Monday, August 17, 2009

Always Be Closing ***Updated***

A thought provoking entry over at Where Are My Keys:

Liberals in D.C. are either lawyers or activists that have made it to the big time. Conservatives have mainly a business background.

Conservatives know how to take an idea, run a few focus groups, determine if an idea is viable, develop a plan, "sell" the idea, put the right people in place, begin implemantation of the plan, determine strentghs and weaknesses of the plan, make modifications, keep an eye on expenses, and run a successful operation.
His point is that Republicans are better at selling than Democrats. Which I have to admit is correct, as clearly evidenced by the Health Care PR disaster that we're slogging around in right now.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility (fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!) and it's probably good to now and then look at what's moving off the shelves in the RedState Grocery:

28% of Republicans believe that President Obama wasn't born in America and an additional 30% aren't sure.

35% of people believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

57% of Republicans believe that (or are "not sure" that) "the health care reform plan being considered by President Obama and Congress creates “death panels” which have the authority to subjectively determine whether or not a gravely ill or injured person should receive health care based on their “level of productivity in society”.

It looks like 11% believe Obama is Muslim. Roughly.

My point is, why not sell something that is actually worth something? Why throw this weight behind such racist nonsense? Speaking of which, here's an underserved market for you:

"...And non-white viewers really don’t like Fox. Only 5 percent of African-Americans, 11 percent of Hispanics, and 8 percent of other minorities consider the network reliable, while a majority of every one of those groups trusts CNN and sizable pluralities trust MSNBC."
But hey, if you start catering to that market you're just cannibalizing your existing share, eh?

***Update*** I wouldn't have included this sentence but WAMK in the comments below is fighting pretty hard for it: The stupid American people buy Republican crazy paranoid lies even over the crazy paranoid lies of celebrities they're more aware of. I'm not sure why he would want something like that out there, but hey, I aim to please.

14 comments:

wamk said...

You guys have the easiest close in the World right in front of you.

You have a customer that is unable to refuse whatever you are selling ("free" health care). You can name your own price (the House), your terms for delivery (the Senate), and the sales contract is already signed for them (the President).

And you still can't close the deal.

Nice mandate. Nice leadership.

wamk said...

How many people think 9/11 was an inside job?

piker62 said...

Don't know how many people think that about 9/11; but I bet if you surveyed Democratic congressmen over half of them wouldn't say, "I can't say whether it was or wasn't." Our crazy fringe truly IS a grassroots movement.

wamk said...

Problem is, your "fringe" has some pretty big names in it.

piker62 said...

Really? Who? Are they as big as Sarah Palin or John Boehner?

Publius said...

Dennis Kookcinich, Cynthia McKinney, Bob McDermot, Michael Moore and everyone in Hollyweird.

wamk said...

Have you ever heard of Rosie O'Donnell? Charlie Sheen? BYU Physics Professor Steven Jones?

piker62 said...

You know what these people have in common? That's right, they don't comprise over half of our currently serving elected officials. Though if you insist on calling this equivilent, I'm happy to equate Sarah Palin to Charlie Sheen. They're both good-lookin and have some very juicy scandals lurking in their backgrounds.

Sheen, of course, is more articulate.

wamk said...

I'm willing to bet that if you showed random people in the street pictures of Palin, Boehner, Sheen, and Rosie, more people would be able to identify Sheen and Rosie. Some might identify Tina Fey more often than Palin, too.

Leno used to prove over and over during his "Jaywalking" segments that the American Public doesn't know politics.

Sheen and Rosie carry far more clout than Sarah and John.

But you already knew that, didn't you?

piker62 said...

Say, where are you going with this? That the American people are largely stupid and easily manipulated?

wamk said...

Are you disagreeing with my point on which list carries more weight with the American Public?

piker62 said...

Is your point that Michael Moore has more influence or that Sarah Palin does?

wamk said...

I'm saying that more people are aware of pop culture "icons" in our society than the people that shape our legislation.

piker62 said...

Okay, I'm adding your point to my blog post. Gosh, I HOPE that's where you're going with this!