Is the Obama Campaign Following My Advice?
Yesterday I wrote a post over at Crooks & Liars suggesting a way for Obama to address the "celebrity" charge (a post that got quite a bit of traffic and was widely-linked to). My suggested Obama retort ended with this:
So remember, when John McCain and his surrogates call me a “celebrity,” they’re not insulting me; they’re insulting you. They’re insinuating that you are a mindless groupie rather than a concerned citizen, a fan rather than a voter.This afternoon the Obama campaign sent an email out to supporters saying the following:
While supporters like you are out knocking on doors, registering new voters, and organizing in your local communities, our opponents are not even trying to match your efforts. Instead, they're spending millions to spread the smear that Barack is just a "celebrity" and that our grassroots movement is just a bunch of mindless fans.Can that be a coincidence? I suppose so, but I prefer (for obvious reasons) to believe it's the campaign responding to good advice.
So who is John McCain really attacking? Real people like Brandon, a carpenter from McCall, ID, Stephanie, a registered nurse from Phoenix, AZ, and Pamela, a retired teacher from Franklin, WV. These are actual people who have made donations to our campaign this week. Join supporters like Brandon, Stephanie, and Pamela in fighting back against McCain's negative attacks.
posted by A.L. at 1:06 PM
7 Comments:
I was just going to write you about an e-mail I received this morning but you beat me to it.
It seems they got your message.
Comment from Obsidian Wings on Aug. 5:I really wish Obama would say: [ . . . ] "My opponent's campaign has been running some increasingly negative ads in the last two weeks claiming that I'm this arrogant celebrity. But they never talk about anything I've said or proposed -- instead they show these shots of people who came out to participate in this campaign. They're trying to make this campaign about me, when it should be about the American people and where they want to take this country. About the 1.5 million people who've contributed to and the thousands of people who are working on this campaign because they believe that we can change America for the better."
in an era where Obama can share his Veep via text message, we can share links to really good ideas. I did. I'll bet, based on the traffic that C&L gets, more people did too.
I hope it was your advice they took, you damn well deserve credit for your perfect mini Obama speech. It really is the right line of attack for the campaign, not only because it works politically, but because it's true.
Great Minds Think Alike
If you do an overview of human history it will become obvious that there are structures that influence our thoughts and choices. In the US, one can't be Progressive and win. Our ignorance and venality don't allow us to pick the route that would lead to Nordic Socialism.
Businesses, universities, military, and other group efforts all have goals and restrictions that channel our options. An adult soon learns what can be done and what will be resisted...not only by the organization, but also by the individual members.
Mold
Unfortunately, Public Relations 101 states that you should never repeat your opponent's accusation. It risks reinforcing the assertion. The part about "spending millions to spread the smear that Barack is just a 'celebrity' and that our grassroots movement is just a bunch of mindless fans" should have been "spending millions of the lobbyists' dollars to smear Barack with no consideration to his ideas or the people who support those ideas".
Actually, the Obama campaign has been good at pointing out when the opposition is actually going after Obama's supporters and not just the candidate himself. They did it when Clinton said something stupid about Obama during the primaries too. I like the strategy because it's just another way to neutralize the character assassination tactics the right (and Clinton, I guess) are so fond of. And it pissed Taylor Marsh off during the primaries, which made me happy.
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