Joeseph Romm: Obama and Biden Go Back to a Losing Message

[kristopher]

Obama and Biden Go Back to a Losing Message


Posted September 8, 2008 | 11:25 AM (EST)


After watching Obama and Biden on the Sunday morning shows, it is clear they have the wrong message, one that typically loses American elections. If this is their TV message, McCain and Palin will win the national debates and likely go on to victory.

This is Obama's second big strategic message mistake -- the first was stopping independent groups from spending tens of millions of dollars earlier this summer educating the American public on how John McCain is just another flip-flopping, lying, Washington politician surrounded by lobbyists without the temperament to be president.

Obama's basic message is that John McCain is a good person who has same policy positions as George Bush. Biden's basic message is that Sarah Palin is a good and "smart, smart, smart, smart, smart" and "tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough" woman who has the same policy positions is George Bush.

The message itself is flawed on multiple levels. In particular, because it simply isn't true, it gives the GOP a free pass to keep lying over and over again. Second, it is weak and wonkish (yes, I know that is redundant, but Obama apparently doesn't), and the public naturally prefers tough, tough, tough and attacking.

Neither McCain nor Palin are "good people" as most Americans use the term. They are serial liars who have invented phony...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-romm/obama-and-biden-go-back-t_b_124788.html

What Romm describes is what we all sense is lying just beneath the surface with Obama. The question for me is, why doesn't he let the truth actually be the message??? - K.

[Larkspur]

1. Political campaigns are street fights and the Repukes know this.

Obama behaves too much like a professor and not enough like a prize fighter. My hero Gov. Brian Schweitzer understands this. He had to in order to defeat the Repukes in Montana. Obama's disdain for fighting has always been a major reason why I could never get enthusiastic about him. If he won't fight to defend himself, voters won't feel like he will fight for them and thus will vote for the guy who can fight even if they don't agree with his ideas.

[dennis4868]

4. I agree...

I also feel like Obama does not worry so much about the lying attacks on him and the other lies by Palin and McCain because he thinks the media will set the facts straight....it he relies on the media for this he is in big trouble.

[AdHocSolver]

20. Consider the audience. They will hear the positive words about McCain-Palin and drop the rest...

of the message containing the criticism.

Lakoff correctly points out that you should not use your opponent's verbiage or theme in your own message. You only reinforce the opponent's message in your own statements.

In studying wolf packs, researchers found that the pack leader was not the strongest or the smartest wolf, but the most aggressive wolf. The most aggressive wolf was accepted as the leader of the pack.

Obama does not have to attack McCain or Palin with smear tactics, but he does have to show he will defend himself and his policies. Obama has to convince the public that he not only has the correct policies for the country, but that he has the will and the fortitude to fight for those policies. Obama has already convinced most of the public that his policies are better, but he has yet to convince people that he will fight to implement them.

Obama's and Biden's over-politeness towards McCain and Palin is bad politics. It was correct in the primaries to avoid hurting any Democrat who would become the candidate. Politeness towards Republicans is out of place now.

Moreover, Obama has to demonstrate that he has the will and the fortitude to fight those like McCain and Palin who want to continue the same Bush policies that almost everyone agrees are bad for the country.

Obama and Biden now have to pound away that the problems with the economy, deficits, loss of jobs, high cost of health care, dependence on oil imports are all due to failed Bush policies and that McCain and Palin are Republicans who want to continue those failed policies.

Obama and Biden want to implement policies to bring jobs back to America, make health care affordable, invest in American infrastructure, invest in new technologies to reduce our dependence on foreign oil while at the same time create new jobs, invest in education, and end the Iraq war with honor. They must demonstrate that they will fight for these policies by aggressively going after McCain and Palin and the Republicans who have enabled Bush all of these years.

In other words, go after McCain and Palin without making it personal.

However, stop with the wishy-washy politeness towards McCain and Palin. It turns people off, and it is counterproductive.

[The Hope Mobile]

2. Another was stopping Clark from pointing out that McCain's POW

experience does not make him POTUS material.

[dennis4868]

3. This is the most accurate, honest, and informative....

article I have read regarding the Obama campaign. I was basically saying the same things yesterday and got roasted by many here at DU.

I agree, Biden has got to stop saying such nice things about Palin...tough, smart, great one liners...WTF? He does not attack her and speak up about all of her lies. Obama had opportunity after opportunity to go after Palin yesterday and he did not. WTF?

The Obama team has got to get with it and undestand that: (1) the media is not on their side; (2) the people like their politicians attacking and looking tough.

[MISSDem]

5. Am I the only one who believes that Obama and Biden are

probably smarter at this stuff than we are and actually have a plan. I really belive that they do. I can't wait for the debates. And remember, as I myself was reminded, that the undecideds are the ones that we are trying to convince here. Do you think they will be influenced by our side attacking the other side? Or by simply stating the FACTS.

[jberryhill]

6. No, you are not the only one

I remember all of the "Obama should do X, Y, or Z" during the primaries.

Obama and Biden are proven smart, and know that this election must be won.

[Larkspur]

9. Kerry supporters said the same thing as you in 2004 and look where Kerry is today

He ain't in the White House.

[Doremus]

18. No you're not alone. I feel much more confident in his ability than I did Kerry.

Obama already has an important victory under his belt. He defeated the Clinton machine with the same brilliant strategy: I am different, I will bring change. It's simple and it happens to be the truth.

Most people have had it up to here with vicious attacks. I've seen with my own eyes that people are giving him a closer look simply BECAUSE he's not slinging mud. I've also seen people, non-partisans, REPULSED by Sarah Palin's foaming attacks.

Barack is playing it just right. He's rebutting the lies forcefully while staying on message. McLame and Palin are swingly madly and wildly and, ultimately, ineffectively because they have NO MESSAGE.

[obiwan]

7. Can you say "rope-a-dope"? I knew you could.

[DLnyc]

8. Bullcrap

Dems lose when they try to out-sling the mudslingers, they win when they stick to the issues. It's much more fun for us 'liberal bloggers' to sling mud and personal attacks, just like the 'big boys' do, but having fun and winning elections are not always correlated. People whose minds are spinnable have already been spun, I would think, and the now perhaps we ought to focus on convincing, especially since Obama has a clear, consistent, well-thought-out and POPULAR plan to put up against the other side.s UTTER LACK of any coherent policies or plans.

[Larkspur]

10. No, Dems lose when the fail to fight back against Republican attackes

Just ask John Kerry. When Al Gore did fight back in 2000, his poll numbers when up and that is why Gore won the popular vote.

[DLnyc]

15. I'm not saying don't fight back, I'm saying fight back on the issues.

Here's a little video that shows what seems to me (and apparently to the audience) a very effective response the republican bullshit factory:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x184570

[depakid]

11. It's almost as if they PREFER to lose

rather than risk "offending someone" by calling a spade a spade.

[kristopher]

13. The only thing I can think of is

The only thing I can think of is that A) you're right; B) action it is in the works and will roll out in a timely manner; C) they believe she (amd Mc) are going to self destruct.

I'd go for C, but I wouldn't rule out anything.

[depakid]

14. Professor of Psychology Drew Westeon decribed it this way:

Friday a week ago::

In my book, The Political Brain, I argued that if you do exactly what the Democrats did last week--both inspire voters with your vision of what could be and raise legitimate anger or concern about what your opponent and his party have done or likely will do--you win elections. The latest polling data from Gallup bear that out: Obama went from 2 points behind just before the convention to 8 points ahead, reaching a high for two straight days of 49 to 41 against McCain.

The convention reversed the momentum of a dreadful July and August campaign that made every standard Democratic error outlined in the book, starting with the campaign's stubborn refusal to brand McCain before he could brand himself or to respond to his successful efforts to brand Obama--as other, different, empty celebrity, uppity, narcissistic, and elitist.

Obama is now poised to break 50 percent in the polls. Whether he does so, and whether he wins or loses in November, will likely depend on whether he, his campaign team, and the Democrats learn the lessons of this convention, or whether they backslide in debates and public statements into the politics of meandering, dispassionate prose; failure to demonstrate toughness, resolve, and, yes, aggression where appropriate; and failure to understand that the best time to shape the public discourse is before the other side has had a chance to "sell" its version of truth to the American people. Decades of research in social psychology have demonstrated that two of most important principles of persuasion when people have a choice between options are to get there first--to tell your side of the story--and to inoculate against what the other side is likely to say. Democratic consultants need to read that research--tonight--and stop relying on the same intuitions that have proven wrong in election after election. We are supposed to be the party of science, yet we constantly practice political creationism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-westen/brand-first-equivocate-la_b_122855.html

Since it's become apparent that the campaign refuses to listen to people like Dr. Westen and Dr. Lakoff (among countless others) seems to me the best chance the Democrats have this year is for yet another McCain Palin meltdown- choice "c" and the hope that this time, the Democrats won't just let it pass, as they did all summer long.

[yurbud]

12. Did Cheney teach us that most people don't get nuance?

[natrat]

16. the junta allowed for clinton and obama as canidates

do you really think they would allow them any traction through distributing truth-designated party of failure-30 years of republican rule--good luck with any of it

[DeepModem Mom]

17. K&R

[Tutonic]

19. He said that he'd bring a knife to the fight. I can wait until he needs

to use it.