Develop a new campaign strategy. For years, the Democrats have tried to run absurd 50-state campaigns late into the fall, limping through obvious no-win states. The Democrats should target enough states to give them the 270 votes in the Electoral College needed to win.
Also, the Democrats need to stream-line their message. Every piece of campaign literature and every TV spot should be focused around two or three central issues. Mike Dukakis was tossed by Bush from Crime one week to defense the next week to taxes the next. The result was a defensive Democratic campaign with little focus.
Attack on the issues. Negative campaigning gets bad press, but it wins lots of votes. The Democrats must start the battle early. Bush must be battered for appeasing Saddam Hussein until last August and abandoning the Kurds after encouraging a rebellion. And right now, it looks as though Saddam will remain in power at least through 1992; Gore and others must continue to charge Bush with giving up too soon.
On the domestic front, the attacks should be even stronger. The Democrats should relentlessly trumpet Bush's idiotic "no new taxes" pledge all across the airwaves. If the jobless rate continues to climb, they should focus on issues of prosperity and the increasingly uneven income distribution of the 1980s. The Democrats must avoid calling for massive increases in social spending and affirmative action programs, but popular Republican attacks on the tax-and-spenders can be answered with attacks on Republican "borrow-and-spend" economic policy.
The Democratic candidate should slam Bush for breaking a slew of promises to protect the environment (Gore's pet issue) and to increase funding for education (Clinton's). The Democrats should continue to fight for stronger gun control laws, especially now that Ronald Reagan has partially relented on the issue. The popular Dukakis plan to extend health insurance to the 37 million uninsured Americans could also be revived.
Finally, the Democrats should hammer home their pro-choice stance on abortion rights. Republican convention battles over the issue should stand in stark contrast to firm Democratic support for women's rights.
THIS KIND of strategy is what it will take to get a Democrat elected. Some Democrats, including myself, will find that it gives up some of the ideals that made them choose the party. But at this point, more is at stake than just losing the White House for the sixth time in the last seven elections. If Bush coasts to the presidency without a struggle, he could drag along both a Republican majority in the Senate and significant gains in the House.
Those who argue that such a strategy will drive away the Democratic foundation of Blacks, liberals and the elderly are simply wrong. In stark terms, these voters have nowhere else to go.
George Bush is not George Washington. He will not waltz into office with the full and unequivocal support of all Americans. But he will win if the Democrats allow him to run against someone in the McGovern-Mondale mould.
The Democrats have only a few months to learn the political lessons of the last 20 years. If they don't, they might never regain the Oval Office.