A little over two weeks ago, Joe Gandelman published a review of the documentary So Goes The Nation. It’s a great review, that convinced me that this was one documentary I had to watch.
Joe, being the generous guy he is, asked me whether I would like to get it from him. He sent it to me shortly afterwards and… I received it in the mail a couple of days ago and watched it yesterday evening. Joe’s review is so good that I haven’t got much to add (to it). In short: this is one great documentary. If you wonder, every now and then, how political campaigns are organized, what tricks are used etc. So Goes the Nation is a must watch.
A couple of “lessons” the Dems had to learn, as So Goes the Nation proves: you’ve got to communicate one clear message, not several. One should be able to summarize that message in one sentence. Second, do not be afraid to attack your opponents. The Democrats did some polling, the results showed that ‘swing voters’ did not like negative ads. So, the Democrats thought “lets not do a lot of negative campaigning”. Major mistake: as Republican ‘masters of propaganda’ said, “people lie”. They might say they don’t like negative ads, but guess what, they work nonetheless.
Third, one has to approach elections as a war, not merely as an ideological battle. It’s a war and, in love and war everything is allowed. Sadly, so this documentary shows, it is not about good policy suggestions, it is about winning. If you want to win, you must not be afraid to use serious issues for political gain. The best campaigners (not the candidates, but the professional campaigners, the staff) concentrate on winning, and winning only. Not formulating good policy.
Those were just a couple of points, there is much more to this DVD, for that, you really have to read Joe’s post and, well, you just have to watch So Goes the Nation.
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