I have decided to make contributions to Obama. To date, I am about $500 in. That certainly is more than some, and less than a whole bunch. However, it’s not enough to have any control. Of course, getting any response is very difficult. I email them, like hundreds of thousands every day, and get nothing back which is not surprising. The feeling of powerlessness is quite discouraging.
However, with this campaign like so many in the past, I feel again quite helpless in watching things. Yes, Obama has shown a pretty deft touch in the past. Yes, he has pulled out the Democratic primary as a winner.
He did lose the last 15 or so primaries. He did lose huge sectors of the populace.
What are we seeing, right now?
- We are still seeing the “tinky-winky” approach, where they praise McCain as an honorable man, at the same time McCain and Palin are calling Obama and Biden scum.
- I see no outreach to students. Yes, there is a program, but I don’t see a full-throated attempt to both register and get absentee ballots from Obama-Biden.
- I see no comments about Palin’s lies, McCain’s lies. I see an occasional half-hearted comment about McCain-Bush, but it is not enough.
I’m waiting for the knives to come out. When are these guys gonna realize that it is September, and things are trickling down the drain?
Until I see a MUCH MORE SERIOUS approach, where McCain is NOT praised by every third sentence out of Obama’s mouth, I just can’t imagine making more contributions.
Yes, I will make telephone calls (I go to a MoveOn party tomorrow night). I will do other things.
I am waiting for a serious attitude to come over the Obama-Biden campaign. I am waiting for some ads which address some of the issues with McCain. I see nothing new. How much are they paying for ads? I see the same ads, over and over. It’s a crappy strategy.
To add to the September gloom:
Obama-Biden had better stop playing nice. This won’t be a respectful campaign.
We need a hard frost to take the bloom off the Palin September rose. It’ll come.
of watching the snot get kicked out of Obama by that INCOMPETENT ASSHOLD McCain.
When are they gonna realize that this AIN’T FUCKING BEANFUCKINGBAG?
Unhappy thoughts, Very:
It’s like this: ‘McCain is their man’ so it’ll be very hard to dislodge the trio: Big Oil, DC neo-cons and AIPAC. Sarah Palin is their rabbit -she distracts from the Obama-Biden message on the real issues. Isn’t funny how quickly Palin was escorted in to meet with the AIPAC board of directors, but no time to meet with the Press?
The 100 year war continues…notice the new battlefield, Pakistan. Actually AF/PAK.
If you’re the praying kind. Pray.
Three months ago (with oil north of $137/bbl and gas over $4/gall) I listened to an interview on the other alternative media – shortwave radio – filled with, as it turns out, not so tin-foil or fringed wingnuts:
said a guy Williams being interviewed; “McCain is their man. And to help him, oil will drop to under $100/bbl and gas prices to $3.50 gallon before election day.”
Nothing like an extended war to camouflage the financial collapse…worse than the Great Depression. F&F is the harbinger. Next up: Lehman, GM, Chrysler and Ford. Why not?
Remind me again WHY MoveOn was required to stop posting ads opposing McCain? Why Obama wants no 527s when there are 10-15 527s taking aim at him? What FUCKING MORON came up with this “white tablecloth” CRAP?
Republicans ATTACK, Democrats defend, sidestep or GENUFLECT!! The simple truth is that the Democratic party going back to Richard Nixon has not engaged the Republicans effectively in Presidential elections. Nixon was considered to be the “father” of dirty political tricks. The Republicans have streamlined and polished these techniques to the point they have the dirty tricks methodology down to a science. In fairness to the Democrats, being the party of the underclass means that you don’t have the money to hire people to develop your own catalog of tricks, dirty or clean.
So the Democrats rely on the old school “stump” style of political campaigning; which is primarily designed to place the important national and local “issues” before the people to demonstrate to the voters that you understand their needs and should be their candidate of choice.
The Republicans have been constantly measuring and monitoring voter demographics, and have determined that the so called “low information” voter is in the majority and thus tailored their message to target this specific group. This is the group that Ronald Reagan called “the silent majority”, and based a significant portion of his campaign to target these voters. The characteristics of the “low Information” voter are as follows:
(1)Has low tolerance for any level of complexity in the issues facing the nation. (For example, many have absolutely no idea of the factors that contribute to the price of gasoline.)
(2)Has good retention of simple “sound bites” particularly if they contain humor or personal insults, regardless whether the information is blatantly false or doesn’t even make sense.
(3)Is highly susceptible to messages expressing hate towards a group or an individual.
The Republicans have scripted their message for the highest appeal to this particular group of voters, using the mass media channels for transmission.
Other media entertainment shows in the highly competitive TV market pick up these Republican sound bites and rebroadcast them again as “NEWS”, under the assumption that these messages have mass market appeal and will help boost their ratings. This give the appearance that the respective political sound bytes are generating more buzz on the ground than is the actual case. However, these techniques have proven to be highly successful in the past for the Republicans.
The Democrats came close to winning using the old “Stump” techniques with Al Gore. It was expected that with G.W. Bush’s first four years in the White House that John Kerry would be a shoo in. However, the Republicans turned on their 527’s whose sound bite lies won over the “low information” voter and gave a second term to Bush. So what do we have here in 2008? Anything new and creative in the Obama messages? Compare that with the ongoing media circus created by the Republicans, with Sarah palin in the center ring. Networks are fighting over each other to setup an interview with Palin.
My advice to the Obama campaign is FORGET ABOUT SARAH PALIN! There no publicity stunt that is going to get the media off of the scent of those high ratings featuring Palin. There is the world of the TV and Internet media, and then there is the world where the voters live on main street USA. Democrats MUST direct all of their efforts to GETTING OUT THE VOTE EVERYWHERE, and providing the SPECIFICS of the Obama plan to FIX AMERICA on the stump. Each one of these stump speeches must be exciting, inspirational, and motivational to recruit folks in the audience to work for the Obama campaign. With less than 8 weeks to go this is the only plan that can win!!