DNC tries to TwitterBomb Jeff Merkley. Misfires. Badly.
Kari Chisholm
So, the national Democratic Party - through its post-Obama Organizing for America operation - has a "Tweet Your Senator" application designed to make it easy for supporters to send Twitter notes to U.S. Senators encouraging them to support health care reform.
It's an interesting idea that's gotten plenty of positive coverage.
But there's just one little problem. If you're in Oregon, it'll set you up with a pre-loaded tweet that reads as follows:
To @Jeffrey Merkley: Affordable, quality health insurance can't wait http://bit.ly/12Gtt3 #hc09 #OR #97214
But Jeff Merkley isn't @jeffrey. Senator Merkley is @SenJeffMerkley.
The guy who is being deluged by tweets? Jeffrey Kalmikoff, the chief creative officer at Threadless.com, an awesome community-driven t-shirt company. And he's not happy. (Unfortunately, he's directing his ire at Senator Merkley, rather than where it belongs - at the DNC.)
Silicon Florist, a Portland tech blog, broke the story:
Yep, he’s been receiving all sorts of healthcare related tweets intended for Jeff Merkley.Now, I could understand if this was for all of congress. But—and granted I’m a little rusty on the civics—aren’t there only 100 senators? Couldn’t someone have checked this? Maybe double checked to make sure all the names were valid senators? ...
Hopefully, for Jeffrey’s sake and the sake of the Oregon constituents who are attempting to contact their senator via Twitter, this issue will be resolved soon. And hopefully it’s not happening to anyone else. Too bad for Jeffrey to have to deal with this onslaught. And an unfortunate mistake.
It would be kind of funny. If it weren’t so annoying.
Okay. It’s still kind of funny.
Who knows if Jeff Merkley even knows about it.
(And yes, I've made sure that both Senator Merkley's staff and the Organizing for America staff know about it.)
Oh, and if you're in the mood, do @jeffrey a solid - and check out Threadless.com for some nifty tees.
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Jul 29, '09
FWIW, I don't have any "ire" towards Sen. Merkley. That "shit list" tweet was mostly kidding, in response to Rick Turoczy. Don't get me wrong, the @ replies are beyond annoying, but I'm not fuming about this or anything :)
I do appreciate your effort to get this fixed.
12:36 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
It's kind of stupid that they're trying to pressure Merkley in the first place given his floor speech yesterday.
12:37 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
Thanks, Jeffrey. Hang in there!
Oh, and full disclosure: My firm built Jeff Merkley's campaign website, but I speak only for myself.
1:01 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
That's pretty funny. Good for Jeffrey for taking it so well. And, yeah, why are they targeting Merkley instead of our resident Gang of Six member?
1:04 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
I find this effort strange. (1) I don't know of any Democratic senator who is against any and all forms of health care reform. Is there one? (2) Obama, whose effort this is, has really not taken sides among the several conflicting versions of health care reform proposed so far. So what do the messages push?
I guess it helps to remind our senators that we care, but I think they know that, and thaT most, if not all, Democratic senators want to get something done. They just are still in the process of figuring out what, and whether it has enough support.
Jul 29, '09
If Organizing for America is supposed to be supporting President Obama he could be in trouble.
On an earlier thread - In Oregon, answering the President's call to action - the Oregon rep for this outfit was challenged with some critical comments regarding Obama's agenda. Neither she nor Organizing for America saw fit to respond to these challenges or were capable of doing so. Now this screw-up with Jeff Merkley. Who are these people? Graduates of the Keystone Cops Academy?
3:14 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
Whining for attention, Bill? Still upset that no one responded to your trolls?
The twitter thing was a serious screw-up, but your frustration that nobody thinks you're worth responding to, indicates nothing about Organizing for America, and everything about you.
Jul 29, '09
Maurer: My policy of refusing to get down in the gutter with you still holds. Instead of your juvenile comments why don't you try to defend Obama's agenda and help Organizing for America?
6:15 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
Bill Bodden,
We seem to have some OFA folks rolling into the Pacific NW. Two showed up from Clark County to Drinking Liberally a few weeks back.
I know a lot of the Obama campaign's best, brightest, sexiest and most dedicated organizers in Oregon. None of them seem to have been picked up for the OFA jobs. Instead, it appears we're going to have to deal with another round of beltway-directed activism.
And I really thought we could count on that change to be an inclusive one. Not impressed by the OFA effort so far.
Jul 29, '09
"Instead, it appears we're going to have to deal with another round of beltway-directed activism."
If they (OFA) can't defend their mission and, in effect, can't defend Obama they are more likely to do Obama more harm than good. The last thinng he needs now is the perception he has a bunch of schmucks on his team.
The Obama-related campaign that is really needed is the one that was promoted before he became president; that is, the people who believed his promises, or believed what they thought he was promising, would have to lean on him to live up to what they expected of him. Not that there was much hope of that happening, but it was still a valid point to make.
Jul 29, '09
Time for Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to take matters into hand. Enzi and Grassley say now that the Senate Finance cmte is stalled and they aren't going to try and pass anything any time soon. The repugs have been playing everyone.
Time to pull the plug on Baucus and pass a Dem. bill instead of a Baucus bill.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/29/key-gop-senators-health-care-deal-out-of-reach-until-after-recess/
9:32 p.m.
Jul 29, '09
Instead, it appears we're going to have to deal with another round of beltway-directed activism.
For the record, the OFA state director is Treasure Mackley. She's been a politico in Oregon for years. Most recently, she managed the Kate Brown for Secretary of State race in the primary; and then, in the fall, ran one of the ballot measure campaigns.
Jul 29, '09
ran one of the ballot measure campaigns.
On TWO measures, no less. Won them both.
Jul 29, '09
[Personal attack removed. If you're going to make allegations like that, you'll need to either use your name or provide a source. -editor.]
8:50 a.m.
Jul 30, '09
"For the record, the OFA state director is Treasure Mackley. She's been a politico in Oregon for years. Most recently, she managed the Kate Brown for Secretary of State race in the primary; and then, in the fall, ran one of the ballot measure campaigns."
I know she's a longtime Oregon activist, Kari, but that post was simply ridiculous. There was nothing about Oregon in the whole thing. In fact, she repeated this exact language twice in a row:
"empowering communities across the country to bring about our agenda of change"
Stock talking points like that don't point to an emboldened and passionate campaign. They point to DC consultants pushing a blanket effort across the nation. I'll stick with the Bus Project, OCCP, the DPO and other organizers that are in Oregon for Oregon.
None of this is meant to reflect on Treasure. I'm simply frustrated by the OFA efforts thus far. They seem to be unimaginative and lacking in depth.
And for the record, a note to Senator Merkley's campaign staff. As soon as you hear that the DNC wants people to target you using Twitter, you should send out an action alert calling on Oregonians to "Send me your health care stories and concerns via Twitter! Make your voice heard!"
Kind of takes the wind out of their sails and makes you more accessible.
8:51 a.m.
Jul 30, '09
Should read "to Senator Merkley's communications staff." Biked through the heat this morning...
Jul 30, '09
"Instead, it appears we're going to have to deal with another round of beltway-directed activism."
If this is so and the grassroots are to be treated with a do-what-you-are-asked-to-do-but-keep-your-opinions-to-yourself attitude then the program is going to have problems, regardless of whether the policy comes from the DNC or the RNC.
Jul 30, '09
Commentators and readers on Blue Oregon should read this article - Are Liberal Netroots Groups Helping Obama Fail? - even if they may not like to deal with certain facts.
This poll shows that Sarah Palin, despite some negatives, still has a sizable amount of support among Americans despite quitting her job as governor. It would be foolhardy to dismiss her potential for being an influential figure. Note that "influential" doesn't necessarily mean for the better. It looks like some odd balls were questioned in that poll if ten percent thought she had potential as a professor. Of course, professor isn't what it used to be. The University of California at Berkley saw fit to give the despised John Yoo a professorship.
Jul 30, '09
Good Obama news for a change.
Jul 30, '09
Let's get back to Jeff Merkley. I haven't followed him on all issues, but I have noted that he has taken a fairly progressive stance on some. If progressives want to keep it that way, then they should let him know they support him before the Chuck Schumer cohort gets its hooks in him.
Jul 31, '09
The "Tweet you Senator" effort was not specifically meant to target Jeff Merkley or Ron Wyden. Instead it seems to have been designed as a national call to action. In fact, the software alternated which senator would get the tweets in each state.
If there is a silver lining in this small error, it's that Jeff Merkley doesn't need to be pressured on this issue, like a lot of other Senators in other states need. But it's good for Jeff to hear. It was unfortunate for the other Jeff to be inundated by tweets. However, it seems that it proves that OFA's Tweet you Senator effort was pretty effective. The call to action went out and people responded! We may not have otherwise know just how effective the tweets were had the error not occurred.
Personally I thought it was a great way to engage folks an a continuing expansion of new ways to do so through technology.
Unfortunately, the twitter address was off by one hit of the space bar on someone's key board. Should the error have been caught? Probablyso . I'll bet this was a teaching moment for someone.
Aug 1, '09
"If the Obama Administration is to survive an ongoing assault still building steam, it needs a grass roots action-oriented army like the one NACA is building. They can't just rely on the Netroots activists who prefer emails to organizing. They can't rely on that co-opted in-house DNC arm, Organizing for America either. That is there only to rally support for the White House."
<h2>The rest of Danny Schechter's article is here.</h2>