Message force multipliers

Don't worry, our long national commercial is almost over. The NYT writes about documents it has that show how the military analysts on TV were coached on their 'themes and messages', or talking points. If you need to kill some time, here is 12 pages of government/military/industrial/media symbiosis. I know I was shocked to learn that this kind of behavior would be going on in this administration. The administration with more marketing slogans than all the automakers combined. The first CEO administration has lived up to its hype. Every idea that it had was preceded by an ad campaign just as insidious and annoying as the worst commercials. We even had traveling sales staff. Everything was boiled down to a gimmick meant to appeal to all the 'folks' out there. The worthless pieces of paper in the social security trust fund, the special PR group that sold the Iraq war, axis of evil, the surge, significant progress, evildoers, etc etc. After 7+ years of PR propaganda approaching fetishism for freedom, liberating, evildoer smiting, and free marekts YAY! it has reached the point where a presidential debate focuses on flag pins, loving america, and how many friends, acquaintances, and supporters you can throw under the bus. It is understandable though when fighting two wars with a military on its third and fourth rotations, costing trillions of borrowed money while at the same time cutting taxes on the wealthy and large corporations couldn't be sustained without the patriotic frenzy that was built on message culminating in a gigantic circle-jerk fantasizing about the greatness of USA Inc.



**Frank Rich writes about the debate today in the NYT