The Music Man Campaign: Anyone Using It?

Oh you got trouble (0.00 / 0)

yes you got trouble
next thing you know they'll be reading dime novels and smoking corn silk behind the barn...

6 days till election day
Have you knocked on doors today? Have you made calls ? Have you talked to your neighbors ?  

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by: JonnyBBad @ Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 21:19:10 PM CST

Incomplete versions: (0.00 / 0)

Skip the problem, go right to the villain:

Those damn illegals! We'll wall them out! Vote Tancredo!

Skip the villain:

Health care costs are a problem for more and more Americans. We need a universal plan, which I have right here. Vote me!

Skip the solution:

America's image worldwide is in terrible shape. Our military is over extended in Iraq. [18 minute gap] Vote me!

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by: elwood @ Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 21:26:56 PM CST

The Music Man Campaign (0.00 / 0)

I tip my hat to you.  This is wonderful framing! So many things come to mind.  Maybe tomorrow -- it's too late at night for me.  

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by: calvin @ Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 22:33:45 PM CST

Oh, this looks very much like a certain candidate I'm thinking of. (0.00 / 0)

Hint: I've been known not to like this candidate...

--
"Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past; you must fight just to keep them alive!"

@DougLindner

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by: Douglas E. Lindner @ Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 04:11:14 AM CST

Some additional Music Man observations: (0.00 / 0)

1. Although the campaign consultant claims that this is the template for an effective pitch, the Beltway Democratic consultants tend to get squeamish over actually identifying a villain. The one villain they usually identify is "partisanship." But that isn't really a villain - it's more a problem (some people don't like the "tone" of partisanship.)
2. Republicans are not squeamish about identifying villains: sometimes the "liberal media," sometimes the "secular humanists," sometimes taxes.
3. Although Harold Hill is a (charming) scam artist, I don't mean to knock any candidate who adopts this template. It is used in most advertising campaigns (problem: social embarrassment; villain: perspiration; solution: Sure deodorant; Call to action: buy) because it works.

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by: elwood @ Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 06:59:34 AM CST

All of them (0.00 / 0)

John Edwards - One of the most decent men I've ever met.

http://www.johnedwards.com

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by: JohnMucci @ Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 07:08:21 AM CST

I don't think so (0.00 / 0)

Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't hear the villain identified in most campaigns.

The Edwards campaign is the one exception that occurs to me, where he identifies Big Pharma as the villain in health care reform.

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by: elwood @ Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 07:50:47 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Even Steven? (0.00 / 0)

I think we all remember:

This was created by Phil DeVellis under the "pen name" of ParkRidge47. HRC's birth place and year, I think.

When this came out there was plen..ty of hollerin' from the Clinton Camp and fingers were point at the Obama Campaign because DeVellis worked for a company that had Obama for America as a client. DeVellis has stated very clearly that he did this unilateraly.

Here is some back story:
Who is the person behind the Clinton attack ad?

Interview with Phil de Vellis:Creator of the "Hillary 1984" Video http://www.motherjones.com/int...

Quid Pro Quo!
Quid Pro Quo?

Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email

By Greg Sargent - December 5, 2007, 1:31PM
A day after the Hillary campaign hit the Obama camp for bullying voters in nasty phone calls, the Hillary crew has just acknowledged that an Iowa county chair volunteering for the campaign passed along the now-notorious email that smears Obama as a Muslim by repeating the false claim that he attended a madrassa as a child.

The Hillary campaign confirms that they are asking the county chair to step down from the campaign.

Even steven? Think not!

SGS is Jack Mitchell of Lowell, MA. The symbolism of the "sleeping giant" is based on my HOPE for America.

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by: Sleeping Giant Stirs @ Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 16:36:57 PM CST