Moveon.org ad
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard about Moveon.org’s ad in the New York Times. Forget about the content of the ad and what the ad is about - there are some great lessons to be learned from this whole episode.
Lesson 1 - You’ve got to hand it to the Moveon.org people - they succeeded in getting the entire country talking about the issue they care about - that’s not a small feat.
Lesson 2 - They established themselves as the legitimate anti-war voice. How can I say that. How many other organizations out there are able to get the US Senate to do something about an ad that is produced. If the US Senate feels threatened by such an organization enough to pass a resolution, then I’m impressed. Besides, all the US Senate did was give Moveon.org a huge credibility boost. The US Senate committed a huge political error in responding to anything that Moveon.org does. Now the US Senate has an obligation to continue to respond to further Moveon.org ads and antics.
Lesson 3 - Moveon.org was able to get their critics to respond to them. Again, amazing. One of the things I’ve learned from my years of campaigning for underdog campaigns is that the easiest way to gain credibility and be seen as a legitimate candidate is to get your opponent, the incumbent, to respond to you. That’s exactly what conservative commentators did - they legitimized Moveon.org as a force to be dealt with.
Overall, very impressive work. And great lessons in gaining credibility and making sure people will listen to you in the future.