Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Warrior Nation

Ruy Teixeira posts some interesting observations by Frank Newport of Gallup which seem to indicate that Kerry should concentrate on the economy instead of terrorism:

The public’s rating of the economy’s direction is significantly worse in states that are considered to be Democratic or battleground states than in states considered to be safe for the Republicans. In other words, the economy has a high probability of being of the most importance in precisely the states Kerry must win in order to become president.

As noted, independent voters are more likely than Republicans to say the economy is the top problem they will consider in their presidential vote.

There is evidence from data analysis from three key showdown states that voters’ perceptions of the economy in their state is related to their propensity to vote for Kerry.

Texeira endorses the idea that Kerry should run the fall campaign on the economy and maybe he’s right. My feeling, however, is that the issue of who should be commander in chief in an era of terrorism, which will be endlessly and repetitively flogged by the GOP, is actually a proxy for the concept of “leadership” and that kind of “leadership” is something that people, particularly undecideds and mushy swingsters, are likely to see as dispositive.

I have no doubt that most people when asked what issue they “care about” the most say they the economy or jobs or health care. But, voting is a more complicated equation than where politicians stand on the issues no matter how much people in focus groups claim otherwise. (Frank Luntz certainly knows this.) And swing voters in particular are looking for certain personal characteristics because if they had any kind of political philosophy they would choose a party and vote for that party’s candidate. (Most independents actually vote consistently for one party.) In America 2004, the warrior king will beat the policy wonk. That’s the zeitgeist.

I’m reminded of the 2002 election in which the polls all stated that people really wanted to talk about kitchen table issues. Then Bush launched his “triumph of the will” tour and engaged the emotion of people with a lot of pomp and pageantry. We came close, but no cigar. I’d hate to see that happen again.

I think this is a gladiator fight not a civil debate. We should battle Bush on his own turf this time out.

Straight Eye For The Queer Dem Guy

Jeffrey Daubner at the TAPPED convention blog ferrets out the first reports of how the RNC is deftly planning to spin the convention and convey, in yet another new way that the Democrats are weak and sissified:

C-SPAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE BRIEFING, 1:50 P.M.: The RNC sure puts on an effective press conference. Rudy Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld fire away on the DNC and tout the upcoming Republican National Convention. The room is packed with supporters cued to explode at Giuliani’s line, “I don’t need Michael Moore to tell me about September 11.”

You can really see how well the media’s conventional wisdom plays into their talking points; the meme that the DNC has been all about putting Bush-bashing aside and presenting a moderate, unified Democratic Party is just a short step away from the RNC spin that the Democratic Party is “running away” from its record.” Giuliani even has a well-scripted and well-delivered response to the question of what makes the Republican convention less of a “makeover” than the Democratic convention: “I haven’t had a makeover. I’ll be the same as I’ve always been and so will all the speakers.”

And on the bottom of the screen, C-SPAN runs the message, “For more information: www.demsextrememakeover.com.” Not the Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards Web sites; not the RNC’s anti-Kerry Web site and the DNC’s convention Web site; just the RNC’s attack site. Even through C-SPAN, they put together a very slick package.

Their methods are always very slick and their message is always consistent and it’s always delivered with the requisite derisive tone. Everything plays into the subliminal theme that Kerry and the Democratic party are effeminate cowards.

He Doesn’t Even Know What A Racist, Elitist Pig He Is

Salon.com Politics:

Following Edwards, and as a prelude to nominating Kerry, the multiracial hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas came out to perform their hit, “Let’s Get It Started.” Flipping channels to try and catch the performance, I found that the only network carrying it uninterrupted was Fox News. And just as I was getting suspicious about why Fox News was giving a hip-hop group time that could have been handed over to their pundits, the song ended and Fox anchor Brit Hume came back and said, “The Black Eyed Peas with their rendition of a song that’s popular in the swing states, especially the refrain ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ which the Kerry campaign believes will have particular resonance.

Spin Bitches

In yet another fine report from Eric Boehlert in Salon he notes, as I did last night, that Wolf Blitzer immediately cut to GOP spin after Edwards’ speech.

One other note about CNN’s at-times head-scratching coverage last night. Following Edwards’ acceptance speech, Blitzer, in what may have been a convention first, immediately turned to partisan representatives from the opposing party for a reaction; Bush campaign advisor Ralph Reed and former Bush Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

We’ll be watching closely during the Republican gathering in New York City to see if following Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech, CNN immediately seeks out Kerry advisor Mark Mellman and former Clinton spokesman Joe Lockhart for their analysis.

Atrios mentioned tracking disparities in spin opportunities earlier in the week. Maybe before the GOP convention we could prevail upon Uggabugga to do one of his great charts so we can keep track of this stuff.

This is becoming a favorite new trick. Fox did it during the Democratic primary debates they hosted (and even cut off the last of the debate itself to fit in Bill Bennett’s trashing before the end of the hour.) I have no idea if Reed and Clarke were previously booked for the slot or if they themselves arranged to be there at the appropriate moment. But, the fact remains that the first interview and reaction (and it went on for some time) that was shown on CNN after Edwards’ speech last night was from a highly critical Republican operative. If they do this again tonight I think we should make it our cause to demand that Democrats be given the same opportunity to immediately trash Cheney and Bush’s speeches in NYC before anybody has had a chance to even catch their breath. Very often, people stay tuned in for just a few moments after an event like that. Those moments can be critical.

Compassionate Conservatism

If anyone wonders if the “Republicans don’t give a shit about Homeland Security” line is political cant, Kevin at Catch notices that the right is now openly trashing firefighters and police now. Interesting tactic. He quotes the ever irrelevant Michelle Malkin:

First Responder Fetishists. In her convention remarks on Monday night, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said the first homeland security priority in response to the 9/11 report was the “need to fully equip and train . . . our first responders in the event of a terrorist attack.” Eager to suck up to men and women in uniform, John Kerry has proposed adding 100,000 first responders to the ranks of firefighters and emergency medical personnel nationwide. As I have said before, there is no question that our brave firefighters, cops and emergency personnel need increased training and support — but dialing 911 is not the solution to stopping another 9/11.

Lucianne’s drunken mistake says:

And while I’m at it, I cannot stand this talk about funding “first-responders” as a defense against terrorism. Obviously, there’s good reason to have an adequate infrastructure and all that. But it’s not a defense in the war on terrorism. To me it’s like telling your kid to defend himself from bullies on the way to school by giving him extra bandaids to carry with him.

They’re right, of course. Funding first responders is not a defense against terrorism. It’s a defense against thousands of people dying unnecessarily in a terrorist attack.

To hell with that pussified nonsense. The more people who die in a big blue city terrorist attack the better. Dead bodies make good GOP politics. I think they’ve proven that.

If The Shoe Fits

According to Tom Shales, “the networks have got to look for a better convention story than the hoary old bore about how conventions don’t matter any more. It makes them sound like shills for the corporate front offices, who hate to lose an hour of profit-making pap even in the middle of summer.”

Well…yes.

Empowering Muslim Grrrls

I take it that Barbara Ehrenreich is using a rhetorical device when she suggests that Kerry and Edwards adopt this line rather than the “manly” veteran image they’re conveying, but some of the ideas within her piece are correct on the merits and contain some smart politics.

I think adding “human rights for women” into the foreign policy and terrorism debate is smart. Bush and his merry band certainly thought it was a good idea in selling Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they have made things worse for the women in Iraq in many ways, while only marginally improving things in Afghanistan (in the areas in which the religious zealotry of the Taliban has really been routed.)

This is an issue that most people can agree that we could possibly affect positively if done respectfully and it is also one which all but the most zealous fundamentalists in the US can agree upon regardless of political ideology. It has the added virtue of being one real, although complicated, approach to dealing with Islamic terrorism.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

According to Jonathan Chait there is actually a type of journalism in which you don’t have to leave your desk and go out amongst the human race — my least favorite thing to do. He and Franklin Foer call it “ass-welt reporting.” It consists of “sitting behind a desk, mining the papers for interesting factual nuggets, reading political commentary from every perspective, poring through books and reports, and using the Nexis database to compile enormous stacks of newspaper stories.” He says, “It means you’ve sat in your chair for so long reading books and documents that you’ve worn a welt the shape of your backside into your chair.”

And you get paid, too. Sweet.

Actually, his article is a very interesting take on what I would say is true of all conventions and trade shows. If you aren’t a good networker or a star they are exhausting and dead boring. I’ve been to my share and I can tell you they’re not for the shy and retiring.

Of course, you can always just get shitfaced.

Via the Political Animal

Message Machinery

Matt Stoller has an excellent post up on The Blogging of the President about the media role at the convention. This is the kind of inside look at “how thing work” that I’ve been waiting to read. He talks to Sean Hannity:

“Why are you here, Sean Hannity?”

“To annoy you.”

“Seriously, why are you here?”

“Because this is newsworthy…. It’s what we do, cover stuff like this.”

Later in the conversation, I asked him if any news will be made at the Convention. He gestured to himself and said, “The best part of the Convention is right here. This is uncontrolled and spontaneous.” And that’s the thing. These guys see themselves as newsmakers.

Well, they are bigger celebrities than pretty much anybody there, aren’t they? (And, please nobody tell me that is meaningless because it just isn’t.)

Matt goes on to describe how Ed Gillespie managed to use the Democratic media infrastructure today to efficiently get their message out. It’s almost funny. But, in the end, he has an insight that I think is very, very astute:

…these guys know why they are here, and no one else except the Kerry campaign does. This is about message for them. They aren’t part of the media, they are part of the Bush reelection campaign. And as a result, they are looking at this Convention just like the Kerry campaign is – as an opportunity to generate and propagate prepackaged message.

I’m becoming much less interested in the question about journalists versus bloggers for precisely this reason. I’m not convinced there’s any journalism going on here. This is about fighting over message – meanwhile there’s a conversation out there, somewhere.

There is absolutely no journalism going on there. (And, frankly, there’s not much blogging going on either. Wherever the conversation is it isn’t taking place in the blogosphere.) What we are watching from out here is a fight to get competing messages out to the American people by hook or by crook.

It’s about media manipulation and marketing and the Republicans are very, very good at it. Their biggest problem is that they are selling an extremely defective product. If they win it will be a true testament to their message machine.

Traitors and Spinners

Please shoot me if I ever, ever forget how loathesome Joe Lieberman really is. The TAPPED convention blog fills us in on his latest reprehensible, deplorable GOP ass-kissing:

FOX NEWS, 9:27 P.M.: Which is the bigger disgrace: Joe Lieberman’s recent decision to join the reconstituted Committee on the Present Danger, or Joe Lieberman’s just-finished performance on Hannity and Colmes? Bad-mouthing the convention delegates, brushing off Florida 2000 as water under the bridge, criticizing Al Gore specifically for his post 9-11 speeches and Democrats in general for their criticisms of Bush (‘I’ve felt more comfortable here, where it’s all scripted, then I have been with what’s been said leading up to the convention’) — he was a gift that kept on giving, for segment after segment. Hannity loved him.

It could actually be worse, though. On CNN they have Ralph Reed on immediately spinning the speech before the Democrats have a chance to do it from their perspective … and, of course, it’s now 11pm in the east and people are tuning out. I just hate this he said/she said format. Although I don’t know that it’s any improvement having Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman spewing pre-fab conventional wisdom.

Once again, it’s time to turn the television off.