters to make nice, the SIC rallies should not allow for any attacks on either Obama or Clinton. The focus is Obama vs. McCain and Clinton vs. McCain. If Obama and Clinton want to attack each other, they can easily do so outside of a SIC rally.


Finally, who should these SIC's be?

Well, Al Gore comes to mind. :D Essentially you want people who are well-known Democrats that aren't polarizing. My best guess as to what people you could have besides Al Gore is simply this: get all of the Democratic Presidential candidates: Biden, Dodd, Kucinich etc. Throw in Howard Dean, a bunch of Hollywood and rock-and-roll liberals for entertainment, and you'd have yourself a real shin-dig, which would simultaneously remind the voters what a lousy choice McCain would make for President.

So, basically I recommend having a SIC rally every week or two until the convention, in the states that have already had their primaries, and to be presented by ALL of the following: Al Gore, Howard Dean, plus all of the Presidential candidates.


Finally, to make the SIC rallies more fun, they might consider deputizing one of the SIC's to be a Stand-In McCain. They could even use make-up artists and have a white-haired wig. Maybe even a cane, for John McCane. (Get it?) A little exaggeration could be very funny. 100 years in Iraq could become 1,000,000. Look what torture did for me. I'm going to hire the Beach Boys to be my foreign policy advisors. Etc., etc.


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Well, that's the memo.