Under the Radar

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted September 30, 2004.

Below the surface of the presidential debate hoopla – the made-for-media event that John Hanchette of Editor & Publisher says "increasingly resembles the high-concept scripts of the dummied up reality shows" – swirls an unprecedented whirlwind of election activities of all sorts: some old-fashioned, others remarkably new and some, well, just odd.

The last gasp of grassroots voter registration before the early October deadlines in most states is in full swing, but some of the larger groups predict that 3.5 million new voters have been registered in key swing states. Soon the registration passions will shift to getting out the vote (GOTV), and the persistent and passionate pursuit of the voter will continue on to Nov. 2. All of this activity is going on in the swing states while serious questions are being raised as to whether the new voters will be added in time to vote on Nov. 2 – especially in hurricane-ravished Florida, and highly-contested Ohio, where a new controversy has opened up over paper registration forms.

Meanwhile, there is a continuing stream of even more books and DVDs coming to market. Author Mathew Quirk, who is preparing an article for the Washington Monthly, estimated at least 154 election-oriented books on the Democratic and progressive side. And new election focused websites keep popping up like weeds. One of the most recent: www.unemployedvoters.org.

Simultaneously, there is a continuous flow of clashing TV and radio ads, many by groups theoretically uncoordinated with the campaigns. These groups are doing the campaigns' dirty work in the 17 or so crucial swing states. Residents of former political powerhouses states – California, Texas and New York – are seeing virtually no political advertising. And as the race hits the home stretch, the competing voter guides are emerging that are the staple of GOTV efforts – all part of the fierce battle to contest every vote, which is sucking both activists and the reluctant voters into the vortex.

Grassroots activists are even now engaged in the presidential debates. The notion that the debates are one-night events is a thing of the past. Immediately after the debates, the campaign war rooms, and sympathetic voter organizations engage in the debate "after fight" – a struggle to control how the debate is analyzed and spun. Considering that 60 million Americans are expected to watch the first debate, there's no question that the final judgement of how the candidates fared in the debate is worth fighting for.

One new twist in post-debate analysis is being executed by America Coming Together, (ACT) the large-scale 527 group, which is sending its canvassers door-to-door to help spin the results of the debate. ACT director Steve Rosenthal says "George Bush is going to tell a couple of whoppers in the debate and we can't let him get away with it." ACT is sponsoring what it calls a "Truth Canvass" designed to preempt and respond to Bush's lies head on. ACT says it will knock on 60,000 doors over the weekend, and wants people to print "fact sheets" from the Internet and post them in offices and on campuses.

The basis for ACT's post-debate strategy is the Democrats' conventional wisdom that in 2000, the voters polled after the debate actually thought Gore had won, but fierce spinning by the well-oiled Republican propaganda machine convinced a pliable media that Gore had fumbled badly – and the public agreed soon after.

The remainder of the debates will be a continuous battleground of spinning and fighting for the public mind – and at this point it is just impossible for people to think for themselves unless they go on a "no media diet." One group is organizing debate parties for the final debate on Oct. 13, using a new DVD, "Win Over Swing Voters" that highlights the techniques of language guru George Lakoff, and teaches people how to respond to Republican arguments. Lakoff's new book, "Don't Think of an Elephant" (excerpted on AlterNet) is getting a lot of attention as well. The Daily Kos, one of the more popular political blogs, wrote of Lakoff's book: "I was blown away when I read this. It does help put things in perspective in a way I was previously unable to do, I don't think I've ever said, 'You HAVE to get this book.' But there's always a first time for everything." Lakoff's book has shot up to number 13 on Amazon, and is selling briskly.

Don Hazen is the Executive Editor of AlterNet.

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