When the news broke that Mitt Romney was memorizing zingers for the first debate the idea got a big round of belly laughs. Twitter went crazy with Zinger based Hash Tags, the left of center media mocked the idea roundly, and we all had a bit of fun here on Daily Kos.
I was actually surprised by how few Zingers were actually used at the debate. Romney had maybe 2 or three that he used a few times. But they were really pretty lame. I was more surprised to see how few Zingers President Obama used at the debate. I remember about 2 years ago the President Obama Facebook Page was collecting suggestions from Facebook users for analogies on specific issues.
They would put out an example analogy like: Cutting Education to balance the budget is like cutting off your hand to lose weight.
And there were thousands of responses on these posts. They did one of these posts probably once a week for awhile there and they always had thousands of comments suggesting analogies for different issues ranging across every possible political scenario you could think of.
At the time I thought for sure Obama's campaign was collecting these for use at the debates. Yet we didn't see any on Wednesday. Perhaps the candidates just never had the chance to unleash their respective Zingers. The debate went off in such an odd fashion that most of subjects they may have had a zinger for were never mentioned at all. Whatever the case may be, I believe there is in fact a place for a good Zinger or two in debate.
The problem with the reported Mitt Romney zinger story was that for all we knew he had no other debate strategy. Since he had been a bumbling idiot on TV mere days before the debate took place it seemed as though he had no comprehension for the issues and was going to try and zing his way to victory.
Zingers are generally quips of wit that are usually very short and at least appear to be spontaneous thoughts. They appear to have crystallized as perfectly clear moments of thought on the subject at hand, right there on the stage.
In reality most political zingers are thought of ahead of time, often by a political operative like James Carville or Paul Begala and simply saved until debate night. There is nothing wrong with this by itself. Indeed Zingers are to debates what car wrecks are to NASCAR. They are in many ways the moment of excitement for a debate. The moment when one speakers grasp of the issue is perfectly summarized, or an attack on his/her opponent is so devilishly clever that it alone stands as a testament to the speakers skill as a communicator.
I almost didn't write this diary because I have seen so very many diaries on the subject of Zingers and advice for Obama/Biden lately. But a lot of the Zingers I have seen here on Dailykos aren't really Zingers at all. They are more like small paragraphs of policy differences and explanations. Simplified talking points for sure, but not simplified enough to be considered Zingers.
So I thought this would be a great place to sort of relaunch that Obama Facebook Analogy thread. Let's think of some Zingers and treat this as sort of a Community Zinger Collection. If you have a Zinger idea, or if you have seen a Zinger in another thread, or elsewhere online that you think should be included, please add it.
My hope is someone on Team Obama will see this list and maybe steal one or two they hadn't thought of. Here are some examples of Zingers. I will break them down by issue.
Healthcare:
Romney/Ryan (R/R): "We need to come together and make a bipartisan health reform bill."
Obama/Biden (O/B): "Complaining about the messy process of Washington is like complaining about all the trash at the dump! The process wasn't pretty. But the law saves lives."
R/R: "We want to repeal and replace ObamaCare with something else."
O/B: "Instead of re-fighting old political battles, let's continue helping American's fight cancer, Alzheimer's, and a malady of other illnesses."
or
O/B: "ObamaCare allows people with pre-existing conditions to see a doctor. Governor Romney's plan sends them to the morgue."
R/R: "Health Care Reform cost a million-bajillion dollars, deficits, national debt, blah blah blah!"
O/B: "You complain about costs. What price tag can you put on the life of an American Woman? How about a child? ObamaCare saves lives. How much is that worth to you?"
Energy:
R/R: "Gas prices have doubled since Obama took office."
O/B: "Gas Prices were temporarily low when we took office as a result of the total collapse of the economy. If that's your idea of an energy plan, I think I'll pass."
or
O/B: "Look, Gas Prices change almost as often as Governor Romney's positions."
R/R: "Your administration has blocked drilling, blah blah blah"
O/B: "We've issued 7,000 drilling permits on Government land that have gone unused. How many unused permits do they need? 8,000? 20,000? What's the magic number?"
or
O/B: "Drilling your way to energy independence is like eating your way to better health."
R/R: "You spent 50 bajillion dollars on green energy over the last 4 years..."
O/B: "Moving America Forward means beating China in the economy of the future. It means refusing to surrender those new jobs."
or
O/B: "Mitt Romney is willing to invest in everything, but America."
Taxes:
R/R: "Not a tax cut for the rich. It's a 20% tax cut across the board."
O/B: "20% for a guy making $250 Million dollars is a heck of a lot more savings than 20% for a mom making $25,000. This is a give away to the Top 1%"
R/R: "The tax cut is paid for by closing loopholes and deductions."
O/B: "That means paid for on the backs of the middle class. This is Romneyhood Economics."
R/R: "You raised taxes/will raise taxes."
O/B: "I don't know where you're getting your facts but it's certainly not from the IRS."
R/R: "Tax cuts = Jobs."
O/B: "We cut taxes for the real Job Creators. Middle class families. The people at home. Consumers create jobs."
or
O/B: "We tried that. We were told the Bush Tax cuts would create jobs and after 8 Years we ended up losing 4 Million Jobs. It doesn't work."
or
O/B: "When times are good they want to cut taxes for the rich. When times are bad they want to cut taxes for the rich. They're like a Football Team that only knows one play."
or
O/B: "Cutting taxes for the rich doesn't create jobs, they're just as likely to spend the savings on a Dressage Horse, or put it in some Swiss bank account."
The Economy:
R/R: "The middle class has been buried for the last 4 years"
O/B: "And George W. Bush was holding the shovel."
R/R: "I know how to create jobs."
O/B: "Mitt knows how to create Jobs overseas. Maybe if we send him to China he can outsource our jobs back to the US."
Misc:
Romney/Ryan switch positions on something after being criticized.
O/B: "In my defense, you've changed your position so many times, I'd need a flow chart just to keep track of it."
or
O/B: "You say that now, we'll see what position you take in the morning."
or
O/B: "I have been consistent on this issue. The Governor changes shape so fast it makes me dizzy."
or
O/B: "There you go again." <- I am not a Reagan fan but that line would piss Romney off so bad it would be worth it.
If Ryan tries to dodge a question by saying "I'm not Mitt Romney." or "You're attacking my budget, but I am not the nominee." or If Romney tries to pull a "That was George Bush's policy, I'm not George Bush."
Obama/Biden: "Well, call him up. Have him come down here. I'll debate you both!"
That's just a few examples of the sort of Zingers I would recommend to team Obama should they find themselves in a debate like the one last week. I would be very interested in hearing your suggestions.