Kerry wisely going Retail; not Wholesale

[ewagner]

It's starting to make sense now. I've read the posts showing that Kerry is behind in the polls nationally, but showing clear and sometimes commanding leads in polls from battleground states. And now, I'm enjoying the hell out of the recent RW talking point: "Where is Edwards?".

The explanation is that the Kerry Campaign is practicing "retail" politics" rather than "wholesale". What does that mean?

It means that Kerry and company are using mass media sparingly and at the same time going to every "whistlestop" event they can. They're meeting the voters (buyers) one-by-one; not mass marketing the product (candidate). If you live in a battleground state, you know damned well "where" Edwards is; "where" Kerry is.

This is a smart strategy.

I'm impressed.

[Rambis]

1. Thank you!

All this doom and gloom stuff isn't "real" I have been out there talking with people. My wife was stopped in a diner last night and asked for her Kerry button and she gave it to a waitress. The receptionist asked for one so her friend took it off here shirt and gave it to her. This is Iowa, a battle ground state and somewhat conservative over all. At a meeting of the Democartic committe the other night they asked how many of the 100 people that were there had never done anything with a political campaign and 95 raised their hand. Kerry in a lanslide!

[cthrumatrix]

22. these are the stories that count

[Wickerman]

2. excellent description

and if accurate, brilliant. They avoid the middle man, the media. The media middleman has proven itself not only incompetent, but appears to be working for his competitor.

[wurzel]

10. The media has to be "outed", or ignored.

The media is our enemy. It is the only way we can regard it.

[cthrumatrix]

12. clearly it's a bright strategy and the network media hates it

[wurzel]

3. Yes it is. We have to find a way to neutralize the mainstream media.

No Democratic is ever going to get any kind of decent coverage by the mainstream media. If we didn't learn form Gore, we should have learned it from the Swiftboat liars. Dems have to find a way of discrediting a news media they actually fund.

[ezee]

8. Your right and

they are all yelling, "Kerry hasn't had a national news conference in 7 weeks!" Wheres Edwards? whats going on? and anything else to get the cmpaign to make comment just so they can beat him up some more and cower to the WH.

[wurzel]

17. All Senior Dems should publicly boycott the TV media.

The entire campaign should boycott the TV media and say why. Point to the clear difference of how the media embraced the swiftboat liars, while actually investigating the "memos". And keep on saying it for the next two months. Destory whatever credibility the TV media has left.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

31. Actually...

Instead of boycotting, I think Democrats and KE surrogates should go on TV and refuse to indulge silly questions -- actually say to the hosts "your question is full of it" and "here is what you should have asked" and answer that question!

[A_Possum]

32. Good idea

welcome to DU!

[sniffa]

4. good description

it's frustrating reading so many peopLe panicking (or freepers taunting) about kerry's campaign - i have faith in kerry.

note: i was weLd-repubLican in 96. i was taunting and ceLebrating about week before the eLection. my bad.

[cthrumatrix]

5. he can't get media coverage on his message...

[Dawgs]

9. Agree.

I was going to start a post like this as well. I think many of us that are in non-battleground states get frustrated because all we get is hardball and cnn covergae. I live in Georgia so you know Kerry is not going to put any focus down here.

[MallRat]

6. Bypass corporate media by getting local coverage.

If you live in Madison, Kalamazoo, or Orlando, what Wolf Blitzer says on television at 5pm isn't nearly as important as what your local newscasts say at 10 or 11pm.

Same goes for the newspapers. As much as we love to talk about the big guys (NYT, WaPo, LAT, Chi Trib), it's the Des Moines Registers and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinels of the world who play a big role in forming opinions.

I agree. This is good strategy.

-MR

[TrueAmerican]

7. This is how Bush was sold in 2000

They even used Satellite hopping from one local station to another. It was done back to back and really put a more personal spin on his campaign.

[Beetwasher]

11. Yup, I've Been Saying This For A While

Kerry's smart, he knows the mainstream media is actively working AGAINST him, so he's taking his case to the pavement and working his ass off locally. He's going to the local media outlets which have FAR more influence LOCALLY. People read their local paper, watch their local news, listen to their local radio stations etc. And Kerry is hitting those HARD wherever he goes AND having INCREDIBLE crowds at his rallies which FORCES the local media to pay attention and report.

[cthrumatrix]

19. it really is smart.....the media will get their's soon

[LiberalFighter]

25. Local media will give more time to something that is local

They don't have to rely on the feed from their network. Their own people can go out and make a story.

Local is personal. They have a chance to meet the candidate one on one.

[MallRat]

13. Look at these local newspaper headlines today!

Courtesy of ABC's "The Note.
"http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html

The Columbus Dispatch's headline reads: "Bush hid truth from Americans, Kerry says." LINK

The Toledo Blade's headline is: "Kerry offers health-care Rx; Democrat rips Bush's Medicare reform during Toledo visit." LINK

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's headline is: "Kerry vows to fight for health care." LINK


That's GOOD, GOOD local coverage.

[Beetwasher]

14. Yup! Great Post!

Sort of brings it all into perspective!

[Meshuga]

15. Is it true to say...

that democrats living in the blue states and red states are freaking out more than people in the battleground states?

I live in Maryland and all we get is the national media showing negative or neutral headlines about Kerry while positive for Bush.

Nice post! That's the way Kerry won in Iowa and in the rest of the primaries by meeting people face to face and ignoring the polls which predicted he would not win the nomination.

[DinahMoeHum]

16. As an old Dem, Tip O'Neill used to say: Politics is local. . .

and there's that old adage - votes are still counted one by one by one.

"...they got the guns, but
we got the numbers..."

- Jim Morrison


:kick:

[crispini]

18. Ay yiyi!

Well! this all makes MUCH MORE SENSE now.

Thank you.

I feel relieved.

(And may I just add, though, this gives me one more reason to HATE HATE HATE the electoral college. As a blue girl in a red state it is hard to feel like a lot of the dialog is not directed at me!)

[LiberalFighter]

27. But everyone has to do their part.

And every part is important.

Just because we may not be in a battleground state does not mean that locally it won't affect those states.

If you live next to a battleground state you may talk to people in those states on a regular basis and could influence them.
If you have relatives in a battleground state.
If you have friends in a battleground state.

Even if you don't influence anyone in a battleground state the fact that their are competitive or near competitive races means that the other side cannot divert resources to the Presidential race to the extent that they would like.

[ewagner]

34. Thanks for adding that

It needed to be said..........and it needs to be taken seriously!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

20. One word: IOWA

It's the Iowa strategy. Kerry's a great guy and very convincing in the flesh.

[Sensitivity]

21. Would have been better to go GRASSROOTS 6 month ago.

[rockymountaindem]

30. This has been going on the whole time.

If you'll search the archives you'll see threads about Kerry employing this style of campaigning all the way back to the Iowa caucus.

[Hello_Kitty]

23. That's how the Dems do it!!

We're not as good at stage managed events and photo ops and we don't come up with the snappy catch phrases like they do. But we get out there. We register voters and knock on doors. We have REAL PEOPLE call prospective voters, not an automated voice machine (I kid you not - thats what the Pubs are doing in my district!) Let the freepers sit back on their Barcalounges and sip beer while watching Fox News and its skewed polls, lulled into a false sense of security. They don't know what's gonna hit 'em!

[cindyw]

24. This is how they won Iowa. It is why the media wrote him off and then

was surprised when he had gained a popular following. The media thinks that because they don't see something it must not be true or happening. They always make that mistake.

[LiberalFighter]

29. The media is really worthless...

I realized that after watching too much of Ted Koeppel's Nightline.

He covers a major issue every night... they always find something don't they? Anyway, they fail the questions that should be asked and leave it hanging.

[SiouxJ]

26. True, Edwards was just here in AZ

the local news stations said Kerry had thrown in the towel on AZ and dropped his ads, but then Edwards shows up here and he even made my small town right wing rag. Big ol' color photo of him visiting Tucson (which is on the other end of the state from me). His visit was all over the news that night too.

[cheshire]

28. Well they are smart enough to beat the Media whores for george.

[depakid]

33. Wishful thinking

I hope you're right- although history is not on your side with respect that view.

[Generator]

35. Edwards was about five miles from me yesterday

But, alas I didn't get to see him.

He did raise about half a million while here. Two stops-one for the people, one for the dough.

Also, the media was all favorable locally.

Before the election I'm gonna see if him if he's back. That I swear.