Pete Buttigieg could become the first gay president. Americans are ready for one.

[marylandblue]

66. Not sure what leap I'm taking, but maybe you don't understand what I'm saying

The memes I'm talking about are the ones that were explicitly racist, like using racial slurs and stereotypes. Or maybe I'll make it more explicit. Obama is black, and they said Obama is black, and a n*****, and a pimp, and here's a picture of him looking like one, and here is looking like an ape, and isn't this funny, ha, ha, those stupid liberals think Obama is great.

And I've had some of those conversations with Trump voting friends and relatives. None of them believed in Pizzagate or Kenya. They did believe a lot of things that weren't true and even some things that were true. A lot of things were actually quite difficult to debunk or put in context. They weren't obvious BS, but they also didn't want to really talk about it, so it didn't matter if there was a truth to be told or not. Going further back, the conversations weren't all that different from the ones I had about Gore or Kerry, and some of the BS or not BS that was told about them in those bars and churches, and on the clunky old internet before Facebook and Twitter. This crap actually goes back to earlier elections, but it's the same story.

Gore, Kerry, Clinton. They have a lot in common. All smart, well qualified, with plans and ideas and long resumes, and all three were sunk under a pile of lies and out-of-context facts by a far stupider, less qualified opponent.

Only Obama won. He's smart, but he didn't have such a long resume. So why did he win? He had charisma. He excited people. He communicated in a way that was easy to understand. I still remember how he shut down the Saul Alinsky thing by pointing out Alinsky died when he was 8 years old. It wasn't just what he said, it was the way he punched out the words that made you feel how absurd it all was. I did still hear about Alinsky from the deplorables after that, but it wasn't quite so much and not so confident about it. That's not the only story that went like or that I heard about.

I also think, Obama was a better campaign manager than any of the others. Made better strategic decisions about how to raise money, where to go, what message he wanted to send.

I don't know why you say it's not about this or not about that but it's about millions of conversations we can't control. Because I PROMISE you that whoever our candidate is, there will be millions of conversations that he or she is too old, too young, too female, too black, too gay, too socialist, too boring, too crazy, too liberal, doesn't have any ideas, wants to let the Hispanic Muslim toddlers rape your daughter, been in Washington too long, hasn't been in Washington long enough, is a failure, is too much of politician, just not trustworthy, or said something that wasn't 100% accurate. It will be the same people, saying the same thing in different words about a different person with a different "wrong" thing.

We can't control all of those conversations, but we can control some of them. I guess you are right, it's not about bullies or whatever. So I'll give you some inside information. Believe it or not your choice. Somebody I know very well works in public relations. Her job is to get favorable media coverage for her clients so that people will buy their product, buy their book or see their movie. She's made some people semi-famous and she's made a few quite wealthy.

How does she do it? She creates narratives that the media wants to cover. One way is to generate controversy. She does it on purpose. She takes the most controversial single thing in an otherwise boring book and says the book is about that. Media loves controversy, so they cover the book, invite the author on the show. She coaches the author to talk about the controversy, not the actual subject. That's on of Trump's tricks too. He does controversy on purpose, and I know it's on purpose because that's exactly what my PR friend does.

Another (and IMO, more legitimate) way to get coverage is to write the story herself. So she calls up the media, and says this guy has a great story, he did all these great things, he really knows what he's talking about and he looks and sounds really good on camera, so you have to meet him and people will tune in. And he's available anytime in the next three weeks, and he's easy to work with, so he won't be late and he won't drive your staff crazy with stupid demands. And this what Obama did. He told stories that the media wanted to hear. They wanted to hear it because they knew their viewers wanted to hear it, and if the media people weren't sure, Obama talked to them off camera in his friendly confident way to convince them. Because my PR friend is like that too, and there were stories about Obama schmoozing the press while he was travelling. And indeed, when people saw Obama, they did want to talk about him, and his message of Hope and Change, and some (not all) of those church and bar conversations turned from "He's a n*****" to "I'm voting for him anyway." Not all of them changed, but enough did.

And this is what I see Buttigieg doing. Looking and sounding good on camera. Making himself available for interviews and doing them well enough so that the media wants to talk to him more. Telling stories they want to hear And writing good tweets (something Obama didn't have to worry about). He's not the only one doing it. O'Rourke does it. Why do you think he visited all 254 counties in Texas? Some of those counties have, less than 1,000, nobody goes there! It's not worth it. He did because it was a good a story and the media would follow him around.

Sanders uses the controversy strategy like Trump does.

They all have their media strategies, but from what I can see so far, Buttigieg is doing the media thing best.

Sorry this went on so long. But I guess I just wanted to tell you that I'm not crazy, I'm not blind, but I do know a thing or two. You don't have to agree with me. But if you want to win this, do pay attention to the narratives candidates are writing (or failing to write) for the media. Pick the one you think has the best narrative. Don't worry about who is "Alpha" or what the church ladies will gossip about.

" Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." -Eleanor Roosevelt