"Progressive Media will not be running an independent ad campaign this year," David Brock, the head of the organization, confirmed in a statement obtained by The Fix this morning.
"Progressive Media was established to be an independent on-going progressive issue advocacy organization," Brock added. "We were not established for one issue, one candidate or one election cycle. But donors and potential donors are getting clear signals from the Obama camp through the news media and we recognize that reality."
Independent outside advertising groups will not play a role this cycle. If you're wearing your Democrat hat, don't worry. Here's Paul Krugman comparing the economy to electoral outcomes using a model from Alan Abramowitz.
Right now, GDP is flat (falling in the monthly estimates); Bush has a negative net approval of 30 percent or more; and people are tired of Republicans. So it ought to be a smashing Democratic victory. When I plug current numbers into the Abramowitz model (making a guess about 1st-half GDP and assuming that Bush approval in June will be about where it is today), it says 57-43 Democrats.
Democrats are going to romp. On the other hand, Obama is calling himself a 'former liberal', so progressives have work to do to make this a progressive victory not just a Democratic one. Remember, for all his caution, Obama has also said the following.
"I didn't' say I liked Ronald Reagan's policies," Obama explained. "What I said was that was the kind of working majority we need to form in order to move a progressive agenda forward."
UPDATE: The 'former liberal' comment was apparently a slip-up.
"When a candidate changes his position as a response to the politics of the moment and the press ignores it, he's lucky. When he changes his position and the press goes out of its way to say how principled he is for not changing his position, he's John McCain."
-- David Brock & Paul Waldman
Today, Paul Waldman and David Brock are releasing a new chapter to their book, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media.. The new chapter is an update to the media coverage of McCain since the book was published, and is NOW available at www.mccainsfreeride.com.
Not surpringly the chapter contains few surprises--the press continues to give McCain a free ride, acting as his political base, and exhibiting the same lazy-minded stereotyping that was documented in the book itself: McCain is a "maverick" (even when he's singing duets with Bush) prone to "straight talk" (even when he's flip-flopping) who doesn't like to talk about his POW experience (but babbles on about it anyway, no matter how much it bothers him to do so).
As the authors explain:
Just a few months ago, McCain had cratered in the polls, and few thought he could bounce back. Yet there was one group of people who had not only the desire but the ability to give McCain the boost he needed, just when he needed it.
The point that began McCain's resurgence came around the Iowa caucuses. As McCain seemed to be staging a comeback, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham declared it "good news for all of us, whatever our politics." Chris Matthews waxed poetic: "There's something genuine here, something selfless, even quietly grand in his campaign." Matthews predicted that McCain would win 18 percent in Iowa, making him "a big hero." Chuck Todd noticed the obvious: "The media does seem to be ready to will John McCain out of Iowa."
And so they did, despite the actual results. Many may have forgotten by now that the Iowa contest was actually won by Mike Huckabee, but the media proclaimed McCain -- who came in fourth place, with 13 percent of the vote -- the actual winner. "A fantastic night for John McCain," said the Politico's Mike Allen. Tim Russert immediately booked McCain, and not Huckabee (or second-place finisher Mitt Romney, or third-place finisher Fred Thompson), to be the guest on that Sunday's Meet the Press. Matthews seemed to sum up the media's thoughts about the senator in a January 28 interview: "Senator McCain, you know you're in my heart."
And so this ad comes out from the new $40M outfit called Progressive Media USA, David Brock's group.
It's essentially the same messaging as the 'McSame' ads from the earlier named Campaign to Defend America.
It seems as if the progressive donor class has begun to move against McCain. It strikes me that the messaging and strategy for the outside groups is pretty well-established, regardless of who is making the ads and who is paying for them. You argue that McCain is the same as Bush, that McCain is a Republican, and that McCain wants to keep us in Iraq for 100 years. And a dollar on TV going against McCain is a dollar on TV going against McCain is a dollar on TV going against McCain.
