You Caught Me...

When there's an op-ed in a major newspaper explicitly regarding campaign communications, and I don't post it, that means you caught me in a dereliction of duty. I was short a dime yesterday and so just got to yesterdays Washington Post--and forgive me--but this piece discusses John Geer's defense of "going negative."

Recall from Teaching Elephants to Talk that negative is half the effort in staying on message because a candidate must show contrast. Whenever a candidate contrasts himself/herself with another candidate, it's not good enough to just say "I believe this" and "I believe that," but telling people (over and over again) "what this means to you" also means telling them over and over again "what the other guy means to you." That's negative, as Frank Sinatra says "that's life." So I've learned for mentor-Matt.