Shadows

President Obama is getting beat up by shadows.

In Arkansas, the latest results, with about a quarter of precincts reporting, shows Obama beating Tennessee lawyer John Wolfe by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent …

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Obama is actually losing full counties to “Uncommitted.” Actually, Obama lost more than 40 counties across the state to Uncommitted…. It literally means that people are actively voting for nobody.

Mr. Nobody was having a pretty good night with Colin Powell too. The AP says “Former Secretary of State Colin Powell declined Tuesday to renew the presidential endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, saying he wasn’t ready “to throw my weight behind someone” at this time.”

It’s almost like people are going out of their way to make sure they meet nobody but nobodies. Barney Frank “says President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are welcome at his July wedding, provided they leave their Secret Service detail at home.” The red carpet, the sirens, the men in black. That’s kind of lost its appeal.

“I don’t want to be accused of having shut down the entire region for a five mile radius on a holiday weekend,” he said. “I don’t want my guests going through a magnetometer.”

National Public Radio wonders where all the enthusiasm has gone. Remember the pledge to absolutely destroy Scott Walker in Wisconsin for attempting to dismantle public sector unions? The Avengers have taken a holiday. Today the cry is “where’s The DNC In Wisconsin?” because the Hulk ain’t showing.

Political analysts on the right and the left agree that the Wisconsin recall race between Republican Governor Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tom Barrett is … is second only to the presidential race in importance …

While unions have been delivering resources for grassroots mobilization, there has not been an equivalent level of engagement by national Democratic Party operatives. Callers to Ed Schultz’s national radio show, a broadcast center of the discussion about the state-based struggles by unions and defenders of public services and public education, were furious with the DNC.

They aren’t just griping, however.

Brookfield, Wisconsin, activist Mary Magnuson went to MoveOn.org’s member-driven petition site — www.SignOn.org — with a note that read: “As a Wisconsin progressive working day and night for the recall of Scott Walker, I’m shocked: The Democratic National Committee still isn’t giving financial support to the recall fight in Wisconsin.

Maybe there’s no money because the President can hardly raise enough money for his own campaign. New York Times says that “President Obama’s once-commanding fund-raising advantage is declining as major Republican donors rally for Mitt Romney, conservative “super PACs” far outpace their liberal counterparts and tax-exempt issue-advocacy groups swarm the political landscape.” That explains the Republican surge of cash, but where are the Democrats? Well if the President can’t fund himself there is not much hope that there will be any left over for the Democrats in Wisconsin.

But maybe it’s not Mitt Romney who is taking President Obama to the woodshed. After all if John Wolfe and Uncommitted can muster a 40%+ showing against an incumbent in his own party, primary then Romney’s current lead is not much more impressive than the simple dumb luck of standing there and watching the President self-destruct. Remarking on the debacle which saw his own spokesman trashing his campaign points, Chris Matthews said that “a couple more Sundays like this by the way we’re going, the President won’t make it past August.”

The problem is the President’s record which makes it hard, but not impossible to promote him. One common technique for selling a bad product is adopting an approach that essentially offers them something else. “According to Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch, when a product or service becomes a tough sell, it’s because customers have obvious objections to it. The goal, therefore, should be ‘to frame an offer to get rid of the objection.'” Sell the sizzle when you can’t sell the sausage.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always the hard close. Insist on your candidate by working on guilt, greed or credulity. Whatever you do, don’t stop until you are actually and almost physically thrown out.

If you have determined that you have nothing to lose and have preferably consulted with either your sales manager or a tenured, successful sales professional, it’s time to get into the “hard close” state of mind. Before the first word comes out of your mouth, you need to decide that you will not stop closing until you are either asked to leave, your prospect becomes visibly angry or you hear at least 5 customer declinations. Most rookie sales professionals and unsuccessful reps stop closing after the first “no” they hear from their customers. The fact is that most sales require getting past 3 “no’s, and several take a few more. Though there is no golden rule, stopping your closing attempts after 5 “no’s” is a good rule of thumb. Any more and you risk not only getting the customer very angry but also having them harm your reputation in their networking circles. Try to remember the saying, “Drive to five, then drive away.”

And they won’t stop. Not while there’s a channel or ad space they can fill. In politics as in nowhere else, running a Gentleman John McCain campaign gets you nowhere. And for those who wondered where the title of the post comes in …