I don’t have all the answers, of course.
It’s obvious that leftists would love to make voters throw the GOP out, a repeat of 1995-1996. I don’t think Obama knows how to do this by himself — Bill Clinton has been giving him lessons.
The GOP needs to be one step ahead. Use the reality that the debt is killing us, but use it intelligently, don’t throw it away.
When messages are floating around like the limit doesnt have to be raised at all, or that the average voter wants a shutdown, that makes it harder to stay focused on getting Obama the blame so he caves. Then you got individual congress members boasting on TV that they will not vote for any extension, playing right into Dems plan to convince they public who wants the shutdown.
Democrat are much more focused than Republicans from day 1 and every day on the goal:”Make Republicans own the shutdown so they get crushed”. Republicans are all over the place.
Alternatively if Republicans use their cave plan they must make Obama own the debt, But Obama already has his story on that, that he 'tried' with the phony offer.