Was there an actual debate?

Was there an actual debate?

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

Last night we watched as the four candidates for United States Senate “debated.” It might have been called a “debate”, but according to WSAZ’s Jessica Ralston (@JessicaRalston), the Gazette’s Kathryn Gregory (@kitgregory), the Daily Mail’s Ry Rivard (@ryrivard) what happened on TV last night was anything but. Where were the hardball questions? No one raised their voices, no one debated. So I’m calling for a Twitter debate between the candidates. No, we all know it most likely won’t be them doing the tweeting, but since their campaigns cannot pick a mutually beneficial date to debate in Charleston, this seems like the most logical solution. Thoughts?

Changing the subject a little, the most surprising candidate last night was the Constitution Party’s Jeff Becker. Whoever prepared him for that debate should have given him a xanex. Someone tweeted asking if he even spoke English. Another tweep said he would be the Daily Show’s dream. Needless to say, he won’t be our next United States Senator.

Winners and losers from last night’s debate:

Winning moments:

-John Raese (@RaeseforSenate) had two quotes I rather enjoyed, the first one being “We win, you lose.” The second one being “It’s called demand.”

-Joe Manchin’s charisma, calmness, appearance, and perfect sound bites. The quote that ended the debate, was nothing short of cheesy perfection: "I believe in you, and I'm asking you to believe in me."

-Manchin taking on the “rubber stamp” tag and owning it.

Big fat fails of the so-called debate:

-Raese wearing his Rolex and black suit. It’s not a funeral.

-Becker’s inability to speak coherently (I appreciate nervousness but there are pills for that).

-Johnson waisting half of his closing “minute” to speak fussing about how he didn’t get to respond to previous questions.

And moments I was lost:

-Becker talking about physics

-Johnson asking “Are you sick enough yet?”

-Raese’s statements on global warming

-Johnson dwelling on penmanship

-No one asking about subpoenas

I think West Virginians need to see a the candidates speak for two hours and it needs to be an actual debate. You can call what happened last night a debate, but for many of us it wasn’t.

Manchin’s Campaign: Recommendations from the Politico in Stilettos

I believe it was Mic Jagger who said, “You can let yourself go, just as long as you can bring yourself back.” The United States Senate campaign between Manchin and Raese has many politicos across the nation wondering if Manchin can bring himself back in and come out on top.

It’s without question that his campaign has made mistakes, and this Politico in Stilettos is not only learning from those mistakes, but moreover trying to learn how to spin them and come out on top. But how to you spin the GOP’s “rubber stamp for Obama” angle?

Simple. You rebrand Manchin’s relationship with Obama, with a little help from Ringo. Who do you go to for advice? Who do you trust? Who helps you in times of need?

“Oh I get by with a little help from my friends...”

Manchin is a friend of Obama, someone who can most effectively teach him about the very special needs of our very unique wild, wonderful West Virginia. Obama surrounds himself with friends, meaning people he respects and trusts. I’m sure he doesn’t trust someone who slams everything the man has or hasn’t accomplished since he ran for office. Would you give someone the time of day if all they told you was how wrong you were? I know I wouldn’t. We all know Manchin is a “Friend of Coal” and, especially based on some of the GOP’s ads right now, he’s a friend of Obama. Thus, Manchin is the man who can make Obama a friend of coal.

Next problem: NRSC’s ad about “DC Joe”, how do you spin that?

Joe Manchin will not be the “DC Joe” the GOP has attempted to brand him as. Rather, he’s West Virginia’s Joe. Nobody knows West Virginia’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats like a full-time West Virginian. How many similarities does West Virginia have in common with Florida? As a legislator and as Governor, Manchin has been there for the people of West Virginia, and he will continue to be there because he’s West Virginia’s Joe.

If I had a hand in his campaign, these are what I’d propose to do on TV with corresponding direct mail and social media. But, that’s me.

Yachts, marble driveways, who cares?

So John Raese has a marble driveway and Joe Manchin has a yacht. It’s not the possessions a candidate has that matter, and I really wish political campaigns would quit slamming candidates for superficial things like what kind of cars they drive or how nice their private planes are. That’s not what it’s about!!

What really matters is what candidate will best represent the people and how they have contributed to their state and the people they would represent if elected. Just because a candidate pulls into a marble driveway at his second home or chooses to take his grandchildren on a boat trip does not mean he cannot relate to the people of West Virginia. What matters is humility, not what you go home to versus what I go home to. It’s what kind of person a candidate is inside, and what they will do to move our great state forward.

How about checking into how many charities candidates have donated to? Has anyone in West Virginia pulled a Bill Gates and donated a million dollars to education? Now that would be a great positive campaign ad!

Voters, November 2nd, and Manchin

It’s true that people rarely learn from elections, but there’s something brewing out there in the minds of likely voters that repudiates this statement. America has always been a solid nation, one of economic growth and stability, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But that’s not the sentiment felt across the nation right now. The longest serving senator in Delaware was replaced by a Sarah Palin prodigy, cementing the anti-establishment sentiment among voters all over America.

When did this anti-establishment feeling really begin (in the last few years)? In my opinion, it all began during the Presidential Election of 2008. Obama’s campaign strategists developed a campaign that focused its efforts on mobilizing the number one unlikely voter base: the youngsters. How’d the do it so successfully?

Here’s my shoe box-sized summation; Generation Y is an ensemble from an entirely new breed of designers, and we’re not easily understood by anyone but ourselves because we’re anything but an establishment. We’ve lived through the Oklahoma City bombings, Sesame Street, September 11th, when MTV actually played music videos, Desert Storm, globalization, and the birth of the interconnected digital world we refer to as the “Internet.” This digital development connected us youngsters not only across the nation, but across the globe. Suddenly, we’re sharing our lives via Facebook and getting jobs by posting resumes on LinkedIn. We’re constantly connected to our phones and to each other, because we like to unabashedly share our life experiences with the world. Since we share in our peers joys and sorrows, we’ve developed an acute sense of camaraderie and tenacious teamwork. One might say that all this life experience sharing with hundreds and thousands of people across the globe means we crave attention, and they’d be right. Gen Y’ers do crave attention, but it’s the right kind of attention we crave, such as feedback at work, from our beloved families, and from our peers. We crave this attention and feedback because we’re achievement-oriented. We’re a happy generation, one of hope, civic-mindedness, and we fall head over stilettos in love with the possibility of making a real difference we can see and feel.

What the Obama campaign did was take the ideals of Generation Y and base their campaign around it, and it worked. Two years later, most young folks have not altered their views of the President, but it might not necessarily have been Obama they fell in love with, moreover I strongly believe it was the chance we could actually be involved in making a difference, in the power of an active democracy.

Playing devil’s advocate for just a second, younger generations have not had nearly the experience with government that our parents and grandparents have. We don’t even come into contact with the government until we go get a driver’s license, so we’re more idealistic because we’ve yet to experience what our predecessors have. And it’s this experience that’s turned the most likely voters against the “DC establishment.” This is why the Palin prodigy won in Delaware, and since Manchin started running an attack ad against Raese, I cannot help but think his tracking polls must have been pretty close to Rasmussen’s results.

How do we Democrats capitalize on this anti-establishment sentiment among our likely voters? Where’s there’s a will, there’s a way. And when asked how well we Democrats work under pressure, I always reply, “Pressure makes diamonds.”

Manchin v. Raese: Psychology behind the ads

United States Senate candidate Joe Manchin released his first TV spot to counter opponent John Raese’s accusations. But was Manchin’s spot effective?

Believe it or not, the Democratic and Republican parties produce campaign ads that appeal to different sections of your brian. Your brain has a part called the cerebral cortex, which takes up about 80% of our entire brain mass. The area from behind your eyes and about a couple inches past the top of your forehead is called the prefrontal cortex. This section is then divided into two parts; the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which runs toward the top and sides of the prefrontal cortex), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (which runs behind the eyes and approximately half way up the forehead).

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is active when we make conscious decisions, as well as consciously remembering phone numbers or what to pick up at the grocery store, conducting cost/benefit analysis, and reasoning. Traditionally, Democratic campaign ads target this section of the brain. In Manchin’s ad, he’s speaking directly to you in a rational manner, hoping you’ll make the rational choice when you go to the polls on November 2nd. But, if viewers are just flipping the channels and aren’t in a state of mind to make a conscious decision, this ad becomes ineffective.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is positioned around where the amygdala is located in the brain, which is heavily involved in the emotional processes we go through as humans. Other mental processes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is involved with include; emotional and social intelligence, moral functioning, linking emotions with thoughts, like when emotions guide the decisions we make. Raese’s TV spot links Manchin’s name with President Obama’s, which arouses negative feelings inside voters. Also, the background is of High Street in Morgantown, the number one growing area in wild, wonderful West Virginia right now.

While subconsciously manipulating voters’ minds through campaign psychology is extremely unethical, I don’t see it stopping any time soon

The Politics Behind Polling

Polling has quite a history of miscalculations. One major upset took place in 1948, when the top three pollsters, Gallup, Archibald Crossley, and Elmo Roper, all predicted that Thomas Dewey would be elected United States President. They didn’t fathom that opinions would change, so polling came to a standstill a few weeks prior to the election . Wrong move. Harry Truman came out on top, winning by just 4% over Dewey.

Another polling “drama” occurred when Orion Strategies released results placing current Congressional candidate Mike Oliverio ahead of Rep. Alan Mollohan. The owner of Orion Strategies is Curtis Wilkerson, Oliverio’s campaign manager. For more information on that story, click here: http://bit.ly/9p5Qdm

Overall, America has witnessed a proliferation of polling, but can polling results be trusted? It all depends on who does the polling.

Yesterday, Rasmussen Reports released West Virginia Senate race polling results that placed John Raese just 6 points behind Governor Joe Manchin. But just how accurate are these results?

Scott Rasmussen, the founder of Rasmussen Reports, previously worked for George W. Bush during his 2004 presidential campaign. That being said, the majority of polling conducted by his company is thought to lean to the right. So should West Virginia Democrats be alarmed? I’d say no.

Going “Negative”: If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen

With a very Special and General Election rapidly approaching, campaigns are going to get down right dirty. All this negativity, and the accompanying publicity, can really get under a candidate’s skin, especially if they aren’t prepared. That’ s why thick skin, a proactive mindset, and learning the art of “spin” are critical for campaign success.

Very Special Election Democratic Primary: Governor Manchin won’t go negative, he’ll spin Ken Hechler’s anti-mountain-top-removal around attempting to discuss jobs, how important coal is to our economy, and talk about how he’s been there during coal mining tragedies. Manchin will be passionate, he’ll be dedicated, and most likely he’ll win. And wildcard Sheiri Fletcher? I’m definitely in the dark on that one.

Very Special Election Republican Primary: Raese wins. (I think Mac Warner will campaign really hard, but Raese will outspend him.)

Very Special Election General: It’ll be an election that will simultaneously move and remove mountains. In the end, I bet Manchin will win, but so much mud will be slung that both candidates and every West Virginian will be so dirty, we’ll look like we came from an underground mine!

So if you’re ever considering running for public office, take a good step back in your stilettos and analyze what will go on from today through November 2nd. If people talking about you behind you back hurts your feelings, if you’re paranoid, if there are negative comments on a blog about you, if you have any skeletons hidden in your Carrie Bradshaw-esque closet, if you have burned any bridges, if you have done anything illegal, reconsider. Politics is a profession for the passionate, and in the heat of a campaign anything can happen. All is fair in love, war, and politics. After all, they don’t make firefighter uniforms for politicians.

Governor “Soprano” is in hair and makeup.... Lights, Camera, Action!

When does the film crew arrive? John Raese decides he’s running for against Rep. Shelley Moore Capito who isn’t officially running in an election that technically doesn’t exist yet. And what’s more? Raese calls Governor Joe Manchin (@JoeManchinWV for all you tweeters) “Governor Soprano!” The second after I finished reading Ry RIvard’s (@ryrivard)article ( http://j.mp/cSQXE4) in the Daily Mail (@charleywest), I hear that Aaron Sorkin is directing a film about John Edwards! (I just picked up Andrew Young's The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down.)

My idea of a dramatic, addicting reality show or just a TV show? West Virginia politics. If I was a producer looking for a hit new show, I’d do a reality show about Governor Joe Manchin, especially right now with everything that’s going on with Byrd’s succession and the possibility of a special election for governor. Heck, it felt like I was at a Red Carpet event during Judge Carrie Webster’s fundraiser with all the cameras, reporters, and flashing lights! I couldn’t seem to find the red carpet or a background for the standard social event paparazzi pictures though. Thinking back, Governor Manchin really has tried to boost the “celeb image” of his position; remodeling the Governor’s Manchin, that big white party tent that Phil Kabler never gets to go to (maybe he finally will when Manchin is in DC). Also, Governor Manchin and the boob tube were meant for each other; he’s easy on the eyes, articulate, and has that Clinton-esque charisma... And all eyes will be on him this afternoon at 2pm as he announces his appointee for Senator Byrd’s seat (Ahem, Carte Goodwin).

And one other point, while sitting in the Senate (@wvsenate) Judiciary meeting yesterday, I noticed only three senators in that meeting have twitter accounts: @Senator_Chafin, @Mike_Oliverio, and @JeffKessler4Gov).