Can The U.S. Proggo-Dome Go Positive?

TheWurlitzerIsWaiting
NetRootsVille


Yesterday, Cathie, who is, of course, a real Canadian woman, wrote a great piece in which she asked American Prog Bloggers to start putting together a narrative about why their fellow countrymen should vote FOR Obama rather than just pounding away at their keyboards about why they should vote AGAINST McCain.

It was a brilliant bit of commentary, for all kinds of reasons, including in (very) small part, the fact that it made me re-think my own POV.

Here are a few nuggets from it:

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Dear American bloggers,

Magical ponies are not going to gallop out of Denver to rescue the Obama campaign......

And then it will be September ...and no ponies to be found anywhere........

I think American Blogtopia should stop waiting for marching orders from Chicago and make its own plan.

1. You need a theme.....
Is there an Obama phrase which you all should be using and blogging about? Markos and Jane and Booman need to come up with a few choices and find something that appeals to people -- maybe a phrase from the convention will be the thing.......

2. You need a message -- about Obama, not about McCain.
I am sick to death of reading blog posts about McCain said this and McCain said that and you kids get off my lawn. Funny, yes, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Why does OBAMA want to be president, and why should VOTERS want him to be president? Billmon and Hunter and Americablog and Dibgy and Bill Sher need to write a dozen posts about what Obama means to them and what he should mean to other Americans......

3. And you need stories, stories, stories.
You need Obama anecdotes and history and 'Obama's best quotes' and posts about Michelle and the girls. What kind of professor was he? What did he like best about Kenya? Does he tell jokes? Does he like puns? What was his first job? Was it hard for him to stop smoking? What basketball shot would he most like to be able to do? Across blogtopia, there are people who know him personally, who can write about him or be interviewed about him, who can tell us more about this guy. You need to pass these stories on to the hundreds of thousands of blog readers who are aching to know more -- and to the media who would pick them up and run with them........

Yours hopefully,
Cathie

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Now, sometimes you write a pretty darned good post and nobody pays attention.

And other times you get all kinds of response, usually either all yays or all nays.

But very rarely someone says something contrarian that, even though they are clearly well meaning, helps make your point, which is exactly what a commenter named 'suppa' did when responding to Cathie's post, not at her place, but instead over at The Beaver in response to a post from Dave:

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LOL, how about
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

That's rich lecturing them on this, most top tier Dem blogs in the US have always been touting his difference in issues from energy to womens choice they high-light the differences all the time.

What blogs does Cathie read and refer to? Jesus General or Sadly No perhaps? Try some of the more serious issue oriented blogs and you'll see. Time for her to eat crow soon.
suppa | 08.21.08 - 12:01 pm | #

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Why does that comment make Cathie's point?

Because it is not more policy wonkisms and/or talking points that the mainstream media mavens so desperately want and need.

Instead, it's narrative.

And the Bloggodome can feed it to them, because they, the mavens, are always ravenously hungry for copy they figure the folks that watch them blindly will gobble-up, no-questions asked.

In other words, forget that ol' Carvilleism about the economy.

Because, this time around.....

'It's the Camelot, stupid!'

OK?



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And right on cue, here comes more of this McCain 'Owns Too Many Houses' malarkey. Look, Americans love success stories, so stop this crap because it won't work. Instead, tell your fellow countrymen how and why Obama's is a better (and it is!) rags to riches story. Sheesh.

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