Obama Team Using Campaign Tactics To Sell Stimulus Plan

President-elect Barack Obama's top political aides are transplanting their campaign tactics to the policy arena, using data from polls and focus groups to shape the debate over a stimulus plan that may cost at least $775 billion.

David Axelrod, Obama's chief political adviser, along with campaign media adviser Jim Margolis, are encouraging lawmakers to use the word "recovery" instead of recession, and "investment" instead of "infrastructure." Those recommendations came from focus-group research indicating that such framing would make the package more appealing to voters.

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Comments

[LeeCalif]

2009-01-08 — denninger.net

Nowhere in any of your plans have I seen accountability for the sins of the last eight years, say much less the last 20. Nowhere have I seen a call to lock up the fraudsters including those in Congress who got tens of thousands of dollars in "benefit" via lower interest rates on their mortgages, then looked the other way while lenders raped millions of Americans (and they still are!) Nowhere have I seen you call for an army of special prosecutors to root out fraud everywhere and anywhere in the financial system and markets, no matter who it ensnares, including our Treasury Secretary. Nowhere have I seen you call for the re-enactment of Glass-Steagall and the 12:1 leverage limits, the repeal of both which are the proximate cause of this collapse.

[BritishColumbian]

Since when is talking directly to the voters "campaign" tactics? Are the media more worried that by doing so PE Obama has circumvented them so he can actually state his case without their "analysis" and "interpretation'? PE Obama is doing exactly what a leader of a democratic gov't does!

[renaye]

This is a bold new turn in presidenting. The new administration doesn't want to have to do it the old way and steal it peacemeal during the next four years, they want it all at once in one failed swoop so they can kick back and enjoy it. Don't you all know we're rapidly reaching a "tipping point" and if we're not allowed to steal your wealth now it's disaster!!!! We'll see. It seemed to be working for the global warming hoax for a while.

[PATina]

Overall I think this is great... we need more public participation in policy. However, I wish they would have used polls to find out what we need... not just to give them a better way to SELL us on the plan.

[montecarlo408]

Didn't he say that he was going to always keep us informed and involved about what was going on, even if we didn't agree with him? Isn't that called transparency and accountability? Would some of you prefer Obama did it Bush's way-go behind closed doors, make backroom deals, and hold press conferences when he feels like it. Sometimes I wonder if anyone listened to anything Obama said.

[Pulemerci]

In less than two weeks, Obama is going to have to realize that he is no longer a candidate on the trail but the actual president. No more speeches or slogans. I hope he's up to doing instead of speaking.

[judyc]

He's been "doing" since he was elected. More than any other PE.

I'd like you to sh ut up now.

[XME]

Actually, he knows what he's doing AND saying. Unlike Bush, he gets that it makes more sense to SELL you ideas to us, rather than just doing it, whether we like it or not. Bush rarely even bothered to actually speak to us, and I think it's great that Obama wants to do things differently and to try and remember that HE works for US, rather than treating us like Bush has: like we're his royal "subjects".

[changeme09]

I agrree. I love Obama, but I disagree on the $3,000.00 tax credit for small businesses. I think that would be wasteful. I hope that is not included because I don't know how it's going to help stimulate the economy.

[patwal]

One thing most people notice about basically good, sound tactics, is that they tend to work over a number of areas - they're not pigeonholed

[sandals]

sounds like a plan to me.
we need the investments in our own country, and i think it is about time we started.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Hey look, Taquitos still 99 cents...

[hortonhearsawho2]

Will the GOP use their tactics aswell. Who was the stimulus pallin around with when it was eight years old ?

[lizziekw]

Good. Part of the new administration's job, and the Congress' job, is to sell the programs they support to the American people. The language used to do so matters and framing it well can make all the difference in how it is perceived.

Smart.

[hortonhearsawho2]

He could try the parental approach..Do it or else ?

[moda31]

well it worked for bush when it came to rebranding the "estate tax" as the "death tax;" focus group support for the idea showed a complete turn around when they made it sound like folks were getting taxed for dying; at least this time the tactic is being used in service of a much more worthwhile objective than giving the super rich yet another tax break.

[scooperss]

And I'm still amazed that somehow people thought it was double taxation.

Really does go to show that some people are just_________/

[TRichards]

Oh no. The Orwellian speech thing is being retained.

[Dayahka]

Stimulus=PORK. Obama talked about doing away with pork, but it appears that the whole "stimulus" package is one gigantic barrel of pork what with every finger our for a piece, what the porn industry wants 5 billion, a little town of 200 people wants over 300 million, Bloomberg with his list, California with its list, every governor with his list, every town and city and village and pig pen with their lists. This whole stimulus idea has turned into a complete fiasco, a completely irrational mass movement for printing more money and borrowing more--are there still stupid lenders around?--and for simply destroying every last ounce of credibility this country has. What did Al-Queda put in everyone's drinking water? Has everyone gone stark raving mad?

[iswideopen]

I'm already sold......­.........j­ust get it done already. Times are really, really, tough.

[amiri1]

Semantics-- the Obama team is trying to pry us out of the concept of depression-- get it, psychological and economic. When we lose faith in our system then nothing recovers, starting with us.