Tag Archive for 'Biden'

Obama campaign goal: Getting to know each other

Published on October 16, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: 2008 election, Biden, jim webb, Obama, political ads, radio ads, ralph stanley.

As part of CBS’s snap polling of the third debate this evening, respondents were asked if the candidates shared their values. Before the debate, 54% of voters thought Obama shared their values, 63% did afterwards.

A lifetime ago during the Democratic primaries, Obama parried the same smears currently being pressed by the GOP. Despite the invokation of Ayers, Rezko, and Wright, voters kept turning up for Obama. Even with Clinton’s more subtle, he’s not a Muslim “as far as I know,” Obama emerged a nose ahead of Clinton, clinching the nomination.

Since becoming the Democratic nominee, the Obama and his ground team have steadily worked to win households over one at a time. Michelle Obama’s telling of the Obama Family bio marked a shift away from the “angry black” rumor mongering. Americans became increasingly comfortable with the possibility of a mixed race President in the White House and began to see the Obamas like every other family on the block.

The campaign’s continued advertising choices and their endorsements have likely had a positive impact on voters’ ability to relate to Obama as we head toward election day.

Rural voters are a great example of these outreach efforts. This spring when a citizen journalist reported on a fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama’s comments about rural voters caused an uproar.

it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Arguably, that comment steepened the uphill climb to convince rural voters to vote Obama instead of McCain this fall.

Yet, he’s likely to win Virginia’s and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and seems closer, poll after poll, to turning West Virginia and North Carolina blue next month. Obama has been vocal about their issues when stumping through those areas and continues to follow up with relevant localized advertising that features respected and trusted leaders in those communities.

In Virginia, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley recorded a radio ad supporting a leader that’s “on our side,” mentioning how Obama will cut taxes for working folks, work to make college more affordable and try to bring jobs back to the region. Additionally, he personally vouched for Obama as a man who puts “family first” and is a “father and devoted husband”. That Obama, he shares our family values.

Virginian Senator Jim Webb also lent his voice to a Virginia radio ad detailing his childhood interest in guns that became a lifelong hobby thanks to his dad.

Our family tradition of hunting and shooting are a way of life to me, and no government will ever take that away. . . I am an NRA member and I know that my friend Barack Obama will protect our second amendment rights. So don’t be misled about Barack Obama. I trust Barack Obama. I trust him to protect our right to keep and bear arms. . .

As TPM points out, the word “trust” is reiterated several times as local son Web tells Virginians Obama is a man he trusts, and they should too. These sentiments work to reverse the effects of the the seeds of “difference” and “otherness” that McPalin work to plant in traditionally Red states.

Both ads are a great application of word-of-mouth advertising, since both men are well known and respected in their home states. So an endorsement from Webb or Stanley is more convincing than talking points from a voice-over artist whether in a pro-Obama or attack ad. .

The same localized advertising can be found in the Midwest With his homestate of Illinois securely behind him, Obama has won over farm country in Iowa and remains neck and neck in Missouri, with Ohio leaning Obama. In reaching out to farmers in those areas, they turned to an inspiring mural that bloomed across the side of an Ohio barn.

The Obama launched a web ad, pairing Obama’s thoughts on how the government should serve rural American with the video of the mural coming into existence over several days. Again he focuses on education and the family values that farming families hold dear. He also points to the need to support the next generation of farmers through policy and infrastructure improvements. The notion of community is reinforced by the folks who spend 2 days painting a Campaign for Change mural on the side of a barn.

Time and again, Obama is returning to the values and issues that each region considers important, working to keep voters’ attention on the issues and the ballot box. And it’s paying off.

With each debate more and more Americans are deciding that the Obama-Biden ticket shares their values, and the Obama campaign will do its best to ride that wave of relateability all the way to the White House.

Note: My generalizations about conditions in states are pulled from pollster.com’s electoral map, which is regularly updated as new polling data becomes available.

VOD: Using reverse psychology — DON'T VOTE — to get out the vote

Published on October 1, 2008 in Entertainment and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: 2008 election, activism, Adam Levine, Amy Adams, and Forest Whitaker, Anthony Kiedis, Ashton Kutcher, Biden, Bill Clinton, Courteney Cox, Demi Moore, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen DeGeneres, Ethan Suplee, Eva Longoria, Giovanni Ribisi, Halle Berry, Hilary Clinton, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, Jonah Hill, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Connolly, Kyra Sedgwick, Laura Linney, Leonardo DiCaprio, McCain, Michelle Trachtenberg, Natalie Portman, Obama, Palin, Politics, Tobey Maguire, Usher, Will.I.Am.

I love this video. The celebrities aren’t taking a stance on any issue in particular. Instead, they press the importance of voting, period.

A bunch of celebrities are demanding that you don’t vote because voting is stupid. No one cares about education, health care, abortion, polar bears, the economy, etc.

But then celebrity after celebrity point out that what you care about might matter. From social security to Darfur to the AIDS crisis at home and abroad, the 2nd ammendment, war on drugs. “This is really only about your future.”

They remind you that you need to REGISTER to vote and insist they’ll wait for you to register before moving on.

It’s completely non-partisan, but it reminds people of the issues at stake (regardless of the position you take on those issues), the need to register (the deadline is October 4th in some states) and the necessity of voting.

And of course, they ask you to take the message viral and share it with 5 friends.

PS. Maybe it leans left. But much of Hollywood is pretty liberal. The point is non partisan — vote!

Political authorities think Americans are dumb

Published on September 24, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: 2008 election, american voters, andrea mitchell, Biden, Campbell Brown, hypocrisy, McCain, Obama, Palin, Politics, Rachel Maddow, sexism.

There’s something about an election year that brings out the audacity of politicians to utter what they’re really thinking sans filter. After the recently volley of pundits and candidates and administration officials releasing utterly absurd sound bites, I’ve concluded our political leaderships thinks we’re stupid.

Last month, John Goodman (who helped develop McCain’s health care policy plans) commented on an easy, cost-free solution to the problem of lack of insurance nationwide

‘So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,’ Mr. Goodman said. ‘The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

‘So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.’

Semantics could reframe the debate on health care policy if the government only had to concern itself with citizens that are denied needed care. Under such terminology, the availability of acute, rather than preventative care would matter most.

Unfortunately for Goodman, the quality, equity, and accessability of emergency care is under fire in this country with growing waits, staff shortages and emergency room closings. But changing the language would make the numbers more palatable.

Next, Americans are angry that Congress is set to hand over $700+ billion to Wall Street after it bungled its business. 55% of Americans are against such a bail out. Last week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson released his proposed bail out of the Wall Street wunderkind, just 2 1/2 pages in length, which included a statement that would elevate him to a status beyond American law or scrutiny.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Today, testifying before the Senate banking committee Paulson defended the statement saying it would have been “presumptuous” of him to define what sort of oversight this proposal needed if activated.

We gave you a simple, three-page legislative outline and I thought it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with an oversight mechanism. That’s the role of Congress, that’s something we’re going to work on together. So if any of you felt that I didn’t believe that we needed oversight: I believe we need oversight. We need oversight.

So writing in a clause allowing you to act with impunity, answering to no one, that’s just plain humble? Really? Did the Bush administration think Congress was just going to push their legislation on through, while handing over the keys to the kingdom? Americans have dealt with 8 years of an administration ignoring the law, so giving any one individual a free pass would be insane. I guess the Bush administration hoped the $700 billion figure would shock and awe us so, that we’d turn a blind eye to the assault on the Constitution.

My personal favorite, though, is the the McCain campaign’s categorical refusal to allow Palin to speak unscripted in live interview formats that would allow American voters the opportunity to hear her speak about her opinions on the issues. Today, Palin met with a variety of world leaders, but the pool cameras were only allowed to film about 30 SECONDS of a handful of those meetings. Originally, journalists were refused all access. Those 30 seconds were granted only after news outlets threatened to not cover Palin’s activities at all.

Since being announced as the VP candidate by McCain, Sarah Palin has sat for 2 interviews — one with Charlie Gibson of ABC, the other with Sean Hannity of Fox News. A CBS reporter assigned to Biden estimates that he’s completed more than 80 interviews since Obama announced his running mate.

This refusal to let her speak for herself has to make you wonder, what are they hiding? The hiding isn’t helping the McCain campaign; Palin’s approval ratings have dropped 12 points in two weeks among independents. Andrea Mitchell and Rachel Maddow discussed this tactic, likening it to how totalitarian regimes in other parts of the world treat the media. That Palin remains inaccessible, unwilling to discuss her positions, which are often out of touch with mainstream America, can’t be helping her approval ratings. . . It’s, dare I say, elitist, to think that a viable candidate would and could deny the public access to a thorough vetting of her ideology.

Deservingly, Campbell Brown called for the McCain campaign to “Free Sarah Palin!,” not just because voters have a right to get to know her before casting a ballot, but because it’s sexist to hide her away as if she can’t fend for herself. The McCain campaign and its surrogates have been slapping “sexist” stickers on their opponents and media channels, anyone who dares criticize Palin. It’s the ultimate act of hypocrisy that they’re sheltering “the girl” from the rough and tumble vetting McCain, Obama, and Biden survived on the campaign trail.

More so than any other election in recent memory, Americans are paying attention. It means that the blogosphere rumbles, the main stream media eventually gets around to reporting, and American households are discussing the antics of the power class in America.

When looking at the kind of sound bites and stories covered in the media, you can’t help but notice that the power elite doesn’t have a very high regard for the people that put them there.

Does political merchandise predict the election winner?

Published on September 14, 2008 in Politics and Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: 2008 election, Biden, McCain, merchandise sales, Obama, Palin, polling.

Do the sales of politically-themed merchandise predict the winner of a given election? CafePress seems to think so after the outcome of the 2004 election.

In January, sales of Obama merchandise exploded, leaving Hillary in the dust. Recently, Obama-related sales have dipped, while McCain-item sales have slowly increased, like the little train that could, leaving the two candidates essentially tied.

Additionally, it appears that for months there’s been just one new McCain design for every 3 for Obama.

It turns out that sales of Kittens for Clinton T-shirts are perhaps no less reliable than Gallup polls. For example, sales of Barack Obama merchandise first surpassed Hillary Clinton items in late January, just weeks before the Illinois senator took the lead in the polls. And merchandise for the Obama-Biden ticket was outselling McCain-Palin items until the Republican National Convention ended in September. Sales for both are now neck and neck, much as the candidates are in the polls.

And candidate preference is not the only insight gleaned from CafePress sales. “In 2004, you could really tell Bush was running against himself,” Ms. Maniatis said, because most of the political designs were either pro- or anti-Bush, rather than focusing on the Democratic contender John Kerry.(NYTimes)

So if you’re a political news junkie, you may want to check out sales stats at cafepress periodically, not just polling results at gallup, to stay in the know.