Wednesday evening, I had the honor of spending a half-hour participating in a discussion between Newt Gingrich and a group of conservative Virginia bloggers.
I have to say, the time went very quickly, but a few things stand out. When he made the point of what a terrible job the Administration has been doing recently of communicating a message, I asked if he thought the mission in Iraq was beyond help from a public relations standpoint, or if there was still a chance the American people could be brought back to the importance of accomplishing the mission. I thought his answer was interesting. His foundation recently conducted a poll in which they asked asked people if the United States should defend herself against her enemies, and, by an 83-10 margin, the American people said yes. They then asked a somewhat harder question, “Do you thing the United States should defeat her enemies.” Even then, by a 75-16 margin, respondents said yes. What this says is that public support for finishing the job in Iraq can be regained if the issue is presented in that context.
He also made another observation I thought was interesting. In talking about the immigration bill recently defeated, he made the point that this was a clear case of a true grassroots movement rising up and overcoming the establishment of both parties, and that, when that particular battle first started, he honestly wasn’t sure at first, until he saw how much energy really existed at the grassroots level, if that fight could be won.
Overall, the Speaker’s decision to spend 30 minutes chatting with a group of bloggers is a real testament to thegrowing power of what he terms the “horizontal media,” rather than the “new media.” He calls it that because it is a form of media in which everyone has an equal voice, rather than being filtered through an editorial staff of some sort.
Very special thanks to Jim Hoeft and Shaun Kenney for setting this event up and extending the invitation to participate.
Filed under: 2008 Elections, National Politics
Excellent report, PR!
Great job with this. You just have to love history professors like Newt. They understand and put things in a different context than lawyers do as politcians. Still see him getting in around November. In debate formats he would crush all comers right now.