WTF! "British Elections to have Obama Flavor" Dem Campaign Ops "Guns for Hire"

[KoKo]

Last edited Wed Jul 16, 2014, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)

(And there are DU'ers who still believe we have a REAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY to OPPOSE THE REPUBLICANS here at home)


British elections to have Obama flavor

Next year's elections in Great Britain may look very familiar to American audiences.

And why not? Former political advisers to President Obama have signed up as consultants to the two major British parties.

The Labor Party announced last week it has retained the services of long-time Obama strategist David Axelrod.

Last year, the Conservatives -- led by Prime Minister David Cameron -- retained Obama's 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina.

Cameron is expected to be challenged next year by Labor leader Ed Miliband.

The Washington Post notes that British politicians have hired U.S. consultants in the past, but "it is unusual for a sitting American president to have two of his most prominent former campaign gurus working on opposite sides of an election that will determine who leads the government of Washington's closest ally."

Reports The Post:

"Already, both Miliband and Cameron are sounding out themes that will be familiar to anyone who followed Obama's 2012 campaign. Miliband speaks often of a 'cost-of-living crisis' for Britons and says the current government has widened the gap between rich and poor.

"Cameron has countered with evidence of an improving economy and has urged his countrymen not to hand control back to a Labor Party that oversaw Britain's descent into recession before being ousted after 13 years in power."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/04/20/obama-david-axelrod-jim-messina-david-cameron-ed-milibans/7934399/

[jberryhill]

1. What is Axelrod supposed to do for a living?

I'm having trouble understanding your prefatory comment.

Professional campaign advisor gets job advising campaign.

What is he supposed to be doing?

[alp227]

2. why would Jim Messina advise a right wing party at all, even David Cameron? nt

[jberryhill]

13. beats me

I'm not anyone's moral minder but myself. I guess if one asked him, he might have his reasons. That's why the business of moral minding gets complicated.

[KoKo]

3. And, just in case folks think I'm a Bomb Thrower...this News goes back to May this Year..

(A Search showed these Links to Press/Media Reports...but, I never knew about it before. I guess it didn't get a BUZZ or something amongst the "Libreral Media" that I read. These Links are just a SAMPLE of doing a search with SE of your Choice.. This is my "SE" Query ".Messina & Axelrod Involved in David Cameron's Elections" and look how long this info has been out there.)

-----------

British elections to have Obama flavor - USA Today
www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/04/20/obama-david-axelrod-jim...

Jul 14, 2014 · Next year's elections in Great Britain ... time Obama strategist David Axelrod. ... s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina. Cameron is expected to be ...
Once Allies, Ex-Obama Aides Face Off in British Campaign ...
www.nytimes.com/.../obama-crowd-blanches-as-ex-aide-jim-messina...

May 27, 2014 · ... I feel very comfortable with my decision to go to work for David Cameron,” said Mr. Messina, ... was involved in ... David Axelrod, left, and Jim ...
Obama Aides Axelrod, Messina Advising Labor, Conservatives ...
www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/axelrod-messina-UK-elections-Labor/2014/...

... UK elections | ... Jim Messina and David Axelrod ... is fielding criticism for his decision to accept a position with Prime Minister David Cameron, ...
Obama campaign gurus David Axelrod and Jim Messina to …
www.washingtonpost.com/world/obama-campaign-gurus-axelrod-and...

May 02, 2014 · ... Minister David Cameron and ... David Axelrod, architect of Obama’s rise ... of Washington’s closest ally. Both Axelrod and Messina have ...
At Westminster: Stars and Stripes, Axelrod and Messina ...
www.clydefitchreport.com/2014/05/british-elections-axelrod-messina...

... the Conservative leader David Cameron, is beside the point. Axelrod, ... British parliamentary elections, ... Whether Axelrod or Messina can persuade a wary ...
The Iran-Iraq War of Political Consulting | Washington ...
freebeacon.com/blog/the-iran-iraq-war-of-political-consulting

Former Obama campaign gurus David Axelrod and Jim Messina have taken their ... Axelrod is advising Cameron’s ... The British elections in 2015 will be ...
David Axelrod News - The New York Times
topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/david_axelrod...

David Axelrod and Jim Messina, ... candidate Ed Milliband and Conservative Party candidate David Cameron in Great ... Elections, Mayors ...
Ed Miliband signs up top Obama adviser David Axelrod for ...
www.theguardian.com › News › Politics › General election 2015

[tritsofme]

4. Um....why exactly is this controversial?

Sure it is unusual...but what is the problem here?

[KoKo]

5. Why are you asking ME? What do YOU THINK?

of two Dem Campaign Ops hiring themselves out to GB Elections...and taking different sides...Aside from the $$$$$$$$$$$'s...does nothing bother you about this?

[tritsofme]

6. Most Americans don't have any particular affinity for foreign political parties

Nor do I.

I can't blame Cameron for wanting the best in the business or Messina for taking such a high profile gig.

[KoKo]

7. Ahhh doesn't matter principles...it ends up WHO Pays Ya'?

[KoKo]

8. In Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine, American political consultants working together

President Obama campaign consultants make mark overseas

In Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities in Ukraine, American political consultants who worked against one another in Iowa and New Hampshire and then in the general election are facing off again in a somewhat surreal Eastern European replay of the 2008 campaign.

The firm headed by Hillary Clinton’s former chief strategist, Mark Penn, is helping run incumbent President Victor Yushchenko’s campaign. Meanwhile Paul Manafort, whose firm worked on Republican John McCain’s losing effort, and Tad Devine, a top strategist on the Democratic presidential campaigns of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, are consulting for Victor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian frontrunner in the polls.

For Penn, Manafort and Devine, foreign elections have been a lucrative source of business for years. But for the Chicago-based media consulting firm AKPD, the contract to help guide Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s campaign is part of a new, growth area of business that presented itself after the firm helped Barack Obama win the White House last fall.

Also assisting Tymoshenko is John Anzalone, a pollster who worked on the Obama campaign. And Obama's lead pollster in the campaign, Joel Benenson, also worked briefly in Ukraine this year, helping supporters of a rival presidential candidate, former Parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who courted comparisons with Obama (and whose billboards bear a faint resemblance to the iconic posters of Obama by Shepard Fairey).

The Ukraine race is hardly the only international opportunity available for consultants who had a hand in the Obama campaign. Since Obama's historic election in November, AKPD and Benenson Strategy Group alone have advised candidates or parties in Argentina, Bulgaria, Romania, Israel and Britain and have turned down offers to work in many more countries around the globe.

The attraction is easy to understand. Foreign campaigns typically pay more than domestic ones do, and they are lower risks for consultants coming off the image-enhancing boost of a presidential campaign, according to James Carville, the former Clinton strategist and talking head, who has worked for candidates in more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan (where he worked this year on Ashraf Ghani’s second-tier presidential campaign along with Devine’s firm).

“If you help elect a president and then you get involved in a governor’s race and you lose, it’s going to be a little bit damaging to your reputation,” he said. “But if you go to Peru and you run a presidential race and you lose, no one knows or cares. So why go to New Jersey and lose for 100 grand when you [can] go to Peru and lose for a million?”

American presidential campaign consultants have been earning huge fees from international campaigns since at least 1969, when Joe Napolitan — a Democratic consultant who worked on John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign and was credited with engineering Hubert Humphrey's surprisingly narrow 1968 loss to Richard Nixon — helped reelect Ferdinand Marcos as the Philippines’ president.

After helping elect Bill Clinton in 1992, consultants Carville, Stan Greenberg and Paul Begala went on to work for candidates in Israel, South Africa, Greece and the United Kingdom, just to name a few. And Penn's expansive international practice got a boost when he began polling for President Clinton, who recommended Penn to then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who then became a longtime client.

It’s difficult to track foreign campaign payments to American consultants, since they don’t fall under U.S. campaign finance or lobbying reporting requirements and most countries lack rigorous disclosure rules, but Ukrainian politics are thought to be particularly lucrative. Manafort’s and Penn’s firms have been involved in campaigns there for years. In fact, during last year's U.S. presidential campaign, Obama's allies at the Democratic National Committee highlighted Manafort's business partnership with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and suggested their firm’s work for Yanukovych conflicted with McCain’s criticism of Yanukovych’s ties to then-Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The upcoming presidential election in Ukraine is being watched closely given its geopolitical significance in U.S.-Russian relations.

MUCH MORE AT:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29410.html

[tritsofme]

9. Again, I am indifferent to this. If anything, it's nice to be on the winning side of an offshoring

equation.

[KoKo]

10. Your view does seem to be the prevailing one these days...

Interesting that.......

Do you benefit from the huge amount of money in these "Off Shoring Ventures" from American Political Consultants working GLOBALLY?

Or...are you for GLOBAL INTERESTS trump NATION/STATES Interests?

There is a growing movement that "Global World Government" is the only way to a "Peaceful/Well Balanced Society" to sustain our Earth. Are you one of those Voices?

[tritsofme]

11. No, I think there is nothing comparable in the world to America's professional political class.

The non-stop election cycles that have developed over the last 20 years and the army it takes to run them are quite unique throughout the world.

These people are good at what they do, or at least at convincing their clients of such, so it doesn't surprise me that the demand for their services doesn't stop at the water's edge.

I'm not sure how you found your way to world government.

[KoKo]

12. from the subject line in your reply to me....

"No, I think there is nothing comparable in the world to America's professional political class."

Quote from you above seems to say that "America's Professional Political Class" should be capable of running elections in countries all over the Globe for Fees. Which would seem to say that "America's Professional Political Class" is the one who should decide which candidates are elected all over the Globe for whichever country has the the Oligarch/Special Interest Money to hire the American Political Consultants to purchase the candidates who have the most money to HIRE THE consultants who can get them elected for America's Special Interests.

You don't see "Global Corporate Interest" in this? Do you see this in any way as Problematic? Do you not see this as American Political/Corporate Interests working against our American Constitution/Bill of Rights which was designed to keep the Citizens' Rights as the Primary Concern of the Government ?