With stories like this, it's clear that the Obama administration and the Dems stumbled in their first major communications effort. With a sorely needed economic stimulus package, a newly inaugurated and popular President, and an opposition party in disarray, it should not have been hard for the Democrats to convince the country that what the American economy needed right now was a "spender of last resort" - a massive package of government spending and tax cuts to stave off the deepest recession in decades.
When the Republicans, in reflexive knee-jerk fashion, hyperventilated about "wasteful government spending," the Democrats should have pointed out that it was a Republican congress and a Republican President that oversaw the massive expansion of the deficit in the past eight years. When the Republicans said that this will have "zero stimulating effect," the Dems should have called them out as opportunistic liars. The Democrats are so instinctively defensive and fearful that even when they hold the winning argument, they run the risk of quivering and cowering and making the American public uneasy about their own self-confidence.
Here's a quick checklist of suggestions for the Dems and the new administration:
(1) Mean what you say - Don't use words like "crisis" liberally. Convey your message with a level of sincerity and emotion, because that is the only thing people connect with.
(2) Make your appeals visceral - If you're talking about unemployment, explain what that means to a middle-class family struggling to get by. If you're talking about investment, explain how that affects the everyday lives of American families.
(3) Stand on principle - No one trusts a shill. No one trusts a hack. No one trusts an empty suit who echoes platitudes and party slogans. Where do you draw the line that no one may cross? If someone crosses that line, are you going to stand up for yourself? Principles aren't the things you talk about, they are the things you defend at all cost.
(4) A little bit of mockery never hurt anybody - It's important to avoid being earnest and serious... all... the... time. If a pithy criticism or a trivial snipe can be rebuffed with a joke or shrugged off with a smile, do that! It shows that you are secure in your own principles and will heighten the impact of your words when they are sincerely earnest.
