Promoted from the diaries. Now, not everyone is gonna want to do this, or anything quite like it -- but it's a great example of how everyone needs to do what it takes to win hearts and minds and GOTV in these last few days. Let a million flowers bloom and let your imagination run wild -- with ideas like this and hard work, we're gonna win. --Trapper.
The Hotline reported this week on a new study about the most effective last-minute campaign strategies in saturated information markets. Four specific techniques were suggested, including: "producing messages that get noticed because of unusual features or size."
To that end, I offer up the following proposal to those in the Daily Kos community who are looking for a way to help build momentum, sway emotions, and reach thousands of voters in the final days before the election.
Here's the basic idea: If you own a pickup truck; if you can borrow one from a friend; or if you can spare $40-60 to rent one, set aside next Saturday and/or Sunday. Attach three Kerry/Edwards signs to your pickup - two so they sit above the sides of the truck bed (simple assembly details below the fold - I did this yesterday); one on the tailgate. Find some heavily traveled state and local roads with lots of stoplights (traffic is your friend). . . .
Roll down the windows and put on some Springsteen (No Surrender; Born to Run; Badlands; Born in the USA; The Promised Land; etc.) and/or other up-tempo songs (country songs could be particularly helpful in some battlegrounds).
When you take a break to eat, park your truck near the entrance to a big shopping center, eat in back, and hand out Kerry/Edwards stuff to people who come by. (In just the short time I was attaching my signs in the Home Depot parking lot yesterday, several people came by to ask for Kerry/Edwards buttons, stickers, and signs.)
DKos has over 300,000 readers. If just 100 committed to a single day for this effort next weekend, we could reach nearly a million people in a unique way. (Based on my experience yesterday, you can easily average 20 "sign views" a minute if you stick to crowded roads and shopping centers. 20 views x 60 minutes x 8 hours x 100 trucks = 960,000 sign views).
Okay, that's my proposal. A little odd - some would say silly. But based on the reaction I got yesterday in Northern Virginia (one guy jumped out of his car at a stop light to ask for a sign; another woman called across three lanes of traffic just to yell thank you; many people honked their horns and gave the thumbs up or pumped their arms), I think it's worth the effort. Plus, it's not a bad way to spend a day.
So let's go beat Karl Rove at his own game. Let's help build momentum and send the message that there is a groundswell of support in the country for a new direction, a stronger America, and a better future for workers, families, and our children. (Assembly instructions below the fold.)
Assembly instructions: Go to your local Kerry HQ and get five Kerry/Edwards "A Stronger America" rally signs. Head to your local Home Depot, buy four four-foot "picket-sign" slats of wood (98 cents each) and a roll of duct tape. Tape one of the five signs to your tailgate. With the remaining four signs, you're really making two two-sided signs, one for each side of the truck bed. Start by stapling one end of a rally sign to top half of a slat, then staple the other end to another slat, turn the sign over, and attach a second rally sign to the other side. Then use duct tape to attach the bottom portion of the two slats to inside of your truck bed so the sign is displayed just behind and perpendicular to the cab. (You can eliminate the need for slat assembly by using lawn signs, which already have metal "slats" that could be taped to the inside of the truck bed, but the lawn signs are a bit smaller than the rally signs and are more busy because they have the web address.)
Alternatively, you could just tape your signs to the side of your truck, but I think they stand out much more when they are sitting a few inches above the truck bed, flapping a bit in the wind. Speaking of flapping, I'd try to keep it at 35 MPH or below, although I hit 45 a couple of times and my signs survived.
If you can get something slightly bigger and more sturdy than the rally signs (for example, a vinyl banner), go for it. I was doing it on short notice and rally signs were the best I could do.
One note - I would not recommend going over-the-top with signs and making it look like a campaign truck. The idea is that regular Americans are making the extra effort to support Kerry; not that the campaign is sending out campaign trucks. I even wondered if my three signs were too many.