I know this is preaching to the choir (so to speak) but in watching the MSM's narative lately a few key things have come to the forefront, things that bother me. Mainly one -- Discord among the faithful over policy positions. Some folks want Barack to go more forcefully in opposing somethings than he appears to be doing. I say this - remember that it is still election time!
The time to quibble or outright pressure Obama on policy points isn't right now. Right now he's trying to get elected for all of our sakes and the powers that be (MSM, the opponents and the pundits unwillingness to see this a s a "different" kind of election cycle) are mightily arrayed to keep thrusting barriers in Obama's path to the Oval Office. Discord plays right into those forces' hands. The time now is to not spend time criticizing OUR candidate, but to keep pounding the points home about what the opponents stands for (or doesn't stand at all for). We have to get our candidate elected - pure and simple.
Keep in mind at this point neither candidate is actually setting policy...all they are doing is laying out what their approach to solving our nations problems will be. But first they have to get elected.
Once elected, then the time is ripe for making sure the policy issues you want addressed will be addressed and in the manner you wish them to be addressed. Fighting those battles now just weakens the cause. As ever, the devil's in the details.
When the election is over, and (hopefully) our candidate is victorious, that which remains is what matters - Barack Obama in the Oval Office with an open and transparent administration that listens to everybody.
Well after lurking in the comment boards and occaisonally posting a comment or two I've decided to join the bloggers here and weigh in with my 2 cents worth.
Perhaps it would do to give you a little info about me before I expect you to read and weigh my words.
I'm a 54 year old ex-hippie/musician. I spent a dozen years in professional theater satirizing all aspects of the American lifestyle and beliefs. I also was involved in high-tech before, during and after the creation of the internet. And today, I am an acoustic roots musician since I closed down my own business during the dot-com bust.
My friends have often laughed at me for seeming politically "naive" because I always wanted to vote for a candidate like Jimmy Stewart's character, Jefferson Smith, in Mr Smith goes to Washington. Well they aren't laughing any more since I found my candidate in Barack Obama.
Just about everything about Obama "resonates" with me (thus my blog title) - from public policy, to his getting the government back into working for the people, the average Joe, instead of for large corporations.
So enough about me - let's talk about what we can do to derail the "same old same old" and make things work to this campaign's advantage. As a starting point lets talk about the net.
Obama is already using this well for outreach to new voters, raising campaign funds and building and organizing a grassroots organization - if you needed proof of that look at how well the campaign did in Pennsylvania without paying out "street money" (a fixture of the old way of doing things.
But I believe the campaign could use the net better in terms of getting the message out, counteracting opponents spin, etc.
How?
For starters here's a couple of ideas:
By central organization, control and coordination of the following:
Coordinated email campaigns to new organizations with fact by fact point counter-point refutations of inaccuracies and outright falsehoods portrayed in the MSM. Not spin comments - just factual statements (that strips out the arguement that its all just "spin"). These things should be written in the language of the average citizen, not washington insiders (or dare I say it - University educated "smart folks"). The lesson we should take out of the results in Pennsylvania is that we need to use plain talk to get our ideas across. Keep up the inspirational speeches for sure (that's what grabbed me in the first place) but when you get your arguements in the public eye it should be in such a way that everybody can understand it.
Coordinated campaigns to make specific videos, news stories and position papers go "viral" Digg (and use all of the similar tools) items that point out inconsistencies in our opponents positions, remind folks of past positions, etc, all based on a careful selection of items that specifically reinforce whatever targeted message the main campaign wants to put out - in otherwords the cetral campaign picks these items and coordinates them rathe than just all of us going out and saying Digg this, mail this, etc. The campaign could provide all of us with the list of items to send out virally and then set us loose. that way we all get to help but the effort is focused and controled.
What do you think?
I'd love to brainstorm more ideas and like this campaign, I'm always open to listening.
Til next time...
Go Obama!
