Big Red Car here, y’all. Going to be a nice day here in the ATX — 68F and sunny with a few clouds.
This is winter, y’all, ATX style.
So, the Big Red Car has been watching the primaries. Interesting stuff, no?
Tonight the top seven Republicans square off in North Charleston to continue thinning the herd. You going to watch?
This primary season has been dominated by one guy, that guy, the Trump guy. But why? Why Big Red Car?
EARNED MEDIA, y’all. Earned media.
Earned media
“Earned media” is a fancy word for free stuff. When Donald Trump is interviewed on a Sunday morning talk show for ten minutes, he doesn’t have to pay for that exposure, does he? How much might a ten minute campaign ad cost? That’s right! A lot of damn money!
He “earns” that exposure and coverage and thus the term “earned media.” Here’s Donald Trump holding court with the news folk and earning a bit of media exposure.
The Donald has been crushing it on earned media and, obviously, hasn’t spent very much money on it either. Free coverage. Earned media.
To be fair, not only has Donald Trump enjoyed mad bank in the earned media account, he has also kidnapped all the oxygen on the planet. The guy can call in on a Sunday morning show and get almost unlimited, unscripted, uncontrolled, unedited chat time. Can Jeb Bush do this?
Note that calling in to Sunday morning shows used to be forbidden. These are visual extravaganzas. Who wants to look at a picture and listen to a voice? They do if it is Donald Trump.
Not only is Trump enjoying a tsunami of earned media, it is on his terms and his alone. He does not have to subject himself to any restraint — not sure the chap has that gear — of editing or pre-approved questions.
Hell, he even has the President of the United States pimping for him at the State of the Union speech. The President couldn’t resist adding to the tailwind that is driving Trump.
That is kind of cool for Trump because he gets to look “presidential” while disagreeing with an unpopular President [Hey, it’s the Republican primary. The President is very unpopular. Deal with it.] who looks silly sticking his nose into the Republican primary contest.
Trump will eventually be running against the President (Candidate Obama did the same thing running against President Bush).
Super PACs
Super PACs are all that is wrong with the filthy lucre of politics. It is a way for faceless, nameless, rich people to control the process while hiding in the shadows and pretending to be focused on saving the whales. They pick their candidate, they slap him with their checkbooks, they go play golf. After golf, the roll widows, kick orphans, screw veterans, cheat on their wives, count their money. Really, it’s not a bad life.
It is the power of money in politics writ large.
What do the SuperPACs do with all that money?
They support their hand picked handmaidens while living the fiction of not “coordinating” with any of the candidates.
They ultimately spend their gobs of money to create media — words, pictures, videos, ads — to influence the election either by cheerleading for their candidate of sliming their candidate’s rivals.
They spend their money on MEDIA. And, baby, that media is not free. Here is the kind of stuff they produce. This is a hit piece on Hillary Clinton. Watch it and see how vicious a SuperPAC is capable of being. Wow!
Jeb Bush has an imaginary friend Super PAC with the GDP of Panama following him around. Not coordinating directly, y’all. Just trying to be “helpful.” Ahh, a Super PAC with a lot of money can be very helpful.
Clash of titans
So, you have the Trump earned media on one side — millions of dollars of exposure.
On the other side, you have the SuperPacs with all their money creating “paid for” media.
Trump is getting so much more value that the SuperPAC’s super power — raising tons of anonymous money — is blunted. Trump is whipping their asses at their own game and doing it for free!
Trump is taking the sting out of money in politics. Again, Trump is making money in politics irrelevant as he beats the SuperPACs at their own game.
Is this a great time to be alive or what?
Bottom line it, Big Red Car — bottom line it, baby
Here it is — Donald Trump is not where he is by accident. He is riding the earned media pony hard while his opponents are struggling to get traction and their SuperPACS (not “coordinating”, mind you, hahaha — Brooklyn. Bridge?) are throwing craps.
There is it.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? Here’s one thing — Donald Trump is not an accident. I’m just a Big Red Car. Nothing in this blog post should be taken to suggest that the Big Red Car is endorsing or supporting Donald Trump — they haven’t cut their deal yet.
