Pre-emptive framing

"This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me.
It was dead when I got here."
[Lawrence Garfield (the Danny Devito character), Other People's Money, 1991]

In the days, weeks, months, and years to come, our respected Republican opponents will do whatever they can to pin the messes of Iraq & Afghanistan, and the disaster that is our economy, on Obama and congressional Dems.

We cannot afford to let 'em succeed.

It's time NOW to start repeating - often, frequently, and at every opportunity:

These are W's failed wars.
This is the Republicans' critically ill economy.

For the economy, it wouldn't hurt to pin the blame on the Republicans' Saint Reagan and "supply-side", "trickle-down" economics.

Ridicule can be an effective rhetorical weapon.
Laugh out loud whenever anyone prattles on about the free-market.
Laugh louder whenever anyone advocates "self-regulation" of markets, or of particular industries.

Fearlessly face down your esteemed colleague when he/she attempts to pin any of this on the Dems.

"Excuse me. W and his enablers, including a very vocal Republican congress, got us into these straits. Republican worship of Saint Reagan and his now-debunked trickle-down, anti-regulation economics is to blame for the mess we're in now. Republican ideology got us into Iraq under false pretenses. Republican ideology misgoverned Iraq for over two years - putting ideological purity above basic competence - and allowed the insurgency to flourish. Republican failures of imagination contributed to the attacks on 9/11, and to a blind faith in market self-regulation."

If your respected opponent persists and perhaps suggests that, "Government is never the solution", be prepared!

"Well, yes - I can understand your point of view.
If Republican governance is the standard, then you are, of course, correct.

Government per se is not dysfunctional.
Only Republican government!.

But, a well-run government - the government you will get from President Obama and congressional Dems - is a different story.
We happen to believe that good governance is possible - and we intend to prove it."

Stop the madness (before it begins!).