Paul Begala - Youre Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump

A LSO BY P AUL B EGALA

Third Term

Take It Back (with James Carville)

Its Still the Economy, Stupid

Buck Up, Suck Up and Come Back When You Foul Up (with James Carville)

Is Our Children Learning?

Simon & Schuster

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Copyright 2020 by Paul Begala

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition July 2020

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Jacket design by Ben Wiseman

Jacket photograph of Garbage can by Charlie Drevstam/Getty Images

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937995

ISBN 978-1-9821-6004-3

ISBN 978-1-9821-6006-7 (ebook)

For Diane: my love, my life.

And for our sons: John, Billy, Charlie, and Patrickyou give my life meaning. Your activism, your patriotism, your idealism, your enthusiasm, your brillianceand that of your generationwill save us.

What I Got Wrong in 2016

E veryone got 2016 wrong, so I am in good company. But that is small consolation. Heres what I got wrong the last time, and how to avoid repeating this fatal mistake in 2020.

I forgot Bill Clintons First Law of Politics, taught to me a quarter-century ago by the smartest political mind Ive ever known: elections are about the lives of the voters, not the candidates lives. When we were mired in scandaleither real or manufacturedClinton would inevitably look at me and say, If we make this about the voters lives instead of mine, we will both be better off.

I knew this in 2012. I was an adviser to the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA. We had voluminous research on Romney, and one thing was clear from the jump: he is a man of good character. Fine. (Also, great hair, which sent Carville and me into jealous fits.)We werent interested in attacking his character. My experience in campaigns against people like George H. W. Bush (another man of upstanding character with whom I had important political and policy disagreements) had taught me that attacks on issues are far more effective than personal attacks.

With character attacks ruled out, we decided to define Romney as a rapacious financier who had gotten wealthy in part through business deals that sometimes hurt the middle class. As the top man in the private equity firm Bain Capital, Romney played a role in scores of deals. Some of them, truth be told, were terrific. Great companies like Staples owe their existence in part to Romney and his firm. But this was a campaign and he was the opponent. We didnt mention Romneys good deals. We figured hed do that.

But there were other deals, like the paper plant in Marion, Indiana. Bain had bought a paper plant, loaded it with debt, drove it into bankruptcy, then laid off all the employees, canceled their health care and pensions, and left the town a desiccated shell. We sent a camera crew to Marion. We interviewed a carpenter from the plant named Mike Earnest. (I know: somewhere Charles Dickens is smiling.) Mike told his story: one day the boss told him to build a stage on the shop floor; the new owners were coming to town and wanted a team meeting. So, Mike and the boys built that stage, and Romneys suits stood on that stage, closed the company, and laid off every worker. Mike, who truly was earnest, looked in the camera and said, I didnt know it at the time, but when I was building that stage, I was really building my coffin. GOP strategist Frank Luntz called it the most effective ad of 2012. Barack Obama won a second term. (In truth, he would have won without me or our ad; he is that talented. But I am proud to have played a small role in his winning a second term.)

But when 2016 came around, I took my eye off the ball. This time around, our super PAC took as its mission electing Hillary Rodham Clinton, someone I have known and loved for more than a quarter century. And her Republican opponent, Donald Trump: well, I could not stand him.

I was so shocked by Donald Trumps sewer-level character that I could not avert my eyes. Look! Hes saying POW John McCain (R-AZ) was not a hero, because he was captured. Look! Hes mocking a reporters physical disability. Look! Hes bragging about grabbing women by the well, you know.

We made ads about those outrages. Our first adI loved itfeatured people, mostly women, wearing T-shirts bearing various pictures of Trump, unsmiling, often mid-shout. They lip-synced while the audio track repeated some of Trumps most odious vulgar comments: There was blood coming out of her eyes, there was blood coming out of her wherever. A man has his arm around a woman (presumably his partner) and looks on in astonishment as she mouths these words of Trumps: Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely. A young father stands with his daughter and lip-syncs as Trumps distinctive voice says, If Ivanka werent my daughter, perhaps Id be dating her. A white-haired woman throws her hands up in anger as Trumps bellow comes out of her mouth: And you can tell them to go [BLEEP] themselves!

We ran another ad, designed to shock the conscience of the electorateespecially Christians. The ad featured a girl in Columbus, Ohio, named Grace, who was born with spina bifida. We see a photo of her as a newborn, with tubes coming out of her. Then as an infant, sleeping peacefully, with a simple wooden cross next to her in her crib. Finally, we see her as a child, shooting hoops from her wheelchair. The ad then shows Trump mocking the physical disability of a journalist. Even years later, it is appalling. Graces mother says, The children at Graces school know never to mock her. And so for an adult to mock someone with a disability is shocking. Graces father, his eyes heavy with disappointment, says, When I saw Donald Trump mocking someone with a disability, it showed me his soul, it showed me his heart. And I didnt like what I saw.

Spoiler alert: Trump won white evangelicals by an astonishing 8016 margin, narrowly breaking the record held by George W. Bush, who is an actual, honest-to-goodness born-again Christian.

We attacked Trump for paying zero dollars in federal taxes. Trumps response, That makes me smart. He also did better than Romney with voters making less than $50,000.

We attacked his racist rhetoric about immigrants: Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists. Were going to have a deportation force. Trump got 1 percent more of the Latino vote than Mitt Romney had in 2012.

We attacked his misogynistic comments, including his infamous Access Hollywood remarks. She ate like a pig. When I come home and dinners not ready, I go through the roof. I moved on her like a bh. Trump won just 3 percent fewer female voters than Romney.