Persuading Politicos Part 2: Dress for Success

Today's installment of tips for persuading GOP activists to support Huckabee at the Washington Briefing and similar events may be self-evident to a lot of people, but you know what they say about assuming, so here it is:

Rule #2: Dress Professionally and Wear a Tasteful Pin. [Updated 10/15]

The Washington Briefing is not the place to advertise your support for Huckabee with a t-shirt or baseball cap. This event is more a business convention than a pep rally. Dress as if you're going to work at a professional job, and advertise your Huckabee support with a button pin. You can buy them at the Huckabee Store, or you can get one from me (I bought 10-packs of 3 different designs) if you email me so we can arrange to meet up when you first arrive at the Washington Briefing.

Washington, DC is a very conservative town when it comes to dress. Politicos are more likely to listen to you if they think you're "one of them" and "professional" (again, fair or not, this is reality). Politicos usually go all out for suits, but the Washington Briefing registration materials suggest "business casual" dress for the daytime sessions, so you could go either way.

• Men: Khakis, button-down shirt and sport jackets are a great look. Black/navy/dark gray suits give you a professional-looking edge. At the very least wear a long sleeve solid color button-down shirt.
  
• Women: Anything professional-looking will work for ladies--suits, skirts, nice pants, colors, solids, patterns. Just keep it modest--don't commit a Jeri Thompson-esq faux pas by dressing for Hollywood or Miami.
  
• Both: Scent is not a part of dressing professionally. In this town, janitors and 20-somethings going to clubs wear cologne and perfume; professionals do not.

And finally, if you can't make it to Washington October 19-20, be sure to join FRC Action and cast your Presidential straw poll vote online, and encourage others to do the same with FRC Action Straw Poll Voter Drive.

Persuading Politicos Part 1: Don't Be a Single-Issue Voter

As I promised in an earlier post about the Washington Briefing, this is the first in a series of tips on "lobbying" -- how to maximize your effectiveness in persuading GOP activists to support Huckabee.

The goal here is to show that Huckabee's supporters are thoughtful, realistic, mainstream conservatives. As evidenced by the Ron Paul movement, having a lot of very active, true believer supporters doesn't translate into electability if the supporters are perceived as being "fringe."

And with that introduction...

Rule #1: Don't be a single-issue voter.

Single-issue candidates don't win elections or know how to govern the country. So if you want your candidate to have credibility, do not tell people you support him because of one key issue. Otherwise, the listener may conclude that your candidate is a single-issue candidate because you are a single-issue supporter. (Fair or not, that is reality.)

Take a tip from the preachers: always list three different issues that are important to you when explaining your support. Two is fine sometimes, but more than three is too much information for the listener to process, while one issue is too narrow.

Example: What NOT to Say

"I support Mike Huckabee for President because he supports the Fair Tax. Let me explain to you what the Fair Tax is and why it's good for America..."

Problem: Even though you may be prepared to list 3 reasons you support the Fair Tax, it still makes Huckabee look like a single-issue candidate. Even worse, the listener may not care much about this one issue, or may even actively oppose it, causing him or her to oppose Huckabee.

Example: What You Should Say

"I support Mike Huckabee because he is the most charismatic and likable candidate who consistently supports core conservative values such as low and fair taxation, the right to life, and securing our nation's borders. He had an amazing track record as Governor of Arkansas, lowering taxes, enacting covenant marriage, and even winning elections in a traditionally Democratic state with nearly half of the African-American vote."

Why this is effective: You made 3 big points, each supported by 3 subpoints, all within less than 30 seconds!
1) Huckabee is highly electable.
a) He is charismatic
b) He is likable
c) He won Arkansas elections in a Democratic-leaning environment
2) Huckabee takes solid conservative positions.
a) He supports low and fair taxation (note: you are supporting the Fair Tax without using a buzz word that may set off alarm bells for the listener)
b) He is pro-life
c) He wants to secure our borders against illegal immigration
3) Huckabee has a strong track-record as the executive of a State.
a) He lowered taxes
b) He enacted covenant marriage
c) He won the support of a broad spectrum of Arkansas voters
(Yes, 1.c and 3.c are double-dipping, but that's not a bad thing! Keeping it concise but positive-information-packed is good.)

Check back tomorrow for the next installment of Persuading Politicos. And don't forget to email me if you're planning to attend the Washington Briefing or want to know if anyone else in your area is planning to go. (Make sure to register ASAP!) I am working to arrange a meet-up for Huckabee supporters and am also happy to give travel tips for out-of-towners.

(Speaking of which, I have a request for a ride from the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Anyone coming from there or passing through?)

Go Huckabee!!

Washington Briefing - Important Scheduling Update

Over the weekend, the posted schedule for FRC Action's Washington Briefing changed. Now Mike Huckabee is scheduled to speak on Saturday morning, with the straw poll voting continuing until 1:00 p.m. Saturday.

This is good news if you couldn't take off work on Friday but you can make it to DC for Saturday, October 20. Now you can see Huckabee speak and vote in person.

The bad news is that Huckabee won't be able to speak until a couple hours before the straw poll voting closes. This means it is extremely important that everyone who can attend on Friday urge as many other conference-goers as possible to consider Huckabee as a viable, electable candidate and to come listen to Huckabee on Saturday morning before committing to any other candidate.

This is also another reason why everyone who cannot attend at all should join FRC Action and vote in the Presidential straw poll online, and urge your friends and family to do so as well. The new schedule disadvantages Huckabee among conference-goers, so the online community needs to make up for the stacked deck. (See One Mom and I Heart Huckabee for more ideas on getting out the online vote.)

October 19 - Why Your Country Needs YOU in Washington

Reported today in the Washington Times:

Fifth-ranked in the polls, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has backing of the leaders of many small-to-medium sized evangelical congregations and interest groups but not the most widely influential leaders like [American Family Association (AFA) Chairman Donald Wildmon] and Dr. Dobson.

"It would seem that Christian leaders could well rally around Mike Huckabee if they are in search of a candidate they like," said Republican election-law attorney Cleta Mitchell. "It isn't as though there isn't any candidate they could support." Mrs. Mitchell supports no candidate but thinks Mr. Huckabee "is actually a pretty impressive candidate and is doing a credible job of making his presence felt in this race."

Mr. Wildmon agreed. "Could the social-conservative leaders support Huckabee? Yes. Have they done so yet? No," he said, adding that he is "part of a group who have pledged not to go public to endorse anybody until the end of October." If current alignments haven't changed by then, however, public declarations of fealty will reveal a badly splintered Christian right.

My friends, why do you think they're holding out until the end of October? I'd venture to say because the biggest national conclave of Christian conservatives is slated for October 19-20 in Washington, DC, and they want to test the waters there first.

If you read the rest of the Washington Times article, it discusses how Fred Thompson has failed to become the rallying point for Christian conservatives, and Evangelicals are afraid of Romney's Mormon faith, leaving them deeply divided or undecided between the two not-so-attractive candidates.

Our country needs us to do everything we can to get the Christian conservative bloc to rally around Mike Huckabee. If you're pro-life then anything else will be a disaster. Neither Thompson nor Romney can rally the base well enough to beat Hillary Clinton, and of course Giuliani is openly contemptuous of pro-lifers and family values. If Giuliani is nominated, then approximately half of Americans will have no party head to voice their deeply-held belief that all human beings possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, a third party candidate would only guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton.

How can we do this? I hate to admit it, but blog discussions won't get us very far because very few undecided people read them. We need to get out there and talk with these very Christian conservative leaders who are waiting until the end of October and tell them why we think they need to get behind Huckabee. Moreover, we need to talk with and convert their employees and members, who the leaders will listen to more than some faceless person sending an email.

The place to do this is the FRC Action Washington Briefing on Friday, October 19! This is worth the financial sacrifice. (And conference registration is very reasonably priced, at $95/$50 for students.) People on the ground are worth far more than money when it comes to grassroots action. If there is any way you can come to DC and "work the rooms" for Huckabee, and you're weighing the cost of taking a day off of work and/or coming to DC versus donating the same amount to the campaign, come here! You can leverage your money and efforts for so much more by showing up, wearing a Huckabee pin, and telling numerous GOP activists (who will never read a Huckabee blog otherwise) why our nation needs them to give Mike their support.

Important Note: The Presidential straw poll voting concludes on Saturday at 1 pm, according to the latest schedule posted online. Gov. Huckabee's scheduled speaking time has also been moved to the Saturday morning session. This means that conference-goers will not hear Huckabee speak on Friday, making it all the more important to prime them to wait to hear him speak and not cast an ill-informed vote on Friday.

Moreover, after Q3's disappointing fundraising numbers, we need to demonstrate the power of Huckabee's grassroots network. It's one thing to vote online in the straw poll (which you definitely should do if you absolutely can't come to DC, by joining FRC Action and then casting your vote), but it's entirely another to demonstrate that Huckabee's grassroots are committed to trecking long distances for him, and not just in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Please see my post from yesterday if you would like tips on where to stay if you're coming in from out of town. Regardless of whether you're local or coming in from out of town, if you do plan to attend please email me to let me know, so we have a sense of how many Huckabee supporters are coming and have an opportunity to meet up.

Please register for the conference ASAP, because the original print form had a deadline of September 15, and who knows when they will close the online registration.

Between now and October 19, I plan to provide more coordination information as the situation develops. Moreover, I plan to post my best "lobbying" tips -- expert advice on how to persuade political types. I do this for a living, and am happy to share the tricks of the trade to help you be more effective in persuading other conference-goers to put their votes, money, and efforts behind Mike Huckabee.

Let's win this one for the Gipper!!

Rock the FRC Action Washington Briefing for Huckabee!

Friday and Saturday, October 19-20, FRC Action (the political action committee connected to the Family Research Council) is hosting its 2nd Annual Washington Briefing conference in Washington, DC. All of the major GOP Presidential candidates -- except Giuliani -- will be speaking, along with a lot of favorite conservative pundits, politicians, and grassroots political leaders.

This is the time to talk person-to-person with GOP opinion leaders about why they should put their support, dollars, and influence behind Mike Huckabee. There is also a straw poll that we could help Mike Huckabee win. Though you can vote online if you join up as a member of FRC Action, you won't have the opportunity to talk with people to persuade them to support Huckabee. Plus, attending in person will be a lot of fun, and you can meet Mike Huckabee in person!

[Update - schedule has changed] Friday, October 19 is the key day for influencing conference attendees. Governor Huckabee will speak at the Saturday morning session, and the straw poll will conclude soon after.

As a Washington insider for Huckabee, I am taking it upon myself to do everything I can to help non-Washingtonians for Huckabee make it to this event and have a safe and exciting experience. I will get started by acting as your makeshift travel guide:

Tips for visiting Washington for the FRC Action Washington Briefing

• FRC Action has a reduced group rate at the Crystal City Courtyard Marriott for $129/night, if you reserve by October 8. I highly recommend this if you're flying in, because it is actually walking distance (2/3 of a mile, or take complimentary shuttle) from Reagan National Airport and the subway stop at the airport. This is not the location of the conference, but you can take the subway to the conference, and the conference hotel is more expensive ($185/night) and sold out for Saturday night. However, if you're coming in Thursday or Friday morning and leaving Saturday afternoon, you may find the on-site hotel more convenient.
• If you're driving in, I recommend looking for a motel along Route 50 (aka Arlington Blvd) on the Virginia side. There are dozens and dozens of small motels along a long stretch of this road that will be relatively cheap and safe. Route 50 also provides one of the most reliable ways for driving into DC. (If you look for another hotel in DC itself, make sure it says "NW" in the street address. This is the one quadrant of the city that is consistently safe. Some parts of Maryland might also be good places to stay, but I don't know that side very well.)
• Try to take the Metro (subway) as much as possible downtown, instead of driving. DC's Metro is perhaps the cleanest and safest subway in the country (if not the world), while DC roads are extremely difficult to navigate, it is easy to accidentally end up in a bad neighborhood, and parking is difficult to find and expensive when you find it.

More Evidence the Fair Tax Will Require a Generational Sea Change

The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) today reports:

House Republicans Could FaceTough Floor Vote on Mortgage BillWhen legislation (H.R. 3648) to exclude from income debt forgiven as a result of a mortgage foreclosure or renegotiation hits the House floor Oct. 4, Republicans could be forced to cast a difficult vote because of the tax increase used to pay for the roughly $2 billion bill.
The legislation would establish a permanent exclusion from gross income of discharged home mortgage indebtedness and pay for it by tightening the requirements taxpayers must meet to exclude gain from the sale of certain residences such as vacation homes and rental properties that eventually are converted into primary residences and then sold.
Currently, taxpayers may exclude up to $250,000--$500,000 if married filing a joint return--of gain realized on the sale or exchange of a principal residence but, under the bill, they would only be able to utilize the exclusion for the time the second home was actually their primary residence.
The legislation also would extend, for seven years, the deduction for private mortgage insurance (PMI), and would modify the qualification tests for cooperative housing corporations.
Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee have repeatedly said they support the concept of helping people during the subprime lending situation, but believe the offset is unrelated to the problem at hand and raises taxes on one group to pay for relief for another.
The issue came up at a Sept. 26 Ways and Means markup, but it did not come to a head that day because the committee approved the bill by voice vote, meaning members did not have to go on the record as supporting a tax increase (187 DTR G-5, 9/27/07 ).
"Republican members will have a difficult time because they don't feel like the pay-for is the right one, but they do feel like the policy of forgiving foreclosure debt is the right one," said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

My, my, we're worried about people with extra vacation and rental properties possibly having to pay some capital gains (15%) tax in order to pay for tax forgiveness for people going through foreclosure? If Republicans think this is a "hard vote" then they've really lost touch with making sure tax policy serves the common man, and are more concerned about being "on record" voting for a "tax increase," no matter what the circumstances, that could be attacked by Club for Growth.

From an economic standpoint, the people who bought second homes are a significant contributing factor to those who now face foreclosure, and so is the capital gains exclusion they were expecting to exploit. When falling interest rates in the early 2000's caused house price tags to rise (just as the stock market was falling), a lot of people decided the best place to invest, for both equity and tax reasons, was in real estate. They bought second houses as investments, raising demand and prices. By 2005, 40% of home purchases were second homes!! Because of the rising prices, people who didn't own anything yet found it increasingly difficult to afford their first home, causing them to turn to exotic mortgages and liar loans to try to grab hold of the rising barge instead of falling into the sea of lifelong renting. But of course rising demand can't continue forever when there isn't much real demand for additional places to live, so now prices are falling, and people who couldn't really afford those exotic mortgages are ending up in foreclosure with negative equity. Hence the need for the tax forgiveness.

Now you can say the people in foreclosure should have been more responsible, and I agree. And yet, many of them could have afforded a home on a responsible budget if it weren't for the run-up in price caused by the demand for 2nd homes, not as a place to live, but as a way to make money and shelter it from taxes. So taking away a manipulative tax advantage from some of the people who helped cause the foreclosure crisis makes a lot of sense, the rhetoric of Congressional Republicans notwithstanding.

Under the Fair Tax, there would be no tax incentive to buy multiple properties because you have to pay sales tax on each one, and they don't provide any kind of special tax shelter. One of a gazillion reasons the Fair Tax is a good idea. But how do you expect the Congressional Republicans who are afraid to say "no exclusion of capital gains for second properties actually means no exclusion of capital gains for second properties" to vote for the Fair Tax, which will discourage second-property owners even more?

We need a Club for Citizens' Growth to systematically push out the Country Club Republicans who are more interested in protecting tax shelters for the rich than reducing the size of government and making the tax system fair. But, as I've said before, this is a marathon; a fight that will take a long time to turn over enough people in Washington.

Money, Money, Money

Thanks to the 5 Huckabee supporters who emailed me to let me know they completed the Top-Tier Huckabee Challenge in September! I donated $250 more to the Huckabee campaign last night on your behalf.

Fantastic news up on the Huckabee website this morning: 3,525 donations in just 2 weeks, far surpassing their goal of 2,500!! Congratulations to Mike Huckabee and all of his supporters who chipped in. I'm looking forward to finding out how much money he raised soon, and hope and pray the Q3 fundraising will finally prove he is "top-tier" to the money-obsessed pundits.

And now look who is trying to raise money to "Stop Hillary": National Review Online, that same website that poses as a conservative news source but dismisses Huckabee most of the time and when they do cover him, it is usually sarcastic or distorted.

I encourage anyone who reads NRO to write to Kathryn Jean Lopez and let her know that your money is backing the person who can really stop Hillary--Mike Huckabee--and that NRO does not deserve any financial support so long as they undermine him with unfair coverage.