Just curious. How many national campaigns have you managed or been involved in?

Read this

The idea that women will vote for McCain/Palin because Plain is female is just plain stupid. Women, just like men, have varying political outlooks.

There is no "Vagina-American" voting block, as the Daily Show's Samatha Bee put it.

I don't know why everyone gets their panties in a twist over anyone making suggestions for advertising or bumper stickers or you tube shorts...

Great ideas come from crazy places...you hear one, play w/ it a little, and the next thing you know a game changing idea is born...I say keep 'em coming. I get the feeling a number of people posting, commenting and just lurking have ties to the campaign...when they see something worth forwarding, they will.

It's called American ingenuity and I say we encourage, not discourage it!

I'm looking for a

"Sarah Cheney/John McBush '08" bumper sticker...

I'd like to amend my suggestion.
The highlights from this tour should be turned into an informercial that can run on TV and online.

I think this is a pretty damn cool idea, CLF.

FYI: Oprah scares Peno-Americans in a way that the bra-burning feminists never could . . . Yes, by invoking her you automatically gain ALL women who have ever lived on American soil and the metro-sexual horde that live with them in relative peace and harmony . . . But at what cost? Real men™ everywhere will soil themselves.

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All farting around aside, Palin is insane. If half of the garbage out and about the infosphere is correct, Palin is more reality challanged than McInsane himself. Sisterhood does not mean jumping on the crazy train and riding into bizzaro world.

Do not confuse convention hype with reality. The audience at the REP convention was beyond old, white and male. Palin is an another crappy corporate product like 'New' Coke. Yes, folk can be enticed to buy it, drink it and some even like it . . . But it is still a shitty imatation of the 'Real Thing'.

Reality is:

Until the very end of primary season . . . More folk voted for the third place DEM candidate than McInsane. The loser of the top two DEMs had more votes cast for her than all the Republicants combined. There a crap-load more DEMs registered than REPs.

All we gotta do is show up and vote . . . And watch them count the vote.

Leave the insanity to the idiots would willingly vote themselves into serfdom to the fascist plutocrats.

People have made good comments here, but I agree with libgirl. Obama and the entire campaign is flat and not getting anyone excited. Do you see his interview with Olberman last night? Obama gave these nuanced answers with respect to Palin's lies about the bridge to nowhere and earmarks. It was excrutiating to watch. Just call her a liar, dammit! His resonse should have taken 30 seconds, not 4 minutes.

We know Obama and Biden are better, not only as public servants but as human beings. Unfortunately, the American people like fighters over anything else. McCain and Palin are being viewed as fighters, even though they're full of crap. Obama and Biden and being seen as masters of nuance. There are times for nuance, but in this world of 15 second soundbites, people get bored with nuance. In a perfect world, I'd love it if people really studied the candidates and their positions, but they don't. So, we have to play by the rules of the game.

The campaign lacks focus, is disorganized and is on its way to losing if the message doesn't change soon.

Obama's running the best Democratic campaign since 1964. Everybody take a deep breath. We've got great candidates. They'll be fierce and feral when it's called for. Two months is a long, long time. We can't win ANYTHING in September. Fight on.

The MSM is already unraveling her record, and there were certainly some surprises for me. The Obama camp is no doubt doing the same thing, only their responses are not as visible to those outside of the 18 named battleground states. It's not a national response plan, and never was.

We won't be able to see the results of the Obama voter registration efforts versus McCain's until election day, but it pays to remember Obama has had this operation up and running in some states since 2006! McCain doesn't have one, and is relying on a last-minute charge from the evangelicals.

As far as Palin goes, she is a real person, and she will attract a key demographic to the ticket, like it or not. She's Tammy Faye to McCain's Bakker.

I do agree with this post, and as Josh Marshall pointed out, the Obama campaign shouldn't ignore the necessity of a visible national message campaign either. And what would be better than well known local celebrities in key states as well as national at rallies backing Obama right now?

The Palin cloud will disappear - even the MSM is slicing up what little was there in the first place. But a few women's rallies would sure speed things up.

Palin just introduced her husband as a snowmobile winner - Obama needs to say - how athletic, but that will not get anyone healthcare. He needs to say that he would shoot a Moose or ride a snowmobile if it got gas prices below $2.00 a gallon, but it doesn't. He needs to say he'd wear lipstick if it got women equal pay for women, but it doesn’t. He needs to say that the ability to drop a sarcastic line is funny, but it doesn't bring a single job to Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania or anywhere else.

When the Democrats and the Obama campaign coined the word "Change" as a slogan, what they and this country really meant was "change us for them." Get rid of the Republicans and that message needs to be clearer. The word change is becoming meaningless.

The Maverick’s is a cowboy term, easily joined with the Bush cowboy attitude - I'd ask where are their hats? This is the Mel Brooks method of dealing with the bad guys - make fun of them. They're absurd and we need to point it out. All this snowmobiling and maverick talk needs to be mocked - do you want a cowboy or healthcare, etc. I'd run ads with them in cowboy attire and GWB in his flight suit.

Last, but not least - Obama needs MUCH tougher language! They need to use real words that everyone understands like lie, cheat, etc.

Libgirl is right. We underestimate the Palin problem at our peril.

Libgirl is right. We underestimate the Palin problem at our peril.

Libgirl is right. We underestimate the Palin problem at our peril.

Think it's a great idea! Unfortunately this campaign, like all others for decades has become personality driven as pointed out in the following American University posting:

April 22, 2008
Semiatin on the cutting edge of political campaigns
BY MIKE UNGER

[After pointing out what occurred in the Obama/Clinton primary race the article continues:]
“Campaigns are changing,” says longtime Washington Semester professor Richard Semiatin, editor of a new book, Campaigns on the Cutting Edge. “They’ve gone through two phases and are on the verge of entering the third. They used to be party driven for the first 160 years of American history. Then they became personality driven. Now they’re becoming more consumer driven. This just follows what goes on in the marketing world. The marketing and advertising world are usually half a decade ahead of the political world. What they do now in campaigns is merge all the information from the traditional sources—researching, polling, public records, voting data. Now we’re heading into an era where the information you’re going to receive is more individually tailored to you and your background. It used to be tailored to your neighborhood, then your precinct, now it can be targeted to your home directly.”

So be it. Bring a pro-Obma panel of women (local, state and nationally prominent) on the road and it certainly will attract both media and more importantly women voters. Could be a panel discussion format or town hall q&a--both have advantages and would work well depending on area. This, to my mind, would be a logical step to getting out the vote--women's votes the McC/Palin are going after. It puts it on a VERY PERSONAL level. Would Hillary climb on board? (could help her in future?) There are just so many aspects of this that would seem to work--especially in the swing states where women may feel a bit distant from the "issues" and feeling as though they want to be "included" as a kindred member of the voting masses. I think this is part of Palin's pull, and one that a town-hall for women (with men free to participate!) would combat.