Our Founding Fathers Gift to Us

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Founding Fathers laid out for us exactly why we have a government. This is why. These 52 words, the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America says it all. And that is their greatest gift to us all.

Happy New Year

We the People

This government is being formed by the people of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence states it clearly:

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

This government was not some charter granted to us a foreign potentate. This government is a compact by of and for the people who consented to be governed by it.

in Order to form a more perfect Union

We had, of course, already secured our independence form Great Britian through the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War. The original compact beteween the thirteen original states was the Articles of Confederation . After the Revolution, the myriad problems with the Articles quickly made themselves manifest. The result was a call for a Constitutional Convention to create a govenmental compact to form a more perfect union.

establish Justice

After the who (We the People) and the what (to form a more perfect Union), the first why is to establish justice. It is important to note that the founding fathers found the idea of justice so compelling that it would be first i the list of they why's for creating this government. Perhaps it is especially noteworthy in a time when we have just so callously dumped habeus corpus.

insure domestic Tranquility

It was also clearly important to the Founding Fathers that our citizens be able to live in peace, free from domestic strife. We are agreeing here to bind ourselves together under a set of rules so that we may live in "domestic tranquility" or peace.

provide for the common defence

The Founding Fathers also recognized that it was a dangerous world out there. It was seen by bitter expererience that the most effective form of defense was a"common defence" as opposed to 13 seperate secretaries of defense. Maybe with Rumsfeld in there, 50 secretaries of defence slowing things down might not have been a bad idea.

It really is important to point out to my progressive friends that defense of the Constitution of the United States is one of the paramount jobs of government. It is not to carry a big stick, or to throw our weight around. But the sad fact is, there are people out there who reject everything our Constitution stands for and would kill enough of us to thow it onto the trash heap of history if they could. If the ideas represented here are not worth defending then you might as well kill me right now.

promote the general Welfare

I think this is the one that our Conservative friends seem to forget most about. Let's read this again:

promote the general Welfare

Imagine that. The government exists to promote the general welfare? Not the welfare of the multinational corporations or the large campaign contributors? The general welfare? Yeah, that one sort of baffles them. Kinda goes against the grain of their "government is bad" meme, doesn't it.

and last, but certainly not least,

secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

The government was formed to secure the blessings of liberty? How can that be? Government is anti-liberty. Less government is liberty. Well, not according to our Founding Fathers. They recognized that in order to secure the blessings of liberty, there must be a government in existence to ensure that those blessings are not given, sold or otherwise seduced away from us. So, when Newt Gingrich suggests that we ought to give up our First Ammendment Rights for a little security, be sure and point he and his friends towards the ultimate reason we have a government:

to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and ourPosterity

2007 Que Sera Sera 2nd Quarter Picks

In the 1st Quarter of 2007, we looked ahead to the high (low?) lights coming up to start the New Year.


Now for the 2nd Quarter...


The Major League Baseball season begins. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays lose their first 11 games, but team officials say not to worry, we're just getting started.

The Florida Gators win their second straight NCAA Final Four Championship, beating UCLA in the finals. The Governator pays off his bet with Florida Governor Charlie Crist by sending Maria to Tallahassee to serve as Charlie's First Babe.

The House Government Oversight Committee questions Vice President Dick Cheney under oath in public. The Vice President testifies that he did nothing illegal in his private meetings with energy companies when setting the Bush Administration energy policy. Four oil company executives then testify that Cheney made them funnel ill gotten profits to the Carlyle Group.

The House Judiciary Committee begins investigating Cheney for perjury. Cheney vows never to pull a Spiro Agnew and resign.

No one files their Federal Income Tax return on paper this year. The first ever 100% automated filing season causes communication hubs to crash at 11:55 PM on April 15th. 25 million tax returns are lost when IRS workers try to record their arrival on their touch screen tax review machines. Congress is investigating.

Speaking of touch screen machines, the plaintiffs in the FL-13, the computer ate 18,000 vote lawsuits, reported that the ES&S software they examined turned out to have been riddled with bugs - real bugs - tiny mites who ate holes in the disks that the source code was stored on, creating an 18 1/2 minute gap of what sounded a lot like Alice's Restaurant.

The House Judiciary Committee votes 18-2 to impeach Dick Cheney. Cheney says Sprio Agnew should never have resigned and pledges he will not. "No way I'm going to let them replace me with Tom Tancredo."

US troops mark the half way point in their pull out from Iraq. John McCain wants to send the other half back in a surge to gain control of the Green Zone.

George W Bush tells Iran they have weeks, not months to comply with a 5 month old UN Resolution ordering them to halt uranium enrichment. Iranian President AShmajdbhghfjj or whoever he is, sends a letter to Bill Bennet explaining why Bush's actions are immoral. Bennet responds, "I wouldn't bet on it."

Al Gore wins the Oscar for Best Documentary for his film An Inconvenient Truth. In his acceptance speech Gore thanks George Bush for giving him time off to make the film, and oh, by the way, I'm running for President.

John Edwards 2008 ???

John Edwards announced his candidacy for President of the United States in New Orleans today. To paraphrase a line from my favorite movie, Casablanca, "I'm shocked, shocked to hear there is campaigning going on here. And here are your delegates, Senator." Edwards has been practicallyliving in Iowa for the past two years. It has been paying off for him. He has been leading the polls there until being tied by Barack Obamain the most recent poll.

The line up of Democratic primaries in 2008 is very much in John Edwards favor. He is well positioned to win Iowa and Nevada. He need not worry so much about New Hampshire, but must do well in South Carolina. Winning 3 out of the 4 first contests in 2008 would make Edwards the clear favorite for the 2008 nomination. That kind of success potential should give Edwards a real leg up in the money primary as well.

The Edwards message is one that he has been honing for the past 3 years. His "two Americas" message has been reinforced by his One America PAC. He has already put a video up on >YouTubeand live blogged at DailyKostoday. He is doing a Live on Line Town Hall Meeting tonight, from, you guessed it, Des Moines,Iowa. If this is not a nod to Time Magazine's Person of the Year, you, I don't think we'll ever see one.

I was leaning towards former Virginia Governor Mark Warner until he took himself out of the running before the 2006 mid term elections. Since then, I have been sitting back trying to see if someone will really grab my attention. In 2003, I was intensely curious about Howard Dean. But when it became clear that Bob Graham was going to run, there was no question in my mind who I was going to support.

There are still a few more days in 2006 left. The question now is, do I become a 2006 supporter of (fill in the blank), or do I stay on the sidelines watching the game unfold? It had been my intention to wait a while to see what developed. But I have submitted a question to the Edwards Town Hall meeting tonight. I asked the same question of John Kerry in March of 2003. There is no way that Edwards can fail to give a better answer than Kerry gave, but I am going to reserve judgement until I get an answer to my question:

Senator, the Republicans win because they win a solid South. How do you
plan to win in the South?

Stay tuned.

2007: Que Sera Sera Ist Quarter Picks

Cheers to Bill in Portland Maine for taking a look back at 2006 in his Cheers and Jeers Diary on DailyKos. At this time last year, who' a thunk it?

But as 2006 draws to a close, I find myself looking ahead to what 2007 will bring. So, I am dusting off my cracked and off center crystal ball and taking a swing and probably more than a few misses. But as the old song goes:

Que sera, sera,

whatever will be, will be,

the future's not ours to see,

Que sera, sera.

So, here goes ...

Cross posted from Florida Kossacks

January 2007

Barack Obama will announce his candidacy for President of the United States on Oprah.

Hillary Clinton will go on Oprah and Oprah will tell her not to run.

The Chicago Bears and San Diego Chargers win their conference championships and will meet in Super Bowl XLI.

The Florida Gators beat Ohio state University and secure their second national championship in the last 12 months to go along with their NCAA hoops championship.

The House of Representatives will refuse to seat either candidate from FL-13 and a special election will have to be held to fill the seat.

February 2007

Nancy Pelosi is named Valentine of the Decade as the first female speaker of the House. And oh BTW, her 100 hour program sails thorough Congress and is signed into law by the President.

The Chicago Bears led by a strong performance by former Gator QB Rex Grossman win the Super Bowl in a thrilling over time game.

Kathleen Sebelius announces her candidacy for President of the United States on The Daly Show.

March 2007

Spring Training begins in Florida. The special election in FL-13 has more money spent than in any other House election ever. Jennings wins going away. All the votes are cast by paper absentee ballots.

The first Army brigade of US troops withdraws from Iraq to mark the beginning of the phased withdrawal of all US troops.

Nude dance king Joe Redner is elected Mayor of Tampa, pledging to run a completely transparent government.

OK, that's the first quarter of 2007. I think that's enough for now. All snarky comments are welcome, if I can snark back. Also, suggestions for the 2nd quarter of 2007 greatly appreciated.

How to Talk to Small Business People

Today we are back on track. The last two weeks have been spent on How to Talk to the Main Stream Media. While I personally thought they would be very useful, they did not get overwhelming responses. That's OK though, it was good exercise for me to run through my own personal do's and don'ts when dealing with the media.

How to Talk to Small Business People has a more "traditional" goal. Once again we will be trying to convince people who should be agreeing with us that we have the better ideas, and that our candidates are the better ones because they espouse these ideas and values. We need to do this in such a way as that our subjects will not be immediately turned off to our arguments before we even get started.

Speaking of getting started....

Cross Posted at Florida Kossacks


Small businesses create more jobs and are the sources of more innovations than any other segment of our society. They have a very strong sense of self reliance and personal accountability. Community is highly valued by Small Business People. The operate their businesses and employ people in our communities. They raise their families and worship together with us in our communities. They give back to their communities by serving in Kiwanis, Optimists, and all other manner of civic organizations, both international and local in scope.

Small Business People also vote overwhelmingly Republican. They are mistaken in their understanding of what the Republican Party stands for (by its deeds, not by its words). Most Small Business People are moderate by nature - they want their products and services to be sought out by the widest range of potential customers possible. Time and again, that has been shown to be in the "broad middle".

Define the Overarching Strategy

What is the best strategy to use when deciding How to Talk to Small Business People? It is not much different than in talking to any other segment of society you wish to persuade. The first thing to do is to identify which among your values is most applicable to this subject. Emphasize those values that are shared by the subjects, in this case Small Business People. Any facilitator of conflict resolution worth his or her own salt will first seek to identify areas of common agreement. We should view this exercise no differently.

Small Business People value personal accountability. They know full well that given an even chance, they and they alone, are responsible for their own success or failure. Small business people value community. They raise their families, worship and run their businesses in their communities. They are the backbone of the Kiwanis, the Optimists and other civic organizations. They run for City Council, belong to the Chamber of Commerce and support their churches and local charities.

Small Business People value independence and freedom from over burdensome governmental regulations. Their trade group is the National Federation of Independent Businesses. The issues that are important to them include competition, government and regulatory reform and tax relief. The NFIB website proudly proclaims:

Advocacy is a top priority for NFIB.

Their list of legislative accomplishments includes tax relief and "tort reform" amongst others.


Define the Terminology

Small Business People tend to self identify as Republicans because they believe the Republican Party is the party of business. They are only partially correct. The Republican Party is the party of big business. The Gopers give a lot of lip service to small business but that's about all they really give them. All the major legislative efforts of the Republicans have been centered on benefiting big business. Very little is actually done with small business people as the major focus.

Tax rollbacks on the very wealthy are a good example. The Republicans claimed that rolling back the tax cuts for the very wealthy would negatively impact small business people, and therefore hurt job creation, the economy, mother hood and apple pie. The truth of the matter is that most small business people are able to arrange their financial affairs in such a way as to not show very high taxable incomes. Where they are running into real problems is with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) . This is a tax scheme that was devised to keep the super rich from avoiding paying taxes at all. It has not been modified to keep up with the times, however. So now it is going to ensnare people it was never meant to cover. We can go a long way to getting small business people on our side by making AMT reform a priority.

Fair competition is another area that small business people are getting lied to by the Republicans. I am going to use Wal Mart as an example only here. Small business people don't like the idea of welfare or government subsidies. Because of their sense of community, most of them want to provide and many do, health and other benefits for their employees. What they don't realize is that companies that hire primarily part time employees and pay them no benefits and low wages are getting subsidized by the government. These part time employees get free health care from the government when they get sick. Many of them are on food stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Even though they are working, many work 2 or more jobs, their incomes are still low enough to qualify for government assistance.

When you explain to a small business person that the big company he is competing with is getting these subsidies from the government, they tend to get very unhappy. Usually when they think about welfare, they only think about the Welfare Queens ripping off the government. They don't stop to think that their competition is benefiting from the welfare system by having the government pick up the spread between a living wage and what they are actually paying their employees. When you explain that to a small business person, the idea of a living wage begins to look a whole lot more reasonable to them.

The other argument that Republican use against raising the minimum wage or a living wage is that it will cost jobs and put small business people out of business. Many states have a higher minimum wage than the Federal Minimum Wage. In Florida, we passed a State Constitutional Amendment raising the minimum wage and indexing it for inflation. Florida is still leading the nation in job creation. Scratch that argument. Small business people understand economics. After they get that the government is subsidizing below living wage paying employers, they are susceptible to another argument. That is that if you can't afford to pay a living wage ( not get the government to subsidize you), economically you should not be in that business. A truly free market would force you out of business without the government subsidies. Small Business People really get that argument.

Mangle the Memes

You are not going to get through to Small business People unless you can get past the memes that they have bee indoctrinated on since birth. Use examples to show them that the Republican Party is not the party of rugged individualists, but is instead the party of corporate welfare.

Small Business People tend to be on the patriotic side. Be ready to show them that Dems are competent to keep us safe from terrorists and will otherwise protect our national security. After all, most people now get that Dumbya did not make us safer by invading Iraq.

Don't let them get away with calling us "tax and spend" Dems. Remind them that it was a Dem President who balanced the budget and left office with a surplus. Also, it is the Dems in Congress who are bringing back pay - go budgeting. That's something small business people really understand.

We have more in common with the Small business community than most people think. We have a lot more in common with them than the Republicans really do. The Gopers have just done a better job of convincing the small business community that they share their values. In fact, we share more values in practice than the Gopers do.

If you can remember to speak to small business people in terms of our shared values, you have a very good chance to get them away from the Dark Side. You will at least have made them think about it.

And that's a start.

Iraq: What We Should Really Do

I have stayed away from diarying about Iraq. Lots of very bright people have been writing about it. I have been focused on the 2006 elections, nationally and here in Florida. I just didn't want to do it.

The elections are over now. WE WON!!! Unfortunately, we didn't win everything we wanted. I dearly wanted Jim Davis to win in FL-Gov. It was not to be. But, we did win a giant referendum on Iraq. Now the President is acting like he is leading a different country than the one that just soundly rejected his vision for Iraq.

So, here I am. I have no excuses for not writing this. Some of you are not going to like what I have to say. Others might. In any event, here is my two cents worth...

First thing, I ought to tell you a little about me. I am old enough to have spent 4 years in the Marine Corps and 13 months in South East Asia. (Viet Nam mostly, but also some other places in that general neck of the woods.) Up until the last few years, I thought this country had actually learned some lessons from Viet Nam. Until ole George W got into his mach0 act.

I long ago came to my own terms with Viet Nam. It was a mistake to have gone there in the first place. We didn't fight the war in a way that would give us a chance to "win". But the men and women who served there did so honorably and felt they were serving the best interests of their country at the time. It was not until several years later that I saw how wrong it was for us to have gotten involved there. But our involvement there did figure into the larger scheme of events and in its own way contributed to the eventual freedom of Eastern Europe. All part of history.

I was not in favor of this war from the beginning. I did not believe that Iraq was an imminent threat to the national security of the United States, and couldn't fathom why Dumbya did. But neither am I a pacifist. There are people out there who want to harm us. I have no problem whatsoever doing it to them before they can do it to us. I would just prefer we focus on the real bad guys out there. There are certainly enough of them. We didn't need to invent any new ones.

On that score, I was in complete agreement with Senator Bob Graham. During the debate for the Authorization of Use of Military Force in Iraq (AUMF), Senator Graham introduced a substitute amendment. The Graham amendment left the Iraq request intact. It added other trouble makers such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Syria etc. Graham, who was Chair of the Senate Intelligence committee at the time, urged his colleagues to approve his amendment because there were other bad actors out there who had in fact already killed Americans and wanted to kill some more.

Well, the Graham amendment was defeated. The Bush administration did not want the focus on Iraq to be diluted. Senator Graham's speech the next day on the resolution that ultimately passed should be required reading for every critic of the war.

tonight I am going to vote no on this resolution. The reason is this
resolution is too timid. It is too limiting. It is too weak. This resolution
fails to recognize the new reality of the era of terrorism. And that reality is
that war abroad will, without assertive security actions, increase the prospects
of terrorist attacks here at home. In fact, war on Iraq alone leaves
Americans more vulnerable to the No. 1 threat facing us today, those
international terrorist organizations that have the capability to inflict upon
us a repeat of the tragedy of September 11.

Graham closed his speech with this:

Of all the issues we care about, and those issues over which we have
some capability to determine the outcome, in my judgment, the No. 1
priority should be the war on terrorism and its threat to the people of
the United States in our homeland. Our top targets should be those
groups that have the greatest potential to repeat what happened on
September 11, killing thousands of Americans. Passing this timid resolution, I fear, will only increase the chances of Americans
again being killed. That is not a burden of probability I am prepared
to accept. Therefore, I will vote no.
I close with the words spoken in one of the darkest periods of the
history of the Western World. In 1941, Winston Churchill said:

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and
easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can
measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.
The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that
once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of
policy, but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable
events.

Now to the nub of it. What should we be doing now? There are all these dire predictions of the region falling into chaos if we withdraw precipitously. Sounds a lot like the old "domino theory" to me. We all now that didn't come to pass. , But maybe we just got lucky that time. Maybe this is a different set of circumstances.

Here is my proposal. I don't want to lose a single more American life refereeing the civil war going on in Iraq right now. Neither do I want to risk that the bad actors adjacent to Iraq will use our absence to their advantage. My proposal is that we immediately inform the Iraqis that they are responsible for their own internal security. We will pull our forces back to the Iraqi borders or into Kuwait and / or Turkey. We will provide external security to Iraq for a limited time period.

This should deter Iraq's neighbors from making mischief in the area. At the same time we should be talking to all of Iraq's neighbors to get them to buy into a solution for Iraq's external security that will allow us to remove all our combat forces from Iraqi soil. This should begin immediately.

So there you have it. It has some elements of the Murtha plan. It has some elements of the ISG report. And it has ideas borrowed from elsewhere. If I were in a position to advise the President, that's what I would be telling him we ought to do. I am not, so I am suggesting this alternative to you.

How to Talk to the Main Stream Media - Part 2

Authors' Note: This is the fourth in a series of "How to Talk to..." diaries.

Last week in "How to Talk to the Main Street Media" we laid out some general parameters about the media as a whole. We then proceeded to apply them only to the daily print media. This week we are going to apply these general parameters to two extreme ends of the news media.

Periodicals and Television are polar opposites in terms of the length of the news cycle and the immediacy of impact.However, the one that is more important just might surprise you...

Defining the Overarching Strategy

Last week we revealed a slightly different goal than is usual for this series. We are not trying to persuade an individual of the rightness of our position on an issue, or the worthiness of a candidate. In talking to the MSM, our goal is to use them to help us achieve those objectives.

According to Zap2it.com the top rated TV show on broadcast television drew in 23 million viewers last week. 60Minutes, the top rated TV news magazine attracted 15.8 million viewers. These are still very sizable portions of the American populace.On cable, top rated (non sports) shows and movies draw over 6 million viewers. Still nothing to sneeze at. Queen of syndicated talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, draws over 8 million viewers per day. With those kinds of audiences, television is not going away any time soon either.

The draw of television is its immediacy of impact. The proverbial gathering around the water cooler discussions of last night's TV shows do in fact occur. High impact TV events are reported on in the print media and on the internet. Television reports on print media happenings. It's all a very symbiotic relationship. Still, the key to television is its immediacy of impact.

On the other side of the coin are print periodicals. These include everything from obscure quarterly technical journals to weekly alternative magazines. They are about as far removed from immediacy of impact as you can imagine. That does not mean they do not have a very important role to play in molding public opinion. In fact, one could argue that print periodicals are both the most important media for influencing public opinion, and the easiest to influence. A perfect opportunity to influence change, if you have a mind to do so.

Define the Terminology

In college, lo so many years ago, I took a course on identifying change and tracking emerging trends. I just spent a fruitless hour searching for useful links on the subject without any luck. So, here's what is still floating around in my old and graying brain cells. If you want to spot emerging trends and changes, there is a method to do it. If you have a long term view about influencing change, you can use the change identification methods to actually influence that change.

So, what does all this have to do with print periodicals, you ask? Here's what. One of the first places you see new ideas discussed is in trade and academic journals and technical publications. You can get the ball rolling about changes you would like to see happen by suggesting a topic, or writing an article for one of these publications; or seeking out and building relationships with the editors of these publications. The next places that change is talked about is in the back pages of general circulation periodicals, or in alternative magazines. Then they will show up as featured articles in general circulation periodicals. Finally, they will make their way into the newspapers and television news reports. By then, the change has arrived. And you may have started it by a purposeful conversation with the editor of a trade or academic journal.That is why I believe that print periodicals are both the easiest to influence and the most important ways to introduce change into society, or in political thought, or whatever it is you want to influence. However, this requires patience and persistence.

On the other end of the spectrum is television news. If you want to get something out in the Main Stream Media right now, the place to go is television. Local television news is also much easier to influence than you might think possible. Most of the same methodology that applies to daily print media also applies to television. There are some important differences to consider.

Remember that TV is both an audio and a visual medium. If you are planning an event that you want to have covered by the local TV news, don't forget to think about the visuals. Visuals are a powerful tool to reinforce the message of your event. Just think about those hokey backdrops the Gopers use for their events. Even if you have the sound off, the backdrop tells you what their message of the day is.

Go to your local TV stations web sites. They all provide you with contact information to get word of your events to them. Get them in your address book and tag them press or something else so you can readily get at your list of press contacts.

TV news generally runs on a 24 hour cycle. Local news casts usually have their editorial / scheduling meetings in the mornings for the next 24 hour cycle. So, if you are having an event today, you should have had your press release to the TV station yesterday at the latest.

TV stations like email more and more as the preferred method of receiving press releases. It makes it that much easier for the gatekeeper at the TV station to distribute your press release to the right people.

Like daily print, nothing works better than developing a personal relationship with the reporters and producers at the station. TV people are even easier to spot at events than print media types. They actually appreciate folks who can help them with their story. If you develop a good relationship with a TV reporter, and you get them to care about an issue you are supporting, they can be your ally in those editorial meetings. They will actually fight to get your issue on their air.

It is all about relationships. Nowhere is this more true than dealing with periodicals. This is actually the area that is the easiest to influence, if you are patient and persistent. You must also be aware of the deadlines that apply to this sector of the media. The major difference here is that these deadlines come up much earlier for weekly and monthly or even quarterly publications. Most of these publications will provide contact information, and perhaps even submission deadlines. Plan accordingly. Study these periodicals and get a feel for what types of stories appeal particularly to them. Use this to your advantage by providing them story ideas or events that fit the bill for them.

The most intriguing aspect of periodicals to me is that you can actually plant seeds of change here and watch them grow. Of course, like any other thing that grows, it needs care and feeding. I can kill anything live that grows, but I have been able to use my ink stained thumb (no green thumb here) to plant seeds of change and I can actually see the physical results. That's a pretty cool feeling!

Mangling the Memes

The same themes apply here as with the print media. Avoid the "spin" and "talking points" traps. Be ready to defend your "spin" or "talking points", and be wiling to concede their weak points. Credibility is a bankable asset. Being known as only a spinner or a talking points spouter causes considerable withdrawals from the credibility bank account. Your influence with the media is directly proportional to the credibility in your account. Don't just parrot what the official line of your candidate or your cause. Be creative.

One of the most useful things you can provide to the MSM is background and context. This is particularly important in this age of budget constraints at the MSM. In the bad old days, MSM types developed some level of expertise in the subject matter they covered. They either came in with that background, or they stayed on that beat long enough to gain an understanding of the subject matter. These days, almost everyone is a generalist, particularly at newspapers and TV stations. They probably don't know jack about the subject matter. If you can become their trusted "expert" for background information, you will become incredibly more effective in getting your message out through the MSM.

Relationship building with MSM types can not be over emphasized. Remember, these are mostly just folks trying to do their jobs. Like any other group of individuals, some do it well, others not so well. The other major thing to remember is to work with the MSM types on the deadline pressures they are under. Get your news releases to them in a timely manner. Do your relationship building when they are not bumping up against their deadlines. Get them to think of you as an asset to them, not as an insufferable pain in the ass.

Go out there and make the story better.