If you ask me, and you're not asking me but I'm saying so anyway, Georgia has suddenly become the most interesting Senate race in the country. It was mighty interesting during the Republican primary, but then slipped in status as the race devolved into a plain vanilla case of the Republican Business Robot holding a safe lead over the Centrist Democratic Robot. The Centrist Democratic Robot's Robotic Centrist Democrat campaign strategy leaked, and the Republican Business Robot used it predictably to tar the Centrist Democratic Robot as a Terrorist ISIS Mexican Democratic Robot -- the worst kind of robot there is.
But now, things -- things are happening. The Republican Business Robot, David Perdue, apparently went on the record some years back describing how he's spent "most of [his] career" outsourcing. This was in response to a direct question asking him, "Can you describe your experience with outsourcing?" It's unambiguous and it reinforces the central attacks on both Perdue and Republican economic priorities. It is the sort of thing on which a late-stage move can be made.
It's not complicated. You, Michelle Nunn's campaign, make an ad quoting directly from the deposition. "Q: Can you describe your experience with outsourcing?" "A: Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that." You just take this dialogue and cut the ad and then make like 10 more and show them all on every channel, for a month. Hey, look at that:
We wondered how Perdue would try to wriggle out of this one, and the answer is... he's not, really. Asked how he'd "defend" his comments in the deposition yesterday, Perdue responded, "Defend it? I'm proud of it." Did you see that part about how David Perdue is "proud" of his record outsourcing? Make another 10000000 ads of that.
Perdue is going all-in on defending the sacred spirit of outsourcing, and how all the complaints and literature about it over the years misunderstand the process.
"This is a part of American business, part of any business. Outsourcing is the procurement of products and services to help your business run. People do that all day."
Perdue attempted to draw a distinction between the federal government's policies and his own decisions as head of the company.
"I think the issue that people get confused about is the loss of jobs," he said. "This is because of bad government policies: tax policy, regulation, even compliance requirements. It puts us at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world. Even today, right now this administration has policies going on that are decimating industries today."
Outsourcing: it's the American way -- everybody does it! But not everyone, like David Perdue did as a management consultant, helped apparel companies relocate their manufacturing operations to countries with cheap labor and poor regulatory standards. The most creatively David Perdue can think, given his background, is to reduce wages, standards and regulations to better bring the United States workplace in line with that of Malaysia.
The latest Georgia Senate poll (PPP) has Nunn trailing Perdue by only two points, and it was conducted October 2-5, just as the "outsourcing" revelation broke.
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