Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
It's a guilty pleasure, but I love negative political ads. I love the grainy footage they always choose, showing the opponent (always in slow motion) shaking his head or eating or looking sinister. There are usually some pull-quotes from newspapers ("The Journal-Press calls it 'shameful' and 'undignified'....") And then there's the voice-over, which is either older-male-disgusted ("Taxes. Crime. You'd think these would be important issues. But not to Candidate X!") or softer-female-urgent ("What do we really know about Candidate X?")
But before the negative spots can be produced, you've got to get the goods -- or whatever you can get --- on your opponent. It's called "oppo," short for "opposition research."
And this year, the Democrats are starting early. From today's Washington Post:
Democratic officials are advising campaigns to hire trackers to follow their Republican opponents to public events with video cameras, ready to catch any gaffe or misstatement. And the Democratic National Committee last week issued a call to the public to submit any embarrassing audio or video of Republicans, as well as copies of their direct-mail advertisements.
Party officials would not say how many staffers are working on opposition research. Such work used to be farmed out to campaign consultants, but the DCCC brought research operations in-house in 2008 to be more nimble. "It may appear to be more aggressive this cycle because what we're finding on Republicans is so rich," Vogel said.
Get ready.
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May '10
Re: Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
But haven't the R's already begun? Isn't that what was really going on in the Etheridge student assault?
Jun '10
Re: Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
Might want to go ask Craig Deeds and the Virginia Democrats how well the standard" lie, distort, attack " political playbook of the Democrat Media machine worked for them last year in the VA Governors race.
The politics of personal destruction are not going to work this year. People are fed up with grandstanding politicians. They have real worries and want real answers. These tactics will work no better for Dems nationally then it did for Democrats in Virginia.
Jul '10
Re: Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
I think the political consulting racket is a crime against democracy and should be abolished and its practitioners forced to find honest work. The tip-toeing care with which politicians must now choose their words lest someone somewhere be offended has led to antiseptic sound bytes devoid of passion or interest. If you have written to a legislator, you know the sort of bland boilerplate you get back.The Sarah Palin phenomenon can be explained in part by her willingness to speak plainly about issues and opponents.
Re: Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
I have an image in my mind of a guy in a turtleneck taking his pipe out of his mouth to tell us how "rich" he finds the indiscretions of his political opponents. "Rich?" Who uses that word?
May '10
Re: Democrats Only Chance in November? Really Good Oppo.
I only hope the R's are doing the same.
Enjoy the 3 seconds of "negative" in this add. It matches Rob Long's description: grainy, sinister, and with an out-of-context quote. Multitask during the 30 second intro.