Posted on 08/04/2009 5:12:17 PM PDT by Cheap_Hessian
The White House launched a coordinated effort Tuesday to combat what it calls a “viral whisper campaign” to torpedo health care reform.
Its playbook: the same one Barack Obama’s campaign used in 2008 to shoot down rumors and questions about his citizenship, faith and patriotism.
The new offensive started early Tuesday morning when the White House posted a video response to a hodgepodge of clips on the Drudge Report that portrayed President Obama as favoring the elimination of private insurance. On the White House blog, Obama’s director of new media, Macon Phillips, asked supporters to send in leads for debunking chain e-mails or anything else that “seems fishy.”
It continued through the day with press secretary Robert Gibbs and Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse both saying a series of confrontational town hall meetings were manufactured by Republicans, conservative groups and lobbyists who are paid to drum up opposition.
Woodhouse described them as “angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists” that populated McCain-Palin rallies last year.
Tuesday was just the start of the offensive, White House aides said.
The White House and its allies are developing a clearinghouse website to debunk rumors and myths — similar to the FightTheSmears.com site used during the campaign. They plan to use more video, Twitter, e-mail lists and other new media tools to “combat the right-wing noise machine” and dedicate new resources to rapid response on health care, according to a White House official.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
They are certainly OFFENDING a lot of people.
You know, the thing about Twitter is anyone can go to a particular hash (#) tag thread and post. Ahem. Such as # White House Health Care. Ahem.
An informed public with a multitude of means of communication. We’ll go to Short Wave and Morse Code if we have to.
MSM spin alert! Notice the slick use of the word ‘rumors’ in the headline! They know a lot of people won't read beyond that and will be left with the impression that all the stories about the shortcomings of the current effort are just rumors. It's all about bias and spin and being in the pocket of The One.
An unbiased headline would say “W.H. on offense on health care claims” or some such non-loaded word. Rumors is pejorative term in and of itself.
The deck is certainly stacked against those who are beginning to sound the alarm as to what a danger this man and his cohorts are to America.
Yup. He relied on limited venues of information such as they were 40 years ago.
When you starting screwing around with people’s pocketbooks and quality of life, they tend to turn hostile very quickly.
Also, I really don’t believe that most people are as left-leaning as some would like to believe. I also thing many people were completely hoodwinked by this bastard. Having an opponent like Mcpain didn’t help matters much either.
Let these Dim Bulbs continue to overreach and see how many come out of this without getting burned.
| Rules for Radicals In 1971, Saul Alinsky wrote an entertaining classic on grassroots organizing titled Rules for Radicals. Those who prefer cooperative tactics describe the book as out-of-date. Nevertheless, it provides some of the best advice on confrontational tactics. Alinsky begins this way:
His “rules” derive from many successful campaigns where he helped poor people fighting power and privilege For Alinsky, organizing is the process of highlighting what is wrong and convincing people they can actually do something about it. The two are linked. If people feel they don’t have the power to change a bad situation, they stop thinking about it. |
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"These mobs are bussed in by well funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives."
ROTFL! What a bunch of audibly challenged idiots! Americans are SHOUTING! Hell no to Socialism/Communism and death. There isn't any "whisper" to it!
Some thoughts:
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”
Or than communists can live up to communism. It's the specifics that make them into fools and hypocrites. Our side is using this rule to destroy Obama Death Care. Just keep asking the question: will Members of Congress and the President be signing up for Obama Death Care? Why can't voters and taxpayers sign up for the plan the National Democrats in Congress get?
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Listened to Paul Shanklin's latest bit on Rush's show?
How 'bout this:
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. “If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
I'm thinking of the folks who chased Queen Hillary's Health Care Express bus out of every town it showed up in, back in 1994. I'm sure there's fun to be had now, or will be.
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Tell that to Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.”
'Nuff said.
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O’Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city’s reputation.
Look at the reaction of the National Democrats to the threat of the real story of Obama's BC coming out.
Look at their reaction to the threat posed by a Sarah Palin candidacy in 2012. 'Nuff said.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, “Okay, what would you do?”
We've gotta work more on this one.
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Oh, just watch us. Heh heh.
Or, in other words, HIS OWN WORDS!
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs accuses conservatives of "manufacturing anger".
“viral whisper campaign”
I see they found a new term for people who don’t want what he’s peddling. A term or rather an excuse for this debacle if their mad push goes down in defeat.
This one will work when calling congressional offices. Imagine the poor interns answering phones who are hit with "How can work for a person who would do this to our country? Shame on you" as an ending to some of our calls. I really want their staffers to have to make the choice of quitting or having a mental break.
Obama says he wants you to call him and report the lies.
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
You can also call or write to the President:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address
Or use their online form here
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
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