Should we have spent less time on political Web sites and more time talking to voters?

Vanity | 11/6/08 | Vanity

[prolifefirst]

I know in my case and that of my brother, we used FreeRepulic and Drudge as a spectator sport way too much.

[1rudeboy]

Duh. How many vanities have you posted today?

[prolifefirst]

Maybe the other side wastes as much, or more time on political media, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t improve on our side.

[cripplecreek]

What was I supposed to say? John McCain will screw you less than Obama?

[Army Air Corps]

Yes.

The conservative movement began on the grassroots level. It started in discussions with friends and neighbours and people spreading the message of conservative values and principles face-to-face.

[prolifefirst]

I just think that I should have spent a lot of the time I spent in front of a monitor in front of an actual person.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"What was I supposed to say? John McCain will screw you less than Obama?"

Exactly why I had such a hard time saying anything.

[Bobalu]

We should have spent our time tarring and feathering McCain!

[LoneApple]

This was a tough year to begin with coupled with a President with 25% approval. I don’t know what could have been done by the McCain people to not be painted by that brush.

[prolifefirst]

I have the same state of mind watching college football that I usually do when paying attention to political media.

[TomServo]

I just think that I should have spent a lot of the time I spent in front of a monitor in front of an actual person.

Then for the love of... do it, and spare FR the vanities.

[stentorian conservative]

Maybe we were reading to many vanities..

[Soliton]

I think we should restrict vanities to those that have been here more than a year.

[April Lexington]

Nah... we lost by 10 million votes. Plus, we were performing a valuable service of keeping the supporters motivated.

[BigLittle]

Not many of the chosen one’s followers were even willing to listen to the origins of the mortgage crisis. Much easier on their part to blame GWB and move on. Sadly, McCain didn’t gt in front of the cameras and point blame where it belongs - the House and the Senate for the melt down.

[Prole]

Given how many Obama fans were something straight out of Jonestown, I hardly think that logic or reason would have been accepted by any of them.

[ccmay]

I spent the last five days of the campaign in Nevada working my ass off for Sarah and her cranky grandpa. I wish I had started a lot sooner. I'll never again waste time on FR or any other web site when there is work to be done to advance the cause.

-ccm

[Question_Assumptions]

I spent some time on some of the MSM message boards defending Sarah Palin. It was pretty clear that Obama’s supporters were swarming those boards to set the tone but they really weren’t prepared for a detailed and supported defense. So, yes, I think we need to divide up the MSM message boards and be as rational and factual as possible to answer them the next time around.

[mlocher]

Spending time on FR helped me understand how some people would react to the political situation. It also provided a support network.

I can only speak for myself, but I did a fair amount of time discussing the presidential race with some of my friends and colleagues. FR was a great resource to help equip me with what I needed to know.

[Politicalities]

It would not have mattered. The Obama campaign had too many advantages; there was no conceivable way McCain could have won.

For example, Obama could count on every slightest stumble (or perceived stumble) by his opponents being plastered all over the front pages for days, while his own major miscues and those of his running mate would go unnoticed by the mainstream press. That's a huge advantage, an enormous advantage, maybe an insurmountable advantage.

There's not much point in asking what we could have done differently; it's rather like asking what the Junior Little League All-Amputee Team could have done differently to avoid their shellacking by the Major League All-Stars. At a certain point, the deck is stacked so heavily against you that there's no way for you to win.

It's not too late, however, for us to ask what we might do differently next time. The mainstream press has sold its soul to the Democratic Party, and as such will provide enormous advantage to any Democrat -- as long as a significant number of people trust them. Our major task for the next four years will be to educate people, to convince them that the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times and the news desks of CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN are not reliable sources of information, that nothing they say should ever be taken at face value.

Make no mistake: the mainstream press is at this point effectively nothing less than the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. They are our enemies. Our strategies, our plans for attack, our allocation of resources, all must take this basic fact into account.