If one were to grade the public relations work by the two political parties, you would have to give the Republicans a near 10. For the Democrats, the number is probably a "2".
Or lower.
Your inability to wage good PR cost your party the election. Now, it's causing you to roll over and accept the president's agenda. And as an American - and a Republican to boot - it really ticks me off that you guys play the game so poorly.
It's killing my country.
By "Public Relations", I mean the ability to deliver a timely message; to "earn" media for your message; and, to deliver it in a fashion that appeals to the targeted audience - voters. It also includes "rapid response" - your ability to knock down the arguments of the other side before they earn media credibility.
Let's take a quick look at how bad you guys are at this game:
ITEM: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a bogus front organization that spread lies about your candidate in the 2004 general election. They should have been blown out of the water as a White House stalking horse the same day they delivered their first salvo back in August. (I personally fed information to the Kerry Campaign to do this - names, connetions, backgrounders - not because I'm a fan of Kerry, but because I'm sick of the lies that my party puts forth to knock down opponents.) Nothing was done; the story gained momentum; and, ultimately, helped defeat your candidate. (When the Kerry Campaign finally did utilize what I had given them, it was too little; too late. The damage had been done.)
ITEM: The president, out of nowhere, declares that his highest legislative priority is "reforming" Social Security, by which he means, basically, destroying it. Your PR guys respond by putting out a bunch of numbers that would befuddle most students in a calculus class without concentrating on the main focus of the GOP attack: this is the opening salvo of a campaign to eliminate (yes, eliminate) entitlements, including RR Retirement, Medicare, and AFDC. (The general thinking in the GOP is that if we can get Social Security "undone", the other programs are low-hanging fruit by comparison.)
ITEM: Nearly $9 Billion dollars of the Iraq CPA authority disappears. The story runs, tops, two days. Nobody on the Democratic side of the aisle hammers home the message; the story is gone within a week.
You have guys like Harry "No Doz" Reid and Nancy "My Next Plastic Surgery Will Entirely Remove My Eyes from their Sockets" Pelosi giving the presidential rebuttal. You have Bob "0 'n 8" Shrum running your presidential campaigns. You have a guy who used to play Stewart Smalley as the keystone of your nascient liberal radio network, whose name, demeanor, and Harvard Education are anathema to most voters outside the five boroughs of New York City and, maybe, San Francisco.
Let's face it: you guys suck at PR. And you don't know how to talk to what the GOP calls "'rdinary 'mericans". So, left with no opposing point of view - or at least one they'll listen to - the GOP controls the message and the agenda. You guys play defense, hoping all the time to just maintain what you've got.
FIGHT DA F_ _K BACK!
The country is depending on you!
- Discipline your party's message. Every Democrat on every talking head program should have been saying "Where's the cash?" for at least two weeks after the CPA audit. You should have gotten your guys in front of every camera that was lit; you should have demanded an investigation and kept hammering it until the Administration caved. You should have had families of soldiers in Iraq saying, "My son can't get body armor (or an up-armored Hum-Vee), but $9 Billion goes missing???"
- Direct your message to the targeted audience. Look: Nancy Pelosi is fine if you're talking to a bunch of upper-class women on the coasts who shop at Bloomingdales. Harry Reid is fine if you're talking to funeral directors. But if you're talking to people in Kentucky or Ohio or Kansas, bring out resources you have that will appeal to them! Evan Bayh would have been great in a rebuttal - he sat it out. During the 2004 campaign, I sent a scathing message to the Kerry folks for putting on some 20-something talking head - who looked like a rock promoter (black t-shirt; black suit; designer glasses) -- who the hell was that guy trying to impress???
- Go on attack. Don't say what the president is saying is wrong; attack him! The message on the Social Security debate should have been "this is the opening salvo of the Administration's plan to dismantle America's social safety net" (which it is); not "he's wrong on his numbers".
- Sharpen your message. I got damn near numb listening to John Kerry's speeches. Everything you guys write is convoluted and lengthy. The American people aren't going to take the time to read it or listen to it; they're too busy working two or more jobs. They'll hear the GOP soundbite from Rush Limbaugh and believe that instead. "Clear Skies", "No Child Left Behind" - that stuff works because people don't read the details. What are the titles for the Democrats' agenda???
Bottom line: you need to fire some of your Ivy League types and hire some political operatives who know how to bloody a few noses in a street fight; some guys who can write good copy; and some guys that grew up outside Democratic strongholds in New York, San Francisco, and other big cities. Hire some state college country boys and girls who work for Coca-Cola.