The Manipulators

We don't like being talked down to.

(This is actually a marketing talk, by Seth Godin, done at Google, but it's worth listening to whatever business you're in. Notice that he's not talking down to anyone.)

The reason the Obama "bitter" deal hasn't hurt him is the same reason the "Jeremiah Wright" deal didn't hurt him.

This election is not about him.

What all the manipulators who are pissing-and-moaning about it, whether on the TeeVee or online, don't realize is something just as important.

This election is not about them, either.

This election is about us. You and me.

Crisis elections are like that.

Anyone want to deny we're in a crisis (other than the manipulators)?

• We have lost one war, we're losing another.
• One in six of us has no health coverage.
• Inflation is killing us.
• Gas is heading to $4.
• We're getting foreclosed on, and
• many of us are losing our jobs.
• Things are getting worse.
• They're getting worse fast.

Yet all we get from the media, online and off, is the same yadda-yadda-yadda.

Now does this sound bitter? Maybe. But it's meant to sound angry. Righteously angry.

The anger is becoming generalized. We're not just mad at the politicians. We're not just mad at the media. We're getting madder-and-madder at the wealthy and powerful in general, not just at those who thumb their noses at us but those who are fiddling while America burns.

And for those Web sites that are obsessed with polls or tactics, frankly, we're getting tired of you, too.

Fundamental change happens when the majority of us get mad enough to make it happen. We don't get mad often. We don't get mad easily. We get mad when we're scared, when we're hurting, when we look at our kids and our town and don't know what to say.

This is the reality the manipulators don't see. This is the story the media won't cover. Maybe because so many of those on TeeVee are so comfortable. These are the facts too many bloggers -- those who think they are part of the media -- want to sweep under the rug.

The key to winning this election, to winning the next generation, is to tap into that anger and direct it in a useful direction. That's not a tactical point. That's not even a strategic point.

But that's the only point.