Unity schmunity.
The most important question isn’t “should we fall for the unity offer.
The question to ask is how do we not fall again.
Which leads us to a crucial three words: How to win.
The reason Barack won and John lost had a lot to do with the Republican Party’s inability to take the sting out of a thorny problem; the biased mainstream media.
What would I have done? Glad you asked.
On every billboard in America during the entire campaign, I’d have had messages. I’d have messaged them to death, starting with something like:
Main stream media 6. American values 0.
Or Washington Post 14. Unborn rights 0.
The Surge: a winner. The NY Times: Losers.
The LA Times video: explosive.
The American people’s right: Seeing the explosion.
Newsday expose on Bill Ayers: Never
NY Times attacks on John McCain: Never stop.
Anyway, you get the point.
Among other things, what I’d have done (along with a lot of guerilla marketing) would have been to make a major campaign issue of bias in the media so everybody was aware of it, making it a lot less effective.
Kind of like removing the venom from a poisonous snake so it can’t really hurt you. I’d have zinged SNL till they’d swear they were tazered.
All of which would have made the playing field a lot more even. Of course, it’s not all I’d have busied myself with. But it’s some of the things.
When you spend 28 years as an ad agency Creative Director selling everything from the other white meat, to corona beer to, not just oil, pennzoil, you learn a thing or two.
Sometimes, even when a candidate as strong as Barack Obama is running against you, you can run him ragged till he drops from message madness. “What are they going to hit us with today” I’d have them one day say.
I’d have the brown eyed handsome man not knowing what state in was in, or how many states there are, or why his campaign was in such a sorry state.
To accomplish this, you don’t have to out spend them.
But you better be able to out think them.
