Trippi? "Nastiest, most deceptive paid media: the mailer with the Harry and Louise lookalikes"

[DeepModem Mom]

Just a note that might, or might not, shed a little light on what happened today re. mailers --

This is an excerpt from a New York Magazine article about press coverage of the campaign. I believe the unnamed source for the quotation referencing the mailer was speculated to be Joe Trippi; he was quoted by name elsewhere in the article.

"'Both of them have gotten an enormous amount of play,' says Marion Just, a political scientist at Wellesley who has made a systematic study of the coverage of the race. 'But the coverage of Hillary has been primarily negative, while the coverage of Obama has been so positive that you have to call him, though I really hate this term, a media darling.'...

Divergence in tone is one thing, double standards are another. And it’s the latter that most galls the former advisers to the other, now-departed, Democratic candidates. 'Obama has been able to get away with a stunning amount of hypocrisy that would get called on her,' says one such operative. 'They’ve run the nastiest, most deceptive pieces of paid media: the mailer they did lying about her health-care plan, with the Harry and Louise look-alikes. The idea that it took Hillary growling Tony Rezko’s name in a debate to get any national coverage. How he complained in Iowa about 527s and then had them supporting him like crazy in Nevada and California. And nobody says a peep about it. It’s f**ing comical!'

There are countless other examples of this syndrome, both large and small. The way that Clinton’s famous fumbling of a question about whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to have driver’s licenses in a debate last fall was hammered on for weeks—whereas Obama’s flubbing of the same question in the next debate was essentially let slide. The way that Obama’s evisceration of his rival in his stump speeches was applauded by the media—whereas Clinton’s plunge into negative territory was widely condemned. The way that Clinton was roundly criticized for being inaccessible, and thus unaccountable, to the press—when Obama has since January been even less available for questioning than she....

Citing the (New York) Times primary-beat reporters assigned to the candidates, a competitor of theirs observes, 'Pat Healy’s job is to challenge the Clinton myth and machine. Jeff Zeleny’s is to write the epic rise of Barack Obama'" (John Heilemann, New York Magazine)

[AX10]

1. K & R!

"Divergence in tone is one thing, double standards are another. And it’s the latter that most galls the former advisers to the other, now-departed, Democratic candidates. 'Obama has been able to get away with a stunning amount of hypocrisy that would get called on her,' says one such operative. 'They’ve run the nastiest, most deceptive pieces of paid media: the mailer they did lying about her health-care plan, with the Harry and Louise look-alikes. The idea that it took Hillary growling Tony Rezko’s name in a debate to get any national coverage. How he complained in Iowa about 527s and then had them supporting him like crazy in Nevada and California. And nobody says a peep about it. It’s f**ing comical!'"

[Yael]

2. Joe Trippi is THE architect on political campaign

suicide. Just ask Howard Dean and John Edwards.

[Bread and Circus]

5. You know what's interesting, Axelrod was working w/ Edwards in 2004.

That's something I didn't know until I read it the other day.

[flyarm]

7. that is why obama uses 4 yr old speeches of Edwards..very creative dont you think? eom

[SayitAintSo]

10. Interesting.... you are right ... thought it sounded vaguely familiar...n/t

[BlackVelvet04]

3. anybody see the opening of Saturday Night Live?

It was pathetically true.

Debate question for Senator Obama: Are you comfortable?

Second question for Senator Obama: Are you sure your comfortable?

Another question for Senator Obama from the randomly picked citizen Obama girl.....

[msongs]

4. the real obama showed through the PR - "you're likeable enough hillary" nt

[JackORoses]

15. he was being kind. Hillary is nowhere close to likeable.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I agree. I support Obama, but am usually a neutral poster of articles...

to inform and not to argue a point. Favorable press coverage, I believe, has benefited my candidate; I recognize and acknowledge it. And, as an admirer also of Hillary, I wish the political playing field had been a fairer one.

[Adelante]

18. The political playing field wasn't a fair one for either candidate

In various ways. Obama had a whole lot stacked against him in this race. That he had kinder media coverage may have corrected some of the tilt. But media is only one aspect of the story, I think you would agree. Having been obliged to run a good part of the time against a former President of the United States, for example, wasn't a fair political playing field, either.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. I didn't express myself clearly on that point. My focus was on the press. I should have said...

a fairer playing field in the arena of press coverage.

[flyarm]

8. do you have a link for this article? thank you..eom

[DeepModem Mom]

9. I don't, but I'm going to try to find it now. nt

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Here's the link:

NY Mag, "The Meme Prisoner," 2/23/08

http://politiclast.com/?page_id=50

[AX10]

12. Thanks

[flyarm]

13. thank you!!! eom

[NastyRiffraff]

14. Thanks for posting this

Yes, that does sound a lot like Trippi. And he's right. I was amazed (although I shouldn't have been) that there was virtually no outcry, no coverage of the Harry and Louise mailer. Imagine for a moment if Hillary had done that. We'd be hearing about it 24/7.

[oasis]

16. wow

:wow::kick:

[DeepModem Mom]

17. a.m. kick

[jackson_dem]

20. He knows because Obama, not Hill, St. Obama did the same thing to Edwards in Iowa

[ProSense]

21. What a bogus article: "says one such operative." That quote is not from Trippi, and it's void of

fact.