Freedom Works Targets Blue Dogs with Stealth Google Ad Campaign


The Online Right Tests out New Tactics

More of this, please:

The conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks is launching a search engine advertising campaign this week targeting all 49 of the fiscally conservative House Democrats, either criticizing or applauding them for how they voted on the stimulus package. The organization is buying spots in Google’s “Sponsored Links” column, which appears alongside searches for the lawmakers’ names.

Don’t be surprised if, in the comfort of your Capitol Hill office, a search for your name turns up no ads. FreedomWorks is using Google AdWords to geographically target ads so they only appear for Web users in the relevant congressional districts. This “geo-targeting,” plus the fact that the ads won’t necessarily appear for every search, makes it difficult to confirm the extent of the ad buy…

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Cao VS Vitter? Really?


Newt Gingrich is right. Republican campaign consultants are probably the dumbest, most short-sighted unimaginative pedestrian minds working in politics today. And, in hindsight, even while acknowledging the great job he did in 2004, I think I’ll lay some of the blame at the feet of Karl Rove as one of the major reasons why in recent years with his 50+1 strategy. On the surface, it sounds smart to “go where the votes are” and write off “unwinnable” districts and demographics, but in the long term, it’s the mark of a dying party. We can’t keep writing off entire regions and segments of the population and expect to remain viable as a party.

A rule in business is that you either grow or you die - and we can’t grow if we refuse to compete in Blue districts and states. Yet this is what out latte-sipping, pencil-pushing army of consultants continue to suggest we do.

An example of this type of thinking is amply demonstrated by this post here. Note that I’m not calling this person out and I mean no disrespect, but nonetheless I feel I have to take the time to show just how utterly boneheaded this sort of thinking is, and how important it is to purge it from the GOP before it does any more damage.

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