I don't think this election is about "Change" amymore

The people who have bought it have and the people who haven't aren't going to do it.

Elections almost always boil down to trust. And by that I don't mean how much the American people "trust" you. I mean how much you convince them not to "trust" your opponent. People, especially Independents and other fence leaners, are fickle. They, in the end, get swayed by and cling to the lowest common denominator. Fear.

See that's why Republicans are good at winning elections. They can't govern for shit, but they'll win an election perfectly fine. They promote a certain trustful image and then seek to destroy their opponents without shame. Dems aren't really like that. We tend to think truth and good policy are on our side so that will make the world alright and we can all hold hands and bathe in rainbow skittle showers and eat chocolate bunny rabbits together.

And while we're thinking all of this, we get effing Swiftboated.

Always remember, Republicans have no shame at all. It's why they'll run an ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in it against a triple amputee war veteran. It's why they so egregiously exploit 9/11.

Think about some ads. Reagan and the big scary bear. Bush Sr. and Willie Horton. Or the latest with McCain saying Obama wants to teach kindergartners about sex.

Those aren't designed to make people trust Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush or John McCain. Those are designed to make you mistrust their opponents. Many people in our country believe they are voting for the lesser of two evils.

So Republicans ratfuck voters into thinking that the other guy is the more risky bet.

So then people go to vote on election day and they think that they might like the Democrat more, and maybe he has some good policies, but hell, they think he may take their gun, or give terrorists more rights while they blow us up or coddle some criminal so when he gets out he rapes and kills somebody etc.

Republicans are good at creating mistrust. It doesn't matter if they lie to create it, they do it anyway. They know people don't watch an ad and then go check factcheck.org or read Paul Krugman or somebody's column that debunks those lies.

All they know is that Barack Obama is an empty headed celebrity. Or that he wants to raise taxes. or he wants to pervert kids. That's mistrust.

Think again about McCain's ads. You remember the one that blamed Obama for gas prices? The scary "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" music. The quick frightening cuts.

It's all about making people doubt Obama. They don't need to trust McCain, they just need to not trust Obama.

That's why I hate how they all say "I like John McCain." "He's an honorable man."

Uh, no he's not.

Think again. If McCain is saying that Obama can't be trusted to win a war because he'd rather win an election, or if McCain is calling Obama and Dems the "Me First, Country Second" crowd, then you see on the other side Dems saying "John McCain is wrong, but he's an honorable guy" that still isn't getting the job done.

Right now, I think Obama has the right idea. He's hitting back. But it doesn't hurt to get a little mean in those ads, and he did by portraying McCain as an old out-of-touch guy. Not bad.

But McCain has a serious Achille's heel, that nobody has totally exposed. Obama said it once when he mentioned McCain's temperment.

McCain is a an unhinged hothead.

I think that is something Obama needs to exploit. I can tell you this the Republicans would do that to one of us.

What kind of ad would I run?

I think either a 527 or Obama should run something with McCain walking around with a microphone singing "Bomb Iran." I'd play some eerie creepy music, and run that Thad Cochran quote over a still frame of a frenzied McCain looking all crazy, as he often does in pictures, "The thought of him being president sends a chill up my spine." Then I'd have a spooky announcer voice say something about the stakes being too high to have McCain in the WH etc.

The Republicans would never hesitate to run ads like that against us, McCain already ran one of the worst ever with the sex ed for kindergartners.

So I think Obama should pull out the LBJ vs Barry Goldwater tactics. You make Americans frightened of this man being in the White House. You make them distrust John McCain as if their lives depended on it.

Because in many ways, it's true. John McCain means more war. A new Cold War. A possible Depression, certainly less jobs and poor economic growth, more expensive health care etc.

The gloves have come off. Good. I say keep at it.

And take it up another notch.

I really think this direction is our only choice, if for no other reason than to bloody the bully's nose. Whether or not it gets us to the White House this time, I believe it will remove the perception that the Democratic party is a human pinata in the years to come.

Yank back the news cycle - by the balls, nose, and tongue if necessary.

The only way to reach them is by scaring the shit out of them.

We really need to face the fact that the intelligent, informed, critical thinkers in our population are VASTLY outnumbered by the mouthbreathers, bullies, assholes, and nitwits.

I absolutely HATE it, but it's the truth.

sw

I don't think the onset of dementia is out of bounds either.

It can be implied by making him seem unhinged enough.

Implication is lost on 40% of the voters, who need Rush and Hannity to connect concepts for them.

Point taken.

Fear of the Democrat. Because the Democrat is weak and will allow you to be killed, and will take your gun away so you can't defend yourself. Or immoral and will force sex (especially Teh Gay) on your children. Or politically correct and will take away your fun. Or unknowable and inexperienced, and will make the economy even worse.

With Obama, they have added a new element: The Democrat is strange and might be foreign and alien and of the "wrong" religion and actively plotting to seize the presidency so he can conquer the world. Ooh. Oh, and, white folks, did we mention he's black? That means he wants to elevate black people over YOU so that YOU will have to live like they have all along.

It's a pretty strong mix. And I think it's only the strength of that mix that even makes McCain/Palin any kind of contender. Because without it, their candidacy and campaign would be a complete joke.

Edited to add: I think the thing about Dems is they seldom go for fear tactics in their advertising. One of the reasons the "Daisy" ad is so well remembered is not just because it was so over the top (vote for Johnson or Goldwater will nuke this child--and the whole planet) but because it was a DEM ad that hinged entirely on fear tactics. Dems don't usually do that. They try to appeal to voters' intellect and intelligence and sense of logic.

It's pretty sad when you have to admit that appealing to their anxieties and animal fears is more effective. But the truth is, McCain's only real hope left is to try to make more voters fear Obama than be willing to give him a chance.

Expect some very ugly ads from that quarter as we hit the home stretch. But remember, the same thing was tried in 2006, and it didn't work. Maybe, for once, voters were tired of having bogeymen flung in their faces. Sure, bogeymen will work with some people all of the time, especially racist bogeymen, but not all of them.

Fear and mistrust go hand in hand. That's the sick game they play. With Obama it's worse, making him seem foreign etc. Maybe I have just looked at this stuff too long and I hate even thinking like this, but when I see some goofy ad or here some idiot say Obama is going to take away guns, I just think the only way to knock that stuff back is to get so ugly and down and dirty that the Republicans wish they never started it in the first place.

to things that make them feel good. It is simply the way our brains work. Honestly, we are all doing the same thing here. We are ALL reacting to our fears, we are just scared of different things.

we all know here at DU what the damage is but the uninformed don't really know all they know is their houses and jobs are going and there are high gas prices. They don't know the rest.

It's up to us to inform them - a crash course

Obama should change his slogan to say - All I want is the truth" Just Give me some truth" and slam McSame on his lies

stands up against the opposition during the campaign. It's a "preview". They trusted Bill Clinton, even though he was a law professor too, b/c he had an element of "I'll kick your ass" to him. Obama hasn't shown that yet.

What Obama DOES have is a great thunderous voice. He needs to use it better, in an authoritarian take-charge way. The best thing he did so far was his "enough is enough" statement.

I'd roll with the temperament issue too. Definitely. I agree, it needs a big dose of FEAR. That's real anyway - McC/P is dang scary.

I still think that the TRUTH about "whatever attack" and "whatever lie" along with a REDIRECT TO THE ISSUES that the PEOPLE CARE ABOUT shows voters the biggest difference.

Obama CAN and WILL deal with the problems this nation faces.

Mc*ullsh*t is so out of touch he doesn't know what the issues are. He is rich and this economy still works for him so let the rest of US figure out what to eat when gas goes up to $8 a gallon and the economic infrastructure collapses under his watch. NO THANKS.

Paint it and paint it BIG...these people will put this country into any war they can find. And hit it over and over again. Then hit it some more.

McCain scares me, too. But Palin is over the top.

McCain's foreign policy, as far as I can tell, is bomb first, negotiate later. But at least he's only likely to bomb people who can't hurt us over here too much.
We know he doesn't care about the troops. They're just doing their duty, no more than should be expected of them.

Palin, on the other hand, is willing to start a war with Russia, perhaps China as well. And all without blinking.

and emphasize McCain's dishonesty - argue that someone who lies so much can't be trusted with the presidency.

I do agree that it is time to play the fear card. Because of Republican foreign policy, which will only get worse under McCain, WW3 is now a real possibility. Compare that to the peace and prosperity of the 1990's. I'm surprised they haven't done more with McCain's quote about staying in Iraq for 100 years.

There is a lot to be done to turn this nation around and I tell you even I was getting fearful for a bit. Then I saw Obama on Letterman and I remembered how calm and cool he is under all this pressure.

Exposing the lies and emphasizing McCain's dishonesty and unfitness for leadership due to that dishonesty is spot on. But if we get into projecting too much fear people can't think straight and that always works to the rethug advantage.

IMHO, what you describe is true at the national level. But at the local level, I think the argument breaks down. I.e., there is often just as much political mud-slinging in state and local races, from both repukes and Dems, and if one were to analyze the 2006 massacre against the repukes, one would see this.

Thus the saying "all elections are local" rings true.

The problem is that when crafting a "national campaign", there is demand from the punditry and from political observers on places like this, that insist that some specific "interest" that they have be addressed nationally. However if one addresses that "interest", this might fly in the face of a different "interest" that is key in a different part of the country. So in essence, too much focus, "nationally" on specific "issues" will piss off those whose interest isn't on that "issue".

This is why, as I understand, the Obama campaign has specifically researched and targeted certain advertising (not only by subject but tone of ad) to different states and even parts of states. An issue such as "loss of family farms to developers" has no more importance to me living in a big city than would the issue of "proliferation of illegal assault weapons among minors" would to those in the rural areas.

Thus at the national level, an attempt had been made to find things that were generally common to all. But when doing that, the punditry then demands details and it is those details that cause the sound-bite voter's eyes to glaze over. Thus that simplification of a message down to "emotional" reactions that the repukes use to rally votes. The danger of course is that at the same time, the strategy turns off enough people that they stay home and won't vote at all. This leads to the disgrace of having only 40 - 50% turnouts in elections, something unheard of in the rest of the world's democracies.

And if you think of it, part of the reason why Obama is where he is today is because he DID utilize "emotion" to simplify his message. His was in fact positive vs the repuke emotions that focus on the negative. Both do work but what has happened is that with the collective might of the lunatic fringe biased media that attempts to control what one "sees and hears", the beat down of the "positive emotion" forced Obama into the more mundane "detail-oriented" material. And that same biased media will not call out the repukes to do the same, thus allowing them to coast on their "negative emotion" and shift the Dems onto their playing field.

Now that McPalin has been exposed as "empty suits", it might be interesting to see if Obama can recapture HIS "positive emotion" and shift the mood back to his playing field, while allowing the surrogates to do the details. And yes, the pundits laughed at and ridiculed his "emotion" but guess what? That's because they KNEW that it was working and they had to do anything they could to throw him off!!! The epitome was that Dem convention and Obama's acceptance speech that left the hardest of the hard right blubbering like the Grinch when "his heart grew to 3 sizes that day" (upon realizing the "true meaning of Christmas"). That, along with Housegate, effectively destroyed the entire repuke strategy.

Who is more likely to care about the American people?

ALL the American people, not just the top 5%?

Obama's tax plan give tax breaks to 95% of the people.

Use your brain, McCain supporters and vote in your own self interest.

insists on playing checkers; Dr. Drew Westen

lol. Thanks for the link.

ghosttowns with empty buildings and closed businesses, sick persons without medication and health coverage, the unemployed, etc. Add to that the fact that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch and they should show the email Rice received that she ignored. They need to show this over and over and over.

I'd do a "Great Depression" ad too. Much like you mentioned.

but I've been thinking about this line of reasoning for days. K & R.

We've had a LIAR and Chief for 8 years and McInsane is more of the same and worse. He's that old guy yelling at kids to "Get out of the yard!"

I agree that we shouldn't kiss up to McCain anymore.

He's a ZERO not a HERO. And we should push the knowledge about his stopping other POWS from coming home in order to keep his dirty little secret that he made 32 propaganda tapes for the enemy while imprisoned. The tapes themselves AREN'T the biggest issue.

The fact is McCain came home because people worked hard to obtain his freedom and he DENIED families and even the government the right to work for the freedom of other POWS to hide his dirty little secret.

At least one other POW was KNOWN to be alive in a POW camp in 1992 and his wife showed McLame his picture. So McInsane is responsible for leading the charge to enforce that POWS imprisonment by blocking all access to information that could have obtained his freedom.

McCain is NO HERO and WE the PEOPLE should start showing up and making THAT the NEWS of the day.

Attack and attack hard. These people need to be exposed, stripped bare and put in stocks in front of the whole country.

Dumbfucks

www.stealingamericathemovie.com is a great overview of how Republicans manipulate election results. They have used multiple methods.

Let's hope that our awareness of the methods employed, and some corrections of past abuses, will allow us to get our choice this time.

In 2004, the actual results were Kerry 51%, Bush 48% , but those results were flipped after midnight. Even as lots of African Americans were still in line to vote.

Very statistically improbable that all those computer glitches favored the Republican candidate.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen


Republicans also had teams of people at polling places in Democratic districts challenging voter registrations to slow down the voting and discourage people due to the extra long lines.

War.
Poverty.
Children left behind.
Government emasculated to being able to protect while enabled to control.
Financial crisis.
Losing jobs.
Homelessness.
Healthcare crisis.


McCain/Palin=The end of The American Dream. Hit 'em hard and hit 'em till it sticks or it melts down the news cycles.

Like you, I want to see "Daisy" ads, lots of 'em!

If you want a herd of brainless bovines and ursines to change direction, you HAVE to scare them.

We are surrounded by brainless bovines and ursines, there's only one way to get to them -- FEAR.

sw

First off, a great posting...

My brother and I were talking about this yesterday.

He believed that the Dems are wasting too much fire by going after Palin (which they have to, to a degree), and going after McCain, (which they have to, to a significant degree), and Bush (which they have to, to some degree). But they're missing the point, falling for the game of personality politics--a waster of money and time.

Instead, the Dems need to go after Republican leadership and policy in general. I added that they need to, quite frankly, scare the living @#$% out of voters. And the question that drives the campaign should be this: What's happened in America because of Republican leadership? Throw any Republican in the White House, pack any Congress with a simple majority of Republicans, and watch government, our society, and much of the world, go down the toilet. Republicans can't govern. Logically, their party cannot promise more effective government because they'd like nothing less than to eliminate it. And look what's happened, something dangerously close to the "ausencia del estado" in Colombia. I think voters need to be reminded of the consequences, again and again, of Republican leadership, Republican values, Republican mistakes. Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Nixon, Reagan, Herbert Walker, his idjit son, Grandpa Simpson; McCarthy, Gingrich, Armey, Hatch, Inhofe : in some sense, they're all the same to me.

Americans should be not merely concerned.

For so many good reasons, Americans should be afraid.

An issue-driven, campaign means we go after the Republican ideology in general.

is the way to go. And it's what Obama's team is starting to do.

Right on TV. Even if they cut away and don't air the whole thing, it will work, maybe even more effectively.

-Hoot