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Romney Taps Into Web
Kudos to Mitt Romney for bringing on an online communications expert to oversee his presidential ambitions. According to today's Boston Globe: Though pro-Romney bloggers around the country have been dutifully defending him for months, the governor is increasingly taking steps to manage his own message. The importance Romney is placing on developing a rapport with bloggers reflects not only the pivotal role the Internet now plays in American politics, observers say, but also a recognition by Republicans that they have not been as aggressive as Democrats in using the web to gather support and money.
Perhaps the clearest indication of Romney's belief in the influence of online information is his hiring of Stephen Smith, 24, formerly the web guru for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, to run his online communications operation. Before Frist abandoned his presidential plans last month, Smith helped him record podcasts and keep in touch with bloggers. (...) "The Internet, e-mail, blogs, and websites are to organizational politics what the telephone was starting in the 1940s or what direct mail was starting in the 1960s," said Craig Shirley, an author and political consultant who worked on Reagan's presidential campaigns.
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Bowling Alone on the Campaign Trail
 Well, I finally read Bowling Alone -- a book I had been meaning to read for quite some time. In truth, I was already familiar with the concept behind this book, due to having read The Rise of The Creative Class, which borrows heavily from Bowling Alone. As you will see in this post, this book brings up several important issues for those interested in politics. First, if you haven't read Bowling Alone, here's a quick synopsis: Americans used to be much more likely to participate in community activities, such as bowling leagues, volunteering on a political campaign, joining clubs (Elks, garden, Knights of Columbus, etc.) or even getting together to play cards with friends. This sort of community involvement or civic engagement is referred to in the book as " social capital." Of course, his premise is that social capital has been declining. The book argues that there are several reasons for our becoming alienated from one another. They include: women working outside the home, sprawl, the advent of TV, the breakdown of the family unit, and the fact that the WWII Generation was simply more predisposed to become involved in community activities. What does this have to do with politics? First, I think anyone interested in politics and strategy is also, to a certain extent, a Sociologist. To be good at politics, you've got to understand people. And it's not enough to understand that trends are happening -- to really understand people and politics, you must examine why trends happen. For example, Microtargeting would not have been used by Republicans to win the 2004 presidential campaign had it not been for folks like Matthew Dowd who were looking for new trends. He dicovered that the products a person purchases is now a better predictor of their voting behavior than simply basing your prediction on where they live. This was a new tactic -- invented by necessity -- to deal with our changing world. And it worked! Both The Rise of the Creative Class and Bowling Alone make the point that there are certain parts of the country where social capital is more important. This is a topic that really rings true to me. For example, in Nevada, the average person attends just 4 "club meetings" per year. But the average North Dakotan attends 11. This is significant. North Dakotans are thus more likely to get together and play cards, join bowling leagues, volunteer for clubs, etc. (Of course, there are political implications to this, as well.) This really rang true to me because, after having great success in political campaigns in the Mid-Atlantic (I had also travelled the country, training political candidates -- and done some work in states like Texas), I moved to North Dakota to manage a Congressional race. What I didn't count on was that the rules in North Dakota (where people get together and bowl) would be completely different than they were in, say, Maryland (where people may wave to their neighbors, but avoid too much interaction). Granted, I knew there would be some differences (every state is different), but I didn't realize the differences would be so stark. It turns out, I had unknowingly moved from one of the lowest social capital areas in America to the number one social capital area in America (according to the authors' social capital index). Regarding politics, the differences were profound. In states like Maryland and Virginia, a campaign can craft any image they want. Average voters in these states rarely, if ever, talk about candidates to each other. They are too busy going to work, dropping off clothes at the dry cleaners, and picking up their kids from day care. The majority of political information they receive is based on what they see on TV, hear on the radio, read in the newspaper, or read in your mailings. As such, as savvy political campaign has the luxury of being able to create the image they want, if they are adept at using these media effectively. If a candidate has a bad image, it is possible to reinvent the candidate four years later, and most people won't remember him from before. If voters ever do get to meet your candidate, it's on your terms (say, at a parade -- or when the candidate goes door-to-door -- and is on his best behavior). A very small percentage of the voters really know the candidate. What they know is what you tell them. Conversely, in North Dakota, everyone knows the candidate (again, North Dakota is the number one ranked state for social capital). They refer to their politicians by their first name. If something happens, everyone knows about it. They talk about the candidate over cards or ... bowling. In short, the candidate and the campaign do not possess the ability to create their own image. If you were a loser in high school -- you can never shake that image. There is no anonymity. You can't move to the city and escape it. I've learned that certain candidates and campaign managers work better in certain parts of the country. If you decide to buck that trend, just be sure you are ready to adapt to the way they do things. ... On another note, this book also says that the only type of civic involvement that divorce cuts down on is church attendance (single people are actually more likely to participate in some forms of community involvement). Of course, church attendance just happens to be the number one predictor of how someone will vote. So Republicans really do have a vested interest -- if not a moral interest -- in protecting the institution of Marriage! One last thing: This book also corroborates something I have intrinsically known -- and have taught in my "Recruiting Volunteers" lecture -- and that is that busy people are actually more likely to volunteer than non-busy people. In fact, people who work two jobs are more likely to volunteer than people who work just one! Busy people skimp on other areas of their lives -- but they are actually more likely to volunteer for your cause or campaign.
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Quang X. Pham's Op-Ed
 One of the greatest blessings in my life has been the opportunity to travel the country and train conservative candidates and activists. What is truly amazing is that the folks who attend these seminars are quite often already very successful political, business, or opinion leaders. For example, at a recent training seminar I was conducting in Orange County, CA, I met Quang X. Pham. Quang was kind enough to give me a copy of his excellent book, A Sense of Duty. (This is one more example of how the students often can teach the lecturers a thing or two ...) Today, Quang has an excellent op-ed in the Washington Post. Check it out!
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A Tale of Two Fundraisers
How do you judge the success of a fundraiser? Is it by the money raised, the money netted -- or is it by the buzz created? Sometimes, the answer is: the buzz ... (Read my article at Human Events.)
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Bad Timing/ Web Goof Spoils Edwards' Big Day
 In politics timing is important. That's why smart strategists do everything in their power to time their announcements just right.
Good announcements are timed to get maximum attention. Bad news is timed to garner the least amount of attention (bad news is usually "dropped" on a Friday afternoon). But the truth is that sometimes situations are beyond the control of political "experts." John Edwards found this out the hard way. According to the Fix: Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards announced this morning on NBC's "Today Show" that he is planning a second run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Edwards unveiled his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination from the Lower Ninth Ward, the part of New Orleans hit hardest last year by Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo) But will anyone be paying attention to his well-scripted kick-off?
Edwards and his strategists decided several weeks ago that an announcement in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day -- typically one of the slowest news weeks of the year -- was his best chance to dominate national news coverage. If he waited until January, their thinking went, Edwards would likely be competing with similar announcements by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y) and Barack Obama (Ill.), both of which will draw massive media attention and would almost certainly have pushed the Edwards's decision to the side.
What Edwards could not have foreseen was former President Gerald Ford's death on Tuesday night and the subsequent wall-to-wall coverage. Clearly, Edwards was doing his best to time the perfect announcement. And obviously, Edwards had no control over Ford's "untimely" death. But luck wasn't the only problem Edwards had. According to the WaPost, he was " scooped by his own website": "What happened was, apparently, they were testing the Web site," said Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards's spokeswoman. "I guess, somehow, when they were testing it, AP happened to catch it." But, as the Fix notes, announcements aren't the most important part of a campaign: It's important to remember, however, that campaign announcements tend to be quickly forgotten. Can anyone remember how Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced his bid for president in 2004? How about George W. Bush's announcement in 2000? Give Edwards credit for picking a creative location to underscore his campaign message. The Post writes: Edwards chose New Orleans for his announcement to highlight his interest in the issue of poverty, which has been his focus for most of the past two years. He has been to Louisiana numerous times since Katrina hit and recruited 700 college students to join him here in the spring to volunteer their time, helping clean out and rebuild destroyed homes. Still, this is the first official maneuver of his nascent campaign, and I can't help but think it's at least a bad omend -- if not foreshadowing of a poorly-run campaign to come ...
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My Advice to Mitt ...
I didn't notice this until today (what with the Holidays), but over at National Journal's Beltway Blogroll, Danny Glover gives me a nice plug, concerning my advice to Mitt Romney. Of course, my advice was to hire a blogger. I'm happy to report that Romney has since hired a very good blogger -- as well as Bush's conservative outreach director (from the 2004 campaign).
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Recasting Pelosi
 Today's WaPost highlights Nancy Pelosi's swearing-in celebrations, which she hopes to use as a platform to recast her image from a San Francisco liberal to a working-class ethnic American: This is important strategic repositioning," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who teaches political communication and rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania. "Essentially, she's trying to embody the Democratic Party that she would like to offer the nation in 2008." The truth is that Nancy Pelosi isn't trying to "recast" her image -- she's trying to make a favorable first impression on the general public (who doesn't know her, yet). You could definitely argue that she's going about it the wrong way, but Pelosi is certainly wise to try to define herself before her opponents convince America she is a San Francisco liberal. If Madonna can reinvent her image every couple of years, then a politician can do it, too.
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Skeltons in the Closet? Don't Hide 'Em From Your Team
 Today's Hotline features an interview with political consultant (and fellow Shepherd College Alum) Sonny Scott. Here's an excerpt: What one event in a candidate's past would pose the biggest problem in a campaign?
Any potential and significant political liability that either escapes discovery in a candidate vulnerability study, or which the candidate chooses not to disclose with his, or her, campaign team. Obviously, the consequence of either scenario is that the campaign team is denied the opportunity to take into consideration any, and all, political liabilities when crafting the campaign's proactive and reactive strategies.
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Politics Sure Ain't Bean Bag
 As this NY Daily News story demonstrates, John McCain's campaign is very organized. Just look at how they outmaneuvered Rudy, yesterday: The Arizona senator released a list of 57 powerful New York-area supporters of his possible 2008 bid, just hours before Giuliani held his first presidential exploratory committee fund-raiser in Times Square. Every campaign can and should be this organized. Even at the local level, there is nothing stopping you from handing out press releases that refute your opponents' story, during (or before) their press conference. Here's a classic example of outmaneuvering your opponent: Find out what route they take on their way to a debate or forum -- and make sure your team puts out a ton of your yard signs along their travel route. Admittedly, 90 percent of the reason to do this is to demoralize the other team (nobody said campaigns were bean bag) ...
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Staging the Perfect Announcement
 Creativity is vital in politics and public relations. This idea ( reported by the Fix) is one of the most creative and interesting ideas I've heard in a while: "Darcy Sawatzki proposed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) announce her candidacy on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" on Feb. 3, 2007. ('Live from New York, I'm running for president!') Why SNL? Sawatzki said it would give Clinton a national audience, turn the preconceived notion that she's a too-serious political wonk on its head, show that her political career is still rooted in New York, and also serve as a potent lead-in for the Sunday talk shows the following day. Following the SNL announcement, Sawatzki proposed that Clinton hit the campaign trail for a week -- giving a series of policy speeches and laying out a vision for the country."
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The Future of Politics in an iPod
 This Washington Whispers post is pretty interesting:It wasn't long ago that we told you of how the Democrats and Republicans were preparing a new way to reach voters in 2008 through their mobile technology and iPods. Well, now we know why. Republican pollster David Winston tells us that new research found that 40 percent of 2006 voters ages 18 to 34 own iPods. And many don't make time to watch lots of tv, choosing instead to TiVo their faves or record podcasts. So what will be the best way to reach those critical voters in 2008? Through their iPods, he says, especially when the mp3s go wireless. "That's the next environment," he predicts, "where people will get their information." His tip to the pols: Make the ads riveting. The best example: losing Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele's family-focused tv ads, some of which featured a cute Boston terrier.
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Are Your Cards in the Mail?
 Hotline reports that "NH Dem activists have reported receiving postcards from Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)." If you're a candidate or an elected official, I sincerely hope your Christmas and Holiday cards are in the mail ...
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Campaign Teamwork
Whether you are running for City Council or President, you ought to have supporters who are helping you raise money (from their networks). This is commonly referred to as a "Finance Committee." Of course, the name "finance committee" is boring. As such, I recommend coming up with your own names for these top donors. Bush called them "Rangers," "Pioneers," etc. According to the Houston Chronical, Rudy Giuliani is using a baseball theme for his finance committee: ... Giuliani is considering creating a variation of the fundraising network set up by Bush, with more tiers of donors and a baseball theme.
"We'll have team captains, sluggers, all-stars and MVPs," said Bailey, who splits his time between Dallas and New York, where he is an executive with the Giuliani Partners business.
Sometimes merely using a creative new name can generate excitement about an old idea. So what's your finance committee called?
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Christmas Gifts for that Special Conservative ...
 If you're looking for a gift for that special conservative reader in your life, American Specatator has a good list of " holiday gift suggestions." Deal W. Hudson has a good list, too. Morton Blackwell's Read to Lead list is superb. And if you're looking to brush up on campaign skills, check out my Read to Win list, too. Human Events has also posted their Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Conservatives. If you've got enough books, let me also suggest this Norman Rockwellesque poster of Ronald Reagan. Personally, I'd love a framed copy for my den (hint, hint ...) Looking for a Christmas album that is a bit different and original. Chris Isaak's is worth picking up. Joe (my former intern and ML&TN blogger) bought me the Thank You For Smoking DVD. If you haven't seen this satical Christopher Buckley novel made into a movie yet, it's definitely worth checking out. If that certain someone in your life is a big fan of The Office (as I am), may I suggest picking up a Dwight Schrute Bobblehead (again, hint, hint ...). Dave Barry has some humorous gift suggestions. And while I highly recommend the aforementioned gifts, as a conservative, I am in favor of preserving the institution of marriage. As such, my advice to married men is to scrap all of this stuff and go with that little blue box (you'll thank me later).
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Using Facebook to Actually Do Something
This was the year when candidates started using Facebook for networking purposes. But while a few candidates actually used the technology as an end to a means -- my guess is that most candidates never really took advantage of the possibilities. Hotline's On the Download asks the question, "... how does a candidate turn his or her 'friends' into 'volunteers' or 'activists'?" And the answer, it seems, is: hard work: Jacob Colker used facebook to recruit a couple hundred volunteers. As Peter Franchot for Maryland Comptroller statewide field director, Colker said it's a matter of using the microtargeting that Facebook sets up. The downside, according to Colker, is that it's tedious work for one lucky campaign staffer.
"You need a computer-savvy, almost nerdy-quiet person to sit there on the Web sites and try to talk to as many people as possible," said Colker.
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A Very Morton Christmas
Well, if you couldn't tell by the Santa hat I'm wearing, it's Christmas time. Aside from the religious reason for the season, this is also the time of year to give to others. That's why I was very pleased to read about a recent study which shows conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than liberals. And while I certainly advocate charitable giving, I also think it's important that conservatives go out of our way to help one another. You see, sometimes we end up viewing each other as competition. But as Morton Blackwell's "16th law" (of the public policy process) says: " A well-run movement takes care of its own." For this reason, I've been meaning for a long time now to write something on the topic of What it means to be a "Movement Conservative". And part of what it means to be a movement conservative is to go out of your way to help other conservatives -- even if it is an inconvenience. Here are a couple of quick examples that I use, not to brag, but to illustrate what I'm talking about . ... Two of the folks who worked for me on my campaign in North Dakota are now working for conservative companies and/or firms in DC. Both of them spent some time crashing on my couch and spare bedroom, too. Now, that's nothing huge. But the truth is that it has a multiplier affect. It means that I had a hand in any good work that they do -- or any lives they touch. And truthfully, I've found that the best way to get ahead in life is to give to others. Most people that you help will someday return the favor -- especially if you help them without expecting anything in return (as the Good Book says, "Give and it shall be given unto you.") If you have good folks who have interned for you -- or worked for you -- go out of your way to help them segue into their next job. Sometimes that means writing letters of recommendation, setting up job interviews, or even having someone crash on your couch. So this Christmas -- by all means give to charity -- but don't forget to give back to the movement, too. So go ahead and Pay it Forward!
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Which Dem Has the Best Online Strategy?
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Get Viral!
Today's Technology Daily features some great info about the viral effects of the internet. Here are a few excerpts: The 2006 election illustrated the power of video spread virally by online activists and other candidate allies. Some political observers have argued that the now-infamous video in which Sen. George Allen, R-Va., called a volunteer for his opponent a "macaca" may have tipped the balance in that Senate race -- and thus to Democrats in the entire Senate. Colin Delany, who offers new media strategy advice and observations at e.politics, said video is so much more powerful than any print description "because you can pick up so much on someone's body language." He said the benefits to viral video are twofold: 1) People are more likely to actually view something from a friend; and 2) by going viral, candidates are put "in touch with a new audience." "Someday your boss is going to come to you and say, 'Make me viral!'" said Benjamin Rahn, president of the ActBlue Web site that raises money for Democratic candidates. But the drawback is that viral video is spontaneous, he added. "It's not something you can apply a certain number of people and dollars to and make it happen."
... Chuck DeFeo, who served as the e-campaign manager for President Bush in 2004, said bloggers have become a filter "that has to be listened to now" by politicians and that have become a source of material for mainstream media. DeFeo believes the good that will come from the inherently democratic medium is greater participation in the democratic process. Historically, he said, the broadcast media talking at an audience coincided with a decline in democratic participation and voting. "The Internet has reinvigorated political participation, and that is a healthy thing for democracy.
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Recommended Reading for Leaders
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More on the Henke Interview
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Reagan Meets Rockwell
 Could this be any cooler?
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Today's Tom Sawyer ...
 Today's Washington Post features an article about current presidential candidates who are wooing Bush donors. While the article is about presidential candidates, every candidate should try to copy their tactics (albeit, on a smaller scale). Here are a few key points made in the article: ... finding a wealthy person and persuading him or her to write a check is not the gold standard. Instead, the goal is to identify individuals who not only can contribute the federal limit of $2,000 but also can persuade 100 or so of their friends and business associates to do the same.
... The genius of the program was twofold: It let the fundraising team showily quantify its efforts, and it got donors involved in the day-to-day operations and planning of the campaign, according to Alex Vogel, a senior adviser to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
"The relationship did not start or end when they wrote a check," Vogel said. "They were not just donors but part of the organization."
The best fundraising candidates are like Tom Sawyer -- they are able to persuade others to help do their work ...
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What's Your Story?
The best candidates are good story tellers. And often times the reason they are running has something to do with their own personal story. In a recent Roll Call article, Stu Rothenberg wonders if candidates need a great story: Everybody loves a good story, don't they? Why do you think people pay money to go to the movies? But it is reporters and editors who get particularly excited about a good story (which probably is one reason why Janet Cooke, Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass got as far as they did with major print organizations). And media consultants? They get downright misty-eyed when thinking about what they can do with a candidate with a personal story that pulls at the heartstrings. What could be better than being raised in a broken home or coming from a town called Hope, Ark. (as Bill Clinton and likely '08 GOP presidential hopeful Gov. Mike Huckabee did)?
... Many presidential hopefuls have something in their life stories that can paint as a personal test or a hurdle that they overcome. The old 'born in a log cabin' chestnut is about as old as the country.
But while a good story goes a long way, Rothenberg also warns: A candidate's 'story' may get voters' attention, but a story is by its very nature backward-looking, while presidential contests are about the future. Ultimately, a candidate must offer more compelling reasons than a resume to justify why he or she deserves to be nominated and elected. Remember: No matter his personal history, which included great hardships and great courage, McCain's incredible personal story didn't win him the GOP presidential nomination in 2000.
Note: Your story doesn't have to be as glamorous or dramatic as, say former POW John McCain -- or George H.W. Bush. But -- no matter who you are -- you still have a story worth telling. Sadly, too many candidates are afraid to tell their story. They don't want to talk about their personal lives. That's a mistake because voters want to know who you are and why you believe the things you do. So what's your story?
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Creative Fundraising
Here's a creative fundraising idea: AR Gov. Mike Huckabee is having a fundraiser for his presidential exploratory committee. But the interesting thing is that he is reportedly looking for someone to pay $15K for " naming rights" to the after party. Hey, I guess if corporations and sports can do it (see FedEx Field), then so can politicians ...
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In Politics, Looks Matter
Found this in today's WaPost:"Good looks really do matter when it comes to politics, Australian researchers have found, and can add an extra 1.5 percent to 2 percent to a candidate's vote." ... "Beauty matters more for challengers than for incumbents. This suggests that looks affect first impressions. Once voters come to know a politician, their physical appearance does not matter as much,"
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Interview with Dan Hazelwood
Our good friend Dan Hazelwood of Targeted Creative Communications is interviewed in National Journal's Hotline today. Here's an excerpt: Negative campaigning -- good or bad?
It is good. It is the core of democracy. As James Madison wrote, "faction must be made to combat faction." Is it often done badly? Yes. Is it misused? Frequently. But everyone should have to answer the question, "why you, not your opponent?" It is a myth that negative messaging is a recent invention. The Bible goes pretty negative on Pharaoh and the snake gets a pretty high unfavorable rating by the end of Genesis. That's appropriate. The "Dudley Do-rights" that say all negative campaigning is somehow wrong and un-American want a world where they and their friends anoint people. What really needs to happen is to find a competent news media industry that will actually deliver news in large quantities in meaningful ways to the American Public, but sadly they are absent from our society today.
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Advice: Practice like you play
When I was growing up, my dad always used to tell me: "You practice like you play." His point was that you couldn't goof off during baseball practice, and then expect to miraculously "turn it on" during a game. The things you practice become habit and, under pressure, you will revert to the things you have practiced. As you'll see in this quote from today's Wall Street Journal, Democrat strategist, turned Wal-Mart strategist, Leslie Dach understands this: Q: During the 2000 campaign, you prepared Al Gore for debates. We've heard that you left no detail unnoticed, even matching the room temperature during practices to what it would be during the debate.
A: You have to rehearse the body at the same temperature and at the same time of day, because people have body rhythms. And if the debate is at 9 at night, you have to perform at 9 at night.
A funny part of this on the Wal-Mart side: We did a little preparation with Mr. [Wal-Mart CEO Lee] Scott for the Charlie Rose interview [in July]. Mr. Rose has a large wooden table that he does the interviews at. I wanted to do our rehearsal at a similar table. We tried to get a big round wooden table. But Wal-Mart being Wal-Mart, they brought in a small, round white plastic patio table. That's what we used, because of course, Wal-Mart wasn't about to go find a large wooden table when they could buy one at Wal-Mart for $3.98. My first attempt to replicate real-world surroundings at Wal-Mart was a failure.
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Lexicon of Politics
Kangaroo Ticket n. a political ticket, as for the offices of president and vice president, where the principal candidate is less appealing to voters than the running mate.1971 New York Times (Oct. 23), in Safire Pol. Dict. (1978 ed.): [John Connally would run for vice president if asked by President Nixon, but] he would insist that the Nixon-Connally partnership be advertised as a "kangaroo ticket."
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Unforgettable
"A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune." - Anonymous
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And the News ...
While we're talking about the internet and campaigns, Jon Henke sends us along several news stories today -- many of which corroborate his contention that Democrats are winning in the blogosphere -- and that the GOP is trying to change that. The Hill: "Armstrong and other technology-savvy aides said candidates must integrate all of the different messaging platforms -- blogging, instant messaging, text-messaging, social networking -- with a campaign's field and communications programs." A Richmond Times Dispatch columnist opines: "Finally, Democrats are winning because we are using innovation to engage voters and supporters at the grassroots level. When this decade began, most of the headlines about the Internet's influence on politics focused on its fundraising potential ... Today, we are using new technologies to bring campaigns back to basics -- engaging voters, one by one, in the democratic process." Jonathan Martin at The Corner reports about a RGA panel discussion: "The panelists also were largely in agreement that Republicans are lagging on taking advantage of the internet and bloggers. Newhouse, who polled for Sen. Joe Lieberman after the Dem-turned-Independent lost his primary, recalled how they'd get 'daily email updates about what the bloggers were saying.' In Republican campaigns, Newhouse said, 'we had none of that.' Roll Call reports that "(Sen. Mitch) McConnell still is assembling his team, but the incoming Minority Leader is working to hire a handful of message, new media and speech-writing staffers to work for the new communications arm. It is expected to be up and running before Jan. 3, when the Senate reconvenes for the 110th Congress."
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George Allen's Blogger Talks
I recently had a chance to interview Jon Henke of QandO blog. As you may know, Mr. Henke is a talented operative who was Netroots Coordinator for the George Allen Senate campaign. This was one of the first high-level GOP campaings to embrace the blogosphere. Enjoy ... ML - Jon, thank you for joining us today. You were called on to run the e-campaign for Sen. George Allen. By that time, he was already being attacked in the media -- and in blogs --- for the macaca gaffe. Many pundits were recommending he bring on someone to coordinate his e-campaign. With that in mind, can you talk about the importance of having a proactive
e-campaign from day 1?JH - I would argue that the value of blogs changes over the course of a campaign. Initially, blogs can make major contributions by shaping narratives among the 'Influentials' (bloggers, journalists, pundits, etc), generating positive attention for their candidate and attracting activists. Towards the end of a campaign, with narratives already established and candidate-awareness taken care of, pushback and information distribution are the more valuable functions of a campaign blog. If a campaign doesn't engage the New Media early on, there will be three major problems: 1) Unfavorable frames and narratives will be free to develop in the media seed-bed of the blogosphere. Once developed, they become conventional wisdom and are very difficult to rebut. 2) The campaign will sacrifice the opportunity to develop their own narratives, or to frame upcoming issues for the Influentials. 3) Once the campaign does enter the blogosphere, they will face an uphill battle to cultivate credibility, interest, activists and notoriety. ML - Some have speculated that before you came on board, Sen. Allen was the first candidate to be "Punked." The bottom line is that, going forward, all candidates must realize that anything they say might end up on YouTube. Can you speak to this new phenomenon?JH - If the blogosphere represents the democratization of news, then YouTube is the democratization of video. It's no surprise that the two would work hand in hand. Campaigns need to understand that a story is more powerful than a statistic, and a narrative more powerful than a story. Similarly, a picture is more powerful than a story and a video more powerful than a picture. The problem (and opportunity) for campaigns is not simply that they will be subjected to more scrutiny. That's been true for a long time. The problem (and opportunity) is that people now have access to visual reinforcement of the statistics, stories and narratives. That's why it's so important to tell the stories and develop the narratives early. The 'macaca' incident was a big story because the left had spent many months trying to tell a story about George Allen, while the Allen campaign essentially ignored it. When the 'macaca' video was released, it fit the extant narrative (which, by the way, journalists had spent months reading about). Journalists could simply throw the roof on the story, because the house had already been built by the New Media. ML - The internet isn't just for Senate campaigns. What tips do you have for local campaigns or candidates? To what extent should they be using this technology?JH - It's important for campaigns to understand what their target audience is. Are they blogging for voters, for activists, for other bloggers or for reporters? Is the audience national, statewide or more local? Campaigns can use this at every level, though the focus will necessarily be different. At the Presidential and Senatorial level, you probably need a very prominent blog, manned by a coordinator who knows the blogosphere very well. At lower levels, you need somebody who has a good relationship with the State blogosphere. In every case, the person responsible for the blog needs to know how to blog effectively, how to generate attention and how to focus the campaign message on the target audience. ML - How did you get involved in this business, and how did you get picked to head up the e-campaign for Sen. Allen?JH - I began blogging in mid-2003. Like most bloggers, I did it because I had something to say. Naturally, I'd like to think the Allen campaign chose me to head the online media efforts because I'm a good writer with a good reputation and a strong grasp of blog outreach ... but I would rather not attribute my opinion to the Allen campaign leadership. You'd have to ask them. ML - Much of what you did was serve as a press secretary to bloggers. How do they differ from traditional media, and how did that change your tactics regarding approaching them?JH - The most important distinction between bloggers and reporters is that bloggers are under no obligation to report what you say ... or |
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