DNConvention should be major message of hope

[swag]

You kids go ahead and bash Bush. We all love it, we're all justified, and it's totally worth it.

BUT THIS CONVENTION IS ABOUT PUTTING FORWARD AN AFFIRMATIVE PROGRAM TO VOTERS ABOUT HOW KERRY/EDWARDS/DEMOCRATS CAN MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

If you don't get that, you don't get psychology. THE DEM CONVENTION IS THE AFFIRMATIVE/POSITIVE PROGRAM!

The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!
The REPUBLICANS ARE NEGATIVE!

on edit: changed subject line

[swag]

1. Another way to put it: voters are hungry for "Vote Kerry" reason

And this convention must be all about expressing that reason to vote for Kerry/Edwards.

Has anybody been paying attention when the polls say, "I don't know Kerry well enough?" or has everyone just been bitching about the media.


The campaign has been paying attention.

[unfrigginreal]

2. Don't expect that hunger to be satisfied with...

"he's alright but I'm better" positioning. If we don't point out what's wrong with the pug positions while promoting our own positions, then we won't give anyone a reason to vote for change.

[swag]

6. Everybody knows "he ain't all right"

That message has been driven home.

The message now is "America can be great again. And here is how."

[depakid]

3. Oh, I think many people get pyschology just fine

better than the insular consultants.

If you don't lay out a case for change- if you simply punt amd say Americans know about the Bush policies because they're livining it- as one woman from the DNC repeated mentioned on CSPAN, then you're making a huge mistake.

Most Americans don't know how bad the Bush policies really are- mainly because they either don't pay attention and the media won't expose them to anything other than empty slogans and platitudes. If you refuse discuss how bad things really have become- and how much worse it will be will be if it continues, you in effect legitimize them on some level, and therefore decrease motivation for change. You also open yourself up to labeling that will build on the legitimacy you've handed the Republicans- such as "tired old liberal policies" that will raise your taxes and cause <fill in the blank> problems.

Democrats and their self serving consultants never seem to learn this- and that's why they've continued to lose, year after year.

[swag]

4. There are affirmative and negative cases for change

We are all on-board with the negative cases for change.

But a great deal of research has gone into who needs to be persuaded by the affirmative case for change.

Hint: they live in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and they don't want to hear any president-bashing that they think might be "against the troops."

Do you want to win the election, or do you want to be "right?"

[depakid]

7. "Negative" and "postive" are being used as loaded language

The bottom line is that you need to persuade people (especially the so called "swing" voters) first that the current set of Republican policies is clearly not in their interests- that it's actually responsible for a lot of what's going wrong in this country- and in their own lives.

You have to get that message across FIRST and make it stick, before people are open to voting Democratic, particularly if they "relate" to the Republicans' "message." I'm talking domestic policy more than foreign policy- although the same holds true on that front as well. You have to contrast the policies using easily assimilated facts- and the Republicans have over the past four years handed so many, may examples for the Dems to use, that it's sheer lunacy NOT to use them.

All of the "careful" research done by the paid consultants is fine- as food for thought in strategizing, but for various reasons, it's often quite wrong in reading the electorate. Al Gore can tell you that. So can the results of the 2002 elections.

[swag]

8. Bush/Cheney have negatives and "disapprovals" nice and high

and now the Dems have to offer a way out of the mess.

Everyone knows the mess.

Everyone knows the cage we're in. Who has the key?

Over and out on this subject, me.

[Killarney]

5. that's how we did it in 92 and we won

we need to be positive and show people why they should vote FOR US instead of just against Bush.