Latest Obama Error: Campaign Asks Designers to Work for Free on Jobs Poster
Prediction: President Obama's re-election campaign is about to do a U-turn. It has issued a crowdsourcing request for designers to come up with a "Jobs" campaign poster, without being paid. The Obama campaign has $60 million on hand in its war chest, so it's not as if he can't afford to pay a few thousand dollars for a design. The ironic icing on the cake: The campaign intends to sell the winning design and keep the money; the designer will get only a copy autographed by Obama.
And, in the legalese, "All submissions will become property of Obama for America."
Obama appears to be doing his best to lose the 2012 election. The man who won in 2008 as a campaigning liberal, and took the advantage of both houses of Congress with him, appears to have become a Quisling, earnestly seeking compromise with a Republican party that has made it clear that it regards compromise as defeat. The poster debacle -- didn't anyone notice the irony? -- is an indicator that the Obama campaign needs new management. Modern, two-fisted, take-no-prisoners management.
Obama's campaign malaise isn't limited to the poster thing. His web site appears to be run by folks who are phoning it in. The top headline at this hour: a Tweet labelled, ".@VP visited Goode Elementary in York yesterday to talk about getting teachers back to work. Check out video & photos - OFA.BO/rtZLMK."
Be still my beating heart!
An older item about Obama's visit to North Chesterfield, Va., to promote his jobs agenda has garnered just six Tweets and 13 Facebook likes. The comments board underneath is filled with random ramblings, much of it from Republicans, unrelated to the president's jobs agenda. To put this in perspective: I get better social media traction for my posts than Obama is getting right now.
When the Republicans' Tea Party wing broke out into an open revolt of craziness ("Obama isn't an American," really?), the GOP harnessed that energy and almost immediately turned it into an electoral effort that won Senate seats in Massachusetts, Kentucky and Florida.
Occupy Wall Street is now in a similar state of foment, on the left. To win, Obama needs to channel that energy into the 2012 ballot booth. Fighting unemployment by requesting people work for free won't help.
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