e-Claire

In a struggle for power, first seize the language.™

not even Uh-bama voters deserve this

Most Americans are aware that ∏eh ∅ne’s “stimulus package” is more like being approached in a dark alley by a guy wearing a ski mask and brandishing a Saturday Night Special than it is like actual economic policy.

But really, now.

President-elect Barack Obama’s [PEBO‘s] top political aides are adapting their campaign tactics to selling policy, using data from polls and focus groups to shape the debate over a stimulus plan that may cost at least $775 billion.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political adviser, along with campaign media adviser Jim Margolis, are encouraging lawmakers to use the word “recovery” instead of recession and “investment” instead of “infrastructure.” Those recommendations came from focus-group research indicating that such framing would make the package more appealing to voters.

Also recommended were the phrases “longer lasting” and “bouncy fresh.”

The Obama camp is trying to build support for the stimulus proposals, which have encountered resistance from lawmakers of both parties over size and cost.

And because they’re about as useful to rebuilding the economy as a rope-handled shovel.

Obama officials are using polling data to determine how to frame the economic proposals for voters and what language should be used, Gibbs said. They want to know “how America reacts” to the president-elect’s stimulus proposals and the public’s “attitudes toward the economy,” he said.

Oh, I dunno—how does any rational person “react” to an uninvited demonstration of ardor by a pack of rutting gorillas?

Yeah… like that.

The two Obama advisers said the old way of talking about the plan sends the wrong signal,

Tried damp firewood and a blanket?

Obama’s language on the stimulus has won praise from Republican political advisers, who said he understands he can dictate the direction of the debate by controlling the terms used to describe it.

“The language he is using is brilliant because it’s future- focused,” said Frank Luntz Putz, a Republican pollster.

And when they say “Republican pollster” they mean “lady of effortless accessibility.”

“He’s using the best language of the progressives and the best language of the conservatives,” he said. “This is linguistic fusion.”

And by “linguistic fusion” he means “reeking conglomeration of offal.”

Axelrod dismissed any notion that Democrats were divided or weren’t committed to acting swiftly. ...“There’s an enormous appetite in this country for action,”

“Action” with torches, pitchforks, rope and trees.

He declined to provide specifics about his polling and focus-group data.

And now, a Special Moment from She who has the IQ of Sushi, telling you just how stupid you are:

Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat freain’ wombat, said she was satisfied with the conclusions of Axelrod’s polls, which she called “very, very positive.”

“People don’t know the details but they like the brand,” she said.

...

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