One week before election, Michael Fox's support of Dems is "CONTROVERSIAL," but Katrina/FEMA incompetence ISN'T EVEN MENTIONED...??
So let's get this straight: ONE WEEK before election 2006, Michael Fox's ad for Democrats is "CONTROVERSIAL," but the awful loss of life in New Orleans after the failure of New Orleans levies; FEMA's dismal lack of preparation under Mike "heckuva job, Brownie" Brown for the Katrina monster category 5 hurricane; and Michael Chertoff's INCOMPETENT administration of Homeland Security ; TORTURE and the disregarding of the Geneva Conventions; 9-11 incompetence and the dismal planning for the post-invasion occupation of Iraq... all these, and many more issues and Republican scandals, ARE BARELY MENTIONED in the news and on networks and major-media, if at all?
Even with Democrats doing well in polls, across the nation the real message is REPUBLICAN DOMINANCE of the MEDIA and the media MESSAGE.
Republicans are STILL masters of NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS, and the Democratic Party leadership, as Arianna Huffington wrote today, is trying to make "middle class pocketbook" issues the CENTERPIECE of Election '06.... even though Karl Rove and the past dozen years of Republican electioneering demonstrate that NEGATIVE ADS WORK, EVEN when Repubs have been forced to create 'scandals' OUT OF THIN AIR!
(The penultimate or 'text-book' examples of Repubs creating 'scandals' OUT OF THIN AIR are the "Travel Office firings," the "Lincoln Bedrooom 'scandal'," and the "White House TRASHING 'scandal'," ALL OF WHICH WERE CREATED OUT OF THIN AIR by the Republicans and their attack-dog media flunkies against the previous Democratic White House administration.)
For an example from today's news, check out Charlie Crist's campaign for governor of Florida. His opponent's media message is so muted, that we are tempted not to even mention his name! (Jim Davis, the Dem. candidate for FL governor).
Charlie Crist, Republican candidate for Governor in Florida, has stated (himself) in TV ads "My opponent is AGAINST THE IMPORTATION OF CHEAPER prescription drugs FROM Canada."
But the laws that now PROHIBIT the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada were RECENTLY SIGNED INTO LAW by President Bush and THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS!
HOW is it that Republican Charlie Crist is using a cruel and expensive (to consumers) REPUBLICAN LAW.... AGAINST his Democratic opponent, Jim Davis?!!!
-answer: Charlie Crist's ads are a text-book example of the Republican's ability to take NON-ISSUES and REPUBLICAN FAILINGS, and TRANSFORM THEM.... into NEGATIVE ads AGAINST the Democrats!
A REPUBLICAN administration FAILS to capture Osama bin Laden, has turned Iraq into a MAGNET of HATE AMERICA resentment in the Muslim world, and sacrifices thousands of American soldiers' lives to the abject corruption of crony contracts and business deals... and yet the Republicans PORTRAY DEMOCRATS as being "SOFT ON NATIONAL SECURITY"!!
How did we get to this point in American history where MILLIONS of Republican BENEFICIARIES of "liberal" and progressive laws and programs - the GI bill and college loans, small business loans, Social Security, pension, retirement, and savings guarantees and insurance, etc., ad infinitum - now vote FOR REPUBLICAN leaders who seek to (and are in the process of) KILLLING those very programs, assistances, and guarantees that have made them (Republican voters) successful citizens?
-ans: Oh yeah, over the past decade(s) Democrats have subscribed to the "FREE MARKET" Republican dogma, that even though using public airwaves, media corporations have NO, ZERO *responsibility* to provide election-year communications at cost, and therefore Democratic voters and candidates MUST ENRICH the vry corporations and business leaders who so often are MOST OPPOSED to the Democratic agenda and issues!
So even when Democratic candidates SUCCEED in raising campaign funds... we turn around and HAND THEM OVER to, and enrich, the very media corporations MOST OPPOSED to those Democratic candidates and issues!
Clearly, the Constitution and founders DID_NOT_ANTICIPATE the development of a modern, corporate media as OWNERS and GATEKEEPERS of American elections.
And, worse, faced with this media-politics disparity, Republicans have MASTERED THE ART OF NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS, while so often Democrats can NOT fashion a fighting message, even with years of Republican misrule and ABUSE OF POWER to use as campaign fodder.
========================================
Message to Dems: STOP Muddying the Campaign Messaging Waters
by Arianna Huffington
HuffingtonPost.com
10.30.2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-dems-stop-muddyi_b_32842.html
Memo to Dems: Stop counting your chickens, STOP TRYING TO SOFT-PEDAL what a Democratic victory will mean -- and for god's sake, stop muddying the messaging waters.
As Chris Bowers points out at MyDD, as many as 60 House races are still "absolutely in flux" -- i.e. within single digits, and likely to be decided by a very slim margin.
Bowers rightly hammers home the importance of "unrelenting activism" and making sure that the Democratic lead isn't gobbled up by the GOP's always effective get-out-the-vote ground game over the next eight days. He provides a helpful list of the kinds of roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-busy things anyone who cares about the future of this country can and should do between today and next Tuesday to ensure that those razor slim margins tilt Democratic.
Here's another thing that would help: Democratic leaders making it unequivocally clear with every pronouncement they make and every question they answer what this election is about. And it's not about what Howard Dean said yesterday on Face the Nation.
"Here's why we're running," he told Bob Schieffer. "We want middle-class tax fairness for the American people. We want middle-class Americans to benefit from this economy, not just the folks that have contributed to the president."
Nooooo! Dr. Dean, please, please tell me that you don't really believe this election is about "middle-class tax fairness."
To be fair, you did go on to say "We want a defense policy that's tough and smart" and that "Republicans have failed us on defense." But only after leading with middle-class tax fairness. Indeed, the first half of your segment was focused on it. You jumped right in with: "We want middle-class tax fairness. We think there's a war that hasn't been discussed, and that's the Republican war on the American family. A million people have lost their health care every single year that George Bush has been president. We need a minimum wage. America needs a raise."
The Republican war on the American family? A real war is sending young Americans home in body bags and has made us all less safe and you want to talk in metaphors?
Are you out of your freaking mind?
And it's not just you, Howard. Last week, Rahm Emanuel told the AP, "Democrats are talking about middle-class tax cuts and Republicans are talking about staying the course."
I know you two haven't seen eye-to-eye on much this campaign. Why start now, with this muddled message?
Staying the course is about Iraq. And now that the president is running away from that phrase, instead of beating the GOP over the head with it, Emanuel is robbing it of its power by using it as just a synonym for maintaining the status quo on tax policy.
Yes, there are many domestic issues -- taxes, health care, minimum wage -- Democrats will need to address once they are back in the majority. But, as I warned last month, they've got to stop reaching for the "it's the economy, stupid" crack pipe.
This election is about the fact that Republicans have made us less safe and that Congressional oversight is critical to ensure that Bush and company, with their tragically misguided decisions on Iraq and homeland security, don't make us even less secure over the two years they have left. Period. End of message.
There are only eight days left before this watershed election. I beseech all Democrats within spitting distance of a microphone: Put the standard-issue, knee-jerk, focus group-tested, inanities on ice until November 8th. Or else the real war on the American family is likely to get much, much bloodier.
Even with Democrats doing well in polls, across the nation the real message is REPUBLICAN DOMINANCE of the MEDIA and the media MESSAGE.
Republicans are STILL masters of NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS, and the Democratic Party leadership, as Arianna Huffington wrote today, is trying to make "middle class pocketbook" issues the CENTERPIECE of Election '06.... even though Karl Rove and the past dozen years of Republican electioneering demonstrate that NEGATIVE ADS WORK, EVEN when Repubs have been forced to create 'scandals' OUT OF THIN AIR!
(The penultimate or 'text-book' examples of Repubs creating 'scandals' OUT OF THIN AIR are the "Travel Office firings," the "Lincoln Bedrooom 'scandal'," and the "White House TRASHING 'scandal'," ALL OF WHICH WERE CREATED OUT OF THIN AIR by the Republicans and their attack-dog media flunkies against the previous Democratic White House administration.)
For an example from today's news, check out Charlie Crist's campaign for governor of Florida. His opponent's media message is so muted, that we are tempted not to even mention his name! (Jim Davis, the Dem. candidate for FL governor).
Charlie Crist, Republican candidate for Governor in Florida, has stated (himself) in TV ads "My opponent is AGAINST THE IMPORTATION OF CHEAPER prescription drugs FROM Canada."
But the laws that now PROHIBIT the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada were RECENTLY SIGNED INTO LAW by President Bush and THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS!
HOW is it that Republican Charlie Crist is using a cruel and expensive (to consumers) REPUBLICAN LAW.... AGAINST his Democratic opponent, Jim Davis?!!!
-answer: Charlie Crist's ads are a text-book example of the Republican's ability to take NON-ISSUES and REPUBLICAN FAILINGS, and TRANSFORM THEM.... into NEGATIVE ads AGAINST the Democrats!
A REPUBLICAN administration FAILS to capture Osama bin Laden, has turned Iraq into a MAGNET of HATE AMERICA resentment in the Muslim world, and sacrifices thousands of American soldiers' lives to the abject corruption of crony contracts and business deals... and yet the Republicans PORTRAY DEMOCRATS as being "SOFT ON NATIONAL SECURITY"!!
How did we get to this point in American history where MILLIONS of Republican BENEFICIARIES of "liberal" and progressive laws and programs - the GI bill and college loans, small business loans, Social Security, pension, retirement, and savings guarantees and insurance, etc., ad infinitum - now vote FOR REPUBLICAN leaders who seek to (and are in the process of) KILLLING those very programs, assistances, and guarantees that have made them (Republican voters) successful citizens?
-ans: Oh yeah, over the past decade(s) Democrats have subscribed to the "FREE MARKET" Republican dogma, that even though using public airwaves, media corporations have NO, ZERO *responsibility* to provide election-year communications at cost, and therefore Democratic voters and candidates MUST ENRICH the vry corporations and business leaders who so often are MOST OPPOSED to the Democratic agenda and issues!
So even when Democratic candidates SUCCEED in raising campaign funds... we turn around and HAND THEM OVER to, and enrich, the very media corporations MOST OPPOSED to those Democratic candidates and issues!
Clearly, the Constitution and founders DID_NOT_ANTICIPATE the development of a modern, corporate media as OWNERS and GATEKEEPERS of American elections.
And, worse, faced with this media-politics disparity, Republicans have MASTERED THE ART OF NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN ADS, while so often Democrats can NOT fashion a fighting message, even with years of Republican misrule and ABUSE OF POWER to use as campaign fodder.
========================================
Message to Dems: STOP Muddying the Campaign Messaging Waters
by Arianna Huffington
HuffingtonPost.com
10.30.2006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-dems-stop-muddyi_b_32842.html
Memo to Dems: Stop counting your chickens, STOP TRYING TO SOFT-PEDAL what a Democratic victory will mean -- and for god's sake, stop muddying the messaging waters.
As Chris Bowers points out at MyDD, as many as 60 House races are still "absolutely in flux" -- i.e. within single digits, and likely to be decided by a very slim margin.
Bowers rightly hammers home the importance of "unrelenting activism" and making sure that the Democratic lead isn't gobbled up by the GOP's always effective get-out-the-vote ground game over the next eight days. He provides a helpful list of the kinds of roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-busy things anyone who cares about the future of this country can and should do between today and next Tuesday to ensure that those razor slim margins tilt Democratic.
Here's another thing that would help: Democratic leaders making it unequivocally clear with every pronouncement they make and every question they answer what this election is about. And it's not about what Howard Dean said yesterday on Face the Nation.
"Here's why we're running," he told Bob Schieffer. "We want middle-class tax fairness for the American people. We want middle-class Americans to benefit from this economy, not just the folks that have contributed to the president."
Nooooo! Dr. Dean, please, please tell me that you don't really believe this election is about "middle-class tax fairness."
To be fair, you did go on to say "We want a defense policy that's tough and smart" and that "Republicans have failed us on defense." But only after leading with middle-class tax fairness. Indeed, the first half of your segment was focused on it. You jumped right in with: "We want middle-class tax fairness. We think there's a war that hasn't been discussed, and that's the Republican war on the American family. A million people have lost their health care every single year that George Bush has been president. We need a minimum wage. America needs a raise."
The Republican war on the American family? A real war is sending young Americans home in body bags and has made us all less safe and you want to talk in metaphors?
Are you out of your freaking mind?
And it's not just you, Howard. Last week, Rahm Emanuel told the AP, "Democrats are talking about middle-class tax cuts and Republicans are talking about staying the course."
I know you two haven't seen eye-to-eye on much this campaign. Why start now, with this muddled message?
Staying the course is about Iraq. And now that the president is running away from that phrase, instead of beating the GOP over the head with it, Emanuel is robbing it of its power by using it as just a synonym for maintaining the status quo on tax policy.
Yes, there are many domestic issues -- taxes, health care, minimum wage -- Democrats will need to address once they are back in the majority. But, as I warned last month, they've got to stop reaching for the "it's the economy, stupid" crack pipe.
This election is about the fact that Republicans have made us less safe and that Congressional oversight is critical to ensure that Bush and company, with their tragically misguided decisions on Iraq and homeland security, don't make us even less secure over the two years they have left. Period. End of message.
There are only eight days left before this watershed election. I beseech all Democrats within spitting distance of a microphone: Put the standard-issue, knee-jerk, focus group-tested, inanities on ice until November 8th. Or else the real war on the American family is likely to get much, much bloodier.
posted by verifi at 7:18 AM
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