How do we keep this Expectations game from backfiring??

[deckerd]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x897991

The posts in the "Kerry lost the first debate" thread are WAY TOO predictive of what the media's response will be to the first debate.

Given the hostility of the media, I'm not sure lowering the expectations on Kerry is going to help, especially since some of you guys have made NO CREDIBLE ATTEMPT to RAISE expectations on the commander in chief. Simple sarcsam and simply trashing Kerry in jest (the way the late nite talk show hosts do every night) does NOTHING to raise the expectations for Bush.

Consider the unanimous TRASHING Kerry got in the broadcast media this week. Even McLaughlin group, which has morphed into a moderately pro-Kerry venue as the Republican party has moved further to the right, concedes that the week was a draw for Kerry -- because of the glowing coverage given Allawi, and the unanimously hostile response, including from establishmentarians like Gwen Ifill -- given to the assertion that Repubs planted the CBS Docs. That assertion is now dead in the media and instead there's an organized whispering campaign in the other networks to force Dan Rather to step down. On the CBS docs, Rove seems to have won. Even DU can't agree on the source of the docs or what to do about it, except that the current state of things hurts Kerry. Point being, the media is messing with our minds, people. They are not going to be sidetracked by anything obvious on our part.

All this obvious sarcasm and "this is a game" nonsense does not help our cause, especially when we're not so much increasing the expectations for * as tearing them down for Kerry.

Based on what I saw this week, the Media has broken for Bush and are committed to pushing the undecideds the same way.

My suspicion is that this "game" will not be taken as irony but as sarcasm. There's a difference. Expect the media to push forward with their "Kerry lost the first debate, Bush is a bad speaker and Kerry's even worse" talking points -- regardless of how badly * does. And, as we've seen this week, when Kerry's being forceful he is not forceful in a way that the mewswhores consider mediagenic -- he's not monosyllabic like Bush -- and monosyllabic means telegenic. We are LOSING the expectations game, people.

Thanks to FCC Chairman Michael Powell's Faustian bargain with the broadcast owners, we will not be able to win the expectations game by fooling the media into thinking * is an eloquent speaker.

That's nonsense -- they know perfectly well what they're doing. and for them, it is a cynical ploy. For us it is simply a joke, a game, because we have such high expectations of the American public.

Having someone like * in the white house means ratings, it means concise, simple-minded, controversial soundbites and it means Michael Powell will fulfill his promises under the table to the network owners.

Let's stop playing games and think strategically about how to manage expectations. Your thoughts?

We may want to focus the expectations game on the media, on how we expect Kerry to be portrayed. Bypass the media and manage expectations directly thru the rank and file.