AMERICABLOG: If the public is right, then Obama is a socialist Muslim from Africa

[FourScore]

If the public is right, then Obama is a socialist Muslim from Africa
by John Aravosis (DC) on 11/04/2010 11:46:00 AM

Just because people believe something, doesn't make it so. The challenge for Democrats following the election debacle isn't polling the public on what it wants, and then doing it. It's figuring out why the public believes what it believes, and then acting accordingly.

For example, far too many Americans believe Obama to be a Muslim who wasn't born in America. Just because they believe it, doesn't make it so. The solution isn't for Obama to publicly convert to Christianity and renounce his "Kenyan citizenship." Rather, we need to figure out why too many people still believe that the President isn't an American or a Christian. And the problem is likely one of messaging. GOP messaging, to be exact. They're good at it. Our guys kinda stink. That's why an overwhelming number of Americans still think the stimulus didn't create or save even one job, when we know from CBO that it created or saved 2 to 4 million of them.

Same goes for the "Obama was too liberal" meme that the GOP keeps spouting. Obama wasn't liberal at all. And we now know (and many of us already knew) that no matter what Obama did, the GOP would still brand him as "liberal." (Just look at the recent comments from the Republicans that Obama never once reached out to the GOP when crafting even a single bill. It's an utter lie. Just look at the health care reform debacle when the President ceded authority, forever, to the Gang of Six. Or climate change, when he invited Lindsay Graham in from the beginning. Or when he cut the stimulus in half, then cut it another $100bn, then gave away 35% of the remainder in useless tax cuts, all in order to woo GOP votes.) No matter what the President did, policy-wise, the GOP claims the opposite, and often convinces the public that it's true.

So no matter how hard Obama tries (hypothetically) to move to the middle (or the right), the GOP will still brand him as a socialist, and they'll likely win. So the solution isn't always to change your policies, it's sometimes (oftentimes with the current crop of Democrats in town) to change your messaging.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/11/if-public-is-right-then-obama-is.html

[CJCRANE]

1. Start by saying "we cut taxes for the middle-class" louder and more times

than the Tea Partiers say "you raised taxes".

If you plant a tree in the forest and no one sees it...then you have to tell them about it.