This is going out in a hurry so I apologize in advance for the inevitable mistakes, oversights, lack of snazziness (never my strog suit) and overall rantiness. I am, like you and like the election, almost out of time altogether.
I, and most of us Kossacks, don't make ads. We don't craft narratives, or even messages. We don't strategize for the campaign.
We knock on doors. We make phone calls. We plant signs. We take time from our jobs and from our families, to go out and take that beach for Obama and for the democratic party.
In other words, you and I are the infantry.
So, I must ask, how is the air support in your area?
If you are the infantry, you know whether or not you have air support in your area. Almost everywhere is a battleground, if not for Obama, for Congress, and beyond. Ask yourself, do you want to know that the planes and the artillery war are softening the ground for your message? You do, and if you don't, you should. It makes all the difference. It means your message goes with the grain instead of against it.
Well is the air support there? Or are they, god forbid, landing shells on us? Maybe, maybe not. A lot of that is local. That's a very good strategy. But my point is, it is our RESPONSIBILITY, if not our DUTY, to check and report ASAP if it's working or not. Not if things keep getting worse. Not if nothing happens in 2 or 3 or 4 weeks. NOW. It's our responsibility, as much as to storm that beach. And my own observation is, there is some, but we could use much more, and more relevant.
So, do I stop just because I don't get enough ads? Should you? Of course not. But how much longer does it take to move an inch, to get through a person, when the ground isn't prepared? When you have to get them to scrap their narrative, and change their frame of mind completely? I admit that I can be lucky every now and then, but I'm simply not that good. Are you? What about the rest of your group?
When I canvassed in 2004, people were already disgusted with Bush and the republicans, at least where I went. But funny - funny! - not everybody voted on the basis of that. Many other considerations end up playing. Character. Fear. Distractions. A lot was what the air campaign had planted into their minds. Shaping up the same way this time.
So, do you scream: where is the goddamn artillery? Hell yes. Even if you have it, you want more. You paid for it, after all.
Why shouldn't I be able to knock on a door, and hear:
"Thank you for dropping by. I will never vote for mccain after what he did to that lady in the wheelchair, I don't care how many years he was a POW."
or:
"Is it true what palin did to women who were raped in her town? That is shameful. I would never put somebody like that near the White House!"
"Ok then, sir or madam, here is your information on what to take with you to the polls in your area, or how to register and vote absentee, your rights as a voter, where to call if you are intimidated, yadda yadda yadda."
Can somebody tell me, why shouldn't I f*cking have that?
I'm not even remotely saying that we are doomed. Far from it. My point is, if you want to do a good job on the ground, you need an equally good air campaign WHERE YOU ARE. One needs the other. If we do both well, we are unstoppable.