Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.
These things are bound to happen every once in a while, but professional campaign staff are tasked with thinking four steps ahead (my family thinks this is why I have a tendency to catastrophize) and should be able to visualize how things will look on camera or in a photo. This is an amateurish mistake.
One might almost say this is the type of mistake that happens when one decides to gut the RNC of most of its experienced staff.
“Kamala Chaos” is a krap slogan anyway. (Maybe “Kamala Kaos” would have been a little better.) And this is supposed to be the party that’s good at both schoolyard taunts and bumper-sticker slogans!
Yeah, they’re struggling. The “Monday stocks downturn is all Kamala’s fault” and “the Walz pick is anti-semitic” and now this “Kamala Chaos” is throwing wet noodles at the wall. Or Walz as the case may be. And they’re not sticking.
I hadn’t heard about the IA statement, but a friend of mine who is a union rigging foreman,told me that it’s all the talk among the Philadelphia union riggers.
@EddieInCA:
I missed saying this yesterday, but I saw your note about taking a break and totally wish you well and think it’s great you are doing things to help your mental and emotional health!
@EddieInCA: Wow! I thought the union statement was just a little joke on wr’s part, and almost responded that it would be a great idea to actually make that statement! Good to see someone in Union leadership with their head screwed on tight.
Apparently the Vance crowd was also given signs saying, “Lyin’ Kamala, You’re Fired!” Except “Lyin’ Kamala” was written in a small, light colored font that is barely visible against the white sign. So when the crowd waved them, it looked like they were telling Vance “You’re Fired!” in big, dark blue letters. Link
It almost seems like a deliberate attempt to sabotage Vance by someone on the Trump team!
@Monala: That is another really, really basic mistake.
I wondered WTH the “you’re fired” signs were when I saw them being waved around.
Sign design has pretty clear rules: signs must easy to read from a distance, use bold lettering and pay attention to things like potential acronyms if you line up the text (for example, don’t line up Schools Have Infinite Time on a sign), and make sure that any messages aren’t lost due to font or color choices.
I am starting to wonder if this is less a case of gutting the RNC than the ones left in the wreckage trying to exact some revenge (or, have some fun?).
There is a neighborhood near me that has streets signs posted. No idea what they are about, because the text on it is essay-length. To read it all, one would have to get out of their car.
It just occurred to me that every campaign, D and R, has wranglers that pick out likely looking folks from the crowd to populate the background for photo ops.
I get unskippable video ads for politicians all the time *for states I don’t live in*! As in, many, many hundreds of times.
Google/YouTube can’t figure out what state I live in. I get candidate ads for Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, South Dakota, Wisconsin. Everywhere but the state I actually live in. It’s baffling.
I prefer it. Political ads for candidates you can’t vote for or against are a lot less annoying. And it’s edifying. SD ads are the least aggro, MN, too. MI and IL are hard-core bordering on downright rude. If I lived in Michigan I would definitely vote “No” on Prop. 3.
He’s campaigning for Kamala every time he opens his mouth.
@Not the IT Dept.: Ha!
I’m just piling on, I know, but Vance speaking to 200 in Philly where Harris/Walz will draw 12,000 later that day isn’t good optics either.
And, Kamala Chaos? Really? It’s the political equivalent of “I’m rubber – you’re glue.”
Oh, lord. Someone is in a lot of trouble…
These things are bound to happen every once in a while, but professional campaign staff are tasked with thinking four steps ahead (my family thinks this is why I have a tendency to catastrophize) and should be able to visualize how things will look on camera or in a photo. This is an amateurish mistake.
One might almost say this is the type of mistake that happens when one decides to gut the RNC of most of its experienced staff.
@Jen:
One might, indeed.
Even if we could see the sign, it falls into “criticizing your opponent in a way that just makes them sound more awesome” territory.
Get me some more Kamala Chaos, because it sounds totally metal!
@Stormy Dragon:
Right! One of my dislikes of Kamala is that she seems too centrist for my taste, this makes her sound bad ass.
IATSE had already issued a statement that this is what happens when you don’t hire experienced union stagehands…
“Kamala Chaos” is a krap slogan anyway. (Maybe “Kamala Kaos” would have been a little better.) And this is supposed to be the party that’s good at both schoolyard taunts and bumper-sticker slogans!
Yeah, they’re struggling. The “Monday stocks downturn is all Kamala’s fault” and “the Walz pick is anti-semitic” and now this “Kamala
Chaos” is throwing wet noodles at the wall. Or Walz as the case may be. And they’re not sticking.I have friends in the live event world of Philly.
For their competing Philadelphia rallies, Harris/Walz used union labor.
J.D. Vance used nonunion labor.
The results speak for themselves.
@wr:
I hadn’t heard about the IA statement, but a friend of mine who is a union rigging foreman,told me that it’s all the talk among the Philadelphia union riggers.
@EddieInCA:
I missed saying this yesterday, but I saw your note about taking a break and totally wish you well and think it’s great you are doing things to help your mental and emotional health!
They’re trying to make “fetch” happen.
@Kylopod:
KAOS is a Delaware Corporation and an equal opportunity employer.
@Jen:
They were busy finding every brown person in attendance and putting them behind JD Vance.
I am 100% positive that the crowd behind him does not look a lot like the crowd in front of him.
@EddieInCA: Wow! I thought the union statement was just a little joke on wr’s part, and almost responded that it would be a great idea to actually make that statement! Good to see someone in Union leadership with their head screwed on tight.
@Bill Jempty: Looks like they missed it by *that* much..
Apparently the Vance crowd was also given signs saying, “Lyin’ Kamala, You’re Fired!” Except “Lyin’ Kamala” was written in a small, light colored font that is barely visible against the white sign. So when the crowd waved them, it looked like they were telling Vance “You’re Fired!” in big, dark blue letters. Link
It almost seems like a deliberate attempt to sabotage Vance by someone on the Trump team!
@MarkedMan: ” I thought the union statement was just a little joke on wr’s part,”
No, there was actually a tweet! I saw it somewhere and would post a link, but can’t remember where it was!
@wr: Wait — here it is! https://deadline.com/2024/08/iatse-teases-j-d-vance-philadelphia-campaign-rally-mistake-1236033198/
@Monala: That is another really, really basic mistake.
I wondered WTH the “you’re fired” signs were when I saw them being waved around.
Sign design has pretty clear rules: signs must easy to read from a distance, use bold lettering and pay attention to things like potential acronyms if you line up the text (for example, don’t line up Schools Have Infinite Time on a sign), and make sure that any messages aren’t lost due to font or color choices.
I am starting to wonder if this is less a case of gutting the RNC than the ones left in the wreckage trying to exact some revenge (or, have some fun?).
Well we’re jusy over 2 weeks in and The Cat Lady guy just can’t catch a break.
He could sure use some sectional healing.
@Jen:
Sign rules:
There is a neighborhood near me that has streets signs posted. No idea what they are about, because the text on it is essay-length. To read it all, one would have to get out of their car.
I’ll snap a pic next time I see it.
It ain’t over until the Cat Lady sings.
@Gustopher:
Not to defend JD Vance and his campaign staff, but it is not impossible that every white person in attendance was standing behind him as well…..
@Gustopher:
It just occurred to me that every campaign, D and R, has wranglers that pick out likely looking folks from the crowd to populate the background for photo ops.
That’s kinda fucked up.
I got a fund raising letter from Trumo and the RNC today in the mail.
He spent money mailing to me. A San Diego registered democrat.
And the letter was all about saving the country from Joe Biden. No mention of future president Harris at all.
This is the level of competence we saw in Trumps management of Covid too.
@de stijl:
Brilliant.
@Tony W:
I get unskippable video ads for politicians all the time *for states I don’t live in*! As in, many, many hundreds of times.
Google/YouTube can’t figure out what state I live in. I get candidate ads for Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, South Dakota, Wisconsin. Everywhere but the state I actually live in. It’s baffling.
I prefer it. Political ads for candidates you can’t vote for or against are a lot less annoying. And it’s edifying. SD ads are the least aggro, MN, too. MI and IL are hard-core bordering on downright rude. If I lived in Michigan I would definitely vote “No” on Prop. 3.
@Tony W: Please tell me it has a postage paid return envelope 😉
@Franklin: If only! I would have returned a nice rock from the yard to RNC headquarters.