A california organization that is working at organizing progressives statewide, helping progressive candidates, supporting progressive issue initiatives-- has commissioned a post election poll, with Chris Bowers participation, looking at what issues did and did not motivate Republican, Democratic and independent voters.
They found that the "culture of corruption" theme was ineffective. It had just about no effect upon independents, where the effect was most needed. This was Busby's big theme and one the Democratic leadership has been touting. It didn't work because the independents didn't think the Democrats are much better or more likely to be trusted, corruption-wise.
I spoke with Rick Jacobs, founder of the organization, Courage campaign, and he told me they followed up on the initial poll with a second one which revealed that a message which DOES resonate with independents goes like this:
"Who Do You Trust to Challenge Bush?"
This is a message that makes sense. I like the idea of a message that says-- "Who do you trust to Challenge Bush to Change the Nation's Course? The Republican incumbent, who votes with Bush on command, or the Democrat who owes nothing to Bush or the Republican party?
My kudos to this team of leaders who are taking some smart initiatives.
I found out about this work from an article that discusses the poll in more detail on OpEdNews.com