Democrat State Committee Continues a Failed Press Strategy

Someone from Washington should call John Wisniewski and let him know that Bush references are so 2008, and haven’t worked since. Today I received my daily spam email from the Democrat State Committee Press Department. While normally I see the email hit my inbox and basically ignore it as their releases are often incredibly long, bland, and misleading, today the headline on the press release caught my eye. I thought I was reading a release from years ago.

“Now that Christie Has Declared Mission Accomplished, He Wants To Stay the Course.” Seriously? We can all read that and realize exactly what they are trying to do, but does anyone wonder why? The democrat strategy for years now has been to tie every single Republican to President Bush in an attempt to link the popularity disaster that was the Bush Administration to any threat that pops up. It worked in 2008, it really has not worked since. Despite the best efforts of the DNC and numerous other liberal organizations, no one is buying the analogy, and this many years later, no one really cares.

In fact, the logic behind the headline is all wrong. Someone needs to remind the press workers at the DSC of some recent political history. President Bush stood on an aircraft carrier and infamously declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq. He was panned for it, pretty appropriately too, considering the significant time and life commitment that remained in that war zone. However, when faced with the opportunity to cut and run, President Bush made the tough decision and instituted the famously successful troop surge that arguably saved Iraq from collapse and may be the only reason that we are officially leaving the country in the coming months. President Bush’s determination to stay the course saved an entire country. Governor Christie’s determination to stay the course is going to save our entire state.

In the last year Governor Christie has accomplished more than anyone could have reasonably predicted. He instituted a strong cap on property taxes, he compromised arbitration reform, he is reforming the tax structure for businesses in our state to make us more competitive, he pushed for school reform and has almost pushed one of the most powerful unions in the state, the NJEA, into irrelevancy. Unemployment is below the national average, tax growth has ceased and may realistically be rolled back in the near future, the budget is balanced, and wasteful spending has simply been cut. The only thing that the democrats seem to have right is that much of the mission really has been accomplished. And now, staying the course, this particular course, is likely the best thing that can happen to New Jersey at this time.

But there is of course an alternative, the democrat alternative. Instead of focusing on the ability for our citizens to be able to work and afford to live in New Jersey, the democrats want to spend time on anything but the issues that matter. Pushing bills that do nothing but redistribute wealth in the name of job creation, or passing flavor of the week anti-bullying legislation rather than making sure municipalities can cope with rising costs and shrinking caps. The choice is pretty clear. We can stay on Chris Christie’s course of reform, or we can turn around and get back on the Corzine course to fiscal ruin.

2011 is going to be a big year with a strong agenda coming from the Governor’s office. Talks of a huge push for a significant increase in charter schools, tenure reform (or possibly elimination?), redistricting, a huge budget battle, and more toolkit measures are all on deck for the first part of this year. So I encourage the DSC to stay the course on their failed PR strategy. If the numbers are any indication, it seems their banner will only continue to read “mission failed.”

Brian McGovern
About Brian McGovern 748 Articles
Brian McGovern wears many hats these days including Voorhees Township GOP Municipal Chairman, South Jersey attorney, and co-owner of the Republican campaign consulting firm Exit 3 Strategies, Inc.