What Carville has said....(RE: Brazile and other threads about theme)

[Gloria]

Pulled from an earlier thread on Brazile's piece on winning...and a thread about the need of an overarching theme to put all these economic stresses into one coherent theme that will hit people on the emotional level...to counteract the "fear" game being played by Bushco.....

*******
Here's what Carville said....
(and Ann Richards, too)....

I wrote this damned thing exactly 1 YEAR AGO.....

http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/DemMessage91103...




A Media Watch Special Report......... September 11, 2003

THE DEMOCRATIC MESSAGE IN 2004: LOOKING BACK TO FIND THE FUTURE

by Gloria R. Lalumia



On August 11, 2003, Former Texas Governor Ann Richards paid a visit to Larry King; a caller asked the following question:



CALLER: We all know that Democratic candidates are reduced to basically soundbytes and ridicule in the media. How can Democrats force attention back to the fact that whether it's the problems with the economy, national security, utility and industrial deregulation are the products of failed regressive Republican Party policies…



RICHARDS: Once our nominee is chosen, the opportunity for getting the message out there is going to be much easier than it is now. Because there's so many candidates it just kind of becomes a clutter. But once that nominee is chosen the biggest problem the Democrats are going to have is choosing a single message and not being all over the place. Because of the Bush record on the economy, on medical care, on education, we have such a wealth of stuff that we can use, that I'm afraid that we're going to get too splayed out and there isn't going to be a concise message. Do you understand? KING: You would make it a one-issue campaign?

RICHARDS: Well, no, you don't do that, but you try to select an issue so that it can encompass more than one or two things and consistently drive that message home

(http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/11/lkl.00.html ).




SNIP


In the March 11, 2002 Salon Interview with Joan Walsh, Carville was already commenting on what he saw as strong currents in the Democratic party and the nation and the type of candidate he favored:



Carville: “And I think there's a real hunger in the party, and in the country, for someone who's gonna stand up for them, stand up and fight for something.”

Walsh: Who might that be? Do you have a candidate for 2004?

Carville: You know what? I'm for the person who can stand up and articulate where this party ought to go, who can do it in a tough way, who's not saying something one day and apologizing the next. I'll be for that person. (“Carville on His Candidate: The Salon Interview: James Carville”

(http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2002/03/11/carville... intro only

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/pearly/htmls/carville-sa... full text).



Within the last few months Carville has talked in more specific terms about the message such a candidate should deliver. In a July 23, 2003 interview with TomPaine.com, Carville argues that Democrats need a “big issue” in 2004:



‘"If it comes to who is going to get a break, people who make $1 million today or young kids who will make the country tomorrow, you don't even have to look."

And that lead to what Carville said was the big issue for Democrats in '04, what he called the Bush administration's reversal of "the generational promise of America – each time we do what we can do to make the next generation better."

"That promise, today like no other time in our lifetime, is under attack," he said. "The idea that we are a society beyond our own self-interest is under attack. We are told America is best when people are interested in ourselves. We know America is better when we're based on a common interest.

"We have a president that is no longer interested in what happens to the next generation. We have a president that is no longer interested in what happens to the promise of America.”’ (“James Carville's Rx For Democrats,” Steven Rosenfeld, TomPaine.com, July 23, 2003 http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8430 ).



In 1992, “Putting People First” carried with it the idea of reversing years of “losing ground” that many Americans had experienced under Reagan/Bush; Carville’s new twist on “generations” takes the 1992 mantra and connects it to the theme of what the people of this country can expect to leave for their children’s futures. (In my view, Clinton’s signature theme song, “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” by Fleetwood Mac was used to rev up anticipation for a Clinton presidency rather than the idea of “generations.”) A message of “the generational promise” seeks to reconnect Americans to a sense of “the greater good” and a positive sense of unity as a nation; it takes the “Putting People First” mantra to a higher level and gives Americans the opportunity to consider a broader purpose when they vote.

MORE





PS----Carol Mosely Braun was the ONLY candidate to even come close to this theme.....(see full piece)

[Gloria]

1. Shameless bump.....

Carville has it right...

[Donna Zen]

5. Carville was right.

Yeah_I'll give him that...although he has ticked me off lately. The theme for me is "It's the democracy-stupid."

[Doosh]

2. we've already lost our opportunity for a "big defining issue"

and Bush has already defined Kerry and put him in the box with the "flip flopper" thing.

[realFedUp]

3. "don't stop thinking about tomorrow..."

I think the message that resonates with Republicans
is get all you can now.

The campaign has to find a message that scares voters
into ousting Bush Inc....make the Republicans scary
(which most of us feel now, but put the message
into fewer words.
Maybe it takes visuals, like the 7 minute delay
and deer in the headlights look on Bush....

[okieinpain]

4. why aren't they on the campaign, why? don't freakin tell me

kerry has a damn ego.