Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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The ALL Spin Zone

Rich Galen

Thursday July 29, 2004

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From Boston, Massachusetts
The Democratic National Convention

Dear Mr. Mullings:
I never fully understood what you were doing in Iraq. I have no idea what you are doing in Boston.
Signed,
Your Mom

I am a small part of a fairly significant effort which has been mounted by Ed Gillespie, the Chairman of the National Republican Committee, to offer real-time counter-programming to the Democratic messages coming out of their convention here.

What are you talking about? Are you speaking English?

The RNC is bringing -

SIDEBAR:

I am writing this at 10:40 pm. I am watching John Edwards talking about the heroism of our young people in uniform - implying that they are not being honored as they should be under the administration of George W. Bush.
It is one thing for John Kerry - OR George Bush - to talk about men and women in uniform. They each wore one.
I was in the National Guard. The New Jersey and the Ohio National Guard. John Edwards was - nowhere. He has never worn the uniform for one second.
I am offended by John Edwards' implication that the administration of George W. Bush is not doing everything it can to support those young men and women.
President Bush proposed appropriate funding to support them. John Kerry voted against the necessary funds for the worst possible reason: Howard Dean was ahead of him in the polls.
Memo to John Edwards: Take the oath. Spend a day in a military uniform.
Or shut up.

END SIDEBAR

Where was I? Oh, yeah. I was talking about the spin operation that Ed Gillespie has set up here.

The RNC is bringing Republicans to Boston to present a different view of reality than the Democrats are attempting to offer on the floor of the Fleet Center. Republicans ranging from Mayors to Governors to Senators and Members of Congress.

Every morning at 10 AM Gillespie leads a press conference featuring those Republican leaders. Yesterday morning the Democrats, feeling the pinch, put a spinner outside our office to counter our counter-spin.

Gillespie made his way into the Fleet Center yesterday to do some radio interviews. He was a little nervous about how he would be treated - as the leader of the political opposition. As it happened, because he is a gentleman, he was treated very well including - as someone recounted to me later - this:

After he had completed his interviews he was surrounded by a phalanx of Irish cops. One of them told Ed not to worry. "You might be in the middle of the Democratic convention," he said, "but you are the safest man in this building. We're all voting for President Bush."

The Dems have been so flummoxed by our activities here that they have mounted a 30-person operation to deal with what we are doing here. CNN's Judy Woodruff did a whole piece on the spin/counter-spin activity going on here.

Does all this matter?

In terms of changing votes, probably not. But it does allow us to peek under a corner of the tent - the little-known area of politics which doesn't make news and doesn't show up in polls.

The Republican National Committee is better at the technical mechanisms of politics in 2004 than is the Democratic National Committee. If this election is going to be as close as everyone tells us it is going to be, that technical superiority might well be the margin of difference.

On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: Mullfotos galore! And a link to the CNN coverage of the spinners.

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