Some consider the Nation’s Capital as “Fantasyland on the Potomac”. Other outsiders are “Fed Up” with the Federal City. It's better to consider D.C. as “the District of Calamity” (sic).
While speaking before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Hillary Clinton tried to ingratiate herself with Hispanic voters by making a big deal about taco trucks. This shout out to Latinos seems prepackaged, calling to mind the old Pace Picante Salsa commercial which impeached prepackaged salsa from New York City.
Perhaps this is why the Clinton Campaign has pivoted on pandering to Hispanics by pushing the Miss Universe/Trump angle-- it's a two for one with Latinos' and the Womens' vote.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-NY) has made a sport of mocking media with whom he has a tiff. This includes Glenn Beck, a conservative oriented libertarian who was a partisan of Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican primaries and who has announced that he can not vote for Donald Trump in Election 2016,
Trump played upon Glenn's emotive nature in deriding Beck and the Blaze comparing him to the outsted House Crier, former Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
Now Trump seems so desperate that he will blaze new trails by advertising with Glenn Beck.
So rather than be interviewed by Beck and answer some hard questions, Trump arranged to place paid media through the Blaze. So Trump is effectively renting Beck's mailing list to get consideration for 10 million voters who he previously dismissed.
But this paid placement did not come without some caveats. Beck spent a whole segment on his nationally syndicated radio show explaining to his listeners why there was this turnabout. Beck mused that unless a politician was a Klan person, Beck was open to take their money and allow the free flow of ideas.
Because Donald Trump now has his misgivings about the New York Times, the Trump campaign is now considering banning NYT reporters from events on the hustings. Wonder how much print ads are in the Old Grey Lady, after all Trump may think that the Empire State is in play.
That sounds like a satirical piece from The Onion. Alas, that really happened. Trump has earned loads of earned media during the early primary process by making outrageous and inflammatory outbursts.Trump's military strategy was the equivalent of bombing the fecal matter out of ISIS. Trump has also whispered the "F" bomb from center stage.
In the eve of the New Hampshire primary, when Trump was critiquing his main opponent Senator Ted Cruz's approach on enhanced interrogation, the Manhattan Mogul gleefully repeated a vile and vulgar shout out from the crowd referring to female genitalia. This was a quintessential example of Trump employing paralepsis, in which a speaker says something with plausible deniability. Later, Trump justified his crass comments that we were just having fun. Sure.
But if we are to believe Trump's Baton Rouge Pledge, the GOP front-runner will no longer use foul language. Some have argued that the quip against Cruz was intended to be short for pussillanimous. If so, why pretend to chide the shout out not to use the language with a smile?
It is a sad statement of the state of Trump's campaign that a populist politician has to shout it out to the rooftops that he will swear off foul language. So why the sudden shift?
Much of Trump's appeal to die-hard supporters is that he can't be bought since he claims to be self-financing his campaign (but won't turn down contributions). That being said, Trump does not hesitate to pander, to questionable effectiveness.
In several early primaries, such as Iowa, South Carolina and five of the SEC primaries, evangelicals make up a substantial proportion of the Republican electorate. So it's no surprise that politicians hungry for evangelical support would play up faith themes on the hustings.
Well, this was not a believable ploy for Trump, especially with his "Two Corinthians" citation at Liberty University. But this voter bloc should be more than properly quoting Bible verses. They also tend to be values voters. And a foul mouthed, avarice animated politician is a hard sell to those seeking to walk the faith.
The Cruz campaign sought to capitalize on this crucible with a clever ad mimicking Trump themes from the mouths of babes.
The spot successfully captured the crassness of Trump with boorish behavior without putting foul words in the childrens' mouths. But the telling shot was the parents watching the playroom with a voice over "We wouldn't tolerate this behavior in our children--why would we want them in a President?" Thus the commercial was more than about illustrating crony capitalism and eminent domain but about values voters, which is a bulleye in South Carolina with a 60% evangelical GOP voter base.
Let's see how long Trump can stifle his crass asides. As the SEC primaries are on March 1st, I suspect it will be March second (sic) if we are lucky.
Aside from the glitchy $600+ million Healthcare.gov website, is it any wonder why Obamacare is having such a rough roll-out with such misguided marketing?
Perhaps it's close enough for government work, alas it's Americans' health care and 1/5th of the economy which rides in the balance of such too clever by half planning.
Some might find political parodies about Obamacare, like the Happy Healthcare video by Sexy Danger TV, to be over the top. But after the Colorado Heath Exchange like "Get Shotskis", anything is believable. But Organizing for Action, the remnant of President Obama's campaign wing Obama for American reformed as a political action group, is urging Americans to "Get Talking" about Obamacare. This meme was posted on Barack Obama's Twitter feed-
Really? Firstly, it is wise to "Get Talking" around the Christmas Tree? Then consider the idealized Organizing for Action messenger in the meme. Will you take a dude wearing flannel jammies (probably with footies) seriously?
After wasting $600 million on a botched Obamacare roll-out and this sort of support, why not a bad Santa too?
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) continued his campaign to #MakeDCListen by releasing a video which tells the scary truths about Obamacare.
The video "ObamaScare--It's Coming to a Mailbox Near You" is remarkable for several reasons. Cruz did not end his efforts to oppose Obamacare after his 21 hour plus hour quasi-filibuster from late September. Nor is Senator Cruz taking his cues from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who cut a backroom deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for a short-term Continuing Resolution and Debt Ceiling Hike with no quid pro quo. Moreover, McConnell promised not to use the prospects of another government shut down as the next deadline approaches.
Through this ObamaScare video, Cruz continues to point out the real world consequences of Obamacare implementation, specifically skyrocketing premiums for lesser coverage and people losing their current health insurance.
Senator Cruz is capitalizing on social media to get the message out, rather than relying upon the liberal elite media (a.k.a. the Lamestream Media). The message is timely, full of pop reference (horror movie motifs) and is well produced. This ObamaScare video seems more like infotainment which people want to share.
This ObamaScare social media strategy is in stark contrast to the blitz of bludgeoning gubernatorial ads for Virginia Democrat Terry McAliffe (D-VA) which have been blanketing the airwaves between-the-beltways. While these patently political hit pieces may lower the female vote for Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA), but it is not a message which viewers are eager to share.
In the District of Calamity (sic), it is not unusual to see multi-media ads throughout the year about legislative initiatives. These ad often run on news and politically oriented radio stations, some local segments of cable news channels and early evening local access time. Normally, the commercials are produced by monied interests who are using wholesale marketing to achieve their objectives by ginning up constituent calls. What is different about Cruz's media blitz is that it is a Senator at the helm to generate public support on legislation.
In the run up to the fiscal new year, Senator Cruz inspired radio ads ran on conservative talk radio. In addition, Cruz made many media appearances to market his message. Now Cruz is continuing to share the public policy landscape through viral social media.
Those who haunt Cocktail Parties in the District of Calamity should not be scared of the fancy Halloween decorations in Georgetown. The lead title to the ObamaScare title is "Brought to you by Congress". Cocktail Party types should be frightened of a back bencher who they thought was the walking dead after his filibuster fizzled. They thought Cruz could be buried by backroom deals and bad press. Yet the ObamaScare viral video shows that he may rise again and be more powerful than before.
The Cocktail Party crowd should be afraid, very afraid. But not of a zombie attack between the beltways, as Zombies feed on brains and they know better than to feast in the District of Calamity (sic). But at some time, they will have to return to their home districts. At that point, Katey bar the door.
When the Boston Red Sox make the Major League Baseball World Series, all of New England feels compelled to get on the bandwagon, Blaze Radio host is a Boston Bruins booster who does not care much for baseball, but admits it is prudent to root for the Red Sox now that they are in the "big dance".
It is expected that the hometown Mayor would lead the charge in civic cheerleader. But five term Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D-Boston) manged to muff his MLB reference. Boston Globe reporter Maria Cramer tweeted that Mayor Menino told a pack of reporters that he hoped that the Red Sox would win the World Series Cup and that their fans would be responsible.
While it is amusing to twitter at Menino's sports ignorance, it is more more maddening to consider how Mayor Menino has been part of efforts to polemically politicize professional sports. Menino has been a prominent supporter of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). For the last few years, MAIG has been running expensive $100,000 ads during the Super Bowl to promote their gun grabbing initiatives.
If an elected official is a sports fan, let them go to town when their team is in the championships. If not, stick to a script on rooting for the home team. And be gracious about the city bets, rather than turning your nose at the hospitality in the World Series wager of the opposing side, as Menino did with St. Louis' offer of fried ravioli. Finally, stop playing partisan politics with a veneer of sports, like with MAIG Superbowl ads.
