Virginia Voter Values Video

October 23, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

The Family Foundation, a socially conservative Virginia organization, is putting a new twist on the old tactic of a candidate scorecard by releasing theirs as a video:

It’s good, but pretty basic. The video format gives the opportunity to include powerful imagery, and a group like the Family Foundation should be able to capitalize – shots of folks sitting down to dinner, or other family-friendly scenes would be much better than the waving American flag in the background.

(The Family Foundation may have had a good reason for being spartan – taking or even implying a stance for or against a candidate could have repercussions on tax-exempt status. And hey, at least they’re trying.)

All activism must not be neutral

October 23, 2009October 22, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

As the net neutrality argument heats up, pro-regulation groups are bashing AT&T’s efforts to mobilize their employees against the measure. When AT&T sent an email detailing the issue and inviting workers to post comments opposing net neutrality, Free Press, a liberal media reform group, called them the a-word – “AstroTurf.”

Free Press, of course, admits to doing the same thing – but argues that their email messages to subscribers driving traffic to online comment forms are somehow different. Their activists, apparently, REALLY oppose net neutrality; AT&T’s employees acting through fear of losing their jobs.

AT&T workers should be fearful of losing their jobs – regulating AT&T’s internet will have an impact on its bottom line. Free Press has a flimsy argument if you think about it – but it certainly wasn’t made to evoke thought.

Is this why there are so many Viagra ads on the baseball playoffs this year?

October 21, 2009October 21, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

A new study reports that young male voters for non-winning 2008 Presidential candidates experienced drops in testosterone levels after the results were announced. Males who voted for Barack Obama maintained higher levels of testosterone than they otherwise would at night. Aside from being a little funny, it underscores a simple truth – politics is about more than just rational debates over ideas, but also about emotional and physical reactions to candidates. Put more simply, politics is of the heart at least as much as it is of the mind.

Stay on target

October 19, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

This commercial started running earlier in the NFL season, but seemed to get less airplay after Troy Polamalu’s injury. With the safety back on the field for the Steelers, this commercial is back in the Sunday afternoon lineup. And, for aspiring PR flacks, it offers a good lesson for staying on message:

Note that Polamalu answered his own questions – not the reporter’s – and even found a way to pivot off the reporters’ line of discussion (“You asked with your eyes…”) onto his own. Textbook – even if it is just a commercial.

Obama’s falling marketability

October 16, 2009October 14, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Evan Coyne Maloney is one of the best independent filmmakers out there. Not only does he almost guarantee hilarity, but he makes intelligent points as well. This video is a bit long (ten minutes) but interesting and worth a watch:

Study: Still waiting on that online advocacy revolution

October 15, 2009October 15, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

A new study released by a troika of new media firms (2ndSix, TribeEffect, and Chris Lisi Communications) charts some surprising trends in online advocacy – more accurately, the lack thereof.

The study evaluates 102 top trade associations, membership organizations, and other groups with political advocacy goals and charts their use of a number of online tools – everything from collecting email sign ups to Twitter to blog badges to Facebook and everything in between. Most of the tools considered were either free or low-cost; yet the study found a surprising lack of use:

Overall, there is a lag in the implementation of the new media tools. Many of the organizations reviewed in this report have not yet embraced or employed many of the readily accessible online communication and social media tools… 76% of the most commonly used social media tools are not being utilized to communicate with members, voters and other constituencies.

On the heels of the Obama Campaign, Washington D.C. was abuzz with the possibilities of online campaigns. So what gives?

There are three things to consider when wondering why the digital wave hasn’t crashed the banks of the Potomac. First, online and social media are new, and some of the key decision-makers in these groups may not understand them fully. Being fully committed to online activity means surrendering some message control and directly engaging people who have negative comments. That may resonate with the front line folks, but senior management will usually have to deeply consider what amounts to a change of strategy.

The second item to consider – which draws a bit from the first – is that social media activity can be difficult to quantify to important stakeholders. Anyone can build a Facebook page with 5,000 fans given the resources; but translating that to action can be difficult. In other words: if you work for a health insurance trade group, and you recruit 5,000 Facebook fans or Twitter followers from all over the country, how many are going to be able to call Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office to tell her she shouldn’t bow down to the Democrats’ health care overhaul?

There’s a third and final item to keep in mind. The study itself admits that it doesn’t evaluate the effectiveness of the various tactics employed by each organization – in other words, the study simply charts charted whether a group has a presence on Facebook, but not whether that presence helped further their policy goals. Just like a real-world toolbox, and online toolbox has implements for a variety of uses. But just as you wouldn’t use a screw driver to pound nails into a plank of wood, you might look at your online goals and decide that Twitter or LinkedIn just isn’t right for you.

McDonnell has poll-mentum

October 15, 2009October 15, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

The latest Washington Post poll puts Bob McDonnell nine points ahead of Creigh Deeds in the race to be Virginia’s next governor. More telling about the zeitgeist in the Old Dominion though is the compilation of various polls pulled together by Virginia-based consultancy McGuire-Woods.

Most of the polls, which track the race at varying points since the summer, have McDonnell performing fairly consistently in each poll. While the individual polls differ (one has the Republican in the 53-55% range, the other has him bouncing between 48% and 51%) in each poll he maintains a consistent range. Deeds is much less consistent – the Post poll has him swinging between a low of 39% in early August to a high of 47% in mid-September. In each poll, however, Deeds appears to have dipped from his high water mark since mid-September.

What does it all mean? Well, McDonnell has maintained a steady stream of support – even as Deeds tried to get mileage out of his 20-year-old grad school writings and paint him as a Bible-thumping Cro-magnon who would do more to hurt the cause of women than Ike Turner and Amp energy drink combined. And where Deeds did make inroads, his campaign’s lack of a positive message – or even a coherent one – meant he couldn’t keep the support.

If these trends hold up, it wouldn’t be surprising if McDonnell’s get-out-the-vote efforts on election day are more successful and he outperforms the opinion polls. McDonnell voters have a candidate to vote for, which is actually motivating on election day; Deeds voters have a candidate to vote against, which is less exciting.

New and improved but with room for improvement

October 13, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

GOPscreenshot

The Republican Party re-launched GOP.com today. In addition to discussions about the party platform, the site includes multiple opportunities for grassroots participation. The home page shows the latest from the most important social networks.

These are all positive elements, and the timing is good – Republican excitement is naturally regenerating after the defeats of 2006 and 2008 just like a starfish regenerates an arm, and this provides an channel for that excitement.

The site seems to be a bit slow, though – which makes it tough to explore since the content is spread out fairly widely across the site. With multiple blogs and action centers, the site has lots of nooks and crannies. That’s probably better in the long term, but as an infant site, GOP.com looks a little light on content. Sub sections feel a little barren.

Because content is king, the Republican Party will need more meat on the bones. Since they have good avenues for user generated content, that’s more about increasing visibility – something they should have the infrastructure to do anyway.

Has everyone forgotten the true meaning of Columbus Day?

October 12, 2009October 12, 2009 ~ Jim Eltringham ~ 2 Comments

Today, the observed date of Columbus Day (the second Monday in October) actually coincides with the real Columbus Day, the anniversary of the day Columbus’s mini-fleet touched down in the Bahamas. Depending on your point of view, this is either a day to celebrate or mourn.

Brown University changed their academic calender to call the past three days “Fall Weekend” – apparently choosing not to honor an explorer who charted a new path to a new world, but keeping a three-day weekend. Other voices credit the landing of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria as the root cause of centuries of cultural clashes between natives and explorers.

The anti-Columbus sentiment has been building for decades, and has marginalized the discovery of the new world – not just in reduced participation in the holiday, but in elementary school classrooms as well.

There can be no doubt that native inhabitants of the Americas were mistreated, and it’s a black mark on Western civilization. Blaming Columbus, though, is like blaming Henry Ford for every car accident. Blame would better rest with someone who actually committed acts against American Indian tribes, acts such as the forcible removal of tribes from their lands to reservations, announced so benevolently by President Andrew Jackson:

And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous.

Not only does Jackson get a free pass on his role in the Trail of Tears, we honor him on the $20 bill – not to mention yearly tributes to him (and a guy who kept slaves) from local Democrat parties.

Christopher Columbus himself was no saint, despite the bravery and skill he exhibited in opening up passage to the New World. Even Columbus’s celebrants freely admit his flaws. But it isn’t much of a stretch to have a federal holiday to honor the positive achievements of a flawed individual – in fact, there’s one every January. Just as overlooking Columbus’s flaws would lead to an incomplete view of history, so too would overlooking his achievements.

Happy Columbus Day.