The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has issued a 39-page guidebook to help Republicans running for the U.S. Senate to maximize the blogosphere and avoid a "Macaca moment." The Politico reports...
The Macaca moment has morphed into an official learning tool for the Republican establishment. It's right there, on pages 18 and 22 of an Internet guide from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that its chairman, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), hopes will become scripture for the 2008 candidates.
Always assume you're being recorded, and always record your opponent. The blogs -- oh, scratch that -- the Republican blogs are your friends, so use them for rapid response in good times and bad.
"The paradigmatic example of failure to do so is the 'macaca' moment," reads the guidebook (excerpted here), referring to a remark last year by former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) that was captured on video and sunk his reelection campaign.
And btw, the mainstream media are so, uh, 2006. The first stop for press secretaries, according to the guidebook, should be bloggers who can create "buzz" and inevitably trigger stories in the drippy MSM.
The guidebook, 39 pages long and distributed last week to GOP Senate campaigns, underscores attempts by Republicans to level the Web-based playing field after Democrats, in Ensign's view, leveraged their Internet savvy into electoral wins. Republicans remain almost haunted by their 2006 missteps, particularly the way the macaca incident exposed chasms in their new media campaign strategy.
"It is critical that Republicans not let Democrats continue the edge," Ensign said. "They have had an edge on us."
The NRSC has hired two press secretaries for blogger outreach, and an in-house Web designer and video producer to assist campaigns. The committee also built a production studio in its basement for candidates to cut Web ads and trained campaign aides.
This is excellent news.
A.C. Kleinheider has some thoughts about the relationship between politicians and bloggers.
And, is this an early example of the NRSC plan in action?
Bill: While I think that most would not use the words "republican" and "strategy" together in the same sentence...
I totally agree that the mainstream media is somewhat behind the times in anticipating what the public wants in media coverage. No doubt in my mind that the smart candidates are taking advantage of bloggers. The Edwards camp invited me to a taping of Iowa Press this weekend and invited me to blog.
check out this post: http://thedemomemo.com/2007/06/caucusgoers_are_asked_how_do_y.html
Posted by: Claire Celsi | June 14, 2007 3:52 PM | Permalink to Comment