Here are three phrases that can shift perceptions of the 2012 Republican Party, responsibility for the recession, and Romney's economic agenda:
Republicans have morphed into "Tea-publicans".
The recession that started after 7 years of Republican rule is the "Republican recession".
Romney's economic plan is nothing new. It's actually the "Bush-Romney economic plan".
Here are reasons these phrases can work:
The Tea Party has reshaped the Republican Party. Driving home this point can help Democrats, and referring to Republicans as "Tea-publicans" does just that. Polling shows that more moderates and independents oppose the Tea Party than support it. The phrase calls attention to how this radical fringe group has taken over the party. It can motivate liberals to resist the specter of home-schooling conspiracy theorists in power. It can serve as a reminder to old-school Republicans of how far their party has swung right, quite possibly further right than the old-timers want to go.
*****************
As the Republican convention clearly showed, 90% of the GOP game plan is to blame US economic woes on President Obama. I didn't watch the entire convention, but the GOP's most recent 2-term president seemed conspicuously absent. Could it be that they do not want voters to remember the state of the economy by his last year in office? So we need to remind voters about who put us where we are today. The simple phrase "Republican recession" can serve as that reminder.
*****************
Romney and Ryan are vague and deceptive about their economic plans. They are hoping to sell the idea that their unspecified plan will be an improvement, because any plan would be better than the economic malaise under Obama's plan. So Democrats should help define Romney's economic framewark by naming it appropriately the "Bush-Romney economic plan". Romney has campaigned tirelessly touting deregulation and lowering taxes for the wealthy as the cure for the economy-------though he is careful to frame it as lowering taxes for everyone. Of course these policies were the keys to Bush's economic plans as well.
Obama has responded to the GOP ticket's economic arguments by saying, "We've tried that before". An OK response, but not a particularly effective response. Who is the "we" in that sentence? Did Democrats push deregulation efforts? or lowering taxes for the wealthy? Of course not. Why not remind voters it was Romney's comrades that took us down that disastrous path. And when Obama says "before", when before? American voters are not strong on history. But most American voters do remember that it was just 5 years ago during Bush's presidency that the bottom fell out of the economy. So if we can remind voters of the link between Romney's economic policies and Bush's, then we link Romney's policies to our recent economic meltdown.