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Can Dems save themselves by controlling media narrative this fall?

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A few days ago, Jim Geraghty posted a piece on his last exchange with Obi-Wan, his “political mentor who appeared in the closing months of the 2004 election, an individual who had been involved in the highest levels of GOP politics for longer than [he has] been alive.”  This is one of those pieces which got stuck in my proverbial craw.

So, I recommend you just read the whole thing.

Let me just highlight some things that struck me, notably Obi-Wan’s advice to pay attention to ABC to get the White House line, given George Stephanopoulos’ close association with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:

 So keep an eye on ABC, especially Stephanopoulos and also First Read and Politico — they’re usually the first-wave transmitters of the White House line. Believe me, they’ve already got a pollster or two who’s ready to bend some numbers and journalists ready to write about the “sudden Democratic surge.”

Not just that, Democrats are going to try to define a narrative.  He advises Republicans to be prepared:

First, predict it. Just tell the people that the White House and Democrats will try and control the media dynamic and narrative. This is what they do. They don’t really know how to govern for the public good; if they could do that, they would be in better shape. What they do know to do is use media events to hold onto power, to go on television and blab.

Second, Republicans ought to be using the words “October Surprise” endlessly. Hold a contest to see who comes up with the most creative suggestion for what the Dems might do.

Emphasis added.

So, my question is this, with the rise of the Tea Parties and the new media and the growing popular disgust with big government, will Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media be able to control the narrative this fall and thus save their party’s control of Congress?

Comments

  3. Of the mainstream constituency, there’s enough who ‘cherry-pick’ morning shows, Hollywood entertainment updates and primetime programming to still be in plenty contact with ‘reporting’, opinions, innuendo and sympathetic storylines of the LibLeft/Hollywood/Obammy bunch.

  4. This is the time of the election cycle when the MSM media usually bemoan the fact that not enough is being said about THE ISSUES. Too many political pot shots, fringe issues etc. This year, all the issues anyone cares about….all favor the Republicans, so the liberal Dems and the media are stuck. All they can talk about is racism, nazism, fringe right candidates. Well who’s more fringe than Mr Green in S Carolina. hehe. When the media talks about some odd Republican candidates, no one is mentioning Al Greene or the “vet” Blumenthal. I aways look for dirty tricks from the Dems and the media. This year with so many patriots energized, I hope it doesn’t matter. I mean the last two weeks the MSM shows are all about, “OMG, his poll ratings are so low, what must the Democrats do to avoid a massacre? ” What center media does that? GP should do a pool on our predictions.
    MINE
    Republicans
    House +76
    Senate +9
    9/5/10

  7. Democrats will certainly try to control the narrative, and the Ministry of Truth (aka the Mainstream media) will do everything in their power to help them.

    The Democrat machine will be fighting on ALL fronts like never before, not only to prevent their agenda from being repealed, but also because they just spent the last year cheating on the Census so that they could benefit from it and redraw districts across the country to THEIR benefit, and if they lose this election at the gubernatorial and legislative level, Republicans will be the ones to benefit from redistricting.

    I fully expect that some media outlets are already holding onto stories they believe will be harmful to Republicans so they can go to press when they believe it will have maximum impact.

    I fully expect that unfavorable news about Democrats or their performance will be ignored or swept under the rug as quickly as possible.

    I fully expect that right now, union thugs and the new incarnations of ACORN are busily registering dead, fictional and multiple voters so that Democrat poll workers in heavily democrat counties can “find” previously uncounted ballots when they lose elections by narrow enough margins.

    Democrats are ALREADY abusing the courts, and will continue to do so to try to stop or slow completely legal, but effective campaign behaviors by Republicans.

    Democrats have ALREADY worked to prevent military ballots from being counted.

    Democrats have ALREADY ignored their legally mandated duty to purge voter rolls of dead and otherwise ineligible voters so that it will be easier for them to stuff the ballot boxes.

    Unions will be using tens of millions of YOUR tax dollars that Democrats gave them to protect Dems and smear Republicans — as will all the other Democrat special interests.

    Union thugs will be out, as will black panther thugs, attacking voters, intimidating voters, slashing the tires of Republican GOTV vans, and all the other things Democrat thugs have been convicted of before, like never before, knowing that the Obama “Justice” Department will not prosecute, and will in fact protect them as it has already done.

    Democrats army of lawyers will be sicced on the American people, threatening voters, donors, and media outlets with legal action for anyone who dares oppose the Democrat machine…as they have done before.

    And on and on and on….

    Democrats are going to pull every dirty trick they can think of like never before this election…to protect their seats, to protect themselves from investigation, to protect their agenda from being repealed or blocked, and to desperately make sure that they and not Republicans benefit from reapportionment.

    its gonna be diiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrty!

  9. LORI – You are correct, but do not underestimate the power of every local TV station, local newspapers and radio programs. There are thousands of each in the country, and the collective power is awesome – and MOST of them take their marching orders from New York. Here in Atlanta the Journal & Constitution is a liberal rag – with a declining circulation – but every morning thousands buy the paper, read the headlines and believe all as fact. They are in essence “mind numb robots.”

    Think of all the people that get ALL their news and thinking from this massive liberal biased local media. In fact, just look at the numbers for your NBCABCCBS prime time viewership – cellectively less than 10 million a night watch it in a country of over 300 million – yet they seem to set the agenda and control the narrative.

    I have heard several of the conservative talk shows devote some programming to callers with their opinion of what the October surprise will be. Some silly comments, some scary ones, and some thoughtful opinions as well

    As pointed out above, it will be very dirty and there will be more than one surprise. My guess is Obama and the Democraps will try to paint the Republicans into a corner about taxes and extending the Bush tax cuts. If Repubs go one way they will be attacked, if they say no they will be vilified – the attempt will be a lose/lose scenario for them(Oh where is Captain Kirk when you need him??)

    All we can do is try to control that which we can. I have a direct impact on 7 voters – you may have more – but if we ALL impress upon those that we have some influence over, then a November victory is very possible. The polls certainly are indicating up to now.

    If we don’t get the victroy, then I am afraid the road to European socialism is not stoppable and the eventual default of our debt is inevitable!!!!!!!!

  10. Republicans do not have the Democrats on the run. The TEA Party and citizens who care about the Constitution and America have the Democrats on the run. The energy if for fundamental restoration. The Republicans will screw this up if given half a chance. The Democrats will keep providing Grayson and Stark sideshows to keep the angry citizens focused.

    No doubt that the Democrats are scheming away at how to get the dead to vote multiple times and arrange votes for drugs and loading up the absentee ballots from the senile.

    But the Obamanauts are trying to pilot the Maid of the Mist up and over Niagra Falls. Their “October Surprise” is flooding the airwaves with TARP and Stimulus funded lies and conceits. But the their “base” has lost that magic feeling. The Messiah has be uncloaked and he a 98 pound weakling.

  11. CBS News: White House in Panic Mode Over Fall Elections.

    How’s that Long, Long Decade of Democrat Dominance working out for you guys?

    And as Heliotrope points out, Republicans aren’t gaining because they followed the advice of “experts,” moderated, and found ways to go along with Democrat agenda. The ones that are thriving are the ones who are vocally opposing the Democrat Agenda.

    Even Lindsey Graham was recently seen begging the Tea Parties to support him, and touting his conservative record… not his attempts to compromise with the Dramacrats on Amnesty and Cap and Trade.

  12. President Obama & the other Obama Democrat lost control of the narrative last April, 2009, when Obama pushed his ObamaCare monster, but the people pushed back! The Tea Party came out of nowhere & remains an emigma to the MSM, the Obama Democrats, & some RINO Republicans. We the people keep pushing back on different fronts, yet the Obama Democrats arrogantly seem to believe it is coming from Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, & Glenn Beck:

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/09/05/obama-campaign-manager-limbaugh-beck-and-palin-problem-gop

    The Democrats are like cockroaches scrambling for cover as the lights come on.

  13. They’ll do as they’ve been doing all along, give the MSM their one-sided stories, which they’ll print without question, and both will malign anyone who says anything to the contrary.

    And, for their own constituents, it will continue to work. That’s why anyone who opposes them must actually get off their duffs and DO something.

  15. It’s going to take more than 2 years to undo 8 years of repug mismanagement and warmongering. I hope the American electorate can remember that come November. But even if the house and the senate are lost, just remember that population demographics will bury the GOP if they continue in their hateful corporatist ways. Time is a harsh mistress for those who cannot let go of the past.

  16. But even if the house and the senate are lost, just remember that population demographics will bury the GOP if they continue in their hateful corporatist ways.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that’s some four-star racism right there from white liberal male Steve.

    Because Steve “knows”, being a good Obama Party plantation owner and one of the chosen class based on his skin color and gender, that all black people, all Hispanic people, all females, and all gay and lesbian people act, think, and vote exactly the same way as ordered by their Obama Party massas.

  19. But even if the house and the senate are lost, just remember that population demographics will bury the GOP if they continue in their hateful corporatist ways.

    That’s some fine whistling-past-the-graveyard, steve.

    “But even if the GOP WINS, and BIG, just remember that they will still lose if they continue being no better than the Democrats.” (Democrats being hateful corporate-socialists)

    That is what you have really said, steve. And isn’t it also just what conservatives on this blog are saying? (or Independents like myself) Isn’t it, in fact, a mere truism?