Inside the Mind of Dennis Kucinich
Days Until Bush Leaves Office = 663
WHOA! I think we can now say it's official: the Kucinich campaign has completely flipped out. From the inbox this morning:
Eyes and Ears: We need your help!
Hello Volunteer,
Thank you so much for all of your hard work so far!
We are happy to announce that we need your help with an important opportunity called the Eyes and Ears Project. In order for Dennis to continue to be a successful candidate, it is important that we track, monitor, and gather information about the other candidates. In politics, it is absolutely essential to gather information about your opponents. That is why we are happy to invite you to help us monitor the other candidates. If you are interested in this volunteer job, you will be gathering information about other campaigns and exactly what it is they are doing to market themselves.
We want the other campaigns to know we are monitoring them. We want them to know that we have eyes and ears everywhere. Also, this process serves the dual function of keeping other campaigns honest. If they know we are monitoring them, they will be more likely to be transparent and honest. Therefore, we are looking for your help to be our eyes and ears. We are looking for people with good research skills that are very adept at paying attention to detail and gathering vast quantities of information.
Area 1: Monitoring of Advertising
Area 2: Monitoring of News Stories
Area 3: Monitoring of Blogs, Social Network Sites, Forums, etc.
If you are interested in helping with the Eyes and Ears marketing volunteer project, you will be given one area and one candidate. For example, you may be put in charge of monitoring all advertising around Hillary Clinton. Each week, you will submit a report about all of Hillary's advertising you could find. You can observe her tactics, research her strategy and share your observations.
You can choose any area that you feel most comfortable with, and any candidate you may be interested in tracking. If you are interested in one of the Eyes and Ears marketing volunteer project, please email me back at Evan@kucinich.us. Tell me in what area and what candidate you may be interested. If you need more information about what the job will entail, I will explain more.
Thank you so much for your help,
Evan Moody
National Outreach Coordinator
Kucinich for President 2008
evan@kucinich.us
Finally, for the piece de resistance, the sender line on the email is "Kucinich for President 2208." It's the 200 year gap that turns this into art.
So now, in addition to the Department of Peace, it appears we'll be able to look forward to a Department of Truth in the ever-forthcoming Kucinich administration. Perhaps Dennis can ask President Bush if his campaign can borrow the NSA for the duration of the campaign; after all, why reinvent the wheel?
Note to the Kucinich campaign: if you guys are going to be monitoring blogs, and you decide to come after me, can you at least click on some of the ads when you visit? Thanks a bunch!
2 comments:
Actually, monitoring what other candidates are doing is not new. I'm surprised you didn't know that. But all that aside, you evidently didn't get the email that quickly followed the first one:
A Special Message From Dennis Kucinich Regarding A Recent Campaign Communication
Dear Friends,
Our campaign has arrived at a teachable moment and an opportunity for growth. Yesterday, you received a message from our campaign entitled: "Eyes and Ears: We need your help!" relating to a project which advocated the monitoring of the campaigns of my fellow presidential candidates.
I believe such tactics are spiritually and politically counterproductive, therefore I am asking you to disregard the request. The focus of our campaign has been and must continue to be: What kind of a nation and world do we want to create? The intellectual or emotional focus on any campaign dissipates that creative energy.
The vital organ of this campaign is the heart. This campaign is about transforming politics, not mimicking stale political trends. The other candidates are all fine public servants and long-time friends. I ask that you join me in wishing every one of them well by expressing compassion for all candidates who strive to serve. "Monitoring" projects are inherently pretentious, divisive and mean-spirited and have no place in a campaign which desires to change the world for the better.
When we "track" other candidates, we come from a place of fear which shows that we are off the track of our own objectives. I reserve the right and accept sole responsibility to draw factual comparisons on policy matters. But such comparisons must come from a place of integrity. It is not the job of our campaign to keep other candidates honest. Each candidate must accept responsibility for his or her own integrity.
Let's use this moment to joyously and courageously recommit ourselves to the highest principles which animate our campaign, the imperative of human unity, and saving the planet from global warring and global warming. We have so much work to do. Let us not shift our focus for even one moment from our dedicated efforts to achieve the America and the world we desire.
I am so grateful for your support.
Sincerely,
Dennis J Kucinich
One of the amazing things about the responses I've seen to this incident is people defending the "Eyes and Ears" project even when they know that Kucinich himself has renounced it!
On the topic of opposition research, see my post here: http://ipol-2008.blogspot.com/2007/03/verified-unfortunately.html
and as far as getting Dennis' mea culpa, see my post here:
http://ipol-2008.blogspot.com/2007/03/kucinich-disavows-eyes-and-ears.html
And let me repeat: I wholeheartedly commend Dennis Kucinich for his statement retracting the original "Eyes and Ears" email. But beyond this being a teachable moment for his campaign, it is also an accountability moment. The next question that must be asked is, will Dennis Kucinich identify who in his campaign originated - and approved - the "Eyes and Ears" project, and will he dismiss them from his campaign? Unless Dennis Kucinich follows through and does this, his disavowal will be proven to be nothing more than empty rhetoric and transparent political posturing.
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