MORE-OF-THE-SAME-MCCAIN

I don't understand why McCain would even suggest the idea of town hall meetings. This is not a good venue for him to highlight his strong points, and near impossible for his handlers to stage, stack and script the audience.

When I heard that Obama agreed, I wondered what question I would ask if they came to my area and and I was able to attend.

I settled on asking McCain about his economic policy:

In 1981 when Reagan cut taxes and began deregulating industries we were promised there would be a "trickle down effect", 8 years later Bush-1 continued the practice for another 4 years and promised a "trickle down effect". Bush-2 picked up where Reagan-Bush left off by cutting taxes and promising a "trickle down effect". Over the past 28 years, we've had 20 years of promises of a "trickle down"

Your proposal is to cut taxes and deregulate with the promise of a "trickle down effect" - How are your policy propsals NOT the SAME as Reagan-Bush-Bush? Or to put it more simply - WHERE'S THE TRICKLE?

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If you notice - I would frame the question not how would it be DIFFERENT - but rather how it's not the SAME. Might seem to be just semantics - but it forces the mind to focus on what is the same, thus linking McCain=more of the same.

I would suggest when talking to people, writting Letters-to-the-editor etc that phrasing a McCain policy position be stated as "How is it NOT the SAME as bush's". This emphasizes the similarities in people's minds as opposed to highlighting what little differences there may be.

Whenever possible - always throw bush's name into the question to force mccain to defend his answer against "bush" as opposed to obama. this further strengthens the McCain=Bush equation.

Regarding national defense/Iraq - this is percieved as mccain's strong suit - a few suggestions on questions to ask him:

1. How is your foreign policy not the same as bush's?

2. We are currently BORROWING $x billions of dollars from China, Mexico and other foreign sources to fund the Iraq occupation - would you continue the bush practice of borrowing money from foreign sources to continue the Iraq occupation? If not, how would you fund the occupation when you want to cut taxes?

3. Would you continue the bush practice of no-bid contracts in the privatizing of the Iraq Occupation?