What's it going to take to get Dem talkers to stay on message?

I just watched the Tivos of the capital gang and Sunday shows. Individually the dems were more articulate and accurate than the rethugs, hands down. What struck me was that everybody had their own attacks of bush, their own defenses of Kerry. The rethugs: maybe ten points for everyone together, repeated over and over, from Mary Matlin to bob no facts.

So what's wrong with that? Our folks have truth and brains on their side. Well, it's great to be smart and right, but there is one unassailable fact of TV media--if you send out fifty messages each gets lost competing with the others for "brain time" even if they're all brilliant on their own.

The rethugs may be lying, but how many times have you heard people you know parrot those lies back to you? Lots, right? Sadly, every time you hear someone do that, you're listening to the sounds of success.

What is it about our talkers? What is it about rethugs? Do our talkers get the talking points and promptly wad them up in a ball? Are they getting talking points from fifty different entities? Are they not getting them at all? Do they not accept the merit of repetition of the message? Do they just love to hear themselves talk?
Is there no benefit for staying on message, no cost for not doing so? What?

This is not a rant as much as it is genuine bewilderment. If idiots like Ed Gillespie, Bob Novak, Ron Silver, and Michele Malkin can stay on message, why can't we?

Minus a few sex scandals here and there (No one's fucking business anyway) we as a whole tend to focus on the betterment and progress of the nation. As a result, it has never occured to us to repeat the truth over and over again because we have much to share. I tnink its time to take a pg from Rove 101 and hit hard and over and over again.

face down his wife.

Hypnosis, blunt object, whips and rope

:shrug:

What is going on, here? Is anyone handing out talking points or are they just left "on their own"? Can't we learn anything from the rethugs? They do own every branch of government, they do a few things right, like stay on message. It's not a lot to ask!

The GOP heirarchy actually makes out a list of stuff to say, and the surrogates follow it word-for-word.

The Democrats have a general outline of their position, but it seems as if the surrogates get more leeway in how they articulate it.

Its frustrating sometimes, not because you want to have representatives who sound like mindless robots, but because it makes getting a simple basic message out to viewers is so difficult.

If people watching CNN hear something different about Kerry than people watching MSNBC or ABC or CBS, then people won't be sure what the Kerry message is.

Say this about the GOP, they are discipled like dogs who've been through obedience school.

get around the media filter we all know exists. The hosts can spin the questions, but we can do what the rethugs do--just use every question to hit the points du jour.

They have full-time jobs supplied by the GOP and their supporters at various think tanks and foundations. They spend most of their working day reviewing talking points, writing op eds, doing strategy, etc. Meanwhile, Dem pundits usually have day jobs and just can't devote all of their time to spinning.

One solution is for Dems to give more money to various organizations to help set up communications strategies and outlets such as those set up by Republicans.

David Brock has talked about this phenomenon and then put his money where his mouth is - forming Media Matters. But we need much more of this if we're going to compete with their communications juggernaut.

it's not just pundits.

Their electeds stay on message far more aggressively than ours do. So do their "journalists," their strategists, their former campaign managers, and their pollsters. This phenomenon also holds true for the live events I've seen. Recently, while on vacation is a swing state, I saw a union official try to cover just economic issues in front of 300 people and even that was a complete mess.

We certainly do need more outfits like American Progress and Media Matters, but we ought to be, haveto be doing much better. Clearly, the message is not getting from our strategists' brains to our talkers' mouths. Either there is no coherent message, the pipeline is being mismanaged, or our surrogates are all dicks. I find two of these hard to believe.

their communications strategy and infrastructure while Democrats were focusing on program and policy. The result has been that, even though our policies and programs are so much better, they are far superior in getting their messages out. They have an echo chamber that's developed over the years and works hand-in-hand with a compliant media that is bending over backwords to prove that they aren't liberal.

The pipeline is not mismanaged and our surrogates are not dicks. Our pipeline is just not as well-developed as theirs is and our surrogate bullpen is not as deep as theirs. We're improving, but we've got a long way to go. And money will make a big difference.

money always makes a difference but even so this is not neuroscience.

Presumably we have bookers to book surrogates and interns who can call shows to see who shows have booked. Presumably, we have people who can write simple declarative sentences. Certainly the means to transmit these points are already in place. So far we haven't spent a dime.

But it does require clarity, coherence, discipline, and organization. That's the hard part, but well within the grasp on a major political party and a presidential campaign at this moment, one would think. Somewhere along the line one or more of these elements is breaking down.

How can we tell something isn't working properly? Because we just have to look back a few years when with even less money, with even less infrastructure, and with a hostile media to boot our surrogate operation was working better, and the results were dramatic indeed.

is not a strength at all. Time after time, I have heard a gop thug staying on message and it makes them sound out of touch, stupid, and irrelevant.

There are no jobs! Prez Bush supports tax relief. But no one is working enough to have to pay taxes. President Bush supports tax relief.

AAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH ...

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

:D

But you are not the audience they are directing their message to. It's the people that you hear repeating the rethug talking points as justification for voting for Bush that are. And they aren't all diehard republicans either.

People remember and use these "talking points" to decide on who they will vote for, and not even conciously. The talking points that they have heard a million times rattle around in their head and are used to define the candidates and the issues. Most people do not make their decisions based on well-informed, researched facts. This is the sort of thing that sways them one way or another, and the republicans know this. We cannot afford to have a muddled message. Kerry and his surrogates must define the candidate, the issues and the argument against Bush consistantly or the message will not be remembered.

think staying on message is irrelevant.

Sure the rethugs sound dumb. They aredumb. But the point is that in the media climate that Roger Ailes and GE have created for us, dumb ain't so dumb.

Most people aren't as partisan, well read on politics, or skeptical of the media as we are here at DU--not elitism, just a fact. If they are engaged at all, they catch 2/3 of Hardball or, more likely, Larry King or Nightline. Their idea of fun isn't reading Korn tear chimp a new one. Ours is.

Whenever you hear a person of average political engagement repeat a rethug point, you can tell yourself, "Dumb bastard doesn't know any better." But remember, that person has been reached .

I work with a lot of people that pay little attention to politics ... working poor folk ... and when Bush comes up, I hear cries of 'motherfucker', rotten bastard, sorry sumbitch ... I don't hear talking points spouted.

My point is this: believing that people who do not follow politics are susectable to such tripe comes from not actually knowing our grand citizens. The folk I know may not be able to limn a speech but they know bullshit when they hear it and the Bushies are shoveling plenty.

I mean where do they start??

I agree though, they need to pick mayb 5 issues and repeat them every chance they get.

I think they're going to be be preoccupied with the AWOL story for a while....