Saturday, November 29, 2008

BLOGGERS FOR SARAH PALIN


After my experience working with more than 300 bloggers on the "NoBama Mission Bloggers" group, there's a great need for "Sarah Bloggers" to speak coherently and persuasively about our favorite candidate.

A key for Gov. Palin in getting elected in 2012 is to increase her appeal to moderate and independent voters. Bloggers can help her do by emphasizing . . . her moderation and her independence. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is.

In the recent election, some bloggers wasted tens of thousands of hours trying to deliver a knockout blow to Obama (Ayers! Kenya! Raila Odinga! Rev. Wright! birth certificate!). That was a failed effort. It didn't work. Barack Obama got elected by a substantial majority.

As muckrakers, bloggers aren't very effective -- unless they also get support from the MSM. Anti-Obama material had no traction with the major networks or the big print media. Sadly, many bloggers just "didn't get it" that their "revelations" had almost no effect.

Unfortunately, the anti-Sarah smears did have some traction. Most Obama voters believed that Sarah said, "I can see Russia from my house." In fact, Tina Fey said that on SNL. Sarah never said any such thing.

The MSM helped the Sarah smears, which ranged from lies to misinformation, to stick.With Sarah Palin. We need a positive, compelling message. That may be a challenge because (I believe) the Obama presidency is going to be a traumatic experience for most Americans, and there may be a tempation to fixate on his inadequacies.

I've been asking/urging bloggers and other onliners to join ReadMyLipstickNetwork. If we do our work right, we should have thousands (3,000? 4,000?) bloggers in place six months before the election. They could be a powerful force.

Okay, I found the NoBama Mission Bloggers (maybe 20-plus of them) were producing material superior to anything that was appearing in the NYTimes, WashPost, Newsweek, etc. We need to figure out ways to get the best material out to a wide audience. A big part of "media reform" will be to encourage the new, alternative media represented by bloggers.

1 comment:

Larry Perrault said...

Stev:

I assume that you saw the video of surveyed Obama voters (I believe by the Zogby apparatus) that showed they knew little about specifics of governmnemt or Obama, but knew almost everything of the often inaccurate stories about Sarah Palin.

This reminds me of a conversation I jad with a relative about members of his orthodox conservative evangelical church who had declared their intention to vote for Obama. When I asked how that could be, given his expressed positions, he said, "They get their news from The Daily Show."

It makes you want to puke. Heck, there are still questions on an immigration test that aren't presented in media or in public schools. But however anachronistic it has been made, is it really that outrageous to ask just a few questions about American history and government to obtain a voter registration????

Oh, I'm working on a response to one of your emails about Sarah Palin that I think you should give some thought to. Email or call if needed.

Larry Perrault