DNC To Use Activist-Based Video Tracking Of Republicans

I thought they disliked this kind of thing when Etheridge was recently caught on tape? Actually it's something I've been expecting and why I continue to insist that the DNC gets new media in ways the GOP still refuses to embrace. It's intent on controlling the narrative, while the DNC is more interested in fueling constituent and blog-based activism from the Left.

Democrat-aligned parties have also funded the mechanisms to accomplish it. You can go to even deeply Red districts and find an activist infrastructure on the Left, often blog-based. Meanwhile, GOP campaigns pay consultants to send out annoying spam emails to every blogger under the sun.

On Tuesday, the DNC will debut a new web-based feature that will empower several million Democratic activists to serve as “trackers” of Republican candidates throughout the country. In a move that could add a broad new element of accountability to elections — or simply make the political process even more gaffe-centric — the DNC is encouraging its followers to upload video, mail pieces or audio recordings of GOP officials to a DNC-run site. If carried out as planned, the new online tool could drastically alter the landscape of the 2010 elections, with campaign functions contracted out to hundreds of free volunteers. At a minimum, it is a vivid illustration of the modern-day campaign, where a slip-up by a candidate caught on video could have profound impacts on his or her electoral prospects.

Aides freely admit that the goal is to create another “Macaca moment” — in which former Senator George Allen (R-Va.) famously doomed his reelection hopes by belittling an opposition videographer with a racial slur — or at least to unearth a viral nugget such as those that changed the course of the health care debate at town halls last summer.

Comments

[Andrew X]

Strange creatures bearing the Blue Zero have been seen on our borders..... Seldom do Obamatrons journey in the open under the sun, yet these have done so.

You are being tracked.

[Joe]

Dan Collins has the perfect name for the new Olberman, Maddow and Weigel show...

http://powip.com/2010/06/congratulations-to-dave-weigel-and-rachel-maddow/

[Jana]

Well, this is a bit of catch-up.

Viral video after viral video of Dem gaffes have been uploaded over the past year. I would agree that the DNC making itself a clearinghouse for such videos is clever on their part.

I know this is your thing -- you certainly know more about it than I do -- but I can't remember one viral video making a Republican looking really stupid, but I can remember many highlighting the idiocy of Democrat pols.

The main difference, I think, is that the MSM will put Republican gaffes in their coverage, while gaffes we catch are ignored. What makes you think that if the Republican establishment were collecting these in any official capacity that things would be different?

[Jana]

Geraghty makes the same point with examples: http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/230442/live-youtube-clip-die-youtube-clip

These would be all over the news if they were Republicans.

[Insufficiently Sensitive]

Agree about the RNC's rigidity in 'controlling the message'. I've been complaining about their sucky messages for eighteen months - but they've cleverly rigged their website so that it transmits, but will not receive. No suggestions nor comments will be tolerated in the sacred enclave of the RNC.

So they've pissed away eighteen months stuck on their stupid "we're not those horrible Democrats! Send money!!!!!"

When they might have been making, or considering suggestions for, some kind of effort at promoting a positive vision for a superior direction than is being taken by the Obamists.

[seekeronos]

National GOP = Whigs, circa 1852... a dying party (note that they died due to a number of divisive issues in policy, particularly over Slavery).

Note further, that the Whigs disbanded in 1856, five years before the opening shots at Ft. Sumter.

Of current import would be such divisive issues as Cap & Tax (erm, Trade I mean), ObamaCare, and the imminent inflation of the currency...

...matters which threaten to impose a far more dire form of financial slavery upon us all, save for the "proletarian" elites of the likes of Mr. Soros and his cronies on the Left, of course.

[Rick Caird]

I believe in the advice from Glenn Reynolds: bring your own camera. My concern with this "clearinghouse" is heavily edited videos and no recourse to correct them.

[MIKE ACQUISTO]

FIRE MICHAEL STEELE!!!!!
I've been saying this for 2 years now. The man is nowhere to be found. His leadership is non-existent. The "party" organization is floundering and flailing around trying to get a grasp on what the strategy should be to win the next election, and there is none. The "party" is acting as though the Democrat leadership will just roll over and let them take over in november, just because the poll numbers are low. The GOP is letting the "TEA party" people lead them, and at least they are showing some inclination to do so! The GOP base is demoralized, disgusted, and still feeling like the leadership is ignoring them (they are!) and has maintained a business as usual attitude. And at this point the only candidate we have for ANY office anywhere inthe country is SARAH PALIN? As my kids say, "WTF" If we don't get some leadership between now and November, Queen Nancy, Prince Harry and King Barack will be there forever!!!!

[Nostromo]

I, a retired lawyer, e-mailed an offer to help the Rubio campaign until the last dog dies, about a month ago. Crickets.

[jcp370]

I have called and gone into my PA Republican candidates' offices for both the House & the Senate on multiple occasions to volunteer my services. Each time, I bring my resume and my offer to help, they take my name, email & phone number and never call. I am unemployed and have a 25-year background in the property-casualty industry. As a consultant, I have spoken before large audiences, worked with Fortune 100 companies, developed marketing proposals, written comprehensive consulting reports, etc. But there is nothing the Republican party can find for me to do for them. They don't need me. Multiply my story by a million and you have the Republican party. I think those that think they are trying to control the message give them way too much credit. It is incompetence pure & simple. What else could explain the ability of the party to actually repel informed, interested people who are are desperate to help? The Democrats, on the other hand, are able to organize and mobilize millions of people who go along only for the free eats.

[PJ]

The GOP could be paranoid the MSM will manipulate any statements by the most obscurely associated. The Dems, on the other hand, needn't worry about such things, and can let the kids experiment.

[JayJay]

The Repubs on the whole are still in abacus mode while the Dems are using super computers. The Repubs really need to lose the stodgy suit and tie and get with the times. It isn't like many have not offered their services and been shunned and to think that the cost of a few good bloggers is a lot less than "media consultants" shows that they don't have a grasp on how the world has changed around them. They need their Rip Van Winkle moment here.

[Mwalimu Daudi]

The failure to utilize the new media is just a symptom of what I believe is the real problem with the GOP: complacency. The lefty GOP Establishment is convinced that the 2010 elections are in the bag, and that they can sit around watching strippers pole dance and on Election day the voters will dump Democrats in record numbers.

Perhaps that will happen. But does anyone remember the 1998 elections? That was supposed to be a good year (not a great one) for the GOP. Back then the GOP Establishment was convinced they would have a veto-proof Senate majority and record numbers in the House. Instead, they broke even in the Senate and wound up losing a handful of House seats. It was seen as a massive defeat for the GOP - and it was.

Keep in mind that in the era of ACORN elections can no longer be considered on the level. It's hard to imagine the GOP losing seats this November, but given the vast complacency I see the possibility cannot be ignored. As it stands now I predict that the GOP will make modest gains in November, and by "modest" possibly only 1-2 Senate seats and a dozen or so House seats. This will be viewed (correctly) as another massive defeat for the GOP.

If you think this is too pessimistic, just look at the GOP's record in special House races since January 2009. One word describes it: lousy.

[David]

Sarah Palin gets it. She changed the national debate on healthcare reform with one post on her Facebook page, and she will often respond if you write to her. What the GOP establishment doesn't seem to grasp is the fact that by using new media to reach out to the base, they can do what Palin did--bypass the established media, connect directly and completely change the rules.

[Veronica]

what can I say -- they suck, Dan. And they know, like dogs returning to their vomit, we will vote for them anyway to kick the socialist scumbag out of office.

We're free promoters, fundraisers, you name it -- the lot of us, grassroots bloggers AND commenters.

Jerks. Thanks for bringing this up.