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The Openest Thread of All

by: Dean Barker

Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 06:13:35 AM EDT
Let it all out.

(In a respectful  and constructive way, of course).

This is an Open Thread.
Dean Barker :: The Openest Thread of All
Tags: (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
The Openest Thread of All | 81 comments
What is OFA, and why does it exist? (4.00 / 1)
I thought OFA's Reason for Being was to hold on and keep engaged some of those general election voters.

That didn't happen at all in NH, as far as I could tell.

Can and should these resource OFA has be better spent?


birch, finch, beech

Mistake (4.00 / 1)
OFA was built on the assumption that the President would retain his popularity and would be more popular than the Democratic Party.  I don't think the White House anticipated that the Republican strategy would be to destroy that popularity.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
It wasn't a mistake to use Obama's personal brand to fire up activists. (0.00 / 0)
The mistake was to make a continuing distinction between "Obama people" and "Democrats".

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
Thousands of phone calls for health care reform (0.00 / 0)
It is a little known fact that several thousand calls went out from OFA New Hampshire in support of the Health Care Reform on three separate occasions. It was an organized effort that worked extremely well and how should not be public.

The OFA plan for New Hampshire for the election was less effective because there was a marked volunteer drop off as there was in much of the rest of the campaign effort in the state.

The NHDP took OFA in NH over in August and hired people who didn't have much experience with OFA or campaigns. If Kathy has a problem she should ask her friends at NHDP.

In all the canvasses I did for this election, talking to at least 300 people, I met a large percentage of people who said "I don't think they are giving the president a fair chance." And neither is Kathy or perhaps she watches more TV than most people.

[ Parent ]
Hey! (0.00 / 0)
I didn't criticize the President. I said, OFA was built on the assumption he would retain his popularity. He hasn't, and while we all might wish it wasn't so, it is fact. I also said it was Republican strategy to destroy his popularity. Disagree with me all you want about the decision to maintain OFA but please do not misstate what I said. I agree that the President had not been given a fair chance, but guess what? Life is not fair. And neither are Fox News, Karl Rove, and the rest.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
It's a fact only in the media (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
? (0.00 / 0)
It is one thing to dislike reality, it is another to deny it.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
Blue Mass Group post Re: OFA (0.00 / 0)
The diary: An open letter to the Democratic Party

My 2 cents:

Who remembers this OFA?
http://www.massforchange.com/2...

Here are some names: John Bowes, Tony Mack, Brian Corr, Ross Neisuler, Lydia Segal, Sarah Compton & Harmony Wu. There are others, maybe a half a dozen that I can't quite remember.

My advice is for OFA to allow Massachusetts to experiment with the format.

It worked well, back in the day.

1) Live blogging OFAMA - at HEALTHCARE REFORM 101
by - bowes3
Posted on: Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 09:08:11 AM CDT

2) OFA-MA HEALTHCARE REFORM 101
by - bowes3
Posted on: Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 10:48:39 AM CDT

3) Live blogging OFAMA - Organizing for America, Massachusetts
by - bowes3
Posted on: Sat May 16, 2009 at 10:12:20 AM CDT

4) Organizing For America Fulfills Promise
by - John from Lowell
Posted on: Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 12:35:48 PM CDT

5) Massachusetts For Obama summer kickoff event OFAMA.(SATURDAY, MAY 16)
by - bowes3
Posted on: Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 07:10:11 AM CDT

6) Organizing For America - Greater Lowell
by - John from Lowell
Posted on: Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 09:53:03 AM CDT



Whack-a-mole, anyone?
[ Parent ]
When DSCC/DCCC leave you stranded, (4.00 / 1)
what is the game plan on the state level?

Should a template for a coordinated strategy be developed early on in the cycle absent assistance from afar?

birch, finch, beech

When the losses are steep, (4.00 / 1)
what can be down at a state party level to energize those areas of the state most fertile for Democrats - seacoast, Upper Valley, Cheshire, etc... and thus rebuild?

birch, finch, beech
and (4.00 / 1)
why is the north country a perennial sacrifice?  

member of the professional left  
[ Parent ]
Absent a way to mitigate the Citizens United (4.00 / 1)
attack on democracy, should we fight fire with fire?

birch, finch, beech
Yes. (4.00 / 4)
We don't have much choice. While grassroots will always be our bread and butter, we need to buy fertilizer. Organic fertilizer, but fertilizer.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
No fertilizer (4.00 / 1)
In gardening, fertilizer is a bad choice in the long run.  The plants become adjusted to having an unnatural source of food and when that eventually runs out, the plant suffers enormously.

If we are to take this metaphor all the way through, out-of-state volunteers, Presidential wannabe staffers, and DC money have all be the fertilizer to NH politics.  

Native plants have found a way to adapt to their soil, weather, and neighbors and introduction of non-native agents disrupts those conditions.  It is time for NHDP to start getting back to it's roots and stop relying on outside sources to fertilize their organization.

[ Parent ]
Water? n/t (0.00 / 0)




"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
We need to pull a lot of weeds in 2012. (4.00 / 2)
You can't do that without disturbing the soil.

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
And ... (4.00 / 3)
To anyone who either unintentionally or intentionally misreads this post, I meant you sometimes need fertililzer to help the grassroots grow!  

:)




"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

[ Parent ]
too bad bag signs are not compostable n/t (0.00 / 0)


Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
Which reminds me (0.00 / 0)
All that seem to be left on our roadsides around here are Annie signs. I am going to start scooping them myself as I drive along, as it appears nobody has been delegated for that task. At least the wires will recycle.

Republicans believe government is bad - then they get into office and prove it.
[ Parent ]
staff is working until 11/15 (4.00 / 1)
please give them to your local coordinator...if you can't contact them email me please!

Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
all Kuster offices are closed except Concord HQ n/t (0.00 / 0)


Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
The Rs (4.00 / 2)
use emotion, we tend to bombard with facts.  We need to know more about what and how people feel, what they are worried about, and then find stories that resonate with them. Real stories about real people that they can identify with. You don't get the guy with the pickup in NH (yes, I know they are not all the same, my husband has a pickup and he votes for Democrats, so I am stereotyping) to vote for Democrats by telling him a story about an immigrant or a black person (both of whom he has been persuaded to believe are either stealing his job [manhood] or getting handouts when he would never ask), so we need to be a bit more local and targeted in our message.  
I am not sure that being nasty the way they are will work for us.  We need to find ways to tell the truth that people will remember.  We need to find stories (there's a sales book that is called Storyselling, believe it or not) that stick in their minds.  Maybe some research to see what people pay attention to, like hurt homeless pets or individual sick kids with cancer they can raise funds for.  We have to know who lives out here in the boonies as well as who lives in Portsmouth.  
[ Parent ]
The instinct-driven hate mandates. (4.00 / 1)
Our punitive authoritarians get around that by suggesting that whatever mandates they impose will be selective and the true-believers will be exempt.  
The inclusion, at Republican suggestion, of the health insurance mandate was a poison pill designed to antagonize the base.  That there is no enforcement mechanism in the legislation was not publicized, nor would it have helped.
Democrats probably thought it would be the "spoonful of sugar that would make the medicine go down."  They were deceived.
Austerians are opposed to government providing any direct services to anyone.  Their objective is to exercise power and to punish.  They're abusers who use the law as a tool of subjugation--the paternal right to impose discipline made universal.
[ Parent ]
Being nasty the way they are would not work for us. (0.00 / 0)
When it comes to public affairs, liberals and conservatives have different attitudes, not just different policies.

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
IMHO, the most influential talking heads on each side: (0.00 / 0)
Conservative: Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck
Liberal: Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart

That really says a lot about the respective movements.

--
@DougLindner

[ Parent ]
What could BH have done (0.00 / 0)
in the past four years to help build lefty infrastructure offline, and what should we do in that regard going forward?

birch, finch, beech
BlueHampshire PAC (4.00 / 2)
Should we register as a pac to allow us to to collect fund and help pay for alternative media coverage? At least cover someone's direct expenses of doing so?

Could we grow it to the point where we run radio ads?

Hope > Fear




Create a free Blue Hampshire account and join the conversation.

[ Parent ]
PAC (0.00 / 0)
I'd oppose it.

You have to weigh the legal costs (such as report filing) against what would be raised. That's one consideration.

I have others ... but who cares what I think?

Blue Mass Group started one; I'm sure they'd be happy to discuss the experience.

(For the record, I made a brief ahem questioning theirs, but I'm less of a regular there, so I left it at that. Then I gave them a buck when they asked for a buck to kickstart/test the online donation app. So I'd play ball here too if you want to do it. But I'm aheming again.)


[ Parent ]
How can we assist Gov. Lynch (4.00 / 2)
in using his significant popularity and bully pulpit to halt The Crazy that will go past his veto pen?

birch, finch, beech
We need folks in the State House to share the stories (4.00 / 1)
That your Tube video of that person talking talking about "Wriggling around in it" helped the world to see the crazy that is in our state house.

I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more material over the next few years!  

Hope > Fear




Create a free Blue Hampshire account and join the conversation.

[ Parent ]
What are our organizational plans (4.00 / 3)
to prevent Kevin Smith from ripping away the civil rights of our friends and neighbors?

How do we keep this ugly process from increasing the despair that young people may already feel about themselves in respect to LGBT matters?  How do we keep young people safe during the upcoming spectacle?

(Let's not be glib about this either; there are real people who stand to be really harmed here.)

birch, finch, beech

Defending House Bill 436 (0.00 / 0)
I've already met with a number of advocates for marriage equality and will be meeting and talking with many more during the next several months.  We won passage by good strategy, and "showing our faces and telling our stories."  

Now we have about 3,000 ambassadors throughout the state -- New Hampshire residents, our friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers who have joined in marriage with the person they love and with whom they want to share their lives.  

Anyone who wants to join the cause, there will be many opportunities to do so.  I'm sure others will be organizing as well.  I'm at jimsplaine@aol.com if you'd like to network, but it will take the same kind of diversified, yet unified effort that we had in 2009 to protect marriage equality.  

I'll be posting lots of updates on www.BlueHampshire.com during the next several months, because this Blog became an excellent resource at getting the words and our messages out.

Key to our effort should be to be respectful to our opposition.  Republicans are good people too, and we have to appeal to our equality-supporting Republican friends.  We picked up 40 Republicans this past Spring in our effort to oppose repeal.  We need to expand on those efforts.  

Remember how I often signed off on messages on this cause last year:  We can do it.  We already have.  

And we will smile again.

[ Parent ]
Well said (0.00 / 0)
It's hard to say without knowing who the elected Republicans are in the House, but I would hope and guess that there are at least 31 reasonable yankee Republicans who would stand with Democrats in defeating a veto override.  You're right that the strategy worked and should be maintained, and that good Democrats and good Republicans can work together to support equality.  Despite the anti-equality rhetoric of the elder Sununu and other GOP leaders, equality is not a partisan issue among the general population in New Hampshire, and I hope that is reflected in the House Republicans.
[ Parent ]
I wonder if Human Rights Campaign is aware of our new legislative situation. (0.00 / 0)
We should make sure of that, because NOM probably is.

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
How can/should the state party be organized differently (0.00 / 0)
to build up a good bank of candidates at the state house/senate/EC level for 2012?

birch, finch, beech
Like what happened (0.00 / 0)
to Jay Buckey?  Yes, build our bench.  We have a lot of great people, can we make running for office look like a good deal in NH?
[ Parent ]
bench (4.00 / 2)
I've always been proud at how the NHDP mentors the youth and invests in Young/College Dems throughout the state.  

Whether youth as a national demographic vote is irrelevant to me. We know they work hard and canvass their butts of for causes they believe in.  I personally want to thank them and beg them not to become discouraged.  

Paula

Paula M. DiNardo
Dover NH

A Blue Hampster since 2007!


[ Parent ]
NH Young Dems will be interested in feedback, soulsearching in coming weeks. (4.00 / 1)
We also have a leadership election coming up. Participation welcome!

(posted by Doug Lindner, NHYD National Committeeman)

--
@DougLindner

[ Parent ]
I don't think starting a political career (4.00 / 1)
with a run for US Senate qualifies as time on the bench.
[ Parent ]
Interesting article re income and voting trends (0.00 / 0)
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/...

Think that ordinary, hard-working folks have gone Republican? Think again...

Despite what you are hearing about Tea Party Populism and hopping mad Main Streeters, one thing is indisputable. The more money you make, the more likely you were to cast a ballot for Republicans in the 2010 elections. The GOP was swept into office by a green tide of affluence.


yes, I agree with the first part (0.00 / 0)
I have long said that you become conservative when you have something you want to conserve.

Is there a tide of affluence in NH?  I know our economy is better than most and our unemployment is lower than most.  So, this is the THANKS we get?

I need to buy one of those THANK DEMOCRAT bumper stickers...  

Paula M. DiNardo
Dover NH

A Blue Hampster since 2007!


[ Parent ]
First stop blaming the GOP for our losses (4.00 / 3)
What could we have done differently?

I think it really started with the health care reform bill. We almost immediately lost the message on that bill and seemed to have lost the message and advantage on almost every other great thing we did after that.

When politicians can say that we don't need 'health care for all' - and don't get called on the carpet for that - something is seriously wrong.

But it is easy to blame the Obama administration, DNC and DSCC/DCCC.

We also have to ask what could have been done differently in NH. Why did we do worse here than in most states?

First stop blaming the NH GOP, the Union Leader, Cornerstone, etc etc.

What could we have done differently in NH?

For example, would things have been different if groups like Granite State Progress, Democracy for NH, Citizens Alliance, etc. had a larger voice and were more active? I was a Board member at DFNH, we seemed to have a voice in 2006 and for various reasons the organization has become almost irrelevant.

Could the messages from the State Party, the Dem caucuses in the legislature, etc be improved?

This is just a start - we have to look at everything; nothing should be off the table.


When propaganda is the tool of choice, it can't (4.00 / 1)
be countered just on election day.

Consider, for example, that scandalous pols are part of the tool bag.  Their misbehavior is designed to turn people off the process of governing in disgust.

Also, when the law is used to criminalize non-invasive and non-injurious behavior, then the law itself is devalued.  This is not new.  We have a long history, for example, of declaring the exchange of goods and services for money on a particular day of the week to be bad (immoral and illegal).  This is a secular law being employed to enforce religious strictures for no good purpose.

[ Parent ]
Learn from past, adapt for future (4.00 / 5)
After the 2002 election, Democrats had nothing. No governor, no federal offices, no legislative majority.  I remember getting a phone call from a state legislator telling me I "had to" throw the legislative leadership under a bus or else I would not be re-elected as chair. Ironically I was seriously considering not running but after that call I decided to run again because I don't react well to threats. But I digress.

My point is, it would have been easy for NH Democrats to collectively crawl under a rock, or lapse into self destructive behavior of fingerprinting and blame gaming.  Instead, people focused on rebuilding, focused on what needed to be done and what could be done, stayed flexible to find some openings, and set goals. With hard work and some luck, we elected a Democratic governor in  '04. Learn from what happened, not just this year, but also the past 10 or 15 years, and then move on.

There is a legislative session starting in a few weeks. Bad bills will be introduced.  What are they? Mr. Horrigan posted a list of bill titles in September.  That was a valuable piece of information. What else is going on? We have state reps who post here, they can be valuable resources as to what is happening in Concord.

   



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

We do need to focus a lot more (4.00 / 2)
on the nitty-gritty of legislating, and not just the big issues.  I found that every diary on gay marriage (which I support and care deeply about) was well commented on, but other, less interesting (?) issues tended to scroll down without a comment at all.  If you want people to post on other stuff, you have to comment on it, we are all human and like attention.  
[ Parent ]
Perhaps one of the state reps would volunteer... (4.00 / 2)
To let us know what is happening at State House periodically?  Like I said, the posting by Rep. Horrigam of the LSR's was very valuable, and eye opening.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
Hey Kiddo (You know who you are) :) (4.00 / 1)
If you're reading this, you would be the perfect candidate to fill the role that Kathy defined.
[ Parent ]
It's the small issues (4.00 / 1)
that people care about..the cost of registering their car. At our dump, more people complained about that surcharge than the gay marriage vote.

[ Parent ]
Austerians are not into building or rebuilding. (4.00 / 1)
They believe in magic.  They believe that Mother Nature's garden will be bountiful and productive, as long as they eradicate the weeds.
Extermination is a constant force.
[ Parent ]
Life is beautiful in Austeria. n/t (0.00 / 0)


Republicans believe government is bad - then they get into office and prove it.
[ Parent ]
A view of the rally to restore sanity (0.00 / 0)

An insane "Rally to Restore Sanity" (4.00 / 1)
I'm now referring to it as the "Rally to Suck GOTV Volunteers Away from the Democratic Party" -- really, that's what it was.  

I'm a big Jon Stewart fan.  But this was an act of political masturbation that added absolutely no constructive value to the effort to defeat insane candidates.

[ Parent ]
Busloads from Dartmouth and other NH campuses... (4.00 / 2)
went to DC for the weekend. Dozens of activists as well.  

The LGBT community did the same thing in 2009. Just two weeks before the Maine vote well over 100,000 folks spent and estimated $10,000,000 getting to DC and back, for food, and accomodations.  With just 10% of the people and the money we could have won Maine.

2012 starts today.

[ Parent ]
I'm still pissed about this (4.00 / 2)
My girlfriend, who didn't have time to do any political volunteer work in the 2010 cycle, spent half of last Saturday at the damn rally.  I told her that her time would have been better spent going door-to-door for Rep. Gerry Connolly in her hometown of Falls Church, VA. (Fortunately, Connolly squeaked by.)

[ Parent ]
helped ratings and ad rates go up (0.00 / 0)
and Stewart and Colbert make more $$$$

Annie 2012!
[ Parent ]
I have no problem with that (0.00 / 0)
But, Good Lord, schedule the damn rally a week later.
[ Parent ]
I admire your passion (4.00 / 1)
But you are a football fan, no? How many activists watched the game on Sunday? How many bet money that they could have donated?

To state the obvious, not everybody is obligated to be political at every waking minute.

People who went to that rally -- a lot of them care. And I'll wager that more than you think helped on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.


[ Parent ]
I admire yours, too (4.00 / 1)
But a few points in response:

1. Yes, I am a football fan.  And I watched the last two Patriots games.  But reaching out to voters in Pats-crazy New Hampshire during those three-hour periods would have been insanely counterproductive (unless I told voters that I was a Giunta representative).

2. The rally was a hell of lot more than a three hour commitment -- especially for the Dartmouth students that Ray cited above, who spent 20 hours in buses alone.

3. According to my girlfriend, there was no political dimension to the rally.  Nobody urged the hundreds of thousands of people to engage in the political process.  Nobody encouraged them to actually do something to defeat "insane" candidates.  This was not Clinton in Nashua.

4. Many attendees with whom I spoke actually thought they WERE doing something productive by attending the rally.  It provided an illusion of activism that left the rest of us canvassers and phone bankers holding the bag.

True, not everyone is obligated to be political at every waking moment.  But the weekend before a monumental election?  Yeah, if you give a shit, you had better be political then.

[ Parent ]
Several interesting phrases there (0.00 / 0)
"An illusion of activism" -- Do you know these people well? Are they really activists? And do I have to point out that many people feel that blogging is a waste of time?

"A monumental election" -- Which one isn't?

I'm not trying to harp on you. But people make choices. A lot of people don't even vote. I didn't go to the rally, and I did so some work on the Patrick, but we have to respect people's choices. They have to come to give a sh1t in their own way.

[ Parent ]
^ Patrick effort (0.00 / 0)
Sorry, multitasking.
[ Parent ]
That's fair (4.00 / 1)
I respect people's choices.  But if you espouse a goal to restore sanity to American politics, then going to a rally won't do it.  Talking to voters -- and getting them out to vote -- will.  So, in my opinion, the rally ran counter to that goal.

Re: blogging as a waste of time. . . . Certainly can be.  If someone spends 20+ hours on blogging the week before an election, that effort should provide real benefits to your chosen candidates (e.g., raising issues for public consumption, soliciting other GOTV volunteers, etc.).  If not, then that person would be better off knocking on doors.

[ Parent ]
OK (0.00 / 0)
I have to move on, but let's assume for a moment that 5% of that crowd was hardcore Democratic activists, the type of people who WOULD be doing GOTV the weekend before. Let's further assume that every dollar they spent would have gone to one campaign or another.

They knew they weren't helping, for the reasons you stated. But they needed a break. They needed a few laughs. They needed to restore their sanity.

Fine by me. That's their right. If you disagree, that's your right.

On to 2012.


[ Parent ]
Hrm.. (4.00 / 1)
As someone who was there, I have to tell you, I think that you could have tied 1,000 of us to phone lines and still nothing would have changed.
[ Parent ]
Disagree strongly with that (0.00 / 0)
And I'm sure that Mary Beth Walz (and many others who lost by exceedingly narrow margins) would agree with me.
[ Parent ]
Perhaps (0.00 / 0)
But as I read somewhere else, elections in NH are mood swings. How many people can honestly say they "know" about their state reps? How many honestly care? You don't go from a comfortable majority to a super-minority when people are voting for people they've researched and know. This was simply people checking all of the "R"s on the ballot. There's little anyone could do to change that, IMO.
[ Parent ]
There was (0.00 / 0)
Phone banking and canvassing allows you convey your message (and attack misperceptions) on a 1:1 basis.  That wins you votes.  I spent a week doing it in Manchester full-time, and I know for a fact that there are at least a dozen people who either went to the polls or voted for Lynch/Hodes/CSP who otherwise wouldn't have done so.

No, a few dozen more volunteers in Bow on Saturday would not beaten Kelly Ayotte.  But it might have IDed/pulled enough right-minded voters to the polls to save Mary Beth.

Campaigning matters - a hell of a lot more than going to a Jon Stewart rally.

[ Parent ]
Too harsh (4.00 / 1)
It was an afternoon, one afternoon.
[ Parent ]
at the state level (4.00 / 1)
I know we accomplished marriage equality. And school funding. I'm not sure I can point to much else. Is that my lack of knowledge, a lack of publicity for Dem legislative accomplishments, or a lack of legislative accomplishments that anyone cares about?  
A sleeping electorate (4.00 / 2)
The general electorate here and throughout the country is busy surviving or preoccupied with everyday family life. People tune into politics when they are hurting or feeling threatened in some way. For most, politics is not something they are interested in other than when they are in pain or distress.

There is something appealing to many about the bromides offered by FOX News and most talk radio and these people are being fed their ideology every day. Whatever free-floating anger and anxiety they feel gets channeled by the propaganda they absorb. They are captives of their habits and no amount of electioneering at election time is going to sway them.

For those who are not inundated and who might be amenable to persuasion, they, too must be aroused to take elections seriously and decide whom to vote for. These people may already be sympathetic to one party over the other based on history.  It's the few people who don't fit into either of these categories who are actually reachable prior to casting a vote.

Reaching the more open-minded voter requires a strong, clear, resonant message that hits people's hot buttons and penetrates the noise. Frankly there were not many ads run by democrats -- positive or negative-- that were strong, clear and resonant. I think we need a message that we can come back to over and over again, that becomes identifiable as "our brand."  I don't like slogans but one version of the message should fit on a bumper sticker and there should be many other versions that we can use in various settings, on various occasions, with various audiences that is consistent and powerful.  And we need to provide evidence that the behavior of our candidates/elected officials matches the message. It cannot be empty rhetoric.

Without a strong, visionary, positive message, fear will win the day.  

The Tube ain't dead yet (4.00 / 1)
as much as we'd like to believe that the TeeVee is being eclipsed by other technologies, the fact is that a significant chunk of the population (older, and more likely to vote) still consumes news and info primarily from the one-eyed monster, and to a lesser extent, radio. That's where most of that dough generated by the Citizens United disaster wound up.

Glenn Beck is on TV and radio because his target demographic supports it. They use these one-way media to repeat, repeat, repeat, their simplistic messages until the audience can parrot them back, and reinforce it with advertising at every turn. These strategies work very well in developing cultural trends, just ask Josef Goebbels; it was a roaring success for him (until it wasn't).

This is not to say that they ignore new media, but in addition to customizing the same messaging for narrowcasting to specific groups, they use the web more for organizing and consolidating strategy, as well as for a research tool to collect information on what people are saying (including us).

They use this to their advantage in pushing emotional buttons and reinforcing belief systems that resonate with the message, appealing to perceived needs of the audience in time-tested ways (Google "Jib Fowles 15 basic appeals" for the theory behind this).

And don't get me started on the Frank Luntz factor.

Sorry, but you did say this was an open thread...

Republicans believe government is bad - then they get into office and prove it.

Joe Kelly Laloser posted a link to this diary on FB (0.00 / 0)
copied verbatim from the GraniteGrok FB page, which I never had visited until Horrigan just 'liked' it.
http://www.facebook.com/home.p...
Joe Kelly Levasseur -read thie exchange between kathy sullivan and dean barker, kathy says we need to "buy fertilizer" tals about a threat. Can we make this viral? This is really bad.
27 minutes ago


Annie 2012!
Funny (0.00 / 0)
and would be even more interesting if he actually understood what was being discussed. He was probably considering "fertilizer" in a Tim McVeigh kind of way. It's the way his kind thinks.

Republicans believe government is bad - then they get into office and prove it.
[ Parent ]
Do you mean... (4.00 / 3)
The Joe who has lost the last seven elections he ahs run in? He has a weird obsession with anyone named Sullivan.  What a strange bird.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
I'm reminded of a movie starring New Hampshire's own Adam Sandler (4.00 / 4)
The Principal, to Billy Madison:
Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.


--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
a number (4.00 / 2)
A number of my Democrats, ones who were all over the election of Barack Obama, were busy or fatigued or otherwise engaged this past weekend.
How many times I heard 'we have my in-laws all weekend' or have 'we guests from out of town', 'we have to go to San Francisco', or 'he went to DC'.
I have a hard time understanding how good committed people took a pass on working hard in the midst of a slaughter.

In Bow, some Democrats just didn't bother to show up and vote. It did not just hurt Kuster and Hodes, but also Rep. Mary Beth Walz. She lost by 79 votes.  

Annie 2012!

4 year terms in the house! (0.00 / 0)
half a state's reps up every other election.

Hope > Fear




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[ Parent ]
Looking at vote totals of both districts, (4.00 / 1)
CSP and Kuster received about 46.5% of votes for US House statewide. They outperformed Hodes by almost 10 points.  That deserves some seem serious postmortem analysis.

--
@DougLindner
Adding: (0.00 / 0)
That percentage isn't of all votes, because I only included the Democratic and Republican candidates in the math. Still, there's a gap. What gives?

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
When the wind is not at your back, (4.00 / 1)
campaigns matter.

birch, finch, beech
[ Parent ]
Personally, I think it was messaging. (4.00 / 1)
Hodes was outspent like 9 to 1, but the few TV ads he had were, in my view, barking up the wrong tree.

--
@DougLindner
[ Parent ]
on the 'Hodes' effect or hotdogging the perfect wave (4.00 / 1)
Finding the "...perfect wave, the odds against finding that are 10,000,000:1". "This is the story of how we begin remember", from 'fired up and ready to go', to "you're fired", in 22 months.

I assert again today that Paul could have been a Waxman type character...holding on to the 2nd CD forever. However, one should not begrudge him the decision to run for Judd Gregg's seat. There were those then who felt and feel today that Carol Shea Porter would have carried her strengths and multiplied them into the 2nd CD as Paul's were diminished in the 1st.Perhaps, but really it was the wave of '06 that brought him in and the wave of '10 that carried him out. Charlie was waved in in '94, out in '06, and back in '010.(Charlie is Republican driftwood)

Paul Hodes had been paddling for his perfect wave since summer of '03. Wipedout in '04 in his first race, the dude kept paddling, learned to stay up on the board and hang ten. In the movie the joke was 'you shoulda been here yesterday man, the waves were bitchin'. Most people did not see his rise coming, they missed his wave. But Paul developed a pretty keen eye for these things. When the groundswell of digust(Hope started with Dr. Dean)grew into a perfect wave, Paul timed it just right. He dropped into the 2006 curl. It can be tough out in open water, sharks and all, but he had the secret weapon, Peggo onboard.Together, invincible, they shot the pipeline.


On that incredible ride, came the perfect storm, 'condition black' they call it in surfing. When the oceans waves turn volatile, and rise in 30-50 swells. In these environments people can and must do critical extreme things, where mistakes kill. Paul Hodes endorsed Obama. Then the ocean took over.

So he started running in the summer of '03, and four years later was flat out organizing for Barack. Brian Wallach, the State Political Director for Obama in 2008 said Paul did any and every event he could during those Primaries.
He left it all on the street for his guy. Even though they lost to Hillary Clinton in the NH Primary, their winning strategy in the Caucus states overwhelmed the presumed front runner, and carried them to Denver. Paul caught a wave from Main St. Concord to the East Wing. Dancing with Peggo at the Inauguration of our first African American President, having been one of the few elected officials in NH to come out strongly early for Barack, he beat the conventional wisdom. Super Bowl at the WH. Heady stuff.
Thank you for giving everything you have Paul, for New Hampshire and for America.

Losing is so tough, the trough of the wave so deep, but look on the bright side, you're not alone. :-)

strayed from the central surfing theme, but it kind of fits my mood...
Photobucket

Annie 2012!

[ Parent ]
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