fandomhigh | American Political Campaigning (1st period)

Josh was tacking a large map of Ohio to the wall as his political campaign students filed in. When they had all arrived, he turned around, pointed at Dana and said, "how many days until the election?"

He waited for the answer before continuing. "Today we talk about campaign strategy. Or in other words, why you should win and the other candidate should become a cocktail party joke."

Josh walked over to the board. "At its most basic, the campaign strategy is the political equation that will get your candidate the majority of votes cast in the election: 50 percent plus one vote."

He wrote "50% + 1" on the board and smacked it. "This seems ridiculously obvious, but it's a hard lesson to remember. You only need 50 percent plus one vote. You're not out to convince everyone. You're out to get your people to the polls and as many undecideds and soft voters of the other guy to get to 50 percent plus one. Any votes past that is gravy. You just need enough to win. An election, if you think about it, is the ultimate pass-fail grading system." He smiled. "The strategy gets you to win. Or as Lee Atwater put it, 'if you insure the other candidate can't possibly get elected, you should do okay.'"

He looked down at his notes. "Few other things to remember: the strategy can't be static. If the political climate changes, you have to change with it. Think the Congressional races in 2002--if you didn't say something about terrorism or the military you looked hopelessly out of touch at best, and bordering on criminally negligent at worse." He made a face. "I've seen some of the political ads that were rolled out for that election. It wasn't pretty.

"Anyway. You also need to remember there is always someone running against you--either in the general election or in the primary. If you're really lucky, you'll get both. Politics isn't solitaire: it's poker. And assume your opponent is just as smart as you are. They'll attack you where you're weak, and defend against your attacks. Never assume they're stupid, blind, or lazy.

"The entire key to a campaign is communication." Josh paused. "Sorry for the regrettable amount of alliteration in that last sentence. So. Don't forget that the entire point of this is to get voters to support your guy. To win, you need to figure out who would be in your winning voting coalition, find out what they care about, and go about convincing them that you're the one that can deliver it." He smirked. "And make sure that your voting coalition is enough people to get you to that 50 percent plus one, please. There are an embarrassing number of campaigns who failed at math on this point."

He put his notes down. "Okay. Say you're running as a Republican incumbent in Ohio this election cycle. What would be a good strategy for getting elected that doesn't include changing your name, your party affiliation and making the voters forget you've ever met George Bush?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know the drill, yay!

Isabel Evans

Eric Weiss.

Marty Blank

He's pretty into it, huh?

Isabel took notes and sipped at her coffee. Occasionally she wondered exactly how many shots of espresso were in whatever it was Professor Lyman was drinking.

Eric listened, considered, listened, considered. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Zzzzzzz

Oh, look, a wad of paper heading Clarence's way.

"Rise and shine!"

*mumble-grumble-takes-crappy-notes*

You're running as a Republican incumbent in Ohio this election cycle. What would be a good strategy for getting elected that doesn't include changing your name, your party affiliation and making the voters forget you've ever met George Bush?

Remember, this is Fandom. Brainwashing the electorate is completely acceptable.

"Perhaps a hefty payoff to Diebold?" she asked. Sadly, she was half serious. "It is Ohio after all."

Josh laughed. "It's an option," he said, "but probably one that people will be looking for this time around."

"I'd hope so. But short of doing everything you said, I guess I'd have to fall back on my record and hope that it speaks for itself." Isabel shrugged. "Of course if I'm a republican canidate my record probably says 'I'm nothing but a rubberstamp for the idiot in chief and care more about legislation that benefits the corporations that line my pockets then the average citizen'."

"Which has worked," Josh pointed out. "Just make sure you do a lot of flag waving and talking about freedom in your ads."

"This is Ohio, right?" Marty said rubbing his eyes. "Don't we just have to give them a free cow to get votes? Besides it's an off season election. Barely anyone but the dedicated and the insane vote then."

"It might not be a presidential year, true," Josh admitted, "but Ohio's electing a Senator and a new governor. People'll be coming out. We just want to ensure it's good Democrats voting. The Republicans can all stay home."

"So how do we keep them at home?" Marty asked. "Pray for rain? Slash the tires of all the people driving Cadillac Escalades? Ransom Rush Limbaugh?"

"Unfortunately, Republicans tend to vote like the humorless automatons they resemble," Josh grumbled. "It's the Democrats who tend to stay home if it's raining or there's a really good rerun of Galaxy Quest on television. But if you get them figuring that it's totally pointless to go to the polls--if there's no way their candidate's going to win, well, bonus points for us."

"So we just need a biased media and polls to sway public opinion," Marty replied. "Plus some special interest groups whose views are contrary to the opponents."

"Exactly," Josh said, grinning. "Who do we need to see about those kinds of things? That's how you form a strategy."

"Well, I'd play the danger card. Hi, I'm a Republican, but I care about surprising Middle Ground Liberal Social Issue A and B but for True Conservative Reason C. It's not because I'm a treehugger or like singing Kumbaya. It's because I'm not going to reject a policy that makes sense if the opposition also happens to like it. And then I'll whip the pants off their implementation of supporting Social Issues A and B. Or at least say that's what I'm doing."

Josh grinned. "Perfect. Triangulation works both ways--Democrats who are tough on terrorism as well as Republicans who are pro-choice."

Questions about the material? Or Student Council? He's here.

I am done!

Never assume they're stupid, blind, or lazy.

Unless it's the Lieberman campaign. Where stupidity is always a possibility. Yes, let's host our website on a $15/month shared server and then wonder why it crashes the day of the primary.

I think Laura should hire Josh to run her next bid for election. ::grins::

*sighs*

I'm from Ohio. It's all cows and republicans.

*pats you OMG!*

American Political Campaigning (1st period)

Sign in (APC 9/13)

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Listen to the lecture

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Answer the discussion question

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Talk with Josh after class

OOC

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