We’ve run some links and excerpts from the great Q&A interviews done by The Talking Dog. Most of TTD’s interviews so far have been on issues related to the war on terrorism and detainees. Now he has a new one up, this time with a top, pioneering liberal blogger.
Blogs are an amazing development in the world’s infonetwork. For very little money someone can be their own writer, editor (and edit better than the New York Post did yesterday morning), assignment editor, reporter and op-ed writer. Most blogs do all of that — except to act as reporter. A few blogs do independent reporting. And The Talking Dog is one of them. (NOTE: Someone sent us a link recently with some original reporting and due to our being behind we didn’t post it. We will look for it on our email backlog later today).
Here’s the intro to TTD’s interview with the first question and another excerpt:
Bill Scher is the executive editor of the popular Liberal Oasis web-site, among whose credits include the first interview with a presidential candidate by a blog. Mr. Scher is the author of “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada!: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America”, a handbook of political strategies for liberals interested in advancing the liberal cause. Mr. Scher also appears regularly on Air America’s “Majority Report”. On September 19, 2006, I had the privilege of speaking to Mr. Scher by telephone; what follows are my interview notes, as corrected where appropriate by Mr. Scher.
The Talking Dog: I’ll belay my usual first question to ask if you are still speaking with Michelle Malkin (who I understand was your editor at a student publication at Oberlin College)?
Bill Scher: Funny you should mention her. Michelle Malkin e-mailed me last night– she saw me in the Clinton picture with the other bloggers! She hadn’t realized it was me behind Liberal Oasis before, but suggested that we get together the next time I am in the Washington, D.C. area!
TTD as usual asks specific questions that generate lots of original info for readers. Here’s just a tiny taste — a question asked from a liberal perspective, to a liberal blogger:
The Talking Dog: Why has September 11th been used so successfully as a right wing hammer, and how can we successfully overcome it?
Bill Scher: It’s been used successfully because there is a deep seated stereotype that Democrats are weak on national security, and Republicans are strong. It’s a no-brainer for them to use the natural fear for one’s security in such circumstances… you want the guys who you believe will protect you to be in power during a crisis situation. And when there is such a deep-seated stereotype, the facts don’t matter. You’re not going to be able to explain that Bill Clinton was far more focused on trying to thwart terrorism than George W. Bush.
The stereotype will overwhelm the facts. So… how do you get rid of the stereotype?
You can’t talk your way out of it, no matter how tough you talk. You have to demonstrably prove that the stereotype is false. You have to either successfully prosecute a war, like FDR in World War II, or successfully avert war while keeping us strong, like JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis. But to do that, you have to be in power. And it can be hard to get in power because of the “weak” stereotype, so you have a kind of a Catch-22 situation.
Does that mean Democrats can never return to power? No. Two things could happen: (1) the fear of terrorism will subside, and other issues, domestic issues where Democrats are stronger on, will come into play, or (2) enough disasters (such as Iraq) will accumulate so that people realize that the Republicans are not doing a very good job on national security, and it is time to give Democrats a chance. Of course, both of those scenarios are beyond our control.
So what should be done in the interim? We should articulate our own overarching foreign policy vision and principles, and lay them out consistently. Consistency builds trust. So when the moment of public perception shifts, we are ready to seize the moment, and the public is in a position to trust us, and we make it easier for voters to go with our new direction.
There’s a LOT more — so read it in its entirety.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.