Political Campaigns have become sophisticated Marketing Campaigns

[Dover]

using high tech data bases to identify niche groups and individual preferences. (Like the NASCAR crowd for Bush...lol!) Bush did have one thing right apparently. We The People are thought of as We The Consumers. And whatever the product, the message is BUY BUY BUY!!

From this week's NYT Magazine -

Excerpt:

...''If you can get them on that one issue, then you can introduce them to a second and a third.'' This might mean finding a small businesswoman who feels comfortable with the Republican Party's stand on deregulation, for instance, and then reaching out to her on foreign policy. Or it might mean looking to an avid sportsman for support on guns before approaching him on tax cuts. Viguerie told me he'll spend the next four months going around the country in search of financing to help him get his list of 3.5 million names up to 10 million. ''Once I can get them on that one issue, then I can get them to take action and get them to be involved politically and ideologically,'' he said. ''You don't have to change 50 percent of Americans, you don't have to change 30 percent. You move 2 percent or 3 percent in New Mexico or Missouri or Wisconsin on one issue, then you've done a whole lot.''



Article is long, but very informative about the new process:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/magazine/15VOTERS.html

Of course, don't forget the potentials for manipulation of E-Voting as well.

[Guaranteed]

1. Yup...great article...

Thanks ;)

[Dover]

2. Those NASCAR folks knew a LEMON when they saw one.

They booed when Bush was announced. He's what the marketing people would probably call a hard sell. Even their defined "BUBBA" niche defied their expectations. And if Bush appears in more public venues of that sort, where there is no control of the crowd response and lots of media coverage and witnesses, EVERYONE will know the true depth and bredth of his unpopularity and he'll have to start doing his photo ops from a bunker with animations by Disney.