A Conversation With Joe Trippi

Brian Goldsmith Talks With Former Dean Campaign Manager

(CBS) 

CBSNews.com: So what do you think the next trail is? Or is it just going down the 2004 trail in a more sophisticated, more experienced way? Or do you think there's an entirely new and different way of doing it for the next cycle?

Joe Trippi: Well the technology's evolving, so that's going to make it different and more powerful. These campaigns have much more powerful tools like Facebook and MySpace and YouTube that we didn't have.

But I think what's interesting to me is the lack of transparency this time for some reason. None of these campaigns are saying how many supporters they have online. I mean, none of them are saying how much money they've raised on the internet.

CBSNews.com: Why is that?

Joe Trippi: It flabbergasts me. It's this really weird thing where the technology's evolving further, but the campaigns are actually regressing. The one thing I thought that everybody or that at least us and Clark and some other campaigns had sort of proven is the power of transparency. I mean of basically people knowing. You know the number of supporters, the amount of money raised —- the sort of a transparency where the supporters of the campaign actually had some incite into what they were helping to build.

And for some reason, none of these campaigns -- they have varying transparency on their website but nothing near I would say even 50 percent of the kind of transparency that you saw even in the Kerry campaign. I mean, that's what I'm saying. We're not talking about the Dean campaign here.

These campaigns have had moments of transparency versus a campaign of transparency. So that interests me, but I view that as almost a step backwards.

CBSNews.com: And do you subscribe to the view that the message and the candidate are still so much more important than whatever the technology is to deliver it? Or do you think that we've crossed some threshold where the technology and the ways of communication have become in some cases as important as the candidate and the message?

Joe Trippi: You know, I would say that the message and the candidate do matter. But there's something different here in that a candidate who's powerful on television still has to figure out how that candidate is going to buy millions of dollars of TV.

Someone who can get that same kind of power -- but who's authentic and get that to happen on the internet -- suddenly millions of people can see it, and they didn't pay anything. The candidate can go from nobody knew him to everybody's talking about him. So I think you could be a decent television candidate but a great Net candidate. I mean, the ability to communicate is different. Nixon was really good a communicating on the radio but horrible at communicating on television.

John Kennedy was amazing at communicating on television, but when people heard him on the radio, they couldn't understand half of what he was saying because of his accent. So I think we're changing now -- moving more towards authenticity having prominence in this medium. And so you can have a candidate who's better at communicating in this medium than in any of the old ones.

CBSNews.com: Speaking of message, it seems that John Edwards more than any of the other Democratic candidates is to some extent picking up where Dean left off in terms of a populist message. I don't know if you would disagree with that. Do you think that either of the other major Democratic candidates, Hillary or Obama, are as clear in their messaging strategy as Edwards is at this point?

Joe Trippi: I think what I would say is Edwards gets it. I mean, he definitely gets this medium, gets the importance, has thought his message out I think more than the others. But again, he ran four years ago. I think of all of them, he had a bigger opportunity to experience campaigning.

He’s been the most transparent using actblue.com, for instance, to raise money over the Net to show transparency. So even though he's less transparent than Dean, he's still probably the most transparent of any of the candidates out there. I'm a little surprised at both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in that, like I said, they both have excellent websites and things like that that make you say, "Oh, geez. They're really thinking about this."

And then all the sudden I kind of look at it and go, "Well, wait a minute. They've disappeared for a couple of weeks." I mean in terms of what they're doing or their message.

CBSNews.com: The one candidate, or potential candidate, you didn't mention is Al Gore. The Hotline, which is the National Journal's political newsletter, mentioned this rumor -- I don't know if you saw it -- that if Gore ran, you might be his campaign manager. Is there any truth to that? Do you have any sense about whether Gore's going to run?

Joe Trippi: Well, first of all, I have no sense about whether Gore's going to run. I've got to tell you, I don't really think he's going to go.

I have absolutely zero insight and have no idea where the rumor came from because, no, there's been no call. But I would say that the interesting thing is that Al Gore has made the leap.

This may be a little too harsh on him. But he was the inauthentic, choreographed, everything-scripted candidate for President of the United States in the year 2000. And he lost. And he's become the authentic, not-scripted, transformational leader on global warming and the Iraq war and issues he cares about.

The fear I would have is that guy could be president. Could win. I mean, lead a transformational change in this country's presidency that I think we really need. The fear I have is that the second he becomes a candidate, if he does, he becomes the careful, choreographed, inauthentic, "I got something to lose, I got to be careful because I could lose now" candidate. All he can lose now is his fight to stop global warming.

And, he can make that fight and keep leading on it. So like I said, I think like his -- the guy that we see today is a guy I would go to work for in a nanosecond to help change the country. You know, whether it's about global warming or a potential candidacy. I, one, don't think he'll run. And two, my fear would be if he did, we'd never see the guy that I'm talking about again. You know, that guy. And that's not his fault. That's what I'm trying to say about the process.

CBSNews.com: We obviously just came from a conference about how young people could be attracted to politics. And Howard Dean struck a very powerful chord among some young people. What do you think are the three or four biggest lessons a campaign should learn about how to reach out to young voters?

Joe Trippi: Trust 'em. I mean, that's the biggest thing the Dean campaign did -- we trusted young people. We said, we trust you to organize your own Meetup or your own Generation Dean meeting on campus. Or it was the young people in the campaign that came up with Dean Corps. Which is, the kids would get together and go clean up a river or something wearing their Dean t-shirts.

I got to be honest with you, I was sitting at headquarters going, okay, even I don't understand how that gets us votes. But then we'd get the local Davenport paper and it'd have the picture of the Dean kids in their Dean shirts bending over pulling garbage out of a river.

And there'd be a story about it. And there was nothing overtly political, we're doing this to get votes. It was so authentic and real that these kids really cared about it. That I think it did help us. So I think, basically, the biggest thing is trust.

It is not a war, it is an occupation.
It is not a legitimate government, it is a puppet government.
It is not an insurgency, it is a resistance.
It is not a Civil War, it is a resistance attacking perceived collaborators.
We will not stop the debacle in Iraq as long as we call it a war. It is much easier to sell the idea that we must end the occupation of Iraq.
If big oil and big oil politicians want to steal Iraqi and other Middle East Oil, they should do it on their own. Our soldiers and our treasure should not be used to further the interests of oil profiteers. Our soldiers did not enlist in order to protect the corporate profits of oil corporations. Their job is to defend the nation when our national security is threatened. Allowing corporations use our military for their purposes is facism. No more of our young men and national treasue should be sacrificed for the benefit of corporate greed. Oil Corporations put Cheney and Bush into power to do their bidding, and we have all been slimed by the resulting oil spill. Bush and Cheney should be impeached for numerous violations of the United States Constitution, and the oil industry in every country should be nationalized. Most countries have already done that.

[bluestardad]

HERE ARE THE REPUBLICAN SENATORS UP FOR REELECTION IN 08 WRITE THEM ASK THEM IF THEIR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL TRUMPS THEIR DUTY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING KILLED FROM THEIR STATES?

ASK THEM HOW MUCH AIPAC INFLUENCES THEIR VOTES ON IRAQ?

http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm


Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN)
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO)
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS)
Coleman, Norm- (R - MN)
Collins, Susan M.- (R - ME)
Cornyn, John- (R - TX)
Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID)
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)
Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC)
Hagel, Chuck- (R - NE)
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS)
Sessions, Jeff- (R - AL)
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH)
Warner, John- (R - VA)

If you think Americas sacrifice is worth it contact your ELECTED OFFICIAL and tell them http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

The House Speakers email address: [e-mail]

[randalds]

I think the thing that really stands out about this interview is how much better it is compared the interview with that dumb as*s Ed Gillespie last week. Trippi takes a critical look at the democratic candidates and speaks honestly about what they're doing right and wrong, whereas Gillespie just took the opportunity to gush over what a great man he thinks Bush is. It was really rather nauseating and certainly made one wonder what their private relationship was like.

[forthepeaple]

I was once proud to be american and proud to say i i'm a vet,now i just want out.You all in congress and capital hill and white house should be working for america and the americans that elected you to protect us,that isn't the case and i know why. I have been looking and found something that all america has forgotton.Who said this statement: If the personal freedoms of all americans by the Constitution and bill of right are Inhibiting the Government ability to (Govern)that meant control, the people of united states of america..Than we Should look to Limit those GUARANTEES #2.The united states Government CAN'T BE so fixed on our desires to preserve the RIGHTS of ORDINARY AMERICANS #3.I can do any ********* thing i want,I'm president of the united states and you dont forget that.....who am I..... so you all have been following your orders well i want you all to know that i hold all of you accountable for the murders of thousends of americans that have died and wounded in a war we have no buisness being in, you all are makeing large sums of money on americans lives and you all will pay a big price for that someday,heavens gates will never open its golden gates to you.. i hope someday that america and true americans will wake up and see that this washington crime family has sold our country to the highest bidders, china being # 1 and is # 1 in the world now, they are the supper powers of the world now. THANKS..DAVID A BELANGER,FOR AMERICANS FOR AMERICA,AT [e-mail]

[randalbs]

We need a Communist Revolution in the USA. Everbudy knows that reel Communism has never been tried.

We need to round up all republicans, neocons,etc and send them all to re-educashun camps to teach them how to be politcaly corect. WE CANNOT TOLERATE DESENT, we need to imprison all conservatives until they convert to OUR way of thinking. When everbudy is politicaly corect and thinks like us, then we can all get along

Re-distribute monie from rich and give to the pour, that's what the rich diserve for wurking so hard. It isnt fare that people who wurk hard get payd more.

Communize health care first, then energy, then corporations so that everbudy works for the state.

There is no god, only the state, WE know it takes a village.

Long live the gloreus peeples republic of amerika

[bigdadpatrio]

Al Gore is a liar, a tree-hugger, an extremist, and a THREE TIME LOSER. He's proof that libs will support any yellow dog that'll run. Doesn't say much for your integrity or your logical thinking skills, does it?

[randalds]

Posted by ucla900 at 04:10 PM : Mar 16, 2007

I agree, excellent interview. Well thought out questions and very good answers. I hope Joe is going to be running the campaign for whoever the democratic nominee is, esp if it's Gore. I just saw Gore's documentary on Showtime a few days ago and if he'd been that lose during his run in 2000 he'd still be the president. Excellent documentary! Reminded me of watch Carl Sagan as he took what could have been complex science and made it accessible to any thinking person. Well done Al!

[ucla900]

This is the first article that's talked about the importance of young people. Really important issue! thanks for the interesting interview. Go Gore!

[forthepeaple]

I was once proud to be american and proud to say i i'm a vet,now i just want out.You all in congress and capital hill and white house should be working for america and the americans that elected you to protect us,that isn't the case and i know why. I have been looking and found something that all america has forgotton.Who said this statement: If the personal freedoms of all americans by the Constitution and bill of right are Inhibiting the Government ability to (Govern)that meant control, the people of united states of america..Than we Should look to Limit those GUARANTEES #2.The united states Government CAN'T BE so fixed on our desires to preserve the RIGHTS of ORDINARY AMERICANS #3.I can do any ********* thing i want,I'm president of the united states and you dont forget that.....who am I..... so you all have been following your orders well i want you all to know that i hold all of you accountable for the murders of thousends of americans that have died and wounded in a war we have no buisness being in, you all are makeing large sums of money on americans lives and you all will pay a big price for that someday,heavens gates will never open its golden gates to you.. i hope someday that america and true americans will wake up and see that this washington crime family has sold our country to the highest bidders, china being # 1 and is # 1 in the world now, they are the supper powers of the world now. THANKS..DAVID A BELANGER,FOR AMERICANS FOR AMERICA,AT [e-mail]

[forthepeaple]

HAVE BEEN TELLING ALL OF YOU TO GO AND READ THE FACTS TRUE FACTS ABOUT IRAQ AND IRAN..HOW MUCH LONGER TO I HAVE TO KEEP POSTING THE SAME THING UNTIL YOU ALL READ IT..go to www.scoop.co.nz go to search tab and put in PENTAGON WHISTLE-BLOWER IRAQ and read it..it is sad but true and until you americans wake up and smell the s/h/i/t/ that your government has been telling you for CENTURIES.....
americans need a real american to run this country so vote for david a belanger for president he is a real american and will only help america and americans. [e-mail]

[us_infidel]

Poll: Bias 'alive and well' in press
By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 16, 2007

The vast majority of American voters detect the presence of political bias in the mainstream news media, according to a Zogby poll released yesterday in conjunction with the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
Sentiment is strong: 83 percent of likely voters think bias is "alive and well." Of that number, 64 percent said the press leans left, while slightly more than a quarter -- 28 percent -- said there was a conservative bias.

[randalds]

Trippi sure hits it on the head about Gore in 2000. He was scripted and stiff, not himself at all. He was following the advice of his handlers too much. Of course he still won the election, but if he'd been himself more then the election would have been out of the Supreme Courts reach to overturn.