With a campaign, and an attack strategy, the goal is to develop a few simple messages and repeat those messages until they sink in. The reasons are simple and related to human behaviors that every advertising guru, PR flack and marketer gets drilled into them from their first "101" level university class.
1. Most people will not put any real effort into digging for the truth. You're lucky if they read past the headline and lead paragraph of a news story -- if they even read the newspaper at all (not to mention the inadequacies of a 45 sec to 1.5 minutes for a broadcast news piece). A rebuttal may easily be overlooked, particularly if it happens a day or two later and comes out on page 20. Too many rebuttals, even if accurate and honest, can put a candidate on the defensive and make him/her look guilty. It’s better to concentrate on attacking the other guy/gal with most of that effort. This covers marketing to the "middle ground" voters.
2. The hard core supporters will always be motivated to see the best in their candidate and see the worst in the other. This works really well with point no. 1. The goal is not to convert any of the hard cores, but to get them motivated to turn out on Election Day.
3. It's easy (see 1 and 2) to craft messages that push the buttons of certain demographics. Joe-six-pack, soccer mom, angry white male, YUPPIE, BUPPIE, etc. refer to groups that have certain cultural identities. And guess what, they are generally accurate and can be banked upon. People make an awful lot of $ selling everything from hemorrhoid cream to candidates to wars using the right list/time slot/audience and the proper message development. Where message development is concerned, emotion is more important than fact (unless its B2B communications).
The fewer messages the better, and as long as there are no outright lies, omissions and slant are perfectly acceptable (again, it is generally counter productive to spend too much time cleaning them up). Focus groups and surveys help identify which messages (usually from a long list) have the most traction with the particular audience.
4. Once a message is crafted the goal is to repeat the message every time someone in the campaign/party/administration has an opportunity to speak and through advertising. You always stay on message. For example, it is no surprise (except for the level of success), that 70 some percent of the people in NY think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 even though nobody in the administration actually said he was. All that is needed is to mention Saddam Hussein and either terrorist, 9/11 or Al Queda within the 2-4 sentences of each other. The human mind will fill in the rest. “September 11 taught us one thing, we have to be vigilant against terrorists,” said speechwriter Charon, though Admin person’s lips. “Saddam Hussein has WMD, and he poses a threat to the region and the world, and that threat must be removed.”
So far, Kerry is being defined as a Flip Flopper (to be expected with any Washington politician), whose war record is not as good as would be suggested. Bush is being challenged on the War in Iraq (which he certainly spearheaded) and the economy (which is bigger than one man, even the president). However, don’t expect a great deal of in-depth analysis for either since that only confuses the majority of voters. Attack ads are just too effective.
Charon
