Kerry's Pooh-bah advisers
Fans of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado will be enchanted to learn that John Kerry's team of foreign policy advisers are known within the campaign as the Pooh-bahs. (They had been calling themselves the "surrogates," as speakers and campaigners who could go forth to do battle on Kerry's behalf without having to appear too centrist and presidential.) Led by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, they include former energy secretary (and possible V-P pick) Bill Richardson, former UN ambassador Richard "Dirty Dick" Holbrooke, former defence secretary Bill Perry, and ex-generals Wesley Clark and John Shalikashvili. Senator Joe Biden, former presidential candidate, helps out, and Madeleine Albright's former spokesman James Rubin makes the trains run on time. The idea is to copy the success of the Vulcans - the team of Dick Cheney, Condy Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Steve Hadley and Dick Armitage that helped Bush to the presidency four years ago by co-ordinated attacks on the Clinton-Gore foreign policy record. The Vulcans got their reward in the Bush administration, and now the Pooh-bahs are hoping for theirs. Dick Holbrooke says he wants to trade in the title of Pooh-bah for Pasha after the November election - but nobody thinks he means running Iraq.
It's pizzas vs pickles in November
Or maybe it's cats and dogs. Psychologist and marketing guru Howard Moskowitz, who makes a tidy sum analysing products like Froot Loops and Tropicana juices, has been applying his method to the way focus groups respond to the two candidates. Bush appeals to groups that Moskowitz calls the "self-centred," the "safety seekers" and the "better living standard seekers." Moskowitz says these are all linked, like different varieties of pizza. So Bush is the pizza man, having to sell his different varieties of essentially the same product. For Kerry, it's tougher. Kerry appeals to groups like the "idealists," the "improvement-seekers" (who want specific policy reforms like education and energy) and the "issue averse," who just hate Bush so much they will vote for Kerry - unless specific policies turn them off. For Moskowitz this is like "the flavour polarisation you find in pickle consumers." Some like spicy, some like sour, some like crunch and some like massive garlic. "You can't please people by giving everyone a middle of the road pickle," Moskowitz adds, so Kerry has to straddle a far more diverse series of constituencies. "Bush has to harness a group of dogs basically pulling in the same direction. Kerry's got to harness a group of cats."
Schwarzenegger won't campaign
Karl Rove just lost his secret weapon. White House private polls say that the man people want to see campaigning alongside Bush this autumn is California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the Terminator won't play. In an interview to be published in the forthcoming California Journal the body-building superstar says he'll support Bush - but only in California. "But I do not go around the country or anything like that, because there's too many Democrats here. I don't want to rub that in their face. I want them and me to be a partner, to work together."
The gay lobby bites back
David Mixner is back, and Democrats are worried. Mixner organised the gay vote for Clinton back in 1992 with the informal (and never uttered in public) slogan, "we can raise as many votes as the blacks and as much money as the Jews." It worked - and Mixner's insistence that the gays needed their reward got Clinton into trouble as soon as he took office with his pledge to end discrimination in the military. Now Mixner is lobbying his way around the Democrats threatening dire consequences unless they all band together to block Bush's plan for a constitutional amendment to assert that marriage is reserved for a man and a woman. "We'll never forget and we'll never forgive," is Mixner's watchword this time, striking real fear into the hearts of Democrats who would rather duck the entire issue ? la Kerry, who supports civil unions for gays but not marriage.
Online loophole for campaign funds
Bill Gates has found a way to make politics pay. Microsoft is sponsoring the E-Voter Institute, a trade association that is trying to persuade campaigns and political groups to spend their money online. And Cyrus Kohn, the publisher of Microsoft's web-based magazine Slate, is listed as an adviser to the Institute. And since the federal election commission (FEC) has ruled that the new McCain-Feingold reforms limiting the use of campaign funds do not apply to the internet, the web is now the way to go. (The FEC concluded that since the internet is interactive, the McCain-Feingold rules don't apply: "Congress did not include other forms of two-way dialogue such as candidate forums, rallies, debates or other events that are open to the public.") The Bush-Cheney campaign is already beaming out web-based video ads, and we'll soon see a lot more - and probably a lot of highly negative internet ads that will have the advantage of being anonymous. Under the McCain-Feingold rules, anyone who broadcasts an issue ad on radio or television within 60 days of the general election must disclose the expenditure and the contributions within 24 hours. Not so on the internet.
