Nationalizing the election

Donald Lambro is writing about how the Republicans plan to "nationalize" the election. The Party faces the problem that a number of House seats currently occupied by Republicans are in swing districts which are leaning Democrat this year.

Their strategy involves reminding the citizens that a vote for the Democrat candidate is not just a vote for that one man or woman, but is a vote for the entire rogues’ gallery of Democrat leadership:

. . . the GOP is looking for ways to remind voters that, like Pelosi, the Democrats' leftist leadership is far outside the nation's political mainstream.

They have been doing just that lately in congressional races where the Republicans are considered vulnerable. Like Indiana's 8th district where Republican Rep. John Hostettler faces challenger Brad Ellsworth, sheriff of Vanderburgh County. The NRCC is running a TV ad there that tells voters: "Here's something to think about. Democrats in Congress believe that your taxes should be higher to pay for their bigger government. They believe wiretapping of terrorist communications violates civil liberties. And Congressional Democrats believe that illegal immigrants should get amnesty. No matter how you slice it, a vote for Brad Ellsworth is a vote to put these Democrats in charge of Congress. But their agenda is just too risky."

This ad in one variation or another is being run in a number of other districts where Republicans are at risk and, if the polls are accurate, with significant success. The ad not only plants doubts in the minds of swing Democrats and independents, it will motivate Republican turnout, too, GOP officials tell me. The RNC research papers that will be churned out for the remainder of this election cycle -- e-mailed to the GOP's vast list of 15 million activists -- will reinforce these ads and provide fodder for other ads to come.

It is good to see the GOP taking some action. The greatest asset which Republicans will have in this election is the Democrat Party. The unbelievably wretched state of the educational system in the US, from the public schools to the Ivy League colleges, guarantees that the majority of the population will be so ignorant of economics, history and civics as to think that the Democrat Party will be better at domestic issues like Social Security reform, healthcare and the environment.

This leaves Republicans with national security and law enforcement as their strongest areas. Reminding people that the most urgent issues facing the nation today are the war on terror and illegal immigration – problems whose solution involves the use of the military and agencies of law enforcement cannot but help the GOP cause.