Actually, death panels for Trig are about the ultimate that the wingers could have come up with, and to my mind the media has embarrassed itself by its pursuit of shiny objects in the other direction from the facts this time. I believe the public is supremely ready for facts and solid substance, and shows that it’s tired of the dog and pony show. This is about getting somewhere near caught up with the rest of the civilized world.

the whole thing is a creep show

You misunderestimate them.

, the right-wing will make up some new series of crazed bs that “nobody anticipates” the media treats it seriously and nobody wins except in the Pyrrhic sense.

This kind of stuff drives me crazy. You nailed it. The “nobody anticipates” thing especially.

It’s not anticipated and messages aren’t created in advance. Spokespeople aren’t prepped with a quip, a fact or a cutting line. They don’t know how to flip the story and move to their message. It’s harder to do when you are caught blindsided, but we know where this stuff starts! We know who transmits it and we know which Republicans give it weight and which media repeat it.

Someone asked me to put together a primer on this stuff so that we can unleash a few bloggers, but the problem is that mainstream media call the “experts” and the elected officials for comment and they aren’t ready.
Attaturk, I’ll bet that you and I and a handful of bloggers could anticipate the next RW event, prep the experts, create de-positioning soundbites and either flip or nullify the story. The problem would be getting the Democratic politicians to listen to some DFH bloggers.

I’ve got a real world track record and a blogosphere track record but nobody is smart enough to ask my help. Who do they want? Donna Brazil? Mark Penn? Apparently.

What could the next hissy fit be?

It’s September. Back to school. Do you think wing nuts might attack Obama and education? Duh.

Sure they have a rapid response team on health care, now. We needed it BEFORE they launched.

The other thing we need? An offensive team. I’m really sick of sitting back and waiting for the attacks. I was damn proud of the campaign I organized against the hosts at K S F O. 28 advertisers gone. Millions in revenue gone. I’m happy I helped Hate Hurts American against Michael Savage. Because we anticipated his attack (the same used on me by Disney) his copyright infringement case was dismissed. He lost 18 advertisers and at least one million in revenue. These were advertiser alert programs NOT boycotts. I won’t claim credit for the Glenn Beck campaign but the understanding that the advertisers (the money) is the key to having an impact on right wing media is something I’ve been pushing for 4 years.

We put them on the defensive. We cost them money. We made them look bad to their real audience (the advertisers) and our messages were the ones the press picked up. This is the power of proactively working the right wing.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see some stories where the right wing frame wasn’t the “serious postion” for a change? If we don’t provide the narrative the right will.

The media doesn’t care about how good your facts are, they care about how juicy the story is. Is there X vs Y? Is there conflict? Winners! Losers! Who is ahead? Who is behind?

As Athenea would say, “Jesus tits” WE KNOW what they want, why do we insist on hoping they will suddenly become policy wonks? Give ‘em a popcorn story. Set up some Teabaggers vs. Real people who went bankrupt with good insurance. See who “wins” that story.

Too much faith in human nature? I hope not.

Attaturk and Spocko, I share your frustration.

Who do they want? Donna Brazil? Mark Penn? Apparently.

Mr. Obama met on Tuesday with advisers including Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff,

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Change? In your pocket, maybe.

I was just referring to the notion that “the ultimate that the wingers could have come up with” has already happened.

Barnicle is shocked at the partying at the embassy in Kabul! I could have shown him a few joints on Tu Do street that would have shaken his Boston sensiblity!

Good morning, pups. MoDo and The Moustache of Wisdom are off today. Mr. Egan, in “Hunting Wolves, and Men,” says shooting for sport has revealed some dark feelings in the changing West — and some strength of character as well.

Here he is.

The coffee and tea are ready, the cool drinks are in the fridge, and I’ve got a selection of bagels with cream cheese. I now must go and be cat staff. They’ve informed me that the dishes are not as full as they would really like, and the water dish could be topped up… Have a great day.

And I hope that’s as bad as it gets, but the wingnuts surprise me continually by sinking lower than I expected.

the right-wing will make up some new series of crazed bs that “nobody anticipates” the media treats it seriously

Didn’t I hear they were working on some breast cancer scare, or did that not test well with the focus groups?

I think we are on the same page.

Off Topic, but I’m not sure there’s going to be enough left of Tom Ridge to chat with on Saturday’s book salon after Rachel’s little chat with him last night. Her very polite dismantling may not comply with the Geneva Conventions.

Topic

we don need no steenkin topics!

Ah, you reminded me. I need to go out and rent Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

… a 10-year price tag for the overhaul below the $1 trillion mark.

Will his advocacy include the phrase “less than 4% of all health spending over the next decade” ?
The way the opponents (and that includes the Blue Dogs) have been allowed to frame the debate
without the White House returning fire is pathetic.

The polls still indicate that 66% to 75% of all Americans, Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike, want a public insurance option into which they might enroll for their health insurance. So the question is does the President continue to ignore their wishes in deference to the Blue Dogs and GOP, or does he actually lead the fight for real health care reform as he should have been from the outset?

If not, then this will become a senseless experiment in health care reform triage which will diminish his stature and standing even more than it has been diminished beginning with the moment he outsourced health care reform to his Chief of Staff and the Blue Dogs.

You’re certainly optimistic. Can’t help but think about H.L. Mencken’s quote, to paraphrase, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

And Obama and the Dems are pulled right down with them fending off the bs. Here’s a novel idea, why doesn’t Obama and the Dems get out in front and raise the consciousness of the American people to a higher level but then I suppose they would then have to say things that the “public” and the mediaots might not want to hear.

They can’t because they are a bunch of wimps this encludes Obama they are acting like losers instead of winners. We have to keep reminding them that we sent them there to make real change and if they don’t deliver then BYE BYE. It has already been stated that the Dem’s could lose over 50 seats in the midterms hope they are all blue dogs and hope the Repuks take control which would server the others right for not standing up for what they believe. I hate to say this but those who said Obama was an empty suit were right and he folds under pressure like a cheap beach chair.What this country needs are more Senators like Bernie Sanders a real fighter.

I think that, at this point, any “change of course” for Obama can be easily sold as a way of making him look bad (“Obama Abandons Bipartisanship!!!”) because he already put all his eggs into the “Baucus Caucus” basket.

Most interesting to me is the way that Axelrod creeps around the “GOP is acting in bad faith” idea — this has been obvious for months now, but the White House still can’t go on the offensive in a major way unless/until Baucus gets on board with it…. and Baucus is unlikely to do so any time soon.

For those who missed it here’s a little video of a “Billionaires for Profits”, of course the baggers and birthers are clueless. The U.S. may well have the most ignorant and ill=informed citizenry in the industrialized world.

http://videocafe.crooksandliar…..davis-town

The only thing Obama wants to lead is a charge into Afghanistan.

Watched Sunset Blvd last night.

The polls still indicate that 66% to 75% of all Americans, Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike, want a public insurance option into which they might enroll for their health insurance.

turns out that most americans, including most democrats, don’t even know what a public option is. i thought the public option poll numbers were doubtful before, now i’m inclined to think they are nonsense.

see ralphbon’s diary, 63% of Americans Can’t Pick the Public Option Out of a Three-Suspect Lineup:

A couple of weeks ago on Bill Moyers’ Journal, Kathleen Hall Jamieson made a point we don’t hear often enough:

Unless you start by asking the public in a poll what they know, what the baseline level of knowledge is, it doesn’t matter what the public thinks ultimately about a piece of legislation or not because you can be reflecting uninformed public opinion.

Those of us who’ve questioned the frequent invocations of high public support for “the public option” have been hammering this point ad nauseum. And now an AARP-sponsored poll released last week drives home the degree to which most people have no clue as to the actual nature of the public option on offer in current legislation.

As the scrupulous political weathervane Nate Silver reports, the poll finds that only 37% of respondents (and only 41% of Democrats) could distinguish an accurate description of an HR 3200-style public option from British-style socialized medicine, regional co-ops, or don’t-know. Indeed, almost a quarter of Democrats equated the public option with the British system

Obama is a fulla shit reich bitch: TARP, FISA, DOMA, domestic surveillance, no mortgage cramdown, screwed the UAW, ignores NOLA. I could go on – Iraq and Afghanistan spring to mind – but it’s delusional to say he’s better or different than Bush. He’s like a poisonous version of Jimmy Carter – he actually knows what he’s doing. I hope there’s a convention fight in 2012 – much earlier, actually. He authored and fostered TARP, fercrissakes, camapigned for Lieberman against Lamont – this IS Bushco, except it’s him. Guy sucks – he’s not representing us. Don’t care if he speaks clear English. Getting fucked is getting fucked and I don’t like it. Screw him and his dumbass speech. And that stupid ass beer-in-the-Rose Garden bullshit. Asswipe fascist KKKreep

Re:Numbers, I’ve been hearing that the #s in favor are down to about 45%. What do you think is current?

My fantasy goes like this,

Obama comes out on stage with the huge smile of his shining bright. He turns and looks around the room like he does, nods to a few he knows and a look crosses his face. He steps to the mike and says… Friends I have been hearing some outrageous bullshit from those wishing for more of the same. When you elected me to office it was because I promised you real change. Real change means that since those on the Right have refused to act in any form of good faith I have thrown out the bills coming from Congress and I propose we now turn to Universal Coverage for all. It is plain that there is no working for middle ground with the Party of No, so why bother anymore. I’m directing my party to put forth a Bill similar to Medicare for All, vote it thru in spite of the obstructionists of change and to bring it to my desk for signing as soon as possible. It is time for action not crazy tales of gov. takeovers and conspiracy. We listened and watched for 8 yrs as the Neocons and other extremists lead our country into the state we find it. Why should we be held back by those who didn’t make a correct decision about anything for 8 yrs or more ?
Obama gives another grin, smiles and says we are going to see a tearing of their clothes, a gnashing of their teeth and many nasty words will be thrown at us. My friends he says, we are going to just brush them off as he does his brush of the dandruff off his shoulders move…. and the crowd goes wild.

When I’ve mentioned third party candidates, I’m shot down with all the negatives–no money, no name recognition.

But it’s becoming clearer to me that we’re in a lose-lose situation, where neither party is serving the public.

Pass me that bong. I need some of that pipe dream.

Great movie!

Spocko–What you and a couple others like Attaturk here might do is write up a brief ‘white paper’ with possible threats and remedies, and then cram it down the bloody throats of the WH and dem leadership. At least then when these guys ignore it and spout the usual ‘who could have anticipated’ you can at least gloat. Actually, it might position you for possible strategy spots in future campaigns. Can’t hurt, unless you are too clever and give the righties some new talking point BS that they couldn’t have imagined themselves. But they are rather inventive, aren’t they?

Selise–it is my understanding that the poll numbers were way down when the questions used the words ‘public option’ but reached the 65-77% level when terms describing what it is supposed to do were used instead. Why not call it ‘The Good-as-congress-gets Insurance Plan’? That would poll higher still, I betcha.

Hold the threats in case he does break a beer bottle on the podium. Provided he opens with a short joke, it would do wonders for my faith in the process.

thx, A-turk, for ending on an optimistic note…I needed that…