Unsourced rumors
Building on the post just below, huge scoop at CNN. Multiple White House insiders say they've privately predicted Coakley will lose the MA Senator to the teabagger guy, Brown. That would be multiple unnamed sources. Atrios links in and I saw it several times on Twitter. I assume this implies a fairly wide and instant deploy of the story.
Thinking this is a deliberate leak and a good strategy for the Democrats. Enthusiasm is tanking, so they engender some panic in the Dem base to boost the turnout. They probably need it. Brown ran a slick, Romneyesque campaign and it's going to be close. So this time it serves a purpose I approve. But still, in the bigger scheme of life, depending on unnamed leaks is no way to run a media, or a government.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Thinking this is a deliberate leak and a good strategy for the Democrats. Enthusiasm is tanking, so they engender some panic in the Dem base to boost the turnout. They probably need it. Brown ran a slick, Romneyesque campaign and it's going to be close. So this time it serves a purpose I approve. But still, in the bigger scheme of life, depending on unnamed leaks is no way to run a media, or a government.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:36 PM
5 Comments:
What upsets me most about stories like this: Our side seems to have great difficulty articulating and framing not just public policy but morally persuasive arguments in support of those policies.
The GOP is much better than liberal Democrats in creating metaphors, mythologies, and emotions that resonate with voters ... with the result being that crappy conservative policies (i.e. supply-side economics and tax cuts to the wealthy) have sticking power when these should have been debunked and disgraced long ago.
We field lousy candidates, do a piss poor job in messaging, and lose every time. Our side still doesn't get it.
You're all too right about that Octopus. Think it's partly because it's easy to make a slogan out of a lie and explaining reality takes too many words. And of course, the Dems in many ways are nearly as compromised by corporate interests as the GOPers, but they at least try to give a nod to the public good and aren't quite as greedy for the most part.
I think that it's not so much a problem that Dems have trouble framing policies as that the right is mainly able to rely on their unreflecting, reliably easily led base, that swallows anything that they put out whole. Eight years of demonstrable economic disaster following from rightwing ideology therefore becomes Pres O's fault because he's in office. To the right, there's your clean slate.
I thought the same thing when I saw those tweets, that the Dems are just trying to light a fire to increase turnout.
If it was a play, not all WH sources played along though. @billburton44 quickly disputed the reports.
Ruth I'm constantly astonished at how easily low income people swallow the GOP propaganda.
Kev, the spin doctors play all angles I think. Delicate balance between panic and discouragement.
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