The theme is about giving voters a choice of directions.
When the Obama campaign unveiled a seven-minute video yesterday, making the case for the president's re-election, it also unveiled a new theme: "Forward." For those of us at MSNBC, the choice of words seemed pretty familiar.
But we were hardly the only ones. Zeke Miller highlighted all kinds of groups, outlets, and organizations that have also put "forward" to good use. It's also a common position in many team sports. It's even Wisconsin's official state motto.
But as Todd Gregory noted, some on the right have found a hidden socialist plot. No, seriously.
National Review's The Corner: "I knew that sounded awfully familiar. From Wikipedia: Vorwarts ("Forward") was the central organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany published daily in Berlin from 1891 to 1933."
Daily Mail: "Mao, Lenin and a century of Marxist radicals: The controversial origins of Obama's new campaign slogan 'Forward'"
The Washington Times: "New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism"
For the record, as best as I can tell, none of these pieces were published as satire, or presented as arguments to make conservatives appear foolish.
When voters see "forward," the Obama campaign wants them to think about progress, advancement, and aspirations. When the right sees "forward," they think about secret communist propaganda.
And people wonder why our public discourse is so stunted.
But the significance of Obama's new theme, at least for me, is the way in which it sets up a contrast with the president's Republican rival. After all, what's the opposite of "forward"?
Team Obama is eager to push the message that Mitt Romney would take the country backward, effectively representing a third Bush term.
Ezra Klein today touches on a point we've been discussing for weeks: it's easy to make this case against Romney, because the former governor has surrounded himself with members of Bush's team.
Last week, when CNN asked House Speaker John Boehner whom Mitt Romney, the likely GOP presidential nominee, should choose as his vice presidential running mate, he named Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Daniels and Portman served as budget directors in the Bush White House. Perhaps more surprising, a variety of big-name Republicans have openly yearned for Jeb Bush to get the nod -- and before that, to run for the nomination itself.
Meanwhile, Romney's campaign staff is thick with Bush administration veterans. Two of his economic advisers -- N. Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard -- served as chief economists for Bush. His policy director, Lanhee Chen, worked on health policy in the Bush White House.
Ezra didn't even mention Romney's foreign policy team, led in part by John Bolton (Bush's U.N. ambassador) and Den Senor (Bush's media guy in Iraq in 2003).
That's why the president and his team in Chicago are going with "forward" -- not just because it's aspirational, but because the alternative, they'd argue, is to go back to the same Republican team and agenda that failed so spectacularly in the last decade.
It's not a secret communist plot; it's a message intended to give voters a choice between progress and regress.
Leave a Comment:
I had no idea that when members of the U.S. military yelled, "Forward, March!" they were encouraging Marxism.
You may be on to something...Say, what if they've actually been saying "Forward Marx" all along? Hard to say the way they make the end of the command words a guttural grunt.
Shouldn't repeat myself, but....
Who let the McCarthyites out?
That's Joe, not Eugene, for the Gen Xers...
Not to worry. GenXers have never heard of Eugene.
And if he'd used the words progress, advancement, and aspirations, the right's spinners would have searched high and low to dig up negative connotations for those words as well.
I can't imagine what kind of mind it takes, what kind of party loyalty, or character it takes to undermine every bit of progress and forward momentum their own nation is making, nor can I imagine to what end they are actually driving this nation toward. Greed just doesn't seem to cover it all.
The dictionary is now officially off limits to the Obama campaign as every word including "and" and "the" has a communistislamofacist connotation .
Okay, credit where credit is due. Good job, Mr. Benen. The position that "forward" is some kind of secret code for the socialist is pretty lame at best.
This is like a previous posting where by Kent Jones where some Christians were angry the Gay Rights Movement had hijacked God's and the Christian's rainbow. Give me a break.
Thanks, Mr. Benen, for the information and sad chuckle.
The editorial boards of National Review, Daily Mail and Washington Times are unabashed dolts disguised as sentient beings because they may know a few multi-syllabic words and can run a few compound sentences past the common reader!
No, because these dolts in those editorial boards can't seem to help themselves when it comes to intellectual hysteria, they need to be kicked to the curb with tar and feathers on them (Not the skin burning tar, as that would be a bit over the top, but a non-hot adhesive that would accommodate the amount of feathers needed to represent the birdbrains they are will do.) and never let back in to the house of civil decency!
The people who employ extreme rhetoric to smear their political rivals will resort to exercising extreme power should they hoodwink the American electorate into voting them in as a majority.
Evidence you say?
Well, just look at the freshmen Republicans who ran on a jobs, jobs, jobs platform and have since begun a War on Women! -Kevo
Remember what somebody said. On your car the "D" stands for Drive (Democrat)
the "R" for Reverse (Republican)!
Suggest that they would benefit greatly from a quick check of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) for references to usage that predate their limited political horizons.
"Forward" is the only reason that, in the past I have bought things like CD/DVD/VCR players and recorders. I always remove the "Reverse" button because it's so capitalist.
For me, like any good Communist/Socialist/Marxist, "Forward" is the only way forward.
Today's GOP.
About today's GOP. There's two words nobody in the GOP ever says-GEORGE BUSH. How many Republicans are boasting that they were carrying on Bush's policies?
"Forward" is also in the dictionary. Guess they didn't think to look for it there.
Of course, the Obama campaign wants them to think about 'progress, advancement and aspirations.' The problem with Obama's 'progress' is that his policies are nothing more than the expansion of government - and the redistribution of wealth.
If anything, the policies are 40-plus years out of date...'ain't no progress in that.'
Steve, you indicate that 'people wonder why our public discourse is so stunted.'
Our public discourse is 'stunted' because a network like MSNBC/NBC has absolutely ZERO desire in reporting the truth - nor are they interested in an honest public discourse. Its only purpose is to be a propagandistic mouthpiece for hard leftist ideology. The height of this irresponsibility is to have Al Sharpton as a part of their line-up.
I NEVER see a conservative interviewed on the MSNBC line-up of shows. It's all the same cast of characters agreeing with the talking points of the hosts....and that's how I will define 'stunted.'
Hard leftist ideology? Examples, please.
Then you aren't watching very conscientiously.
I see. Another Faux News plant. Welcome to a place where people speak the truth instead of made up bull@!$%#.
The better point to make with these types is to never present it in question form , as in YET YOU CAN NEVER GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF THE DISHONESTY YOU REFER TOO ON MSNBC
These people are all about attempting a point, then crawling back under the rock , as dems know , the gop are not about accountability , they just want to puke their demons out , imo it is better just to point at their actions for all to look at , because another response from them will also be upside down and backwards
I meant to hit "Reply" NOT LIKE.
Every word you say is untrue, including never having seen conservatives interviewed on MSNBC. My guess is you haven't looked to see not only Rachel's show and her effort to bring as many in as dare to face her, but also Matthews' and O'Donnell's bringing them on to argue their points.
Your comments, that is, are worthless.
Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn is being interviewed on Dylan Ratigan as I type this...
Hey johnlorican - I call bovine posterior extraction on your observations! Get out a little more and see how the sentient live for a change! -Kevo
I guess you missed Rachel's show when she asked a top-level Santorum advisor if Santorum was going to correct himself on his assertion that none of the UC campuses taught American History.
Not to mention the fact that she has repeatedly asked Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va) to come on her show.
Conservatives are scared to death to appear on TRMS because she'll eat them alive - figuratively speaking, of course.
A little decorum please - John is not a Fox plant or a troll- he really is a decent human being and he believes 99.5% of what he says - Google johnlorican and you will find out that his basic position shows no change over the years - in many different blogs. He only posts here because of that other .5% of nagging residual liberalism left over from his childhood. When you left wing Obama loving Fox hating socialists are excessively rude to him, it justifies his 99.5% conservative position and he can dismiss his .5% - he then feels better until the next time. Exchanging posts with him is sometimes entertaining - keep in mind however that he is not trying to win you over to his point of view nor is he seriously open to opposing opinions. It's sort of like hitting a tennis ball against a wall - it comes back - you hit it again - it comes back - it's a little like playing tennis - but then again it's not.
I can't find it in me to dislike John - he's too much like some of the members of my church. They come over - yell about Obama - then we potluck, drink a lot of coffee and I side track them into a discussion about Premill, Amill, and Postmill.
Adam_Selene
My intuition is to say 'thanks, Adam' - and you're correct; if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't say it....
Half-true, Adam. You're correct in saying that I don't consider it my job to 'win anybody over.' I don't even care if anybody on this thread agrees with me; I'm assuming they don't because my foundational worldview is different......however, I'm not adverse to hearing opposing opinions. I'm willing to listen to anybody- but that, obviously, doesn't mean I'm going to accept those opinions.
I've adopted the motto of conservative radio talk-show Dennis Prager - 'clarity over agreement.' Prager will often have left-wing guests on his program (I heard Howard Zinn and Jonathan Alter on his show recently) and he challenges them - but ALWAYS with respect. As a result, though they disagree with Prager mightily, they feel they were treated very well and would come on his show again.
Prager doesn't impugn anybody personally, he concentrates on issues of worldview - and the results of that worldview. He CLARIFIES things - and that's my goal.
Unlike Prager, the entire MSNBC impugns conservatives all night long. They use unflattering graphics, they take words and viewpoints out of context, they NEVER have a serious debate about serious issues that affect the country. 99% of the time that feature guests that ALWAYS agree with the leftist worldview.
Ha, ha! I guess I again should say, 'thanks, Adam'....and I NEVER get into unanswerable theological discussions (pre-millenium, post-millenium). It's kind of like getting into a conversation about creation (six days vs. three billion years and everything in between). Nobody was around to videotape what happened, so why even argue about it? It's unanswerable - thus, in my mind, pointless.
John,
There will always be a cup of coffee for you after "we go at it". This post topic is just not worth any serious time - perhaps tomorrow.
Adam_Selene
Let's not forget that Forward is the name of one of the longest published papers in America---The Jewish Daily Forward, originally published for immigrants in Yiddish.
Oh, so now not only is it communist/socialist/Marxist... it's also a Zionist conspiracy!
Let's not forget that in sports....the forward is usually the one who scores points and is depended on to win the game!
The right is racing to see who can make the silliest statements about Obama. We have have a few more months to go, so it is difficult to see a winner yet. But this may get an honorable mention.
And then there's also that unamerican socialist, Walt Disney, and one of his key quotes "Keep Moving Forward".
Ya know the GOP is "Moving Forward",too. There's two hideous words Republicans vowed never to utter again. Those chilling words are.....George Bush. When was the last time you heard Republicans rallying that they are carrying out ol' Georgie's policies?
"Forward" is a socialist, Marxist, communist term? Wow, who knew. I didn't know they all embraced the Bible!! As in: "
Philippians 3:12-14 ESV / 37 helpful votes
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
All of us good commies know that Forward is simply left wing code for "for d' war" or is it "Dr. of WAR"? Ok - you are not buying that. Forward backwards is Drawrof - yes Dragomir Drawrof! If you Google the name you will link to what appears to fantasy space war game called Workers of the Worlds Unleashed. Those who progress past the 3rd level know that the site clearly displays the plans of MSNBC and its puppet politicians.
(Can you "catch troll" like catching a cold?)
Adam, I don't think "troll" is contagious. I think it's genetic.
The right wing, meanwhile, wants to go backwards. They long for the days when "real Americans" were expected to see commies under every bed.
Holy sh*t!!!!
My email program is communist!
So's my iPhone!
Sweet Jehosephat, the reds HAVE taken over the world!
Joe McCarthy HAS been vindicated! Let me be the first to apologize to Texans and their prescient Board of Education.
Funny, but I seem to recall that (as the old joke would have it):
The opposite of PROgress is CONgress!
(sorry for the late addition to this thread, but I could not, for the life of me, get this blog to accept my attempts to enter my comment the other day, despite having had an "account" here for years now)
Quick comment. Ezra, my mind can't keep up with your mouth. Please slow down just a tad. Thanks