We need to frame this as the "Republican shutdown"

[LiberalEsto]

or the "Republican ideological shutdown"

Is anyone in our party trying to do that?

[monmouth]

1. The media makes that decision, sadly..Dems will be seen as

uncooperative or some other such garbage..

[ClassWarrior]

2. Yes, just give up. We're totally powerless.

:eyes:

NGU.

[emulatorloo]

3. Yes, Harry Reid for example. Obama has called it political grandstanding

Several dems on hardball, rachel maddow etc etc. Everybody is emphasizing the human cost of the shutdown, and talking about how the Republicans are engaging in culture war stuff.

[LiberalEsto]

4. I'm aware of that. They need to marry the two words

Republican and shutdown together like horse and carriage, love and marriage, soup and sandwich. It needs to be a mantra. That's how framing works.

[Tippy]

5. Throw in rethugs don't care if women die.....(cancer screanings and such...)

[LiberalEsto]

6. +1000

Brand them as "woman-killers"

or "uterus killers"

[Quist]

7. Won't that make...

Obama seem weak as hell?
I mean, it makes it sound like he's not the president, that we don't have the White House, and that the GOPers are running the country.

[NCarolinawoman]

8. No, it won't make him look weak.

Bill clinton, back in'95, blamed the shutdown specifically on Newt Gengrich and the Republicans. Clinton came out of it all looking stronger.

Clinton got into a lot of specifics in his address to the country--kind of educated them for a change.

[ehrnst]

9. Pap Smear Police. (nt)

[flamingdem]

11. hah ! nt

[svsuman23]

10. ya blame the repukes for something our dem congress (when we had one)

Couldn't pass a damn budget. I'm sick of this shit.

[littlewolf]

13. that is why this may not turn out like it did for Clinton

.... we are still trying to pass 2011 budget ... and budget that was suppose to have been passed
in Oct 2010 ... ya know back when the Dems held both houses and the WH ....

[ehrnst]

15. I think the last time a budget got passed on time was 1998. (nt)

[doc03]

12. There are numerous Republicans on record calling for a

government shutdown over the last 7-8 months, I don't know of any Democrats. There should already be an ad waiting to play with Bachmann, Rand Paul and all the others publicly calling for a government shutdown if they don't get their way. If Democrats can't pin that on them, I f---g give up. I'll bet all the right wing groups have ads playing on TV within 12 hours putting all the blame on Democrats. The Democrats will fall for the bait and make it a argument about abortion.

[PATRICK]

14. It seemed like last time

it was seen as a showdown between Gingrich(Contract on America) and Clinton because that was how the GOP and its putative leader wanted it to be. Gingrich not only blinked he had his legs cut off in his attempt to get some Clinton magic for his own future run. It is all "don't blame me" fog of diffused blame while Obama is allowed to mainly coast above the fray in his current position as unassailable in 2012. The media is going with the new GOP talking points, loonier than before of course, but promising less dramatic losses for the GOP overall. There is a lot more than the shutdown to worry about this time as well. Wars, financial crisis, other disasters.

The last time they turned their insane guns for impeachment when all else failed. The barrage continues unabated to prop up their otherwise unsustainable politics until the gumby Dem leadership finally enables an implausible irrational GOP victory. Two incompetent party tops locking their short horns with innocent Americans caught between.