DAVE MALAN By the time he took office in 2009, President Obama had fashioned a reputation as an idealist committed to reforming the way business is done in Washington. But as president, he’s allowed this reputation to fritter away. And what’s left of it is now being destroyed by his harsh and misguided campaign for reelection.
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No More Mister Nice Guy
Tomorrow in key battleground states, the RNC has organized a “volunteer day” or Walk Day. This is the first major Get Out The Vote effort of the general election for Republicans. I had a few moments to talk with RNC Political Director Rick Wiley and spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski from the RNC today about what the event is all about, and what they hope to accomplish. First, here’s the official blurb: RNC National Walk Day . Tomorrow the RNC will hold a national walk day to engage our grassroots activist across the country in battleground states to knock on doors of independent voters and add to our Get Out the Vote efforts to defeat Barack Obama. The states participating include: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The primary goal is to get as many people “to the doors” as possible, rather than just over the phone, says Wiley. Volunteers and campaign workers are going to pound pavement, going door to door on foot in order to both identify republican leaning voters that may not yet have been reached, and to get those voters interested, involved, and eventually, in the voting booth. Wiley referred repeatedly to adding voters to various “universes”, the early voting universe, the absentee universe, etc. So the idea here is that the walk tomorrow gives the various local offices the ability to sort of guide potential voters through the entire process. And that’s not all that the GOP is up to. The RNC is referring to the various local locations as “Victory Offices”. It is the victory offices that will be the hubs for the National Walk tomorrow. But even with the emphasis on knocking on doors and interacting directly with voters, there is a major online component as well. Via Facebook, the party has a new, high-tech app for encouraging volunteerism. The Social Victory app is a multi-faceted tool that gives users the ability to, for example, see local events like the National Walk day; Opportunities to volunteer, in other words. Here’s a screenshot (click to enlarge): You can also, per usual for apps like this, forward info, “like” things (natch), and even set up virtual phone banks to call on behalf of the campaigns. When you put together shoes on pavement, and clicks on apps, I’m staring to have a good deal more confidence in the party’s ability to capitalize not only on volunteers, but on the web, in a competitive way that we just didn’t see in 2008. That year, Barack Obama’s machine online was the stuff of legend. I don’t know if the GOP is going to be legen .. wait for it .. dary this time around. But the fact is the Victory Center app is actually pretty awesome, and with an effective voter ID and GOTV effort, I don’t see them being eclipsed by the Obama machine this year. I’ll try to get an update for you on Monday on how it all worked out. So far, looks pretty promising to me. Oh, I did ask one more thing. I asked if they would say they were “super duper” excited about the RedState Gathering in Jacksonville, Florida, August 2 – 5, or if they were just “very very” excited. The answer? “The former!” Good answer!
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RNC National Walk Day Tomorrow
I am a rabid online video consumer. I love them, I watch them, I make them . The greatest thing about online videos is that, unlike television, the creators have all the time they need to explain their point and they are, more importantly, a relatively inexpensive way to react quickly to the opposition. I’m not sure the Obama administration has figured out yet that between our continual victories on twitter and our exploding video production capabilities, they aren’t the only game in town anymore. Back in 2008, most tech savvy people found the McCain campaign to be woefully inadequate online. This doesn’t appear to the be the case this election cycle with Romney’s camp & conservative SuperPACs pushing new content almost daily. It is also making for an interesting back and forth between competing narratives. Take for instance this ad from American Crossroads about Obama’s broken promises. Seems cut and dry. Obama made promises. Obama didn’t keep those promises. Obama is a guy that doesn’t keep promises. But the Obama camp responds with their own video saying that American Crossroads is funded by “secret donors” to spread lies with an evil $25 million ad campaign. They of course ignore the “secret donors” of SuperPACs on the left supporting Obama, the billions that labor unions pour into elections and the fact that American Crossroads $25 million ad blitz was merely matching what the Obama camp was spending. Here’s their response: Deliciously, American Crossroads used a similar format to respond to the response. Ultimately, the hubris of the left (who have always owned the realm of visual media) could be their undoing as it appears we conservatives have finally gotten our crap together and are standing firm in what used to be the left’s playground. The shroud of the left has fallen. Begun, the ad wars have. Follow @BenHowe
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Ad Wars
POCONO, Pennsylvania — On Sunday Valerie Waters marked her first Mother’s Day since losing her son Jimmy to an IED in Kandahar. He was 21 at the time, July 2011. Her husband Garry Waters, 54, is standing beside her caked in dirt. He’s just completed the 12-mile “Tough Mudder” obstacle course that raises money for wounded veterans. Fifteen-year-old Joe, the youngest of their five, is laughing nearby with equally filthy Infantrymen from the 10th Mountain Division’s “Dog Company,” his brother’s old unit. In March, Dog Co. returned to Ft. Drum, New York, from southern Afghanistan. Last weekend more than 60 of them carpooled with a pack of wives, friends, and family to run the course in tribute to Waters and their other dead and injured. “It shows how much of a family they’ve become,” smiles Mrs. Waters, as she watches for the rest of “Team H2O” to cross the charged wires guarding the finish line. Since Jimmy was killed, the family and Dog Co. have joined clans, keeping in touch via Facebook and care package for the rest of the deployment. “I know it was hard,” says Mrs. Waters, a petite blonde in an oversized Team H2O shirt. At first, “we didn’t know what to say to them, they didn’t know what to say to us. But being in contact helped us more than they probably know.” “For them to do this, it’s a real honor,” adds Mr. Waters, pulling mud from his moustache. His wife jumps and starts hollering; she’s spotted more emerging H20ers, whose day included greased and inclined monkey bars, rock-crawls under barbed wire, a slog through ice water and a few more electro-shocks. The course, designed by British Special Forces, stipulates no “winners” — only finishers. Since launching in 2010 as one of the more profitable brands of military-style mud-runs, the events have been attended by more than half a million “Mudders” world-wide. They pay $90-$200 and must pledge not to “whine” for the privilege. Their rewards: a bragging-rights headband and one free beer — though not for the underage likes of Andy Waters, now also sprinting into eyeshot. The 18-year-old Waters son completed Army Basic last year and in June will begin advanced Infantry training. His brother Tony, 23, is currently deployed near the Pakistan border. Their only sister, Jennifer, is a mother herself and was unable to join on the family’s 12-hour drive from central Indiana. The H2O cheering section also includes 22-year-old Sam Dilberian, whose brother Bryan lost both legs and an arm in the same attack that took Waters. “As soon as I heard about it I wanted to come,” grins Miss Dilberian later over a celebratory team dinner. The brunette Brooklynite has spent most of her last year in Maryland at Walter Reed with her brother, who couldn’t make the messy reunion; he’s been busy. “Physical therapy, social workers, everything — you name it, he has to go through it,” says his sister. Then there’s the “easy life” aspect of recuperation, which Spc. Chang Lee explains with a grimace. He notes an early memory after waking up at Walter Reed, having taken two bullets to the chest and one to his arm when Dog Co. was ambushed last June: “Someone handing me a big tub of Ben & Jerry’s.” The 22-year-old Minnesotan shakes his head. “Free stuff and bureaucrats. It was a really eerie feeling. I was holding my breath the whole time. I didn’t want to see my friends show up.” Surrounded by them now, Spc. Lee says “it feels like no time has passed.” Pfc. Seth Pack of Utah, aged 20 and missing a leg, nods. Neither is through yet with their recoveries but are already working on post-Army school plans. For the moment, “It’s just really good to be here and to see them all,” says Pfc. Pack. Ditto for “them,” who used Mudder prep as a mental escape from the remainder of their tour. Sgt. Elliott Quinones, 25 of New Jersey, found it wasn’t hard to talk most of his platoon (and, it turned out, your correspondent) into the challenge. “I don’t think there’s a day that went by that we didn’t talk about it,” he says of their final months in-country. A shrug: “It is that bad over there.” And as Miss Dilberian notes, there’s nothing particularly unique about their group. “Before my brother got hurt, I was pretty naïve.” Then she made her first trip to Walter Reed. “You see so many-hundreds, all right there — so many boys that got hurt.” She stops and nods shortly, displaying the rules that apply to all service-members and their families: No complaining, move forward together. Before the post-party progresses beyond printable fare, Spc. Lee puts it simply: “I fight for the U.S. I’ll pass on the whining.”
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A Military Mother’s Day
Today is May 16th. On this date in 1920, Joan of Arc was beatified and canonized by the Vatican. Man, first burned at the stake, then fired from a canon? That chick just could not catch a break!! On this date in 1965, SpaghettiOs went on sale in American supermarkets for the first time. You had to go to Morganville to buy them, which is what they called Shelbyville at the time. The cans were five for a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. “Give me five Os for a bee” you’d say. Also on this date, in 1868, President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during a Senate impeachment hearing over alleged “high crimes and misdemeanors” by one vote. Johnson successfully argued that they were not high crimes because he did not inhale, and that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Demeanors”. And finally, today is “National Love A Tree Day”, where people are encouraged to go outside and hug a tree. Seriously. Here is a helpful instructional video on how to celebrate. Consider this an Open Thread . Do-Nothing Democrats | Free Beacon “Senate Democrats are poised to continue their impressive streak of budgetary negligence on Wednesday by unanimously rejecting as many as five different budgets, including the one offered by President Obama.” Video Knocks Obama’s “Bureau of Womanhood Conformity” | LifeNews “Today, the Susan B. Anthony List released its latest web ad entitled “Womanhood,” rebuking President Obama, his allies in Congress, and the abortion lobby for the ‘War on Women.’” Walker speeds release of positive jobs data | JSOnline “State officials said they show a gain of 23,321 jobs (public and private) between December 2010 and December 2011, which represents Gov. Scott Walker’s first full year in office.” Chris Matthews Is Dumb | Big Journalism “… after relentlessly mocking how well Governor Sarah Palin would hypothetically do on “Jeopardy,” Matthews made a king-size fool of himself in reality [video].” Morning Bell: President Me | The Foundry “President Obama insinuated yesterday that if you don’t support his policies, it’s not due to philosophical differences, but because of his name. Answering a question on The View about tight polls, he said: ‘When your name is Barack Obama, it’s always going to be tight. Barack Hussein Obama.’” Have Unions ‘Occupied’ the Occupiers? by Rick Berman spruik (sprook): verb To make or give a speech, especially extensively; spiel. (via Dictionary.com)
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Daily Links – May 16, 2012
