David Axelrod was on Tavis Smiley today. Must listen for DU'ers.

[AP]

He concluded (astutely, in my opinion) that Kerry did so well in IA because of his commercials highlighting his military service. I've said that before. I've said that those were incredibly powerful commercials. He also said that Kerry commercials talk about his service, but don't try to overdo the military angle because too much military tends to backfire for Democrats. That's Republican territorry, he says.

I'm not David Axelrod. However, I've been saying those two things here on DU for months.

Axelrod had other interesting things to say. It's worth the time.


Strategies Behind Political Advertising

What are the various strategies behind presidential advertisements targeted to potential voters of color? NPR's Tavis Smiley gets answers from David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media strategist, and William Benoit, the author of Seeing Spots : A Functional Analysis of Presidential Television Advertisements.

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=26-May-2004&prgId=14

[JI7]

1. and why kerry got most female votes

he often talked about his service in a way as to relate to other people. he emphasized his "band of brothers" and the relationships with other people. so even though most women tend to be less into war and military things, the ads appealed to them and many other liberal and traditional democratic voters.

[JI7]

2. remember the stuff in his military records just released ?

like how he killed the "enemy" and earned medals because of it ? notice he never really talks about that and we didn't know most of it until the records were released.