Kos has been doing a great job the last few days in fighting back against the narrative that Barack Obama has had a bad week. Let’s be honest…if he had won he popular vote in Texas, he would have had a much better week. But, including the March 5th primaries, the Wyoming caucus, the final numbers out of California (+4 for Obama), and the latest in the superdelgate wars, Obama has picked up a net 14-delegate gain.
I guess part of what we do is throw facts at the media and hope they’ll relay that information to their readers/viewers. Sometimes they do, but they seem to have no incentive to do anything but urge this race on…and on…and on.
I even have friends in Pennsylvania that are more excited about the attention we’re about to get than they are concerned about the inevitable damage it will do to our nominee…Barack Obama.
It’s not enough to blog!
We have to ACTIVELY reach out to the media. That means going to THEIR Web sites and emailing them, submitting forms, sending rants and raves and story lines in.
Because believe me, like Congress, they know that for every 1 person who writes, there must be a thousand or two who feel the same way but won’t write. If they suddenly get a few hundred emails in one day saying you’re not being fair to Obama, THAT makes a difference.
But believe me, the staff at CNN and MSNBC and other places are not sitting around reading DailyKos. They don’t have time even if they wanted to.
We have to bring our information right to their doorstep. We have to be more activists than bloggers, which doesn’t mean stop blogging or stop sharing. But blogging itself is not quite enough. We have to do MORE.
Each of us should have this page bookmarked and use it often.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111
lisa,
everyone reads daily kos.
In fact, the media reads it more than we do, because they didn’t notice when the site splintered into a dozen or more pieces.
They don’t read it all day, every day. They may look at it once or twice, and miss 90% of the stories that day.
It’s not enough.
I look at it a lot, and I can’t keep up with all the stories. I know what it’s like to be writing and under deadline. You just can’t afford to spend time there. So you’re going to miss most of it.
Doonesbury did a joke back during the first invasion of Iraq about the US military getting its intelligence from CNN. Now CNN is getting its news from blogs. Next, I’m sure, will be blogs getting their content from AIs that attempt to predict the important events of the day in order to save their owners time and effort.
Oh – don’t get me wrong. Newspeople read blogs. I just don’t think they read all the stories of the day, and I just caution us thinking we’ve done our part of it post but don’t do some outreach to make sure the really important stories get heard.
When all the major blogs start talking about the same thing, it definitely gets attention. When everyone has a different story of the day, they’re not all going to be featured.
Yep, that’s what the media wants and they’ll be thrilled with a brokered convention and ecstatic if Clinton steals the nomination and have orgasms if there are riots in the streets. They’ll solemnly inform their viewers that the Democratic Party has, once again, destroyed itself. Mad-hatter McCain will look steady and reliable by comparison.
I had to stop and write a letter to Boxer. I’m so upset that she has endorsed Clinton over Obama. Here’s what I just sent her:
She said she was only voting for Clinton at the convention because CA went to Clinton. She has not made an endorsement of support:
I know it sucks, but we can’t be for John Lewis switching to Obama since GA went for him and get mad at Boxer. In fact, I’d be a little disappointed if Kennedy and Kerry didn’t vote for Clinton, since MA went for her.
I’m disappointed because she’s a progressive who knows better and should have endorsed sooner. That or waited to see who was winning the vote overall.
I don’t begrudge any superdelegate their voting contrary to their state if they endorsed before Super Tuesday, as the Kennedys did.
I meant, if they endorsed before their state voted.
hey fabooj
“I know it sucks, but we can’t be for John Lewis switching to Obama since GA went for him and get mad at Boxer. In fact, I’d be a little disappointed if Kennedy and Kerry didn’t vote for Clinton, since MA went for her.”
By Clinton’s own words and that of her senior campaign advisers;
‘even elected delegates are not pledged and can vote for the nominee as they so choose..’
Matt: The Cost of Egotism
Can she be shown the exit doors?
Jeez, that’s too bad. But isn’t her son or daughter married into the Clinton family?
Is Boxer trying to set the standard that the Clinton campaign will start to insist on?: all superdelegates are morally obligated to vote for the candidate who won their state. How would that then work out for Obama, I wonder? Would Clinton now be ahead if everyone followed Boxer? Boxer is not endorsing Clinton. Hmmm.
Slippery slope, especially for a party that doesn’t have winner take all. This is another Hillary hurdle. Rules change by the moment.
Art Torres didn’t announce for either candidate yet, but said he wanted the primaries over soon. If it’s over soon, Hillary loses.
After Mississippi is over, there are like 6 weeks until PA votes. Some are suggesting that, rather than spend that whole time hopelessly campaigning only in PA, that Obama should go on an international tour full of photo ops of screaming crowds and visiting important world leaders, making speeches about peace and trade, etc. The Field has written a really interesting post on the subject. Sounds like a great idea, if planned properly. He talks about how making certain stops could particularly interest the different nationalities represented in PA as well. Gotta go to Germany, Rome, Ireland (Obama’s even got some Irish blood in him) and of course an Asian stop would be helpful. And never forget Israel right around the time McCain shows up there for a visit. Definitely worth the read
.
I just finished reading all of the excellent comments on that post over at The Field. One of them pointed to this YouTube of an Irish news report about Obama’s “ancestral hometown of Moneygall.”
Thanks – that was an interesting link – the contrast between Obama meeting and greeting enthusiastic international crowds and Bush in his bubble would be very good – reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s excursions.
I still think that the longer this goes on, the more McCain is going to have to reach into his pockets to get any matching airtime. The other thing he’s going to have to do is use up publicity stunts that would be better saved till closer to the election, just to get enough exposure.
Whichever democrat comes out on top they’ll have had several weeks extra free publicity with the republicans driven into the background. Todays scandal has been punted out to give some level of exposure, but it could have been saved till a lot closer to the elections to be just one in many, and provide an impression of an avelanche of problems for the dems. This way each problem gets isolated and delt with and forgotten about by the time the election comes.
The bullets are having to be used up way ahead of the battle.