Day: August 23, 2008

Negatively Speaking

MUDSLINGING, NAME-CALLING, ACCUSATIONS and counterattacks. Sounds like a bad way to run a marketing campaign–particularly during a presidential race–but all those negative ads may have a more positive result than you think. What many of us call “negative” or “attack” ads are termed “comparative” ads by those in the industry, and the bottom line is that they appear to work.

“They’re very effective,” says Rick Farmer, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, who has studied the impact of comparative ads. Farmer, other researchers and campaign consultants agree that negative ads are more memorable than positive ones, provided they reinforce a belief and remain relevant to the central issues of the marketing campaign. In political campaigns, comparative ads work because “people have a cynical view of politics and tend to believe the negative very quickly,” says Farmer.

Though many Americans say they don’t like negative political ads, research by faculty members at the University of Georgia found that not only are attack ads initially effective, but their impact increases over time, perhaps because they produce an emotional response. And positive ads used to counter them are not as effective because they’re ultimately less powerful than the opponent’s attack ad.

A safer route is to skip the attack ads altogether and use implied comparisons. Avis doesn’t directly attack Hertz, they simply “try harder.” Wendy’s legendary “Where’s the Beef?” campaign never directly named McDonald’s or Burger King but humorously implied that other burgers were smaller. In response to Kmart’s campaign exhorting female customers to clip coupons, Wal-Mart adroitly ran spots showing busy women who had no time to clip coupons enjoying the convenience of low prices every day without them. No mudslinging necessary–just build a campaign around the comparative benefits of working with you, and your customers will make all the right connections.

But of course, the Republicans will not heed the high scenario–they mcu prefer the crap that does nothing to educate the voter.

Today In Labor History

23 August

Workers looking for scabs board a streetcar in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania during a strike at the Pressed Steel Car Plant. A deputy sheriff shoots at them and dies in the return fire. The ensuing battle leaves 11 people dead – 1909

Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists accused of murder and tried unfairly, are executed. The case became an international cause and sparked demonstrations and strikes throughout the world – 1927

During the Great Depression, the Seattle Library Board announces it will fire married women if their husbands have jobs and can support them. Nine are fired; 14 others keep their positions by submitting affidavits and swearing to the fact that their husbands earned less than $100 a month – 1932

Seven merchant seamen crewing the SS Baton Rouge Victory lost their lives when the ship was sunk by Viet Cong action en route to Saigon – 1966

Farm Workers Organizing Committee (to later become United Farm Workers of America) granted a charter by the AFL-CIO – 1966

Bernanke: One Sharp Dude

No crap, Sherlock!

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday the financial crisis that has pounded the country — coupled with higher inflation — is taking a toll on the economy and poses a major challenge to Fed policymakers as they try to restore stability.

“Although we have seen improved functioning in some markets, the financial storm that reached gale force” around this time last year “has not yet subsided, and its effects on the broader economy are becoming apparent in the form of softening economic activity and rising unemployment,” Bernanke said in a speech to a high-profile economics conference here.

While Bernanke welcomed the recent drops in oil and other commodities’ prices, and believes inflation will moderate this year and next, the Fed chief also warned the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain.

The economy is the top concern for voters and of keen interest to presidential contenders Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, who are gearing up for their party’s conventions. Financial and credit problems are expected to smolder into next year. And, the unemployment rate, which jumped to a four-year high of 5.7 percent in July, is expected to keep rising.

The bulk of Bernanke’s speech dealt with the need to bolster oversight of the nation’s financial system to make it better able in the future to withstand future shocks.

To that end, Bernanke recommended that regulators work on ways to assess the health of the entire financial system, rather than the condition of individual banks, Wall Street investment firms or other financial companies — as is currently the focus.

You gotta love a guy that gets oaid to state the obvious.

Russians Dig In

Thousands of Georgians angry at the presence of Russian troops on the outskirts of the strategic Black Sea port of Poti took to the streets Saturday waving Georgian flags and urging the Russians to leave.

The protest came as a top Russian general said his country’s forces would keep patrolling Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia

On Friday, Russia said it had pulled back forces from Georgia in accordance with a EU-brokered cease-fire agreement. Russia, though, interprets the accord as allowing it to keep a substantial military presence in Georgia — a point hotly disputed by the United States, France and Britain.

Russian troops were taking positions Saturday in trenches they had dug near a bridge that provides the only access to Poti. Tanks and APCs were parked nearby. They had hoisted both Russian flags and the flag of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, the union of former Soviet republics that Georgia recently announced it had left. Emotions ran high, though direct confrontation was avoided.

Tracking Truant Students

May I say that this is an excellent idea, but it will cut back on the number of Republican voters, it they must stay in school.

Court authorities here will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new program requiring them to wear ankle bracelets with Global Positioning System monitoring.

But at least one group is worried the ankle bracelets will infringe on students’ privacy.

Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace, said she anticipates that about 50 students from four San Antonio-area school districts — likely to be mostly high schoolers — will wear the anklets during the six-month pilot program announced Friday. She said the time the students wear the anklets will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

“We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate,” Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity. “We can teach them now or run the risk of possible incarceration later on in life. I don’t want to see the latter.”

Penn said students in the program will wear the ankle bracelets full-time and will not be able to remove them. They’ll be selected as they come through her court, and Penn will target truant students with gang affiliations, those with a history of running away and skipping school and those who have been through her court multiple times.

Penn said the electronic monitoring is part of a comprehensive program she started four years ago to reduce truancy. She cited programs in Midland and Dallas as having success with similar electronic monitoring measures.

Yes, Irene, It Is Biden!

I apologize for the delay in posting but I was suffering from “Connectile Dysfunction”.  They have wonder drugs to help one get it up and to keep it there, but there is NOTHING to solve a bitch of a cable service.

The Obama campaign sent a text message announcing his choice to supporters’ phones and e-mail addresses about 3 a.m. EDT, the latest innovation by a tech-savvy operation that has deftly used the Web as a fundraising and organizing tool. The rollout was diminished somewhat when word of Obama’s choice began leaking out to news media shortly before 1 a.m. EDT.

Obama and his famously disciplined team managed to keep Biden’s selection a secret for several days, leading to a frenzy of speculation that mounted throughout the week. Two of those thought to be on the short list — Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh — indicated Friday night that Obama had chosen someone else.

Biden, 65, is a creature of Washington, a 35-year Senate veteran and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee whose national security credentials will help patch a hole in Obama’s relatively thin resume. Polls show that McCain holds a wide lead over Obama on the question of who is better prepared to be commander in chief.

Biden’s straighforward style and working-class Catholic roots in Scranton, Pa., were also expected to help Obama appeal to middle- and working-class voters in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania who favored Clinton in the primaries.

Officials close to Clinton said she was never formally vetted for the No. 2 position. The former first lady, who finished narrowly behind Obama in the primaries, will address the convention Tuesday night and her name will be placed in nomination even though she has endorsed Obama and has urged her delegates to support him.

“Sen. Biden will be a purposeful and dynamic vice president who will help Sen. Obama both win the presidency and govern this great country,” Clinton said in the statement.

Biden has established a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator. As a member of the Judiciary Committee — he was its chairman from 1987 to 1995 — he has played a key role in considering anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and constitutional issues.