In all the mostly good and necessary discussion about what Kerry did wrong and what the Democrats should do in the future, one simple thing is getting short shrift. Republicans understand one simple thing about how the media environment has changed much better than Democrats. The single biggest factor in the success of any attack is how many times you repeat it. And I don't mean something general like catch-phrases or slogans or anything like that. I mean a simple, direct smear. It sounds like I'm saying the usual trite, Begala-like "stick to one angle of attack," but I'm not. It's far more specific than that, and it's a direct consequence of today's media environment
Let's take two competing examples from the campaign.
First, there's the "I voted for it before I voted against it." Bush and Co. repeated this thing at nearly every appearance for the rest of the campaign. Even after Kerry explained it (which took forever, btw), they still kept repeating it. Who cares if Kerry explained it? The media will just report what is said, and even if they put in something mealy-mouthed like "Kerry has explained that he voted for a competing version of the bill," it still sounds bad. The candidate sound-bite will ALWAYS be bolder and more memorable than the media context. And it will sink in with the electorate if you repeat it often enough.
In contrast, Bush uttered the single stupidest comment of the entire campaign: "I don't think you can win it." He just flat-out said he didn't think the US can win the War on TerrorTM. His message people came up with the entire concept, and he undermines it by being all rational and shit about "making it less acceptable in parts of the world" and other statements that are actually true, but counter to his entire framing. Sure, he and his people backed off, but who the hell cares? He said it. And the Democrats did little but whine that the media didn't make a bigger deal of it. Wait, that's not entirely fair to the Kerry people. They did run an ad with the statement repeated by a narrator (but didn't show Dubya saying it). And I saw a few mentions of it here and there. But that's nothing. One ad? Pah. Kerry should have put it in almost every freaking speech he ever gave. He could've used it to frame almost any attack on anything the President ever did. Follow up an attack on his record with "no wonder the President doesn't even think we can win this war." Attack Tora Bora then bring up the quote. Surrogates should've brought up the quote in any interview. Talking about Dubya's business history? Wonder aloud if he admitted defeat in the middle of deals. Hell, an interviewer asks Kerry's daughter how her dad would lead the country, she should've said, "Well, unlike President Bush, he knows we can win."
The point is people don't get their news in the same way anymore. There's so much information flowing over them and they're are such passive recipients of that information, there is almost zero chance they'll process something the first couple times they hear it. And they're so conditioned to question everything anyway, they won't believe it even if they do. But if you repeat it over and over and over, it becomes practically part of the subconcious. They should be lying asleep mouthing, "Bush thinks we can't win. Bush thinks we can't win."
Now, this goes along with what Begala has said about the Kerry campaign failing to settle on one angle of attack. But it's far more specific than that. You have to settle on a very few phrases of your opponent to hammer. Usually, it's not too hard to pick it out. The "can't win" one was obvious. The Snow "job-loss myth" one was another. Statements so stupid, so out-of-touch, they make you wince the first time you hear them.
Democrats need to do that now. They need to start picking out a few things at a time and spend a month hammering on that in almost any context. Sure, there are almost daily outrages. But, it doesn't matter if you can't get any of them to sink in. So, pick something ("Republicans even want politicians sniffing around your tax returns!") and go with it for a month. Then, when the news obviously turns, pick something else. Hammer. Repeat. Hammer. Repeat. And they should pick out a couple of Republicans and start to pound them endlessly (hello, Tom Delay). Make things specific, make them personal, and repeat them in any context you can.