It Takes Some Brass

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MESSAGING HIGHLIGHTS

My fellow Americans, you have to decide what kind of country you want to live in....If you want a future of shared prosperity, where the middle class is growing and poverty is declining, where the American Dream is alive and well, and where the United States remains the leading force for peace and prosperity in a highly competitive world....

We think "we're all in this together" is a better philosophy than "you're on your own."

The Republican argument against the President's re-election was pretty simple: we left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.

Their number one priority was not to put America back to work, but to put President Obama out of work.

We simply can't afford to double-down on trickle-down.

It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.

--President Bill Clinton

This is a great country.

An America that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class; that allowed millions of children to rise from poverty and establish secure lives.

An America that created Social Security and Medicare so that seniors could live with dignity.

An America in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better.

A country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science, and in the future, so we can create new opportunities, so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that.

We don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people.

We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged.

Americans are fighters...If we have the chance to fight on a level playing field -- where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot -- then no one can stop us.

The Republican vision is clear: "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own."

Republicans say they don't believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends.

--Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ROMNEY LIE: "Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill."
RESPONSE:

• Take it from the President who signed welfare reform into law: as Clinton said, that's just not true -- the requirement was for more work, not less. 
• The number of people Obama let out of work requirements? Zero. The number of people Romney is lying to about it? Millions.
• The truth is that Obama's welfare reform policy gives governors more flexibility to cut through the red tape and move people into real jobs -- but only if they move MORE people into jobs.
• It's just like the flexibility Romney sought as governor of Massachusetts. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you wanted -- and then to keep lying about it!

ROMNEY LIE: "Obama robbed Medicare by $700 billion."
RESPONSE:

• It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did -- and then to keep lying about it! Romney and Ryan had the exact same savings in their plan, too.
• Actually, Obamacare does not cut Medicare benefits by a dime. It keeps Medicare whole. It just cuts waste and abuse out of Medicare for its own good and reinvests the savings in our health care, extending the life of the trust fund by almost a decade.
• In contrast, the Romney-Ryan plan cuts Medicare today and tomorrow, for today's seniors and tomorrow's seniors. It increases out-of-pocket costs for today's seniors and cuts up Medicare into a voucher system for tomorrow's seniors, ending Medicare as we know it.
• Ask yourself: who do you trust on Medicare? The Democratic party that created Medicare and fought for half a century to protect it -- or them?

ATTACK: "Obama can't say the American people are better off than four years ago."
RESPONSE:

• Here's the Republican argument against the President's re-election in a nutshell: we left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.
• Are we better off than we were when the President inherited an economy in free fall, losing almost a million jobs each month? The answer is yes.
• But are we where we want to be? No. Is the President satisfied? No. He'd be the first to say that Americans are still struggling and we have to do more and keep moving forward.
• Here are the questions we should ask: do we want to move forward or go back to the same Bush policies that wrecked our economy? Who do we want to be as Americans and what kind of a future for America will we choose?

ATTACK: "How dare anyone say I didn't build my own business."
RESPONSE:

• If you're a business owner, well done! The business you run is a testament to your hard work and the sacrifices you've made -- and to our great country that made your success possible.
• And when you've gone through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you -- you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.
• That's how it's supposed to be in America. We invest in our country and in our people, so we can create new opportunities -- so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that. 
• We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged -- that's why President Obama has been fighting all along to give all of us a fighting chance.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.