Mediaboss Marketing

|

Posted: Jan 18, 2017 6:01 PM

To celebrate Donald Trump's inauguration this week, I'm returning to my new favorite parlor game: quoting Republican consultants on the 2016 campaign.

It never gets old! Also, this exercise reminds us of the many things we are thankful for this week: Donald Trump, the cluelessness of his opponents, and Nexis transcripts.

Our featured GOP consultant this week is Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign and modern-day Mr. Magoo.

Nominally a conservative in a liberal business, Dowd couldn't pull off a full Arianna, so if he wanted to sit in a warm studio on Sunday mornings issuing pronouncements as if from Mount Olympus, he had to come up with an act.

Even a guy like Dowd -- wrong on everything else, from the time of day to whether it's raining -- accurately sussed out what the media wanted: a non-conservative playing "the conservative." How else to explain the fact that the entire American media refused to have on anyone who supported the man who just won a landslide presidential election?

The territory Dowd carved out for himself was: patriotic sage, above partisanship, announcing on every subject that both sides were wrong, he alone was right. This made him a regular panelist on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.

Dowd's "both sides are wrong" offering to the one-party church was condescending and tiresome, but it would help if he were, from time to time, correct.

Instead, from the moment Trump announced, Dowd treated us to hilariously boneheaded prognostications that were instantly proved wrong and never acknowledged as he issued each successive boneheaded prediction.

On Feb. 7, 2016, Dowd pronounced that the nominations would be wrapped up in "April for the Democrats and May for the Republicans.

Trump won the nomination by May 4 and Hillary won it in June -- two months after Dowd's confident prediction.

On April 3, Dowd said Trump "can't win a general election for all intents and purposes." ("For all intents and purposes" is what consultants add to nothing-burger statements to make them sound weighty.)

Trump won the election -- and he won it with far more electoral votes than Dowd's candidate ever got.

On May 1, Dowd said, "It's going to be a men-versus-women election, unfortunately.

Trump won both white men and white women, decisively. White women without a college degree carried the Midwest for Trump. (See fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-couldnt-win-over-white-women.)

Dowd spent several Sundays in May assuring viewers that a third-party candidate would be on stage at the debates: "I think there is likely to be somebody else standing in the debates and that changes the dynamics.

That never happened.

After Trump wrapped up the nomination, Dowd claimed he had predicted it! "Well, I was very bullish on Donald Trump in the primaries," he said on May 8. His use of the term "bullish" was, well, half-right.

As for Trump winning the general election, Dowd declared it "unlikely." (Based on his fantastical recollections of his own predictions, I assume he is currently claiming to have predicted Trump's win in the general election.)

In the week leading up to the election, Dowd was a whirling dervish of soothsaying on Twitter:

NOVEMBER 1

"@matthewjdowd Any expenditure of time or money by Trump in PA, VA, MI and NH is a total waste. Campaign mismanagement if they keep it up.

Of the four states Dowd considered "a total waste" for Trump to campaign in, he won the two biggest, worth more than twice as many electoral votes as the other two combined -- and one of those he lost by only 0.3 percent.

NOVEMBER 2

"@matthewjdowd clinton has a better chance of carrying Arizona than trump does of carrying Mi or Wi

Trump carried both Michigan and Wisconsin. Hillary did not win Arizona.

NOVEMBER 4

"@matthewjdowd Look for sure signs Trump will lose: 1. 'The only poll that matters is election day' 2. 'Our vote doesn't show up in polls.' 3. 'Truman"

Although Trump never made any excuses -- he won! -- all three of those statements turned out to be true. (See Time magazine's "Madam President" issue.)

NOVEMBER 5 was Dowd's Latino Appreciation Day:

"@matthewjdowd even if Trump gets the exact % of votes of whites, blacks & Asians as Bush in 2004, Trump would lose by 3 million votes due to Latinos.

"@matthewjdowd Trump will lose latino voters by a larger margin than romney. Who set a new modern low.

"@matthewjdowd It looks like Trump campaign was right, the silent hidden vote is showing up: Latinos are voting at record levels. Motivated by Trump.

Trump won more of the Hispanic vote than either McCain or Romney -- and probably more than Bush, for whom we only have nonsense numbers (as both Republican and Democratic analysts agree -- see city-journal.org/html/hispanic-voting-myths-13054.html and alternet.org/story/20606/44_percent_of_hispanics_voted_for_bush).

NOVEMBER 6

"@matthewjdowd If trump loses Ohio and Florida one reason is that Clinton campaign head faked them into thinking he had chance in Michigan. & media helped

Trump won Michigan. Also Ohio and Florida.

On Nov. 6 -- 48 hours before the election -- Dowd announced on ABC's "This Week" that Trump would lose, "and lose badly." Bored with his own omniscience, Dowd explained, "George, to me, this election has been ... incredibly predictable actually from the primary.

Mr. Magoo had more wisdom to impart: "On election night, Hillary Clinton's margins among nonwhite voters and among college-educated voters are going to be the highest margins we've ever seen.

Dowd's sweeping declarations turned out to be less accurate than a blindfolded monkey throwing darts in a bar.

On Twitter, Dowd assured his readers:

NOVEMBER 7

"@matthewjdowd Clinton wins by five points. Over 300 electoral votes. Trump loses by more popular votes than Romney.

Final electoral vote: Trump, 304; Clinton, 227.

TV bookers couldn't get enough of Dowd. What smugness! What monumental cluelessness!

ABC's "This Week" is a show famous for confronting guests with their own prior statements. Would ABC play this game with its own Powerhouse Roundtable prognosticators? Surely a man of Dowd's integrity would come on the air and admit, "I couldn't have been more wrong!

HELLO! That didn't happen at all!

Dowd was allowed to sit out the Sunday after the election. The following Sunday, he was in his usual seat on the Powerhouse Roundtable, right back to giving his sweeping, grinning predictions, with no acknowledgment that he had been spectacularly -- and characteristically -- wrong in every prediction he'd made, all year long.

That's why Dowd is our modern-day Mr. Magoo.

As Trump is being sworn in and visions of the wall are dancing in your head, remember that if he ever runs out of bricks, he can always use Republican consultants.

Continue reading here:
Under En-dowd - Ann Coulter - Townhall - Townhall

Young white female conservative commentators have become integral to the effort to neutralize opposition to dangerous right-wing public figures and policies.

Ive been struck by the number of young, white, conventionally attractive women whove become famous over the past few years for their provocative criticisms of President Obama, the Democratic Party, feminists, racial justice activists, and pro-LGBT policies. Many of them, including Tomi Lahren, Scottie Nell Hughes, and Kayleigh McEnany rose to fame as big-time supporters of the Trump campaign. Some of them remain advisers to his transition team.

In effect, these women elevated their media careers by routinely defending a man who had made his hatred for women apparent for years and attacked those who dared to call him out on it. Every time Trump said or did something revealing his misogyny, these women were there, blond and bellicose, to push back against his (often female) critics.

Hillary Clinton may have had bigger names behind her, but I always felt her surrogates were weak when it came to the level of enthusiasm they displayed for her versus that of the young, attractive women the Trump campaign routinely deployed to defend him in the media. Given his past woman-bashing, perhaps Trump knew all along that his defense not to mention the appeal of his emotional, optics-driven campaign to traditional Republicans depended on the display of constant, full-throated support from young women.

The use of white women as props to peddle hateful rhetoric or to whip up support for violent and oppressive acts is by no means novel. White supremacist patriarchal socialization tells us that white women particularly those who are young and conventionally attractive are the bastions of virtue; they are innocuous and reflect our (mens) better halves. But this also means that white women are not taken very seriously by men, and can be quickly discarded if they step out of line or are no longer useful to a mans agenda.

That said, for all the privilege young white women have in getting to the next level of media stardom, they are also easy targets for a news media industry that isnt really interested in developing journalists, but cheerleaders for powerful men. As other writers have pointed out, progressive news media outlets arent much better towards young women as they extract tawdry sex pieces from them with little regard for the impact those pieces (which often go viral) will have on their publishing careers. Ultimately, however, right-wing news media is far more damaging in its promotion of anti-black, misogynistic, and xenophobic attitudes; and its use of white women to neutralizeand at times destabilizeopposition to those attitudes. In his praise of Tomi Lahrens social media platform, for instance, radio host Charlamagne Tha God not only erased the black female writers and activists whove been using social media to educate and organize people for years; he flattens out the differences in the aims of their work. White women are defending white men. Black women are defending their personhood.

It will never be in the interest of Tomi Lahren or any white female conservative commentator to come around to progressive ideas. Their personal brand is their business and ultimately they are running a business. A veteran in the conservative commentator world, Ann Coulter has not ever once apologized for or reformed any hateful viewpoint she has expressed about women or minorities. Nearly 20 years after her debut, she continues to write bestsellers, deliver speeches at major Republican events, and make the rounds on cable news shows as the voice of the extreme right. Her commercial success has tilted the news media landscape toward polemics, and there are dozens of young white women out there like Lahren who are eager to get in on the spoils.

Originally posted here:
White Women's Conservatism And The Cult Of Ann Coulter | The ... - Huffington Post

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is closing its tent flap after 146 years in business citing high operational costs and low attendance.

The Feld family, who own what is known as The Greatest Show on Earth, said ticket sales fell drastically when the elephant acts were nixed at the behest of animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

We know now that one of the major reasons people came to Ringling Bros. was getting to see elephants, Juliette Feld told the Associated Press. We stand by that decision. We know it was the right decision. This was what audiences wanted to see and it definitely played a major role.

PETA heralded the decision as a victory.

After 36 years of PETA protests, which have awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity, PETA heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times,PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to the Associated Press.

But Conservative Queen of Sarcasm Ann Coulter said it wasnt the elephant acts that caused the low ticket sales for the circus. It was the election circus, brought to you by American Democrats, that Ringling Bros. wasnt able to compete with.

She might have a point.

President-elect Donald Trump hasnt yet commented on the circus closing but he did say in 2015 that he was not going to attend anymore because it booted the elephants.

Responses varied on news of the final tent-folding:

Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast HERE

Carmine Sabia Jr started his own professional wrestling business at age 18 and went on to become a real estate investor. Currently he is a pundit who covers political news and current events.

See the original post here:
Ringling Bros. Circus closing for good after 146 years, Ann Coulter knows why - BizPac Review

Actor and underwear model Antonio Sabto Jr. is a guest of Team Trump, as is Trumps Hollywood surrogate Jon Voight. Don King and Fabio are hard maybes. Ann Coulter is set to stay far, far away.

It is unlikely that Donald Trumps successful inauguration-concert booking of Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down, Lee Greenwood, and Jon Voight will do much to ease his hurt feelings toward liberal Hollywood.

The president-elect has reportedly been very unhappy about his and his teams inability to lure A-list and Hollywood talent to his inauguration in Washington, D.C., later this montheven as he insists this fact doesnt bug him at all.

The so-called A list celebrities are all wanting [tickets] to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING, the incoming president tweeted late last month. I want the PEOPLE!

These A-list celebswith whom Trump spent decade sucking up to in Hollywood before becoming the Republican standard bearerarent snagging their tickets to Trumps inauguration because, well, they arent asking for them.

Every passing week seems to bring more news of stars and singers boasting about how Trumps team tried to convince them to lend their star power to inaugural festivities, only to be shot down. Most recently, Tony-winning gay icon Jennifer Holliday, who Trumps team announced on Friday as booked for inauguration entertainment, quickly released a letter Saturday morning stating that she, too, was now ditching Trump, in solidarity with the LGBT community.

So, who else exactly is going to this thing, and which celebrities have Trump and his crew managed to secure for what will be The Donalds biggest weekendthe moment he officially ascends to the ultra-exclusive boys club of Leader Of The Free World.

After all, past inaugurations have been able to lure big-name performers such as Bruce Springsteenthis year, the pro-Trump festivities were able get a Springsteen tribute band, only to have the tribute band cancel a mere four days before the inauguration out of respect for the vocally anti-Trump Springsteen.

The pool of laudable pro-Trump celebs is pretty shallowand its getting to the point where even some key pro-Trump celebrities are ditching the inauguration.

Historic and wonderful as it is, Id rather cut my own liver out with a butter knife [than go], conservative columnist Ann Coulterwho made the rounds in Hollywood pitching Trumps case early last yeartold The Daily Beast. Ill watch on TV and celebrate with Trumpsters in [New York City] (which Trump would, too, if he could).

Other celebrity Trump fans are keeping noncommittal.

Don King, the famous boxing promoter and convicted killer, campaigned with Trump in Ohio, a state Trump won in the general-election fight against Clinton. Trump loves King so much that this past summer, Trump personally tried to get King a prime-time speaking slot at the GOP convention in Cleveland, Ohio, only to have the idea squashed by Republican officials.

At of press time, Kings assistant Dale Edwards tells The Daily Beast that King is scheduled but not confirmed to attend the inauguration.

Trump might not even be able to count on Fabio to celebrate the peaceful, orderly transition of power.

Fabios manager said it is not on his schedule, when reached by phone, right before sighing audibly. (The Italian-American fashion model was among the exclusive gathering to feast at The Donalds most recent Thanksgiving dinner, according to the New York Post.)

Furthermore, Caitlyn Jenner is reportedly preparing to head to Washington, D.C., but hasnt confirmed yet. Representatives for Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and Sylvester Stallone wouldnt comment. Hell, even Scott Baio wont even say one way or the other right now.

Thank You!

You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason

So who in Trumps weird, D-list-heavy constellation of famous people can Trump depend on?

The answer to that question is, apparently: Alec Baldwins brother and a right-wing underwear model.

Antonio Sabto Jr.a former model whose acting credits include General Hospital, Melrose Place, and, more recently, Celebrity Wife Swapconfirmed to The Daily Beast via Twitter DM that he would be attending the inauguration as a guest of Trumps team. Sabto, who was also a Trump convention speaker, has repeatedly voiced his support for throwing Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in prison.

As for President Trumps welcome concert the day prior to the inauguration, it is only natural that Voight would be appearing. The Academy Award winning actor was Trumps biggest and most famous Hollywood booster and campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee: If youre not for Trump, then youre not for me, Voight told The Daily Beast in September.

Team Trumps lackluster tap on the A-list isnt a brand new phenomenon, however. It was a theme all throughout the presidential campaign, as it was during his years-long reign over the NBC show Celebrity Apprentice.

The Trump campaign was roundly mocked for its sad, D-list roster of celebrity mainstage-speakers (which included Baio and Sabto) at the Republican convention over the summer, especially when compared to the 2016 Democratic National Conventions A-list turnout.

Spoiler: The Dems roll-out of pro-Hillary celebs didnt matter, and Trump won anyway. It appears that Trumps D-list campaign and D-list convention were, in fact, surprisingly successful preludes to his D-list inauguration.

The rest is here:
Even Pro-Trump Celebs Are Skipping Trumps Inauguration - Daily Beast

Ann Says, No Mas!

Ann Coulter is back, more fearless than ever. In Adios, America! she touches the third rail in American politics, attacking the immigration issue head-on and flying in the face of La Raza, the Democrats, a media determined to cover up immigrants crimes, churches that get paid by the government for their charity, and greedy Republican businessmen and campaign consultantsall of whom are profiting handsomely from mass immigration thats tearing the country apart.

Applying her trademark biting humor to the disaster that is U.S. immigration policy, Ann Coulter proves that immigration is the most important issue facing America today. As Ann points out, if we cave to the Democrats scheme to bring in 30 million new liberal voters, we lose on everything else, too, from the economy to social issues to foreign policy to constitutionalism, to the very identity of our nation.

Immigration is the one issue where its nearly impossible to get the factsor even the other side of the argument. But Ann blows the lid off the cover-up by government, both political parties, and media alike. A sampling of the scintillating insights and revelations in Adios, America!:

On building a border wall: People who live in gated communities tell us fences dont work. On welfare: Todays immigrants arent coming here to breathe free, theyre coming to live for free. On how the media shut down the immigration debate: It can be difficult to discuss Americas immigration policies when its considered racist merely to say, We liked America the way it was.

The Democrats have always regarded immigration reform as a way to stuff the ballot boxstarting with Ted Kennedys immigration law of 1965.

The Democrats know that by changing the makeup of our population they can deliver themselves a permanent majority. Immigration amnesty will do just that overnight; continuing our current legal immigration policy will do it within ten or twenty years. Ann Coulter shows what we need to do to stop them.

If you love your country, you need to read Adios, America!

See more here:
Adios, America by Ann Coulter - amazon.com