Yesterday I had the oppourtunity to visit the RNC's temporary
headquarters here in Denver, where they hope to play skunks in the
Democrats' garden party. Located near Denver's downtown, it has the
feel of 24's CTU -- to gain access I had to
drive into a back alley, flash credentials, and have a security
guard open a black gate into a small parking lot. Inside, the
offices have a rapid response war room, a TV-ready press conference
room, and lots of flat screen televisions playing news.
All of the RNC's communications' staff as well as some McCain
folks have made the trip to Denver (about two dozen people in all),
and each day the HQ will host a different surrogate who will try to
undermine the Democratic convention's theme of the day. The lineup
includes Carly Fiorina and Democrats supporting McCain on Monday,
Mitt Romney on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, and Tim
Pawlenty on Thursday.
I asked Chairman Mike Duncan if this was a sort of shadow
convention. "They've got their own shadow convention," Duncan said,
referring to the disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters. "We're
just commenting on it."
The theme of the Republican response is Not Ready '08 (see
website here) with the slogan "a mile high and an
inch deep," which I don't think makes much sense, to be honest.
I asked Duncan how the RNC expected to respond to several
attacks we'd expect to hear from the Democrats over the course of
the week.
McCain is out of touch with the economic anxiety of Americans
because he can't recall how many houses he has? Duncan responded by
noting Tony Rezko, and then arguing that Obama's plans to raise
taxes and oppose drilling to reduce gas prices shows that he's out
of touch.
How about the argument that the agreement between Iraq and the
U.S. to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2011
demonstrates that everybody now agrees with Obama's call for a
timetable? Duncan said that Obama opposed the surge that made talk
of withdrawal possible and that Joe Biden supported dividing up
Iraq, which is opposed by many Iraqis.
The overall response to Biden pick has several layers -- that
Biden repeatedly said that Obama wasn't ready while offering praise
for McCain, that the choice of Biden demonstrates that Obama knew
he was "lacking on foreign policy," and they are "birds of a
feather" domestically, especially when it comes to raising
taxes.
topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Television, Iraq
