In America, the last two months of a presidential election are characterized by a blitz of TV ads. Each candidate is vying to persuade the undecided, but more than that, to simply be a presence in peoples’ lives up to election day, in preparation for being a daily presence when once in the White House. This election, paradoxically, the reality TV actor-incumbent is the one whose presence is less than usual on the tube — because he can’t afford to be there. The alleged billionaire doesn’t have the bucks to pay for advertising and his supporters/cult members are quite upset. Washington Post:
Fearing a coming cash crunch, President Trump’s campaign has pulled back from television advertising over the last month, ceding to Democratic nominee Joe Biden a huge advantage in key states and sparking disagreements over strategy within the president’s senior team.
Republican officials have been inundated with calls from worried activists and donors who complain about constant Biden ads in their local media markets, with very few paid Trump responses, according to people familiar with the conversations. Some Republicans close to Trump have been baffled at the decision to sharply curb advertising and have told the president he should change course. […]
Among those worried is Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who recently told the president she was concerned his ads were not on television in states such as Michigan and Florida where Biden was blanketing the airwaves, according to people familiar with the conversation. The president shared the concern, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
If Ronna was worried on September 10, when this article was published, Ronna is doubtlessly distraught right now, if not downright shattered with the news that Mike Bloomberg just put $100 Million into the Biden Florida advertising coffers. That donation does change the paradigm considerably. If you see Biden blanketing the airwaves now, like a gentle coat of snow, just wait until the Bloomberg-funded avalanche comes and buries whatever pathetic propaganda spots Trump may have placed there.
Trump’s team has been playing defense between mid-August and early September, spending $3.8 million in Georgia and $1.4 million in Iowa, states recently won by Republicans where Democrats spent nothing. Biden, meanwhile, was on the air with $2.7 million in Nevada, which has lately gone to Democrats, without opposition.
Among hotly contested states, Biden spent more than six times as much as Trump in Arizona, and nearly three times as much in North Carolina during the same period, forcing Republican SuperPACs to come in to close the gaps.
The disparity is set to continue going forward, as the Trump campaign has continued to pull down reservations in important states in recent weeks. Reservations reported Wednesday for the week of Sept. 15-21 projected more than $30 million in ads to help Biden, compared with $21 million in ads to help Trump.
And these figures are from three days ago, pre-Bloomberg. So tack $100 Million onto the Biden numbers.
There are many levels upon which to view this election and as the final days count down towards November 3, the aspect of watching it as political theater comes into play. This election is not like any other and it will be scrutinized and dissected for many years to come, on many levels, not the least of which is how the strategies operated and the levers were pulled. It’s very much like a card game and No Trump is the bid. While we hold our breath wondering if democracy is circling the drain, on one level, pay attention to the actual nuts and bolts of how this election is run tactically and strategically. There’s a lot to look at and you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
co ronna is a virus
What is it they say about a fool and their money? Or what the Eagles sang about a certain kind of fool who likes to hear the sound of his own name? Love it!
FYI, if you’re hyperventilating over how this will go down, do whatever you can to GOTV….instant therapy.
They should ring up Brad Parscale and ask for a ride on his Yacht…..perhaps a spin in the Ferrari……a fool and his money are soon parted…..
aaahahaha!!!
*smirk*
It’s a Lamborghini. You believe that, a campaign manager driving a Lamborghini? No wonder the Lincoln Project did an ad on it.
It just occurred to me that one big advantage Trump had in 2016 was all the FREE airtime damned near every network gave him as he spouted his word salad diatribes at his rallies. It was the equivalent of putting a radio “shock jock” on TV and people tuning in (whether, as was noted early in his career) to people tuning in to Howard Stern. Survey’s of listener’s comments, whether they listened because they liked him or hated him had the same reason noted as #1 – “I want to hear what he’ll say next.” People have since then grown tired of Trump’s shtick and even Fox stopped carrying every bit of every rally live before we got into this year. However, I’m quite certain Trump assumed two things – that he’d be traipsing all over the country in Air Force One doing three (or more) rallies a week. The second is that he assumed while not every major network would carry all of them live they’d run significant portions live AND that his pals at Fox would air it al for “the faithful.” Live. Uncut.
Apparently, last night which was a freaking Saturday night no less Fox didn’t carry ANY of his Las Vegas tee-vee “extravaganza.” Trump probably went through the roof when he learned Fox had pre-empted him! I’d imagine that programing decision has sent shockwaves through the Fox “opinion journalist” ranks, the RNC and the entire GOP as well. Today is likely a truly “Oh SHIT!” day for them as the combination of two straight weeks of devastating news cycles due to books (with a third one coming up since Woodward’s book will actually be out), polling indicating Trump not only didn’t get a bump from the convention but is even falling a little further behind, Biden significantly outraising Trump in campaign donations and GOP mega donors expressing disatisfaction over blowing through 800 million so far and being so far behind the campaign has gone dark for significant amounts of time in key states – and more. I’d imagine real fear is starting to set in. Hoping for a miracle (again) from Putin might be their only hope but it’s possible Putin has issues of his own. Oh sure, he’s been at work screwing with things and Zuckerberg is only to happy to accommodate him but even if the upper echelons at DHS and even DOJ are trying to withhold resources from the states there are career people still there intent on doing their jobs and helping states try to fend off attacks on election infrastructure. And a forewarned Democratic Party armed with information on what to look for – at least much of it.
Trump will have his super spreader events, but a few thousand folks isn’t ten or fifteen thousand and he can’t draw the same energy from the smaller crowds. And not only that, not only are most networks only airing clips of the craziest talk, FOX isn’t airing his amp up the base racist shit shows!
Susan Collins should grab this chance to pad her retirement account with lessons on “brow furrowing” and feeling “deep concern” cause there’s a lot of that going on in the GOP right now and it may well continue for a long time to come.
Yes, people have had plenty of opportunity to hear what Trump says.
It’s very obvious by now that all he has are lies.
With Trump’s fondness for using any and all funds available no matter what their origin, whether meant for his personal use or not, how much of that money is going into his pocket?
I live in a reliably blue, non-swing state, and am seeing a lot of Biden ads but none from Team T. If the Dems are blanketing my airwaves, I can’t imagine what they are doing in the swing states. Quite fitting that the king of bankruptcy’s campaign is out of money in the homw stretch.
Watching Jen O’Malley Dillon take on Parscale and Stepien is like watching the Dodgers play Mrs Kravlalash’s sixth grade drama class. I mean…lord.
I don’t have cable so I don’t really see the ads here in MS. Mike Espy has way more money than the -Smith and is running ads that make the Rethugs that comment on the news website I go to very mad. So I guess he is using the money well. I hope Biden will ride Espy’s coat tails to a victory.
Don Jon appears to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to raise funds. I came across this (and honestly thought it was a joke until I looked at it)
https://www.3dtrumpvision.com/?gdpr_consent=&gdpr=true