Ronald Reagan | Messaging Matters

Five historic reasons why Biden is the one to beat Trump

Written on July 7, 2024 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

An “impaired” president and his wife

Since President Joe Biden‘s debate against Donald Trump on June 27, there has been a media feeding frenzy about Biden’s “performance” on TV. First, that kind of framing turns the position of president into something superficial, and leads to having actors and reality TV hosts vault to the top of voter preferences. No wonder Trump got himself elected once.

Fortunately, in the current presidential election, we have actual experience from history indicating that Joe Biden, who is not only the incumbent president but also the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is once again the best choice to beat Trump again. That experience can be boiled down here to five lessons from history. The first three such lessons were mentioned in our post from a few days ago, and we can simply repeat them here:

Moreover, changing presidential nominees — or worse yet, presidents — in the middle of an election is a prescription for disaster. In March 1968, for example, with the country in turmoil over the Vietnam War and amid harsh criticism from Democrats, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election. The result was Republican President Richard Nixon. Likewise, in 1972, a lack of vetting of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, led to surprise revelations about his mental health. After a tumultuous period, Eagleton was forced off the ticket and hastily replaced. The result was a massive Republican landslide, and the re-election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Then in 1980, Sen. Ted Kennedy launched a vicious primary challenge to incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter. The Democrats lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in another landslide. While the mainstream media may love political instability, American voters do not.

These three lessons can be considered cautionary tales, i.e., reasons not to dump incumbent President Joe Biden just four months before the election. Biden was subject to primaries during the first half of this year, and obviously, that would have been the time to challenge his fitness to serve another term. President Biden won those primaries, and more than enough delegates to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, easily.

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Tags: 2024 Election, Bernie Sanders, debate, Democrats, Donald Trump, Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, New Deal, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Social Security, World War II

Lessons from the Biden – Trump presidential debate

Written on June 28, 2024 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

President Joe Biden on Memorial Day 2024

Last night, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump held their first presidential debate of 2024. We had predicted that the debate, hosted by CNN at its Atlanta studios with no live audience, would be “a bust.” It was, but in a slightly different way than we had thought. Many viewers and analysts seem to agree that Trump told tons of lies but was forceful and dynamic, and Biden told the truth but gave a very weak performance. We then learned afterward that Biden had a cold, which gave him a hoarse voice and other ill effects that hindered his performance.

The election is happening in just over four months, and a second, and probably final, debate between Biden and Trump is scheduled for September 10 on ABC. Presumably, Trump feels he did just fine last night and doesn’t have to do anything different next time. Thus, the question for Biden and the Democrats is, what lessons can be learned, and what is the best course going forward to maximize the chances of winning the election? Several things come to mind:

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Tags: 2024 Election, 2024 presidential debates, abortion, Barack Obama, CNN, Democrats, Donald Trump, Normandy, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Roe v. Wade, Ronald Reagan, Supreme Court

Florida and the myth of Republican “smaller government”

Written on March 16, 2023 by Messaging Matters in Good Government, Republican Messaging, Republican Myths

Republican idea of smaller government

At least since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has tried to brand itself as the party of “smaller government.” Sometimes they add “and lower taxes.” Indeed, Republican anti-tax activist and Reagan ally Grover Norquist once famously stated that:

I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Presumably, such an identification tests well among GOP faithful, including today’s MAGA base, who sadly vote against their own self-interests based on race-baiting and other cultural hot-buttons such as abortion and guns. As an initial matter, however, plenty of polls indicate that most Americans don’t want small government. Rather, they like a full-size, robust “good government,” as we like to call it. That includes, for example, Social Security, Medicare, good highways, public schools, the U.S. Postal Service, a competent FEMA to assist with major emergencies such as hurricanes, universal background checks for gun sales, and more. Likewise, most Americans oppose federal government shutdowns, and correctly blame Republicans when they occur.

But even if most Americans wanted smaller government, the Republican myth that they are the ones who deliver that is false. A perfect case in point is Florida, which is almost entirely Republican-run under Governor (and likely 2024 GOP presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis, along with a state Senate that is 70 percent Republican and a state House that is similarly 71 percent GOP. In Florida, far from the Republican myth of “smaller government,” the GOP state government is huge and extremely intrusive. Here are some examples:

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Tags: 2024 Election, abortion, books, Disney, education, Florida, GOP, Grover Norquist, LGBTQ, libraries, racism, Republican Party, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, Ronald Reagan, schools

The significance of Gigi Sohn’s nomination for FCC Commissioner

Written on February 15, 2023 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch

FCC nominee Gigi Sohn

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held its third confirmation hearing in 15 months on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The reason why Sohn, who is President Joe Biden‘s choice to fill the fifth FCC Commissioner slot to give the Democrats a 3-2 majority, has not yet been confirmed to her post (or even advanced to a Senate vote) is that apparently all Senate Republicans and a few conservative Senate Democrats oppose her on various grounds:

–First, Senate Republicans would likely oppose any of President Biden’s FCC nominees, in order to maintain this crucial agency at its current gridlocked state of two Democratic and two Republican Commissioners, preventing Biden and the Democrats from doing the business of the American people.

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Tags: 2020 Elections, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Democrats, Fairness Doctrine, FCC, Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn, Internet, Mark Fowler, Media Access Project, Net Neutrality, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Ronald Reagan, U.S. Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris

Kasie Hunt begins CNN tenure with ludicrous take on California recall election

Written on September 16, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch

CNN, where reporting gives way to feelings

Just one week after arriving at CNN after her stint at MSNBC, “analyst” Kasie Hunt came out with an unbelievably bad take when California Governor Gavin Newsom won his recall election in a landslide on Tuesday night:

CA GOV BIG PICTURE: One of the top Democrats in the country got caught living like an elite while everyone else suffered. Elites vs. the rest is the driving force in our politics right now and Democrats have a tough needle to thread both in California & nationwide … (1/)

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021

Hunt followed that up with:

Obviously California is a Special Place — but the fact that a Democratic national star in waiting *faced* a recall and then had to fight hard for it midway through the campaign does say a lot about the potential challenges Democrats face across the map (4/)

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021

And then, even though President Joe Biden had flown to California to help Newsom win impressively, Hunt couldn’t resist attacking Biden:

…especially if President Biden can't demonstrate he's capable of getting the resurgent pandemic under control, has another competence crisis a la Afghanistan, can't get his budget plan through Congress, etc. (fin)

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 15, 2021

Leave it to the folks on Twitter, however, to set things straight. Here are a few of the many choice tweets that, to put it nicely, might make Kasie Hunt think twice about prioritizing “garbage takes” over solid reporting in the future:

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Tags: Afghanistan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, California, California Recall, Casie Hunt, Clint Eastwood, CNN, Fox News, Gavin Newsome, Larry Elder, MSNBC, President Joe Biden, Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Twitter, Wolf Blitzer

The speech that set off the MAGA terrorists — in 1992

Written on February 3, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Right wing terrorists erect gallows and noose at U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021

If you do not recognize the name Patrick Buchanan, he is the right wing Republican extremist who years ago helped motivate the MAGA types whose successors are harming America and threatening U.S. government officials today. Buchanan’s long background in Republican politics encompasses work for GOP presidents from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan. This work included writing speeches filled with red meat for the Republican base, and coining the term “Silent Majority” for Nixon, a white power dog whistle. In between these White House stints, Buchanan was the co-host of CNN‘s Crossfire (note: the author worked on the Crossfire program), pioneering the “food fight” format that is so prevalent on cable TV news today, where Buchanan bullied many liberal guests. When Buchanan went to work for President Ronald Reagan, he caused controversy by criticizing Israel “and its amen corner in the United States,” and continued a long-running apology campaign for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Buchanan Nazi apology tour reached its nadir when Buchanan encouraged Reagan to visit a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany where members of the Waffen-SS were buried, and to say that these Nazi soldiers “were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.”

Trump Coronavirus failures mirror Republican failures of government

Written on March 27, 2020 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Normally crowded, now nearly empty Sixth Ave. in Manhattan

Donald Trump‘s timeline of failures in addressing the Coronavirus (COVID-19) health emergency is now well-known. This includes severely downplaying the crisis, even calling it a “hoax,” for many crucial weeks; failing to take strong action such as ordering a national lockdown or even using the Defense Production Act; and having his subordinates say things like:

–the spread of Coronavirus in China will “help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America” (Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross); and

–“We have contained this …. it’s pretty close to airtight” (National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow).

Unfortunately, Trump’s lack of preparedness for the Coronavirus even after being warned of a possible pandemic, and lack of action after the crisis began, reflects the Republican philosophy of government, and is something we have seen from Republicans before.

Donald Trump, the Great Divider

Written on September 26, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Armed white supremacist in Charlottesville, VA

Successful presidents of both political parties are usually the ones who, in times of crisis or difficulty, rise above partisanship and unite America. There are many examples of this, from Abraham Lincoln literally keeping the Union together, to Franklin Roosevelt leading us against Germany and Japan in World War 2, to Ronald Reagan eulogizing the Challenger Space Shuttle astronauts or calling upon Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, Bill Clinton soothing a shocked America after the Oklahoma City bombing, George W. Bush standing with firefighters at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks, and Barack Obama successfully hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden. We may not agree with the policies these presidents pursue after such crises (for example, Bush’s Iraq War), but at least for a time, these leaders make us feel like we’re part of one big, strong nation.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with Donald Trump. Rather than being a Great Uniter, he has repeatedly proven himself to be the Great Divider, usually along racial and ethnic lines. Indeed, Trump essentially begun his presidential run during Barack Obama’s presidency by being one of the head cheerleaders in the “birther” movement, which questioned Obama’s Americanism and his birth certificate. Trump then ran his own presidential campaign in a divisive manner from the get-go, saying in his presidential announcement speech about Mexican immigrants:

They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.

From there, Trump has pitted one group (often his base of white males) against another, including the following partial list:

The allure of the phony Republican anecdote

Written on March 17, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Good Government, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

Surf and Turf, a staple of food stamp recipients’ diets according to GOP.

Humans are a storytelling species. Thus, it’s no surprise that narratives — essentially, ongoing story lines — are an important part of successful political communication. In Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative, we mentioned that it is valuable to:

craft a true but negative story about your opponents’ ideas, actions or positions, and then look for statements or actions by them that you can point to as furthering that narrative.

Republicans are very good at constructing narratives (for example, “Scary Brown People”); however, many Republican narratives are false. That’s why you will see the GOP using anecdotes, i.e., possibly false or possibly true stories involving as few as one person, to further their phony narratives, rather than citing any meaningful facts, evidence or accurate math.

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Tags: anecdote, food stamps, narrative, Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, Scary Brown People

John Glenn, Good Government hero

Written on December 12, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Good Government

NASA astronauts John Glenn (C), Alan Shepard (R) and Gus Grissom (L)

John Glenn, one of America’s heroes of the 20th Century, died last Thursday at age 95. Glenn was a highly decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, rising to the level of Colonel. Then, as immortalized in the book and movie “The Right Stuff,” Glenn was chosen as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, where he became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Glenn went on to serve four terms as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, and he even returned to space at age 77, the oldest person ever to do so. In between, Glenn ran for president in the 1984 Democratic Party primaries.

What do all of John Glenn’s heroic accomplishments have in common? They were all done as part of the U.S. Government.

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Tags: Breitbart, Donald Trump, Fox News, John Glenn, Mercury Seven, NASA, Ronald Reagan, The Right Stuff

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