Subject: Negative Narratives
From: "Begala, Paul" <[email-masked]>
To: "Ana Iparraguirre" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], [email-masked], "Tara McGuinness" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], "Zach Schwartz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:31:15 -0500

Hey:
 
I am working through line edits on the poll, but the first draft ignores
some of what I think are the most devastating hits on the GOP candidates
(eg:  Mitt laid off hundreds of workers, invested in firms that do
business in Iran; Rudy protected a child molesting priest, his kids
won't speak to him because he divorced their mom on TV, etc.)  This is,
of course, not the fault of GQR, rather, we presented them with very
limited research.
 
Attached are potential negative narratives on Rudy and Romney (I'll get
to Huckabee on the long flight to San Francisco tomorrow).  My belief is
that this poll should tell us how to define the opponent; what the frame
through which we attack him should be -- not merely which specific
charges hurt the most.  To that end, I thought it would be useful to
collect up a lot of the discrete, scattershot charges and try to put
them into a narrative, then test the different narratives, and run
against the guy who polls the worst.  Maybe the best way to go after
Mitt is as a phony.  But maybe it's as a multimillionaire who screwed
the middle class.  I don't know.  But that's what I hope to learn from
the poll.
 
Will send line edits on the poll tomorrow, as well as my best efforts at
Huckabee narratives.
 
All best,
 
Paul