Reviewer: Bonnie Fitzpatrick (Matawan, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
This book is a fascinating look behind the scenes look at the Democratic Party's efforts to unseat President Bush in the 2004 election. But, the slightly hysterical title aside, the book is as objective as one could hope. It discusses how the Democratics, frustrated with being out of power in Congress, the White House, their anger at the Clinton impeachment and the 2000 election results attempted to regroup. Using a copy of Karl Rove's "get out the vote" plan they attempted to regroup and energize the American voter to their way of thinking. What they came up with was the Moveon.Org internet site, 527's (several of which, the author argues, ignored campaign finance laws), the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, Liberal talk radio and think tanks. What I found especially interesting was the author's contention that when all was said and done the people behind it all were talking to the choir and made little impact on anyone outside their "loop". For example, the hype (and the box office) indicated that Fahrenheit 9/11 was a phenomenal success and it was expected to go a long way to defeat President Bush. But by breaking down the by region box office York is able to show that the film was really only popular in the areas (and with audiences) that weren't going to go for the President anyway. It made no impact in the swing states. During the election Moveon.org was so popular that they people behind it thought they were touching the average American. It turns out they weren't and were, in fact, only talking with other similar minded people. (Interesting, this same "talking for the average American" is something Richard Poe talks about in his book "Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists". I wondered as I read this if both sides are wrong and they are both talking to their respective choirs. But I digress). The think tanks started were very limited in scope (seemingly dedicated to only defeating the President instead of developing new strategies that aren't necessarily tied to any particular political party -as the more successful Conservative think tanks have done and what the Democratics were trying to duplicate). While they raised unprecedented sums of money in a losing effort, they've changed the way they're looking at political campaigns and will attempt to strengthen and sharpen these new tools for future elections. Republicans should be prepared. |
