The Party With the Best Message Wins

Date: July 17, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Democrats, Message

The challenge is on (via Political Wire).

Democratic momentum is slowing but not yet reversing. What Republicans should hope for, and Democrats should fear, is that we are nearing an inflection point, when the directions change. That hasn’t happened yet.

The key indicator to watch for the rest of the summer is public confidence in Obama. Whether looking back at the economic stimulus package and the budget, or forward to the pending climate-change and health care reform proposals, voters see legislation that is massive, important, and complex. Few will understand the intricacies of any, let alone all, of these measures, which will be defined, positively or negatively, by the media and public dialogue. Whichever party does the better job of messaging will win.  [emphasis added]

The first thing I hope Democrats do is work the refs.  Democrats tend to wring their hands when the media criticizes them or, more important, when the media consistently regurgitates the GOP talking points.  They never seem to challenge reporters.

Or for that matter the GOP talking points.  The Dems in Congress will probably argue that they defer to Obama to take the message to the people, and he has shown that he has some fight in him.  But he could use some help. 

For starters, stop talking like geeks.  Talk in big themes, and by all means, criticize Republicans.  If you want to win, you need to not only give your argument but destroy your opponents’.  And don’t be afraid to put things in simple language.  This is not a debating society.  Talking points:

Healthcare

  • Health care is already controlled by a massive bureaucracy.  it’s called the insurance industry.  Which seems to be what the GOP is beholden to.
  • Meanwhile, Medicare, a public option plan, has worked great for 50 years.
  • The U.S. has some of the worst health outcomes of industrialized nations and the highest costs.  The GOP points to France.  Well, they’ve got some of the best outcomes, there is no wait, and it costs less than U.S. healthcare.   Pass the french fries, please.
  • A public option will help small businesses, most of which can’t afford health insurance for their employees.  Why does the GOP think it’s more important to help businesses avoid healthcare than it is to ensure healthcare  for its citizens?

Taxes

  • The top 1-2% of the population had massive tax cuts in the last decade, while the middle class and below sent their children to war that they rich would not pay for.  It’s time to be fiscally and morally responsible.
  • A tax increase of a couple of percentage points on the rich would still put them below levels of taxation during the Reagan administration.  Is he the GOP’s gold standard?
  • Over 98% of small businesses would not be impacted by higher taxes on the wealthy.
  • Democrats are taking responsibility for paying for better healthcare, a cleaner environment and a stronger military.  The GOP wants our grandchildren to pay for everything.

The Party of No

  • Why is it that the GOP, whether it’s war or the economy or healthcare, their answer is always fear?  Fear of what might happen.  Democrats act as Americans have always acted – with boldness, confidence and commitment to make things better.
  • The GOP was against social security, against Medicare and Medicaid, against civil rights, against unemployment insurance.  Historically, the GOP is defined by what it opposes and never offers an alternative. 
  • We want to include Republican ideas.  There are dozens of them in the healthcare bill, for example. 
  • Republicans seem to think “bipartisan” means we put out our ideas and they put out theirs…and then we do it their way.  No, Republicans did enough of “my way or the highway” when they were in power.    We have been more bipartisan in a few months than Republicans were in 8 years.  We’re serious about solutions.  Republicans are serious about politics.

Environment

  • Cap and trade is a responsible way of ensuring a cleaner future.  The GOP thinks Big Oil is the answer because that’s who pays their bills.
  • Does anyone really think that gas will never rise to $4 a gallon again?  It is likely to rise to $10 a gallon by 2020. 
  • The wind and sun are free.  Let’s harness them.  American ingenuity is up to the challenge.  Why don’t Republicans trust Americans to solve big problems?
  • It is a sin how we are destroying God’s earth.  We have a moral responsibility to tend to it, to protect it and to leave it vibrant and lush for generations to come.
  • American parents have made sacrifices for two centuries to give their children a better future.  Investing in a future where our children won’t worry about a polluted environment and unaffordable energy is a legacy Americans want to leave.

Economy

  • (Here pretty much you can say the same thing to whatever criticism they have of the economy.)  When many people we thinking we might fall into a depression, what was the Republican solution.  Oh yeah, it was “do nothing.”
  • From day one, we knew – and said – the economic turnaround would take time.  Meanwhile, the Republicans were saying “do nothing.”  Now they’re saying, we didn’t do something fast enough.  Democrats take a long view that Republicans are apparently incapable of.  We want the money to be spent wisely, so that we take on projects that will benefit our country in the long run.
  • We need to rebuild our economy in a way that rewards work, not moneychangers. 
  • We need to respect those who work for a living and not those who risk our money for their living.
  • Believe it or not, Republicans argue that we don’t need more regulations.  They just want to enforce the regulations we have.  Wasn’t that what they were supposed to be doing before the crisis?

That’s enough for a Friday afternoon. 

Obama Grabs the News Cycle on Healthcare

Date: July 17, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Healthcare, Message, Message Delivery, Obama

The president just finished a rather unusual Friday 4 p.m. statement – without taking questions.  It was on healthcare, and it again demonstrated his ability to take the long view.  More important, it was a demonstration to the public of his ability to do just that.  It positions him as someone who cares about the future and not about political points. 

Obama has a knack for demonstrating to the public that he is thoughtful.  This statement was exactly that.  He took, in his words, “the long view” of the healthcare debate.  Just knowing someone is taking that view reassures the public.

He first focused on the idea that we have a consensus that something that needs to be done.

He then ticked off those who support him by listing the organizations that have either agreed to concessions or who have endorsed his plans – the pharmaceutical Industry, hospitals, nurses and the AMA.  What that does is reassure people that “your doctor is behind me.”

He also talked about the need to improve “preventive and wellness programs.”  Which is a way of saying, “Americans, you need to take responsibility for your health, without sounding like a fitness nut.

He used words like “stability and security,”  which can resonate in these uncertain times.

He then talked about keeping coverage even if you lose your job and not losing coverage for preexisting conditions.  Those are two key points.

He then addressed how we pay for it.  He discussed not adding to our deficit, paying for immediate changes and slowing long-term health costs.  He repeated that point, and sure enough, the news program I was watching, Bloomberg, emphasized that point. 

He made a plea for controlling costs by having independent doctors and others over seeing costs. Which means taking Medicare payments control away from Congress.

He finished by saying, “Now is not the time to slow down” on healthcare reform.  If we step back, we we assigning our children to crushing deficits and increased healthcare costs.”  It’s always a good idea to frame the debate with cherub faces.

He also said that “If we don’t get this down, no one insurance is secure.”  Which polls suggest the public understands.  Even if they like their current insurance, they know we have a problem.

Sure enough, the Bloomberg anchor, led with “Sounding confident, Obama…” and then mentioned the support he has among key players.

This guy is as good if not better than Reagan.

Pay to Play

Date: July 17, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: GOP Dirty Work

The American Conservative Union is for sale.

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

Reporting Lies

Date: July 17, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Media Criticism, Small Business, Taxes, Washington Post

"People have been allowed to get away with . . . making statements that they knew weren’t factual….Washington games are still being played with the truth."

–Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary

Politicians and political advocates (or adversaries) will speak lies.  Often, it’s not just bending the truth to fit an agenda, but flat out making things up.  That, alas, we’ve come to expect.

But what responsibility do journalists have when they know someone is misstating the facts?  I think they need to – at the very least – challenge liars or even folks who unintentionally state the wrong facts. 

We see a prime example of that with The Washington Post’s Mike Shear and Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Canto.  Shear is a good reporter, and I don’t think he has a bias, at least not one that regularly comes through in his reporting.  But I can’t understand why he – and he is not alone on this; he’s just a recent example –allows Cantor to make a knowingly false statement in a story last Sunday.

"Remember the promises? They promised you that if you paid for their stimulus, jobs would be created immediately," Cantor said. "In fact, they said that unemployment would stay under 8 percent. Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over 10 percent. They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved."

When I read this, I knew Cantor was not truthful.  The administration hadn’t said it would stay below 8 percent; it was 8.5 percent.  Is that a relatively small difference?  You be the judge.  But it was clearly inaccurate and Shear knew it. 

Why do I know he knew it?  Here is Shear writing today.

Obama’s team had predicted that the stimulus package would keep unemployment to a peak of about 8.5 percent, but the rate soared to 9.5 percent last month….

If Shear know Cantor was misstating the fact, why did he use the lie in his Sunday story?

I have objections to journalists reporting some positions that are not clearly defensible.  One is the myth that “small businesses” create most of the jobs in this country.  The other myth is that higher tax rates on incomes of more than $250,000 impact small business people the most because their profits are  reported to the IRS on their individual tax returns, when in fact less that two percent of small business owners make over $250,000. Moreover, of the 600,000+ small business making over $250,000 (which includes companies as large as 500 employees) many of them are sole proprietorships that have no employees (lawyers, accountants, consultants, etc.); hence a greater tax on them doesn’t cost jobs.

But when a politician misstates a fact of who said what when, the role of a reporter is to say “that’s not true,” and either point that out in the article or refuse to report the misstatement.

Gibbs is right, but that probably won’t change anything.

Newsflash: Candidates Raise Money

Date: July 15, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Media Criticism, Virginia Governor's Race 09, Washington Post

In another waste of newsprint, The Washington Post reports this morning that Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell have raised money for the gubernatorial campaigns.  Wow!

Among the insights we get:

The Deeds campaign said a surge in donations was to be expected after a divisive primary as party loyalists came together behind their nominee.

…With just one other governor’s race this year, in New Jersey, Virginia’s election will attract attention and money from both national parties. It will be viewed as a measure of President Obama’s popularity

…"It’s an important race," said Mame Reiley, who was Democrat Brian Moran’s campaign chairwoman in the primary. "It’s an indicator of things to come on the federal level."

…"This race is about Virginia," Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold said. "It’s about how we get to work and how our kids are doing in school."

No news here.  But hey, it was easy to report, easy to fill up the space in the Metro section.

If neither candidate has reported anything unusual about how much money he raised, and we’re still nearly four months out from the election, and money didn’t seem to matter in the Democratic primary, couldn’t this report been made in a small box charting how much was raise and is on hand?

So far, we have had at least three Post reporters – Helderman, Kumar and Gardner — on Virginia’s governor’s race.  So far, none had brought us any insight or elucidated key issues in the race.

Measuring Productivity

Date: July 13, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Economic Policy, Media Criticism, Washington Post

I’m sure there are many ways of measuring productivity.  The economists have one definition.  It is nebulous if you try to fashion a yardstick to measure it.  My wife has another.  She uses what I call the humping factor, as in “The trash men who jump off the back of the truck, run to the trash can, dump your refuse in the truck, send the can hurling back to the curb and then run to the next can, those guys are productive.”  It may be said that those guys are humping it. 

Then again, there is the Tax Foundation’s definition of productive.  It apparently means anyone who’s rich. Asked to comment by Lori Montgomery, a Washington Post reporter, on the taxes Democrats are considering to pay for health care reform, a senior fellow, Robert Carroll, of the Tax Foundation, said it’s not the poor schleps who toss your trash can around.

"One has to decide whether the health-care reform package they’re talking about is worth imposing such high tax rates on the most productive members of society," Carroll said.

What makes them productive, he doesn’t say, and apparently Montgomery never asked.  She just let him make the assertion that rich people are the most productive.  Which means the economy lost a great leader when Michael Jackson died.

It also means stenography is alive and well at The Post.

But let me find lemonade in this lemon of a story.  Montgomery didn’t identify the Tax Foundation as “liberal” or “conservative,” as is often the case when quoting sources that represent an organization.  Thanks for that. 

So I get to guess whether this comment is colored by a ideological prejudice.  That’s fine.  I just wish I had some way of evaluating whether his statement is correct.  Ms. Montgomery could have helped me here instead of just recording his comment.

No News! Read It Here First!

Date: July 13, 2009
Author: Bob Griendling
Categories: Media Criticism, Virginia Governor's Race 09, Washington Post

If Washington Post executives want to revive their flagging fortunes, they don’t need salons.  They need stories.  So it’s disheartening to see them waster valuable newsprint on a non-story.

Sure Washington is the ultimate politcal insider town.  Many folks here love to read about the politics of campaigns, how they’re waged and stategies employed.  But are there enough such readers to sustain a general interest newspaper, even in Washington, DC?

Apparently, editors at The Post seem to think so.  How else to explain the fornt page, above the fold story about the inaction in the Virginia’s governor’s race.

To a degree rarely seen in state politics, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and Republican Robert F. McDonnell have spent the early summer hunkered down, amassing resources and plotting strategy for what is expected to be a fierce clash of styles and ideas. They are girding for a campaign that is viewed as a bellwether of President Obama’s sway with voters and a first test of the issues that Republicans hope will revive their party.

And yet, Deeds has held only a handful of events since his June primary victory, and McDonnell is going on vacation. Television and radio airwaves have fallen silent.

There is absolutely no news here except that the campagins are not gneerating news.  So why then write about it, in the middle of the summer when jouirnalists will tell you many people are not paying attention to the race yet?  I’m not even sure the politcal cognescenti care.  As of this morning, the story has generated a paltry 19 comments on the Post’s web site.  And if they don’t care about this story, why should the average voter/newspaper reader care?

I’ve written before about The Post’s obsession with politcal strategy as opposed to issues.  To be fair, The Post (that, my frequent criticism notwithstanding, is still one great newspaper) can give us many stories of substance.  This morning’s A1 story about prisons is one good example.   In fact, it would have been helpful for the reporter of this story to team up with Anita Kumar covering the Virginia gubernatorial or attorney general races to look at the issue from the Commonwealth’s perspective, especially as it seems to not be following the progressive direction of many state prison systems.

Instead of wasting newspaper real estate on something few people care about and offers no news of substance, why not pick an issue, examine it from a voter’s perspective, and write about it.  If The Post doesn’t write about things people care about, it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re losing readers.