Why is the White House messaging so terrible?

[Stoic]

Why is it a man who had such success shaping his message and reaching out to a variety of constituencies during the election cycle had such a terrible time getting the word out on his (albeit modest) achievements in the White House?

The answer, as least as I see it, is that he surrounded himself with the usual suspects and Establishment types who desperately want to make sure the powers-that-be and Big Donors don't perceive Obama as some kind of reformer or aberration from a nice safe CEO, don't rock the gravy train insider.

If some of us don't see the light of his success it's because he keeps it safely hidden under a bushel. President Obama has a bully pulpit. He needs to start using it and STOP playing it safe.

[RandomThoughts]

1. Yea its time for action, and their shields are gone.

yeeeaaaaa Love'ng it.





Note only about those that hurt people and do not correct injustices.

[Beacool]

2. Maybe because no one is buying the bullshit anymore?

Campaigning is not governing........

:shrug:

[ProSense]

5. "Campaigning is not governing"

Losing is not winning.

[impik]

9. But losing hurts so much, you know...

[Beacool]

12. Not nearly as much as the nation is hurting.

;)

[dionysus]

34. you trying to start a kerfluffle Bea? i'll give you this is you promise to be good;

:hi:

[Beacool]

36. Well, you know what Mae West used to say:

When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm better.

}(


Thanks......

:hug:

[Baltoman991]

40. What bullshit?

Look, I know it's hard for you to support the man but at least be honest. He's doing things he said he'd do. And you know damn well yourself that he can't govern alone and..........well, never mind. I'll just move on and allow you to be the true Obama hater that you have proven to be time and time again. I still say thank God Hillary got over it. Perhaps one day, her supporters will do the same.

[CakeGrrl]

54. Trust me, no appeal to reason will work here

That mean bad sneaky slick car salesman Obummer fooled a bunch of voters and stole the primary from poor sweet Hillary and robbed the nation of its first female POTUS and now the world is suffering because you know it all would have been perfect and fixed by now.

Now that I think of it, maybe Hillary would have felt guilty enough to speed up DOMA/DADT repeal and figured out a way to roll back NAFTA since, well, they happened on hubby's watch...

:evilgrin:

[DonCoquixote]

57. YES

Since someone is apparently deciding to cause a stir yet again, I will reply: do not try to sell the line that Clinton would have done better than Obama, because the things that are disappointing about Obama are the ways he imitates Clinton. The fact the DLC machine is still in control, despite an election that was suppose to be a rebuke of it, tells me that Rahm, Geitner and company would be even more comfortable than they already are.

[CakeGrrl]

47. This train is never, EVER late.

:rofl:

:rofl:

:crazy:

:rofl:

[cliffordu]

60. Neither is whatsername.

[Cali_Democrat]

61. The 2008 campaign still really stings for you huh?

Will you ever get over it?

[ProSense]

3. Take a look

at the kind of reaction garnered by the President's statements.

I find it fascinating that people who respond with disdain everytime the President calls out Republicans or makes any important statement want him to or are waiting for him to use the bully pulpit.

[Milo_Bloom]

17. He didn't call them out for SQUAT.

He's having an argument about an INSIGNIFICANT POLICY, while already giving up the war.

[ProSense]

22. First,

point to where I indicated that the statement linked to is "calling them out."

Second, this is calling them out.

[Milo_Bloom]

23. Read your post.

AGAIN, you fail to read your post and make ANOTHER misstatement.

"I find it fascinating that people who respond with disdain everytime the President calls out Republicans..."

If you just slowed down and read your own posts and links you wouldn't be caught in so many misstatements.

[ProSense]

24. You should really quit amateur analysis

"I find it fascinating that people who respond with disdain everytime the President calls out Republicans or makes any important statement want him to or are waiting for him to use the bully pulpit."

[Milo_Bloom]

27. Uh huh.

You probably just shouldn't haved claimed you didn't say he called them out when you said he called them out.

[Drunken Irishman]

49. LOL, I'm hung over and I knew exactly what ProSense was saying...

What's that say about you? :rofl:

[joe black]

63. So are you a paid pro.

Just asking.

[Bluerthanblue]

4. not sure the "messaging" is the problem- the MEDIA , which

is the microphone, amplifies the messages they wish to promote, and either ignore or soft-pedal those they dislike.
imo.

:shrug:

[Saturday]

6. Exactly. nt

[AtomicKitten]

7. +1

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jim Sagle]

10. It's intentional.

[woo me with science]

13. For what purpose? nt

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dionysus]

35. you believe in some fancy conspiracy theories jim.

[Jim Sagle]

37. Nuthin' fancy: He who has the gold makes the rules. Same as it ever was.

And if you don't think this is the way it is, you're not paying attention.

[woo me with science]

52. Why was it removed?

I missed it.

[woo me with science]

53. I swear.

I get so sick of the censorship around here.

What are we, FOUR??????

[BootinUp]

11. I am hoping Obama and his advisors are not too comfortable with

their current position in the polls and the narratives in the media and come out swinging hard. But the truth is (as shown in a recent Exra Klein WP article I think I saw it here) that

a historical analysis of other Presidents popularity through their first term compared to Obama, shows he is actually fairing pretty well. Now this is looking at other Presidents that had to deal with recessions when the were elected. (Clinton and Reagan)

[Aramchek]

15. they are working against a bought and paid for Media

He may have a bully pulpit but he doesn't control the cameras or the talking heads.

[Mimosa]

18. The un-reccers are busy

Stoic said: "The answer, as least as I see it, is that he surrounded himself with the usual suspects and Establishment types who desperately want to make sure the powers-that-be and Big Donors don't perceive Obama as some kind of reformer or aberration from a nice safe CEO, don't rock the gravy train insider."

You're right.

[msongs]

19. pssssst dems - repubs will NEVER love you. nt

[woo me with science]

25. But.....but.....

I am so lovable. :cry:

[Milo_Bloom]

20. It's because he doesn't know how to play the game.

They simply don't know how to boil everything down to simple, digestable sound bites that news organizations can run with and people can understand.

The GOP is simply good at finding pieces and parts of legislation that people can relate to and crafting the message around that one piece/part. They want to pass a massive tax cut for the wealthy, they explain that "this package will eliminate the marriage penalty and the death tax"... two very simple sound bite concepts people can understand and some people can relate to.

The White House CONSISTENTLY tries to parse the message, thus making it difficult for a media sound bite and even more difficult for the public to understand how SPECIFICALLY what the White House wants will effect them.

[rrneck]

26. I think sound bites are easier if you don't mind lying. nt

[Milo_Bloom]

28. That's true, but you don't HAVE TO lie per se.

It's really an easy game. You pick out an aspect of the thing you want to discuss and describe it in simple terms that people understand.

For example, when trying to get the "small business jobs bill" through, the white house kept talking in high concept terms, "This bill will provide 30 billion to community banks to lend to small businesses". No one picked up the one liner because it didn't MEAN anything. What small businesses? MY small business? Even people who own small businesses (I own 3) can't realte to that statement because they don't believe the money will get to them.

They need to personalize it in GENERAL TERMS.. don't find one business that qualifies as they so often do.. See, thank's to this bill Mr. Jones' hardware store will be able to X. I'm not Mr. Jones and I probably don't care about his hardware store.

Find an aspect of the bill that is UNIVERSAL and sell it on those terms. (I don't know what is in the bill so I am just going to make it up right now)... "Small business that have less than 10 employees will get a 10,000 tax credit for hiring an additional full time worker". Now it is relatable to a large segment of the population.

Republicans use this stunt ALL THE TIME. I am constantly baffled that Democrats just don't do it.

[rrneck]

29. Good point.

Tip O'Neil once said that "all politics is local". The issues that are the most important to people are the personal issues, and those seem to be the ones from which Republicans get the most traction: Birth, marriage, sex, guns, religion...

When Democrats speak in terms of some ideologically driven government program it always seems to boomerang into an accusation of "elitist big government".

[rury]

21. His achievements are not "modest" they are

SIGNIFICANT!
But he needs to hire me for the communications team!
I'm great and you are a grumpus!!:P

[seabeckind]

30. Because he didn't keep the people who got him there

and instead is listening to those who benefit more from the status quo.

Fire Geithner would be a good start (seeing as how picking him was a dumb idea in the first place). He should have shrugged off Bernanke as soon as he could. Oh, and for sure unload the moron who suggested them.

And tell tanman and chinless to STFU. Maybe in those words. He has outlets, use them.

But maybe he doesn't want to. Maybe just like Reid he feels it's nice to be able to have someone to blame -- or try to against the media.

I've always felt Gibbs words about the left were Obama's.

I've felt that maybe Obama needed a few siblings so that he would have learned at a young age that if you're going to get blamed anyway...

[DemocraticPilgrim]

31. To be fair if all the forces of evil weren't piling against him he'd be OK. That's why we can only..

push back with all we've got. I'm not religious but there are clearly forces of good and bad in the world, and the only way the good will ever make it is to push back with every thing we've got. The film Devil's advocate is so real it's spooky but goodness can overcome bad if we stick to it no matter what. Tell the truth shame the devil, keep going truth seekers. Specifically truth to right wing voters, calmly and persistently.

[great white snark]

33. Agreed, good advice and welcome to DU.

:toast:

[JoePhilly]

32. Because the 24/7 media gets to reframe the discussion every 6 seconds.

Anytime the administration makes ANY headway on an issue, the media changes the subject. They stop asking questions about THAT topic, and move onto discussions of something else. Usually the next ridiculous right wing claim.

Take the gulf oil spill. It was Obama's Katrina, every day, over and over. He gets the 20 billion from BP, the media focus on the "shakedown" ... the well gets capped ... POOF, gulf oil issue over, now on to the "mosque at ground zero".

It took the media WEEKS to debunk the "death panels" lie regarding HCR. Once it was debunked, they stopped mentioning that the GOP lied immediately.

The financial reform bill got almost no coverage at all.

Listen to how they cover unemployment. When it hit 10.1% ... it was OVER ten%. When it dropped to 9.5%, it was still ALMOST 10%.

This administration, unlike the prior administration, does not have a 24/7 propaganda arm.

When Bush was in office, Fox defended him endlessly. And the "liberal media" was afraid to go after him and be called "liberal media".

Now, Fox is a 24/7 anti-Obama channel. He's a Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Socialist, Fascist, Commie, Muslim, terrorist. And the "liberal media" continues to shrink away and cower in the corner, only feeling strong when they JOIN Fox in smearing the administration.

There is no way for the administration to "control the message" ... when the administration gets an upper hand, the media simply changes the subject.

[Egnever]

51. Glad people recognize this

:thumbsup:

[Steely_Dan]

38. Yep!

It's the first mistake they made....they didn't control the message or frame the arguments. The RW was given time to get their shit together and get the message out that Obama is a Socialist/Marxist/Commie. Not sure that the Obama Administration can recover from this mistake. It may be too late.

Sorry...It's just the way I see it.

-Paige

[applegrove]

39. I don't think he has really started to campaign. When he does, he'll rock. Just like he always does.

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mr. Mustard]

42. President Obama has been hammering

the rethugs for the last month. He has addressed social security, the Supreme Court, the obstructionists, and more but the press does not cover him. Now let Sarah Palin break wind or a person with a tea bag hanging from a hat walk across the street and it is "breaking news".

It is big money to bash Democrats, just look at Maureen Dowd. Nothing, NOTHING is good enough when a Democrat is involved. The double standard in this country is pathetic and damaging.

When the press actually does push a rethug hard the reporters get serious payback, so they are threatened, but Dems take it, and act like human beings. So the timid reporters can appear tough with Dems but dance around the vicious republican idiots.

The corporate controlled media also filters the news to favor tax cuts, and that is rethug territory.

Now I do agree, that our pundits are poor, the ones who go on the talk show circuit. They need to attack and create some controversy. Remember when (Howard Dean I think) critisized John McCain saying a war record does not qualify him for office? The media went nuts! Of course they reprensented Dean's message incorrectly saying he challenged McCains courage.


David Vitter's opponent in Louisiana is doing a great job messaging Vitter. He is running ads about Vitter's treatment of women. Guess what, Vitter is trying to shut him down, and that is how the rethugs play the game. Yet does anyone know about it? Very few I bet, because people are afraid of Vitter. He is weird and will hold a grudge for a lifetime, and reporters know it.

Until we get vicious, and attack and go for the jugular against these rethugs then we will not break through the filter.

President Obama is hammering hard, but his message is general. He needs to name names, he needs to appoint attack dogs who go after Mitch McConnell and Boehner's personalities, their weird habits their spending.

We have timid politicians, a slanted media and a cottage industry of bashing Democrats because it is safe.

What is the answer? As mentioned, go after rethugs' strengths, their weirdness, call them out on their hypocrisy and sharply. Take the heat, we get it anyway.

Train new pundits on the talk circuits to:
1) Don't let their idiot opponents change the subject.
2) Dismiss every accusation as weird, and an attempt to change the subject.
3) Create the subject, by attacking on economy, jobs, environment, rethug spending, war etc. There is plenty.
4) Don't let them get the last word.
5) And when a rethug insults us, call them on it! "You will not continue to call me or my friend of President Obama a socialist or muslim when it is not true. How dare you, especially when you spent XYZ, and botched a war and 9/11!"

I mean go for it.

Call the Republicans INCOMPETENT. Every day. Every freaking day, and repeat it in every speech.

The Republicans are incompetent, look at their record on money, war, health care, infrastructure, social services. T

The Republicans are selling us to the Chinese.

The Republicans are selling us to the terrorists for oil.

The Republicans wrecked the country, the Democrats saved it.

The Republicans hate working Americans.

The Republicans could not send out fighter planes, and President Bush sat stupid for 7 minutes when our nation was under attack.

The Republicans gave Wall Street our money, after wrecking the economy, now they don't want to make them pay it back. Now they want to give Wall Street your Social Security, then send it to China.

[JNelson6563]

45. Excellent points, all! Welcome to DU!

:hi:

Julie

[Steely_Dan]

56. Excellent Post Mr. Mustard...

I couldn't agree more with your points. We need to fight with the same weapons that the RW use. Take the gloves off.

Having said that...
Let's think for a minute. Has the President let it go for too long? I mean...has enough time passed where the RW has "firmly" established the message. WE SHOULD HAVE STARTED THIS STRATEGY A LONG TIME AGO. The anger is reaching a critical point. If we start fighting back now....we might realize that we have already reached critical mass. It could get very ugly...maybe even violent.

By the way...is "Mr. Mustard" from a Beatles song???

-PLA

[hollowdweller]

43. Obama is not as personable as Clinton.

I think Clinton was better able to communicate his beliefs. Also he gives up so easy people see him as weak. He really could have used the bipartisan failure to hammer the GOP over the head if he did it right but he lost that one.

[suzie]

55. I sure hope he's not as "personable" as Clinton. Democrats have finally recovered

from the long term ill-effects of Bill's "personable" personality.

And you know, when a local Dem remarks about going to a fundraiser and having Bill Clinton hit on his wife, it just reminds one that "personableness" is sometimes overrated as a political attribute.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

44. Maybe because President Obama is too busy governing

and trying to fix up Republican f**k-ups???? :shrug: Sure, it probably needs to be worked on/fine-tuned a little bit but you're suggesting that he has unlimited time and resources with which to control the "messaging"- with today's corporate mediawhore Fox News-led echo chamber? Surely, ye jest. :eyes:

[CakeGrrl]

46. Better question: why is the MSM so biased and shitty?

People ought to know the answer to that, but in my view, Dems have been getting screwed over by biased reporting at least since the Clinton impeachment.

Maybe if they'd stop raising questions about the President's faith and reported actual FACTS, a lot of people would be clued in to the many accomplishments that HAVE occurred.

The fact that we repeatedly see people asking others on DU to re-post a list of things that the Obama administration has done is a clear indication that the media obviously isn't doing anything to bring those to light.

[vaberella]

48. I don't think it's the White House so much as the way the media is spreading the information.

Basically it always seems to be put on Obama's back how to spread the word, showing that everyone else but him is incompetent and we're dealing with pariahs who want him to fail.

[Egnever]

50. Because the media is stacked against him?

[Doctor_J]

58. For the same reason a single rose in an acre of cowshit "smells bad"

this Wh gets pummeled by Big Media 24/7. Their messaging isn't bad - just drowned out by lies and hate

[potassiumnitrate]

59. They've gotten very comfortable and are playing it safe

It's simple really. Once in power, it's very easy to get comfortable and to always choose the "safe" route. When is was trying to become president, he had to take risks. Now that he IS president, he fears losing it and thus takes fewer risks.

[sallyseven]

62. I don't think his achievements have been modest

He has done a lot. Media gives all the lines to the GOPoops. They are idiots but the media doesn't call them that.

[Orsino]

64. Because less Big Money, and fewer neocon whores, are keeping it consistent. n/t