http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/why_democrats_are_losing_the_messaging_war_on_federal_contractor_disclosure.phpWhy Democrats Are Losing The Messaging War On Federal Contractor Disclosure
Ryan J. Reilly | May 28, 2011, 11:00AM
Campaign finance reformer advocates aren't only facing setbacks in federal courtrooms -- they're also getting beat on the messaging war with Republicans over a proposal to make federal contractors disclose their donations to third-party groups.
Somewhere along the way, an Obama proposal which would increase transparency in the federal contracting process by requiring companies bidding on contracts to disclose their political donations to third party groups became a sneaky plot by the Obama administration to silence political opponents.
"I think there's been pretty weak messaging from the left," John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation told TPM. "They didn't really wage a very strong PR battle, and now the left is kind of silent on the draft executive order. The right has chosen their talking points, they're painting it as politicization -- even though that's ridiculous because no 'pay to play' scheme is based on public, online disclosure."
"The left is either silent on the issue or capitulating to the right and defending contractors ability to spend secret money in elections, which is just stunning," Wonderlich said.
-snip-
The entire article is well worth reading.
I agree with Ryan Reilly on this. Unfortunately, this is far from the only time Dems have been weak in terms of messaging. Even when it should be easy to make the case for Democratic policies -- even when we know from polls that there's popular support and we should be able to tap that support -- we let the Republicans win the messaging war if they're all on message and have their talking points ready, and our response is too little and too late.
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