The biggest mistake I see many make when trying to sell Obama to the independents and liberals and progressives Obama has driven away over the past 2 1/2 years with his bipartisan coddling of and enabling of republicans is to call the prospects stupid, and tell them buying the product is the only way they can stop being stupid, apparently thinking the prospects will immediately reach for their wallets and say "where do I sign"?
Of course, that result only happens in salespeople's dreams - and is the reason 90 percent of people who go into sales never make any money at the job.
There is also a (real life) tried and true technique in sales and marketing that Obama supporters could try: the top sales producers in any industry constantly critique themselves and ask themselves "If I'm not getting the results I want to get, what am I doing that is producing the results I am getting?"
Instead of asking themselves what they are doing to produce the results they are getting (dropping support) - and they are producing those results whether they want to or not - Obama and his supporters are trying to take what they think is the easy route of blaming the voters (their prospects) and treating the voters as if they are stupid.
Most people can easily see through it when they're being conned and they simply hold onto their wallets and walk out of the store. They go looking for someone who will sell them what they want, instead of pitching them on "buy from me because the other guys are selling junk".
People want to hear why they should buy a product, they want to hear what it will do for them. AND they want a demonstration and a history of it doing what it is claimed it will do. People don't buy products simply because the salespeople tell them another product is crap.
Obama could not only save himself but he could probably give himself a larger majority in 2012 - but he can only do that with action - by starting to produce something, anything, progressive that it was expected he would produce but hasn't - and the votes he needs next year would immediately follow.
Obama can have independents and liberals and progressives all across the country rewarding him for results instead of turning their backs on empty promises and one of the largest landslides in history in 2012 with just a few simple moves.
Creating and pushing an actual, real, universal single payer health care bill and rolling back the bailout of the insurance industry for example might do it all by itself, for example.
Although he could probably sew it right up it for himself by also starting torture and war crimes trials for Bush and Cheney, while withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan and breaking up the big Wall Street investment banks and prosecuting some of the people who destroyed the economy, like Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein and Magnetar's Alec Litowitz, while firing Tim Geithner.
He's got a little more than a year, after all. Plenty of time.
Oh, and he might think about putting a stop right now to things like this:
Barack Obama recently issued an executive order imposing a wave of sanctions against Libya, not only freezing Libyan assets, but barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks.
So raise your hand if you knew that the United States has been extending billions of dollars in aid to Qaddafi and to the Central Bank of Libya, through a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. And raise your hand if you knew that, just a week or so after Obama’s executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly issued an order exempting this and other Libyan-owned banks to continue operating without sanction.
More: Why is the Fed Bailing Out Qaddafi?, Matt Taibbi, April 01, 2011
And he might think about putting a stop right now to things like this:
On July 07 Doyle McManus published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Team Obama's victory plan, analyzing Senior White House Adviser (the "brains" behind the president's 2008 campaign) David Plouffe's comments at a breakfast Wednesday, July 6, 2011, organized by Bloomberg news.
McManus reported in that article that Team Obama sees four reasons they expect to win the 2012 election, and Plouffe's first reason seems unbelievably disconnected from reality, unless we assume it is Obama's intention to enable republicans policies and turn the country over to the plutocrats:
First, Plouffe suggested, Obama has an opportunity to improve his standing among independent voters -- many of whom deserted the Democrats in the 2010 midterm election -- by working with Republicans toward bipartisan deficit-reduction measures.
And he might think about putting a stop right now to things like this:
On July 27...
At a press conference held by members of the House Out of Poverty Caucus Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), the second most senior member of the U.S. House, was pointed in his criticism of the White House regarding jobs and cuts to Social Security the President put on the table last week.
“We’ve got to educate the American people at the same time we educate the President of the United States. The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that,” Conyers, who has served in the House since 1965, said. “My response to him is to mass thousands of people in front of the White House to protest this,” Conyers said strongly.
Barack Obama is a smart guy, right? He should be at least half as smart as all those independent and progressives who won't vote for him unless they see results they want to see, right?
It's all on Obama - but if he doesn't produce something, anything, progressive to pull it out in 2012 it will be his own fault. Not the fault of those progressives and independents and liberals whose votes he will not have if he doesn't produce.
He has about a year. I'd suggest he get busy, and that Democrats get busy making it clear to him what it will take to earn the votes he will need in 2012.
....
Now, how can you help him win in 2012, and avoid a republican administration?
First, and most important, remember that fearmongering never worked very well for republicans either, so give up on any idea that selling fear of republicans is going to win support for Obama. All that tactic will do is what it's doing now - drive even more voters into staying home.
Pick an issue or a set of issues. Draw a line. State clearly to Obama that "On election day 2012 you have our votes. Guaranteed. Without question. As long as you do 'THIS' before then."
It then becomes an eyeball to eyeball poker game right down to election day. You must have the determination to not back down out of fear - and it must be made as clear as a club on the head starting NOW to Obama that there will be no backing down, that "THIS" is the price you will charge for your votes. You must also from today onwards completely ignore all fearmongering about the other party, and instead turn that around and use fear of losing to motivate Obama.
You have the power to change things. You also have the power to either use the power you have, or to throw it away.
It's not up to Obama. It's up to you.
It will probably take a million or so people to do this, so you must start today, or nothing will change.
If Obama's worried about losing in 2012 then if he's smart he'll start producing some good progressive results that will be worth being rewarded for with re-election to get back the liberals and progressives and independents who turned the 2008 election in his favor and whom he has driven away with the batsh*t crazy bipartisan coddling of republicans and their policies he's pursued the past 2 1/2 years.
If he's got your vote without having to earn it then he's got no motivation to produce any results.
If your goal is to elect Obama no matter what he does, then by all means make no demands backed up with determination to stand your ground for results.
If your goal is to get "THIS" accomplished (whatever "THIS" is) then what I have outlined above is your only effective process.
Obama is not the problem and never has been the problem.
Your vote is the only leverage you have.
You can use that leverage to produce results, or you can throw away your leverage.