On Tap

In the buildup to the presidential elections, there are a ton of choices here. Hillary’s use of Barack Obama’s kindergarten writings is certainly up there for me, but since I’m on vacation and wanting to have a little fun, might I suggest the boldest political tactic of the year was the attempt by blogger Loretta Nall to protest Alabama’s ban on sex toys by encouraging readers to send some… uh… devices to the state’s Attorney General.

This is everything I love about grassroots politics: trying to change policies through humor and numbers. Plus, the thought of the postman saying “Got another load of dildoes for ya” cracks me up every time. I’m so juvenile.

Jim: Well… Kinda tough to top that choice. I wrote out the following pick BEFORE I knew it was going to be compared to expressing disapproval of a proposed policy through sex toys.

Last year we said that the Democrats retook the House and Senate with no unified theme, and thus their boldest move was to be not bold at all.

This hasn’t been the boldest or most inspiring of years in politics. I largely agree with Marshall’s expression of ennui and lack of enthusiasm here. We have a thoroughly lame-duck president, a Democratic leadership that acts like they’re trying to get me to hate them, Republican leaders who belong under a “HAVE YOU SEEN ME?” poster on a milk carton, and a crop of presidential candidates who range from the “wish he didn’t have that massive flaw” to the repulsive. There are a lot of political tactics going on, but not many that inspire.

So the boldest tactic that I can come up with is John McCain’s weekly conference calls with righty bloggers. You’ve probably read summaries them on my site or elsewhere. The reason this impressed me is that McCain kept doing them when his campaign went into a tailspin, his advisors were quitting left and right, etc. A conference call with MSM reporters probably would turn into fifty variations of, “since you’re doomed, why are you still in the race? When will you announce that you’re quitting the race? Are you quitting today? How about tomorrow? What about the next day?” But that week, he got one question from a blogger that was a horserace topic; the rest were meaty policy questions, mostly focused on foreign policy and Iraq. These calls usually last about a half an hour to an hour, and he tries to get in as many questions as he can. No other candidate does this kind of outreach, and I cannot understand why; on the whole, McCain’s gotten great coverage out of it. McCain, Mr. Campaign Finance Reform, started out as the candidate most loathed by bloggers, and bit by bit, the relationship is thawing.

Marshall: Jim’s and Cam’s choices are awesome. They’re virtually impossible to top, so I won’t try.

My selection was made during a train ride from Philly back to D.C. So I did what all good political pros do — I took a poll of my traveling companions, all of whom are colleagues at Edelman.

Milblogger extraordinaire Steve Field suggested Hillary Clinton’s spoof of the Sopranos finale early this year. Two thumbs up, Steve.

Tucker Warren was more foreign policy focused. He suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin allowing himself to be photographed shirtless while fishing. He also mentioned the Presidents of Venezuela and Pakistan trying maneuvers of dubious legality to retain their hold on their offices.

Fellow political blogger Gary Karr singled out Mike Huckabee’s campaign commercial featuring real life action hero Chuck Norris. “Huckabee’s ad goes against type,” Gary argued. “Also, Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.” Gary also points out that the ad put Huckabee in front of a huge audience of Republicans who were just tuning into the campaign.

Gary’s argument persuaded me. Huckabee’s ad with Norris started his move from also ran to first tier candidate. And it was risky. Very risky. It could have brought ridicule. But it was perfectly produced, and it demonstrated a clear sense of humor from a candidate that previously had a made a mark only as a good debater with no chance to win.

I’ve heaped some scorn on Governor Huckabee over the past few days, but for the Norris ad, I give him two thumbs up, and my selection as Boldest Political Tactic of 2007.

Jim: You know what? I take it back, this was a pretty good year for bold political tactics.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at December 19, 2007 - 12:42 pm and is filed under On Tap Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.