Team Biden — it’s time to step up to the big leagues now that the contours of the 2020 campaign are coming into focus in the “time of Covid 19”. Agree or disagree with him on policy and other matters — former RNC Chairman Michael Steele is exactly right that Trump is “stealing the show” simply by sucking all of the air out of the [daily media coverage] room, as it were.
Never learning a lesson from 2016, the media is poised to give Trump hundreds and hundreds more hours of free airtime — scheduled on a daily basis — to throw his schtick at America right through election day. We all know it’s bullshit and we all know and believe that he harms himself everyday by throwing out the never-ending lies, racism, divisiveness and red meat to the kool-aid drinkers in his “base”. But you can’t just ignore it and think everyone will see it the same way we do (ask John Kerry about that and his Purple Heart / war hero status going into Summer of 2004).
And while I suspect that we all believe there are some really good things going on at Camp Biden; in terms of the ability to combat the campaign on this particular ‘front’ in the war — it seems that Team Biden has brought a letter opener to automatic weapons firefight.
So here’s some thoughts for what the Biden campaign may consider doing differently / better:
- Get Joe out of his Basement! The Dems have about 90% of Hollywood supporting the cause. Tap into some of those highly skilled and talented allies and get a plan to put Biden on-air with much better production values and on a frequency that makes his streaming appearances “must see tv” — especially for his supporters.
- Spend some money on something that will have Value! The various pockets of significant funds raised to date [as one example: Politico 1-2-20 “Dems rocket into 2020 with huge donor windfall”] can be tapped to create a “fit for purpose” production company that can work with the Biden team’s political messaging arm to script and support (graphics, b-roll, video clips) a telecast that is polished, professional and doesn’t look like a basement blogger that has his PJ’s on just below camera.
- Get the schedule in place and the telecast activated and on the air ASAP! Find an empty warehouse with good access to power and fiber and lease it for the next 6 - 9 months, bring in the back-up gensets and get your security sorted. Hand it over to the the Production Company and let them create the set, equip the production team and get your ‘behind the camera’ staffing sorted. Inasmuch as it’s still ‘Covid cautious time’, ensure that the production company staff are trained up with the “best practices” being used by other essential services workplaces. And don’t forget redundancy and resiliency. It seems obvious, but we can’t have the prospect of 4 more years of the current shitshow resting on the health and personal life circumstances of a single sound tech or camera person dropping out / “calling in sick” on Day 2 or Day 80.
- Bonus feature — lend the set / post production equipment to some of the up and coming “media resistance fighters” such as Eleven Films (recognizing that that particular Husband and Wife Production company is in Oregon, I believe).
- Finally, Team Biden, if you take this unsolicited amateur advice (which I really hope that you do) and embark on this effort, I want the Production Company to be named “America Rises productions”. Just sayin’!