Keeping the opponent "off-message"

[andym]

One of the cardinal rules in modern media driven politics is to keep the opposing candidate off-message. Distractions help to keep positive messages from having an impact, while potentially creating uncertainty among various potential supporters.

The most effective story is one that involves some exaggerated or even absurd criticism of the opponent, that eats up precious media attention and often de-focuses the supporters of the attacked campaign away from positively influencing others.

It is pretty easy to see how much of this is happening by reading the titles of the lead stories on an internet news site like cnn, yahoo, google news, or msn home pages. The nightly news is even a better indicator. Stories on issues or even the "horse race" become subjugated to the distraction of the day.

Remarkably, forums like GD:P or blog/diary sites like Dailykos amplify the noise as it often appears that the very supporters of the attacked candidate, in their desire to defend their candidate, help the distracting story gain more attention and remain newsworthy.

So, what is the best way to defeat a trivializing, message-distracting attack without actually helping the attacker achieve their aim?

[leftstreet]

1. I haven't heard Obama's YES WE CAN thingy for some time now

Before all these campaign attacks, whenever I'd see Obama on newsclips he was doin' the HOPE and CHANGE and YES WE CAN stuff.

Haven't seen any of that lately.

Hmm....

[andym]

2. For example, today Obama would have liked the military chief article to dominate, but ...

For example, today Obama would have liked the military chief article to dominate, but instead right now on google news we see the following as the lead article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-race_onlinemar13,1,477567.story
Race asserts itself in Democratic contest

not this:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=152226&src=143
Obama shows off his military support at Chicago appearance

[andym]

3. Oh and tomorrow's story is the minister story.

Some folks are earning their money!

By reading this forum, one can often learn get an early look at the next attempted news theme from both campaigns.