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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Politics: Cool stuff I learned today.

I was lucky enough to hear David Simas, who is responsible for "polling and messaging research” for the Obama national campaign. I’m sure he has a better title than that but more importantly he was smart, personable, and able to talk without ever consulting a note, boring his audience or seeming to tire out despite what I’m sure is a grueling schedule. Did I mention he was cute? Kind of the grown up version of the boy you dated in high school because he looked like Jackson Browne or, depending on your age, Jordan Catalano.
Here’s some highlights:
My two fav lines:
“Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the Alternative. (Biden)
“Romney reminds me of a guy who was born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a triple.” (focus group participant)
What I learned about Negative Ads: What is one of the results of negative ads? They suppress voter turnout because they increase cynicism about the process. This is especially good for Republican candidates as nationally Republicans win by subtraction while Democrats are helped by increased voter turnout.
Great Obama story: Obama was told that based on polling every segment of the American public was against him bailing out the American car companies. There seemed to be no political upside to doing it. His response? “The politics will take care of itself, this is the right thing to do”.
As a result-GM and Chrysler have turned a profit and thousands and thousands of jobs; auto workers, parts makers, distributors, dealerships, and the stores and restaurants that rely on them, have been saved.
Imagine. A politician who put doing the right thing over doing the politically expedient.
Side Note: How you can reduce the amount of political garbage ads on TV &Radio .
TV and radio stations are required to air political ads by candidates for federal offices even if their content is blatantly deceptive. Not so the messages of outside groups. Instead, broadcasters have the right to bar so called “third party” ads or insist on the accuracy of those they decide to air.
FlackCheck.org, the sister-site of the award-winning FactCheck.org, is asking stations to insist on the accuracy of ads by super PACs, the political parties and all of the other outside groups that arrive at their doorsteps with cash in hand.
To make it easier for viewers the FlackCheck.org “Stand By Your Ad” initiative provides the names of station managers, the e-mail addresses of stations and a sample letter that can be amended and sent directly from the viewer’s account.
“To locate the FlackCheck.org “Stand By Your Ad” page, click http://www.flackcheck.org/stand-by-your-ad/ and then click on “Stations.”

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