26 comments

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  AnthonyMason

  11 months ago

  It's funny that you mentioned O's Communication team as weak and lacking. We had a big discussion on that a few weeks ago with some folks saying they were just fine. I believe (but cant prove) that Obama should be ahead of McCain by at least 40 points. You cannot get worse and/or incompetent than Bush, yet McCain is just that. Obama needs to hit hard, and stop playing defense. Go on offense. Otherwise we'll be talking about McCain as President and Obama as senator.
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  rikyrah

  11 months ago

  I believe Obama's done the best he could with what he has. I believe he's decided to stick with loyalty above quality. When he first started out, he couldn't get 'the best', because ' the best' thought he didn't have a chance in hell. Well, now that hell has frozen over, I 'm in a quandry as to what he should do, because I would no more trust a lot of those folks than I would trust any GOP operative. That's a tough spot to be in - needing the quality of someone you fundamentally can't trust. And no, I don't think Obama could trust those folks, which is why I haven't come down on him for sticking with loyalty.
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  TruthSeeker

  11 months ago

  Darn, I missed this post!
  
  Maybe he should consult with those "Funny or Die" guys.... If they could work with the more experienced election ad people... Then he should get a couple psychologists/behavioral researchers on board. O needs some some young, innovative film-makers with fresh ideas.
  
  One of the best ad's I've seen is the "Politics of Parsing" from Edwards against Hillary. It was simple and devastating. Just text and clips:
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggO5yY7RAo
  
  He should light some fire under the butt's of the communication people, no more lukewarm responses!
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  BlackAmericanPrincess

  11 months ago

  PLEASE email this to the Obama campaign rikyrah...
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  GreenLadyHere

  11 months ago

  BAP: CO-SIGN!!! :>)
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  Sepia

  11 months ago

  Co-signing the co-signer! This suggestions need to be heard/read by The Obama Campaign.
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  Webb

  11 months ago

  Great points--on point #3, there's no reason why all the town-halls shouldn't be online...unless there are elements of the townhalls that could be snapped-up by the McCain Crew...we should never forget that the Bush-Rove Crew got their most critical attack ad on Kerry--"I voted for it before I voted against it"--from a Kerry townhall meeting.
  
  As for surrogates on point #2, who else could he tap? Bill Clinton? Hillary Clinton? Jesse Jackson? Al Sharpton? Me thinks that Barack wants them all to STFU b/c they create more trouble than they're worth.
  
  I'm afraid it's really a one-man(person)-show until *O* get in office and starts appointing JJP peeps--and that's all good, b/c FDR was a one-man show too...and Barack Obama will be an FDR/Lincoln/Washington Class President.
  
  Lastly on point #1, I don't think that they're lacking. I do think that we (Obama Supporters) who feel so strongly that there needs to be better counter-strikes against McCain and the Republicans should "Step-up." Literally, step up. How? 527 Groups.
  
  The Move-Ons and George Soros'es have a role to play. But Webb has a role to play too. I'm working to establish a 527 in Georgia to do attack ads against Saxby Chambliss. If we can knock Saxby out-of-office, then Georgia will surely fall into *O*s column.
  
  We have got to share the burden with Axelrod and Plouffe. It's heavy, but we can handle it. Let's do it.
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  99 Percent Sure

  11 months ago

  "[T]he real difference between [progressives] and Obama is not one of ideology or policy, but one of strategy and tactics, what the senator calls "framing."
  
  With no track record to prove it, they somehow think that they know better how to win a presidential election than, well, the guy who's been winning it all year."

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  djchefron

  11 months ago

  "[T]he real difference between [progressives] and Obama is not one of ideology or policy, but one of strategy and tactics, what the senator calls "framing."
  ..................................................................................................................................................
  Agree with you.The trick is to get on the talking head shows people who are ideological.Every time you look at the shows the Dems. most of the time have people on who are docile to say the least you hardly ever see a right winger be conciliatory,
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  99 Percent Sure

  11 months ago

  They're loud and vituperative but always on the wrong side of issues; they usually spend their time advancing the failed talking point of Obama as celebrity, despite mounds of evidence proving Wccain not only to be more of a celebrity, but actually - and frequently - courting the industry.
  
  I see the criticisms of Obama's campaign as Quixotic, since there is little chance the he's ever going to run his campaign based on the individual beliefs of the electorate who probably have never run for an election of any kind. Why should he when he continues achieving success with the way he currently operates?
  
  I've never been one to believe that you fight slime with slime; obviously No Drama Obama doesn't either. Framing responses with solutions on the issues is hard hitting and to the point. Besides that, he wouldn't have a 40-point lead, no matter what, even if he was as well known as Wrinkly White-Haired Old Dude. There's been no presidential candidate who has enjoyed such a lead in modern history.
  
  'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' is my motto. Besides, neither he nor his surrogates can afford to respond in kind to the repugs because, despite their vehemence that they are being 'objective' the fact is that most every media pundit filters responses by and for Obama by race, and Obama and his camp are well aware of that.
  
  Until someone runs a presidential race better and as well as he runs his, I'm loathe to pay attention to any advice, whether letters or diaries or blogs by blacks or whites. His campaign must be doing something right, since WcCain continues to plagiarize Obama's campaign, whether it's logo or stump speeches or issues-based truths.
  
  To quote alley Jesse Jackson during his 1988 campaign when journalist on the bus asked daily how it's going - "We're winning everyday."
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  caligirl

  11 months ago

  i agree.
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  johnosahon

  11 months ago

  what you are saying is true.
  
  for the town hall, they need to have numerous town halls in every city at the same time, i.e. barack may be in ohio, but there should be a town halls in other states with a big screens so people can ask him questions from everywhere.
  
  better yet, they can concentrate on a particular state, open numerous halls over the states for people to talk to him.
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  CraigHickman

  11 months ago

  I'm usually underwhelmed by armchair campaign strategy, but the third point is a great point. I tend to watch most of Barack's town hall's on cnn.com, but I'm not always able to be in front of the computer when he's having one. It would be great to go to his website and see the entire townhall, especially the question and answer sessions.
  
  Barack is very good on his feet, but (too) many have the impression that he's only good on script.
  
  I'd also like to ad a few names to his effective surrogate list:
  
  Adam Smith (pit bull)
  Janet Napolitano (strong and reasonable)
  Dick Durbin (a mensch with a dagger)
  Chris Cofinis (pit bull, takes no shit from Republicans)
  
  Barack needs these people out there more and more and he certainly could use more pit bulls.
  
  I agree with those who say this post needs to be emailed to Barack.
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  99 Percent Sure

  11 months ago

  Doesn't C-Span run all the Town Hall meetings by both candidates? Yes, I believe they do.
  
  WAPO has an article up on it's site re this diary's title - Obama Hits Back, Too Softly For Some

  Obama aides said Democratic hand-wringing about polls showing that the presidential race remains tight ha[s] nothing to do with the volleys.
  
  "We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV," spokesman Bill Burton said.
  
  "The price [McCain] paid for his party's nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position," Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 at a high school gym in Elkhart. "That doesn't meet my definition of a maverick. You can't be a maverick when politically it's important for you but not a maverick when it doesn't work for you."
  
  Such attacks have raised worries among Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 -- that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character. Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity.
  
  "Democrats are worried," said Tad Devine, a top strategist for Kerry who thinks Obama must stay on the high road. "We've been through two very tough elections at the national level, and it's very easy to lose confidence."
  
  Consultants close to Obama say the Democrat has good reason not to risk his own campaign by following McCain's lead. Because McCain has accepted public financing for the general-election campaign, he must spend all his primary campaign money before the party conventions. Obama is focusing on turning out voters, while airing a mix of positive ads and responses.
  
  And more ads may not help, according to a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. Nearly half of respondents -- including 51 percent of independents -- said they have been hearing too much about Obama lately, and 22 percent said all that news has made them feel less favorable toward him. On the other hand, significantly more Americans view McCain's ads as mostly negative than say the same of Obama's.

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  CraigHickman

  11 months ago

  The media is pushing the overexposure results big time.
  
  Perhaps his vacation is perfectly timed.
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  RonnieB

  11 months ago

  First of all, not only is the MSM advancing this meme, so are Black Republicans and others of that ilk. But I guess those folks are one in the same as it relates to Barack.
  
  As to the criticism of Barack, I was just talking to a (white, former Hillary-supporting) co-worker about this very thing. Barack has got to dispatch his people much faster. McCain is throwing all the mud, which means that he's driving the media cycles. And the media are glad to have it that way, because it makes a horse race of what should be a horse vs. donkey race. On the one hand, it's low-brow and shameful the way the McCain is allowing his campaign to be run. But on the other hand, the common voter is much less high-minded and much more low-brow than ever before. This is a fight and the voters (and the media) are the judges. And if they see that one fighter is doing all the punching--even if the punches aren't landing--they're gonna give the fight to the aggressor. Barack cannot afford to let McCain be the aggressor.
  
  It's time to take the fight to McCain. Not a dirty fight, but a tactical one where he is the obvious aggressor; where all of his blows are decisive; and where he strikes fear with his ever move. He can't worry about hurting McCain or being seen as the big, Black predator. We're past that.
  
  This is for all of our futures. And he's gotta start fighting like that's what at stake.
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  CraigHickman

  11 months ago

  He can't worry about...being seen as the big, Black predator. We're past that.
  
  ::
  
  We're never past that, RonnieB.
  
  Never.
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  rawdawgbuffalo

  11 months ago

  I figure neither McCain nor Obama has a clue about the common man son Label me Cow because I got beef with them both
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  Admiral_Komack

  11 months ago

  "Obama needs to be more positive, like he was in the beginning of this campaign."
  
  "This cannot help:"
  
  "Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”
  
  -You mean positive like John McCain?
  
  McCain's new TV ad is critical of Bush and Obama
  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
  August 6, 2008
  RAPID CITY, S.D. - John McCain conceded in a new television commercial yesterday that "we're worse off than we were four years ago," and said he is the candidate best positioned to usher in an era of change.
  
  "Washington's broken. John McCain knows it," says the commercial, which is implicitly critical of both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
  
  It is unusual for a presidential candidate to part company with an administration of the same party, but McCain has little choice, with public opinion polls showing the public is eager for change after eight years of the Bush administration.
  
  http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/print...
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  s

  11 months ago

  McCain is seizing Obama's territory, center-left, swing voters.
  
  Center-left swing voters want change, but may not be willing to risk it with an inexperienced, until now, little known, candidate. McCain is looking to be an acceptable, bi-partisan, experienced candidate.
  
  He is cashing in on his "Maverick" brand and taking away the "McBush" line of attack
  
  Obama's comments about "America no longer being what it once was" is enough to drive the far right to the polls and vote against him.
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  Micheline

  11 months ago

  For weeks people have been saying he needs another communications team. My problem is that they don't know when to take advantage an opportunity for example Phil Gram's comment. It seems to me that they are one track minded: they are focusing on organizing at the expense of messaging when both areas are important.
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  jed

  11 months ago

  As someone who will be voting for whichever C-list candidate has the last name that is most difficult for school children to spell, I would sign that (with a few edits). However...
  
  The real guts of either candidate's campaign will not begin much before their respective conventions. Everything up to now has been establishing range and windage.
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  AnthonyMason

  11 months ago

  That's another problem O's facing: 60% of the Democratic establishment cannot (and shouldn't be) trusted. I wouldnt trust a Carveille or Begala carrying water for Obama.
  Again, as it has been said here before: Obama's not just fighting the repubs; he's also fighting the dems as well.
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  s

  11 months ago

  Obama needs to be more positive, like he was in the beginning of this campaign.
  
  This cannot help:
  
  Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”
  
  "When presidential candidates answer questions from children about why they want the job, most will give an answer that uplifts the child and the candidate. Not Barack Obama. At a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked the Democrat why he wants to be President — and he told her that America has gone downhill:
  
  “America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”
  
  Sound familiar? Michelle Obama sounded similar themes earlier in the campaign:
  
  “Sometimes it’s easier to hold onto your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your ignorance. That’s America.”
  
  “Let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”
  
  Everyone feels that we can improve ourselves, but we don’t usually cast it in terms of the country no longer being what it once was. Coming from the Obamas, that doesn’t even make sense. They have talked about how difficult it was to break through barriers, not without some justification, to reach this point in their lives and American history.
  
  Doesn’t that speak to the point that we continue to grow and to learn? And if not, which “good old days” did Obama mean? The 1980s? I doubt it, and if he means the Clinton era, then why did he run against Hillary in the first place?
  
  Once again, Obama got off the teleprompter and put his foot directly in his mouth. He’s not selling Hope, he’s selling Despair, and himself as the snake oil that will cure us of all our ills."
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  s

  11 months ago

  McCain takes lead on YouTube hits: "Mr. McCain has beat Mr. Obama's channel for seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days, in a signal he intends to compete for the YouTube vote. That is a giant reversal. Mr. Obama had been quadrupling Mr. McCain's YouTube views and beat him every day since February, according to TubeMogul, which tracks online video viewing."
  
  http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/07/mccai...
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  Micheline

  11 months ago

  May be because people were curious about those stupid ads.
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