RNC Plotting Strategy Against Obama or Clinton

The Republican National Committee is working behind the scenes to develop a campaign strategy to defeat whoever the Democrats nominate:

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Mike Duncan believes Republicans can beat either of the two top Democrats racing for their party’s nomination.

For Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Duncan says it comes down to trust. Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) weakness, on the other hand, is his experience, according to Duncan.

Duncan continually brought up Clinton and Obama during a Wednesday morning breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. Pointing to internal poll numbers, the RNC chairman repeatedly insisted that no matter who Republicans nominate, the Democratic candidate can be defeated in November.

Internal RNC polls show Clinton has significant trust issues with voters, who also worry Obama has too little experience to be president.

“With Sen. Clinton, it comes down to trust,” Duncan said. “She’s a lifelong liberal politician with some political baggage.”

The RNC’s polling on Clinton found that less than 50 percent of respondents see her as “honest and trustworthy.”

Sixty-five percent say she “will say or do anything to get elected” and 68 percent “agree that Sen. Clinton will raise their taxes.”

The polling on Obama is not quite as damaging on its face. Only 40 percent of respondents to the RNC’s survey agree that Obama “has the experience necessary to be Commander-in-Chief.” Forty-nine percent said Obama has a “record of accomplishment,” but only 19 percent say they are “very familiar” with the senator’s positions. Forty-four percent of respondents in the RNC poll view Obama as a uniter of Democrats and Republicans.

“His rhetoric is very good. He’s a great speaker. But at the end of the speech, people go, ‘Where’s the beef?’ ” Duncan said.

There's one little problem that's not addressed in the article, and that's money. Either Democrat is going to have a lot of it and the RNC has not kept up with fundraising, mainly because so many Republicans have gotten fed up with the behavior of the Republicans in Congress, and at times, the president. It's one thing to have a winning strategy, but it's another thing to be able to implement it. It's going to take a lot of money to do that.