527's and their strategy in the Internet age & 24/7 news cycle
Posted by Little Ms Purple at 6/24/2008 9:32 AM 
Categories: 2008 Election, Political strategies, All Posts
Categories: 2008 Election, Political strategies, All Posts
527's are political groups not affiliated with either campaign who raise unlimited amounts of money to pay for ads against the candidate they want to lose or for ads for the candidate they want to win. These groups live on the Left and the Right and as we saw in the last Presidential cycle, they can really inflict pain on a candidate. In fact, "swift boating" is a term that is generally accepted now as going after a candidate and connected with 527's due to the harsh ads that the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ran against John Kerry and his military record.
Now, from a political strategy perspective, these groups don't have to raise the tens of millions of dollars to be effective in the Internet & 24/7 news cycle age we live in. All they have to do is raise enough money to create a very controversial ad along with enough dollars to run that ad JUST ONCE in a single battleground state while the blogs and the pundits do the rest. I'd guess $200-300,000 would easily be enough to create waves. You see, when a very controversial ad is run, the blogs on the left and right along with the pundits explode with commentary and links/embeds/reruns of the ad that create additional views of the ad at no cost the 527 group that created it. It's a brilliant strategy that brought down John Kerry and if you remember, Harold Ford in his race for Senate too.
For this cycle, Obama is trying to control the 527's on his side of the isle and in doing so got Moveon.org to disband their 527 so Obama can control his message. He intends to confront any of these attacks against him from these groups by taking the high road in that his campaign is the only entity that attacks Mccain on the issues. It's a gutsy call and one that might come back to bite him but this is just another expample of Obama going his own way and remaking how politics is played... good on ya.
Now, from a political strategy perspective, these groups don't have to raise the tens of millions of dollars to be effective in the Internet & 24/7 news cycle age we live in. All they have to do is raise enough money to create a very controversial ad along with enough dollars to run that ad JUST ONCE in a single battleground state while the blogs and the pundits do the rest. I'd guess $200-300,000 would easily be enough to create waves. You see, when a very controversial ad is run, the blogs on the left and right along with the pundits explode with commentary and links/embeds/reruns of the ad that create additional views of the ad at no cost the 527 group that created it. It's a brilliant strategy that brought down John Kerry and if you remember, Harold Ford in his race for Senate too.
For this cycle, Obama is trying to control the 527's on his side of the isle and in doing so got Moveon.org to disband their 527 so Obama can control his message. He intends to confront any of these attacks against him from these groups by taking the high road in that his campaign is the only entity that attacks Mccain on the issues. It's a gutsy call and one that might come back to bite him but this is just another expample of Obama going his own way and remaking how politics is played... good on ya.
Comments