"The M & M Strategy"........an interesting read...Oldie but Goodie w/quote from Howard Zinn

[KoKo]

The M & M Strategy
How Obama Won
by CHUCK SPINNEY

The M&M or Motherhood and Mismatch Strategy was conceived by the American strategist, Col. John R. Boyd. The basic goal of an M&M strategy is to build support for and attract the uncommitted to your cause by framing a "motherhood" position — i.e., a position no one can object to, like the mythical "motherhood, apple pie, and the American way" — and then inviting your opponent in to repeatedly attack it and, in so doing, smash himself to pieces at the mental and the even more decisive moral level of conflict. Self-destruction will happen inevitably, if you can successfully induce your adversary into attacking your motherhood position in a way that exposes mismatches among the three poles of his moral triangle, defined by (1) What your opponent says he is; (2) What he really is as defined by his actions; and (3) the World he has to deal with. Whether consciously or not, I believe Obama has an intuitive feel for the moral leverage inherent in the M&M strategy and this enabled him to outmaneuver McCain and his campaign and bring them to the verge of mental and moral collapse. That Obama also did this to Hillary Clinton suggests it is no accident.

The key to setting up a successful M&M strategy is building the Motherhood position, then making it into a moral fortress. This is easier said than done, because it involves defining your cause nontrivially in self-evidently positive terms and then shaping the environment as well as your self-definition in a way that always reinforces that motherhood position. Mr. Obama defined himself initially as a unifier and a change agent for a divided country in which a clear majority of people believed their nation was on the wrong pathway into the future. Who can argue with that definition? To be sure, it is an empty vessel, but it is pure motherhood, and it works like a charm if you can maneuver your adversary into playing by your rules.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/11/05/how-obama-won/

[bemildred]

1. +1.

Last two paragraphs ...

[bemildred]

2. A suggestion: for 2012 "Motherhood" == "Jobs".

I can see it shaping up as we speak.

[KoKo]

3. yep...it would do good if it was focused on "betterment for the commons," and not "enrichment"'

.."Enrichment for the Rich".........Ya' Think? :-(

[bemildred]

4. Not a pretty picture is it?

It does resolve a certain puzzlement I have been experiencing, and it does at least suggest O intends to kick some Republican ass in 2012.

[bemildred]

5. In Detroit stop President Obama: I will stand up for collective bargaining

In perhaps some of his strongest words of support for organized labor, President Barack Obama told a riverfront crowd of thousands in Detroit today that “As long as I’m in the White House, I’m going to stand up for collective bargaining.”

He said organized labor is responsible for the rise of the middle class and the core of the nation’s economy and that legislative battles to curb the rights of organized labor is a threat to the nation as a whole.

“When I hear they’re trying to take collective bargaining away, trying to pass right to work laws, I know it’s not about economics it’s about politics,” he said, prompting a chant from the crowd of “Four more years.”

It’s the second time Obama has been to Detroit on Labor Day, but it was candidate Obama who came in 2008. It was the President who came to the city today, which he said “has been to heck and back,” who stood in front of the Renaissance Center, where General Motors is headquartered to celebrate organized labor and the auto industry that was saved by a federal bailout in 2009.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110905/NEWS15/110905013/In-Detroit-stop-Obama-will-stand-up-collective-bargaining

[tcaudilllg]

6. Loving that Kool-aid.

Action deferred obscures any and all words.

[bemildred]

7. I like grape myself, with a touch of fresh lemon juice, and plenty of cane sugar. nt