Next Up for the Democrats: Civil War

[LaStrega]

Next Up for the Democrats: Civil War
By FRANK RICH

Published: February 10, 2008

WHAT if a presidential candidate held what she billed as “the largest, most interactive town hall in political history” on national television, and no one noticed?


The untold story in the run-up to Super Tuesday was Hillary Clinton’s elaborate live prime-time special the night before the vote. Presiding from a studio in New York, the candidate took questions from audiences in 21 other cities. She had plugged the event four days earlier in the last gasp of her debate with Barack Obama and paid a small fortune for it: an hour of time on the Hallmark Channel plus satellite TV hookups for the assemblies of supporters stretching from coast to coast.

The same news media that constantly revisited the Oprah-Caroline-Maria rally in California ignored “Voices Across America: A National Town Hall.” The Clinton campaign would no doubt attribute this to press bias, but it scrupulously designed the event to avoid making news. Like the scripted “Ask President Bush” sessions during the 2004 campaign, this town hall seemed to unfold in Stepford. The anodyne questions (“What else would you do to help take care of our veterans?”) merely cued up laundry lists of talking points. Some in attendance appeared to trance out.


Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10rich.html

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Sounds like that's where the money went.

There wasn't much publicity for that Hallmark event, was there? I first heard about it on DU, like a day before or something.

[LaStrega]

2. First I heard of it was at the Dem debate n/t

[woolldog]

3. I read this article this morning

Thought it was a great article.

[nomorewhopper]

4. very good article

i enjoy all of the NY Times op ed people, although Dowd is sometimes a bit too unusual for me.

i was surprised by the tenor of the article. frank really doesn't seem to care for hillary, does he

EDIT:

this article got me thinking about the whole "how do you market a product in 2008" question. Obama gets a million hits per day from a free Youtube download, while Hillary spends big coin to buy TV time. It's old school vs. new school. I'm a consultant for online businesses who are trying to understand how to use the internet. i tell you one thing. obama gets it.

i also think that obama is doing a very good job of marketing to a gen y audience. his people could make millions on madison avenue one day because they do understand how to reach a population of people in ways that they trust, (hint: you don't gain the trust of young skeptics by having scripted tv engagements on the hallmark networks)

[LaStrega]

5. Spot on ...

concerning the gen y croud. My daughter (who'll be 18 in Sept.) and all her of-age friends are voting Obama and actively campaigning for him ... making calls, going door to door. It's pretty damned inspirational to see them so amped up over this important and historic campaign.

:thumbsup: :dem: :woohoo: