This is the momentus day that everyone on DU has long been awaiting...

[mtnsnake]

.........the much anticipated return of mtnsnake..... :smoke:

Now that that's out of the way, let me say this:

After watching President Obama handle himself so well during his campaign whenever some shithead teabagger Republican would attack him, I'm absolutely stunned at his lack of response to all the bullshit that they and the media have been spreading about him during the first two years of his Presidency. When it comes to spreading misconceptions about the other side, the lying Republicans have absolutely owned us.

Obama is incredibly intelligent, gifted, and talented, and there is still a decent chance that he could become a great 2-term president. But he can no longer ignore the fact that he is grossly losing the war of soundbites.

No matter how busy he is, President Obama...and all Democrats for that matter...really do need to start getting in the faces of Republicans in such a forceful manner that Average Joe Blow will soon figure it out that Republicans are the problem and not the solution. This nice-guy shit and turning the other cheek just does not work when you're going up against liars and thieves, ie Teabaggers and Republicans. The bad guys will never stop lying about us until our own talking heads stand up to them and make them stop this nonsense. Obama and company need to start giving it back to them, only ten times over.

It's all about perception, and the perception needs to change starting yesterday, or we're fucked!

[babylonsister]

1. Well, well, well...

like a bad penny you are! How ARE you? Long time, no see. I coulda even missed you a bit. And you're right, the Dems and this admin need to hone their pr skills.

:hi:

[ProSense]

2. So you came back because

you're sensing doom?

Welcome back.

"Obama is incredibly intelligent, gifted, and talented, and there is still a decent chance that he could become a great 2-term president. But he can no longer ignore the fact that he is grossly losing the war of soundbites. "

May I offer a different perspective or two?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. I'd like to see the segment KO did on Obama being a muslim

(not that I would even blink if he were) aired on Fox as a commercial. I would like to see it in the top ten on Youtube, I would like to see a commercial made out of Bush admitting to Matt Lauer that he owned the tarp program and that 50 percent of the American people who believe BO is the culprit ARE WRONG. That's what I would like to see, the money is there for such endeavors but apparently no one sees the pros of getting it done.

[Love Bug]

4. It's easy to spread misinformation when you have a complicit press!

I'm just sayin'.

[Doctor_J]

5. It's not the soundbite war

It's the right-wing media control war. If we are going to salvage the country, something really drastic has to happen to the fascists who run and appear in Big Media. And I mean we have to think really, really big.

That said, the WH could help by having Gibbs do a "Big Media Lie/outrage Of The Day", every fucking day. O and his peeps are too godamned nice, and make it hard to fight back when they never do.

[Autumn]

6. Welcome back

you were missed.

[CrispyQ]

7. George Lakoff has been writing about the importance of framing for years.

In his book "Moral Politics" he states that dems believe they can sway people to their point of view with facts & truth. Hell, I used to think that too! However, Lakoff tells that many people are emotionally attached to their beliefs & facts have very little power. A ten second sound bite that validates their belief, regardless if it's based on truth or not, will have more sway on them, than facts. You have to frame the debate in a way that breaks through the emotion & gets them to view issues from a different perspective.

There have been studies that show (sorry, no links) that when people are asked about social justice issues in a way that doesn't attach any kind of label to them, like conservative/liberal, or left/right, the majority of people support liberal policies & programs.

Demonizing the word 'liberal' was one of the most successful right-wing campaigns! Instead of speaking out for liberal values & policies, the dems distanced themselves from that word & started to call themselves progressives. And now 'progressive' is on the chopping block. As the dems capitulated to the malignment of the word liberal, so too, have they abandoned their liberal values.

[calimary]

10. If our Dems paid even half as much attention to people like George Lakoff as the bad guys do

with people like frank luntz, our battered party would NOT be in the position it's in today.

It IS the framing. It IS the perception.

[babylonsister]

8. PS Did you get early parole?

:rofl:

[mtnsnake]

11. heck no

they kicked me out :shrug:

[kestrel91316]

9. You were gone?

[TwilightGardener]

12. Thought it smelled funny in here this morning.

Welcome back.

[FrenchieCat]

13. To be honest, we are our own talking heads.....

but the problem is that many of us are talking in unison with the Republicans
against this President......so that hasn't been helpful--to us any way.

It ain't about messaging though....it's about fighting a lop-sided fight with the
Right and Mainstream media, and the Left being so busy piling on, they may have failed
to notice or chose not to....that mostly no one is fighting for this President,
no matter what the issue is.

So welcome back, but I just want to make sure that your conclusion about what the problem
is doesn't leave out the two main ingredients that should be included in your analysis;
the way Much of the Left pummels the President their ownselves, thereby not having the
time ever to mention any positive about some of what this President is doing....

And the fact that the media doesn't give a shit about the messenging, cause they have
their own message, and are much more relentless at getting their audience to believe whatever
it is that the media wants them to believe, which is normally right wing talking points and ideology.

Here's an example - Yesterday, I was standing in line at my Grocery store. On the magazine
rack, at eye level, there was the People Magazine with one of the boxes on the cover being
a pic of Sarah Palin and her hubby, for the lead in on the story... "Inside our marriage"

and Next to that was the Oprah "favorite things" holiday edition of the "O" Magazine,
and right above it was this blazing headline which belonged to the Globe or the Enquirer
"Congress's Secret investigation on Obama's Birth Certificate" with an ugly Pic of our President
grimacing. As mentioned, that rag was staggered directly behind the Oprah Magazine....so that only the top of was showing, which is where they intentionally featured the OBama "Secret Investigation" headline tease. So when one looked at Oprah.....one couldn't help but see that story as well.

In otherwords.....messaging and defending ain't so much the problem, cause not any messaging in the whole world would have been able to keep that whole positioning thingie at the Local Safeway from being undone.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. You waited all that time just to misspell "momentous?"

nyuk.

[TwilightGardener]

15. LOL--I was just about to add that. Kind of diminishes the triumph.

[dionysus]

16. hey there.. mtnsnake... you know who missed you while you were gone?

Brewer and Shipley!

one toke over the line sweet mtnsnake, one toke over the line
standingdowntown at the railway stattion, one toke over the line...

:hi: