The mismarketing of a president

Chicago Tribune.com ^ | 03/14/2004 | John F. Gaski

[KeyLargo]

It is now obvious that both of you are off form. The Bush re-election effort has already committed some classic marketing mistakes. You need emergency coaching. I am glad to provide it.

A crucial error is your failure to appreciate the effect of the Democrats' long-unopposed smear campaign. The guiding principle is that when people receive information, attitude formation follows. When voters are fed uniformly biased stimuli--i.e., anti-Bush invective--anti-Bush attitudes form. Once in place, these attitudes are more difficult to influence by counterinformation.

[KeyLargo]

I see the major difference right now between George Bush and John Kerry is that GW is a wartime President and Kerry is representative of most of the Democrat voters. And that is: Kerry has no job and has plenty of time on his hands to snipe and spread lies about GW, while GW has the safety and security of all of us foremost on his mind.

[gbaker]

Interesting read but I'll go with Bush and Rove for now. Why spend lots of money when swing voters aren't paying much attention. Heck the polls indicate despite nonstop demo and media attacks its still around 50 - 50.

[tsali]

I believe it was Hitler's propoganda minister who said," If you tell a lie often enough and long enough ---people will believe it"----The DemocRATS are using the taticts of the Nazis and Adolph Hitler

[alex]

Bush has to do a really good and well deserved Clinton bashing for running economy into the ground in 2000.

And for any complain about tax cuts and 'jobless' recovery comeback in full force that without the tax cuts there will be no recovery.

[summer]

"The ultimate reason for offshore outsourcing of U.S. jobs is the poor education of American workers."

I disagree with him. The major reason for offshoring concerns cheap labor costs. It's a money issue.

[Peach]

People vote with their pocketbooks. Even in a post 9/11 world.

The economic record of the Bush administration is fantastic, especially considering he inherited a recession and had to deal with the economic fallout from 9/11. It's a provable record. Charts - understandable charts.

But they aren't talking about that and they need to get in front of this issue and fast.

[Nick Danger]

The major reason for offshoring concerns cheap labor costs

Oh, so that's why Nigeria is the most powerful economy in the world.

[Kenny Bunk]

Gaski points out what is, and has been, a fundamental weakness of the Republicans: one that has persisted since JFK stole the race from Nixon, and probably before.

That weakness is a the abysmal failure to recognize the techniques of presenting one's case to the public effectively, which have evolved over the past 50 years.

OTOH, not only have the Democrats recognized this critical evolution, they have embraced it and mastered it. Of course, having the media/entertainment Industry in their pocket doesn't hurt. But the great non-sequitur of the Republican Party, the party of Main Street, Business, and Capitalism, is that they perennially neglect this vitsal aspect of the nation's business.

Anyone from a small town newspaper or radio station who has tried and failed to sell advertising to small-town businessmen knows exactly what I am talking about. There is an ingrained "presbyterian" (note small p. please) sort of dunderheadedness about the GOP which seems to feel that they are right, they are the "elect," and that trumpeting it about is a needless extravagance.

When the chips are down, the GOP, with no plan, will substitute vast ad budgets and an ad-buying frenzy for marketing thought. Every goddam time.

[Kenny Bunk]

The low end of the American Labor Market is so abysmally educated and trained, that employers will prefer illegal alien Mexicans, whom they can underpay, hire and fire easily, amd who will at least show up sober to be trained. Cheap.

If you've got the stomach for it, take a gander at the "Jerry Springer Show," That's low-end America right now. You're not going to build up the American manufacturing base with those folks.* It's been tried.

The outsourcing of industrial America IS tied directly to the failure of public education, and indirectly, to the collapse of the American family.

*AND THEY VOTE!

[Prodigal Son]

Interesting critique. I too would like to see Bush smack Kerry down with the facts. But I had an epiphany a while back which many here have also had- the facts mean nothing to the Democrats or their voters.

If Kerry started saying 'George W Bush owned slaves in the 19th Century' Democratic voters would believe that. Some would even claim to be descended from one of Dubya's slaves.

I mean that literally. The lefties went right off the cliff on 9/11 and they aren't ever coming back to reality. Reality, as such, is a useless flail with which to beat them.

That's what Bush is trying to fight against.

Think about the off-shoring of jobs argument. It's brilliant in a way. There would have been a time when people who were actually unemployed would have been a legitimate target for a campaign message. Now, it's people who have jobs that are being scared. If you don't vote for Kerry, Bush will off-shore your job. If you don't let us raise taxes, your job will go to India. This is directed at people who actually have jobs. Unemployment is fairly low in America. Most people have jobs. Yet, this largely employed electorate is being told that jobs don't matter- they have to be scared even when they are employed. If the dems aren't presented with a disgruntled work force- they'll simply create one.

It's so bizarre. This is why Kerry's flip-flops don't faze the average Democrat at all. It doesn't matter to them. Reality has lost its meaning.

[Kenny Bunk]

If the dems aren't presented with a disgruntled work force- they'll simply create one.

This is what Prof. Gaski is talking about. The Republicans seem unable or unwilling ...again ... to use valid marketing techniques to shape opinions to their benefit, or even, which can be somewhat easier, to lay out factual material.

At the bottom of it: a sense of being elect, so why bother being elected; a sense that the Jerry Springer People of the electorate are so goddam stupid they wouldn't understand it, and at the upper reaches of the GOP, (I fear) an accomodation with the Democrats to protect special interests and issues.

[raloxk]

"Bush has to do a really good and well deserved Clinton bashing for running economy into the ground in 2000."

that wont work. No one wil lblame Clinto for the economic recession. It is Bush's economy, not Clintons

[madison10]

Goebels. The Liberal Democrats are taking ideas from his playbook. It is so blatantly obvious, I'm surprised Rush or Hannity has said it.

[alex]

"that wont work. No one wil lblame Clinto for the economic recession. It is Bush's economy, not Clintons"

IMHO, it will work, if Bush will run ads and Dims will complain it will provide a winning line of argument for Bush.

[raloxk]

"IMHO, it will work, if Bush will run ads and Dims will complain it will provide a winning line of argument for Bush."

It wont. Clinton is gone as far as the public is concerned. Why run ads against Clinton when Kerry is the nominee? The public never holds an-ex President responsible for economic conditions. it is a pathetic strategy. I remember in 1994, the DEMS running against Ronald Reagan

[alex]

I disagree. E.g. in 1996 Clinton did a pretty good Bush-elder bashing on economy to boast his own achievements, W can do the same and win quite a few votes. IMHO, it is way better policy than take constant unfounded hits from Dims on the state of the economy.