Honestly, I got my ass whooped. Time to start looking ahead to 2012. Or maybe a Portland Mayoral run in 2010. If Extremo the Clown can run, so can I.
I have picked out one area where I utterly failed my campaign. Besides my campaign manager thinking that I was a crackpot and refusing to vote for me. The real problem was in the branding.
I tried to peddle this:
Nobody understands that. A minority will recognize the anarchy sign and even most of them will get confused as hell by the red white and blue 13 star theme. The whole patriotic Anarcho-American thing should have been a reserve graphic. I loved it too much and it was my own damn fault for pushing it.
What I should have been pushing was this:
I thought it was only mildly amusing. I was wrong. This was the one that Joe (with) the Plumber (crack) liked. This was the one the folks at the bars liked. This was the one even the queers liked. Yes, the raised fist, inverted star, that field of blue on the candy cane stripes. Immediately recognizable, familiar, comfortable, no one had to think about it. Then they read the phrase and always burst out laughing at how inappropriate it seemed. Never mind that it stated my intentions quite clearly. Every element was lifted from pop culture. That should have been a sign that it was a winner.
It will definitely take center stage for the 2012 campaign. Until then, keep on fisting the American dream.
4 comments:
Sorry, Jake.
Since we never really had another discussion about it, I wrongly concluded you were joking when you asked me to be your campaign manager. I misread your intentions.
Wish I'd realized otherwise. When Obama voted for the Telecom immunity, his veneer peeled off for me. At that point I could have happily gotten behind you if I'd understood you were serious.
Shortly thereafter all the racism started coming out, and the liberal love-monger inside me felt the need for some affirmative action. I want the bigoted assholes to have to live with a black man in our highest office for 4 years. I think it'll do the country some good, force us to look at our ugly cores and maybe even inspire change.
If you're not mad that I failed to be a campaign manager, bring this up in April or May. I want to see what Obama's first 90-100 days are like. That's how long it took Washington to break the Clintons some 16 years ago. If he folds about that same time, I'll happily become a real-life Jake supporter.
Honestly, if he folds at any point, I'll give up on the Dems completely, but I expect that if it's going to happen it'll happen around the 3 month mark. I suppose he could be underwhelming from the start, but that seems unlikely.
Sorry I failed you, my friend.
On the other hand, even now I can't tell if I actually did let you down. You're a hard man to read. You're damn good at keeping a straight face while making a joke. You sound bummed and dejected... but I might just be reading my own guilt into it. For all I know, you're laughing as you read this. I never was any good at telling your bullshit from your visionary insight, and you produce both by the sackful. Truth is, you're really good at what you do, especially when what you're doing is "confusing people about exactly what you're doing". I am continually awed by your art and humor.
And that's not just me sucking up in hopes of getting a cushy cabinet position someday.
No problem. Thanks for everything. The defeat really was my own. The graphic, man. The GRAPHIC! I coulda been a contenda!
And I might actually mean all that.
What? You're not going to blame it on your extremely ill-conceived choice of an unqualified and unstable running mate?
It's been done.
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