An hour with Obama Media Advisor Jim Margolis

today ok to represent the marketing plan for iraq obama a look behind the scenes at the work of a political media strategist i'm kay mcintyre we'll hear from jim margolis obama's top media adviser in the two thousand a campaign and co managing producer of obama's four day inaugural celebration his firm gm and be served as the lead agency for president clinton's nineteen ninety two campaign and has one of the best win loss records of political consultants in the nation she and andy also advise of the broad range of non political clients including the bill and melinda gates foundation the robert wood johnson foundation and at and t margolis spoke with bill lacy director of the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas on april thirteenth two thousand eleven finance of it had in fact it was actually our post election last fall and his schedule working with a president another concept for americans we are really appreciate your time and now i was a little bit about him and that's part of all

wondering if you take an interest in all started when i was very young and was actually in high school when we were trying to get well in michigan from kalamazoo was what we call militia elections on the issue of people in kansas that where you have to pass an issue and a whole purpose of these came together in the short answer the question is the bond issue in kalamazoo passed by five votes and we thought what we were going up the keys to victory and all the sudden we can do anything and i was getting excited and motivated because the first thing i ever did you know presidents have the result that i'm probably bill that the greatest example of being able to follow up in a warlike likely than anything else because

i think in college over in ohio to go back to work on a congressional campaign in this in kalamazoo michigan district and the guy we were working for was pretty progressive guys in a very republican district and knowing is the chance of winning and long before election night we rejected the winner by all the networks in this was a real big surprise upset and i run the field operations for the sky and the only promises it got to be about two o'clock in the morning we're looking around there were still like five or six different areas of this very large congressional district that had not reported we realized that we didn't recognize the names of those places and thought it was probably a problem if we had never been there we probably were going to win every didn't remember

you know what those places were insured by morning we lost by just a few votes it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened in swat saudi backed college official end a year and half later he decides to run again for congress against the same guy who defeated this before but this time i came back and ran the campaign and we won by the same amount that we lost the previous time and he wheezes frankly ignorant as i was about washington didn't know that was really stupid to hire a twenty one year old guy would just run your campaign is your chief of staff so twenty one we arrived iran a washington has this question just that it what should've happened is he should've won the first try i would have gone back to college and come back right afterwards as an intern in the office as how the normal course of events would normally like layout right but

instead at twenty one i ended up as his chief and if i wore a blue suit in the elevators they thought i was the you know a page in italy which floor they wanted in those about you know the greatest that phrase your career from that point up to your current role aegean was that because you were forcibly a way that makes me very old and so i go on a stick a staffer for three or four years ago that walter mondale says run for president i go off and decidedly a state director for him i was hired to go around the states of illinois and then subsequent to that north carolina new jersey with the three states that iran again very lucky turned out the illinois it was sort of a turning point in this racing against gary hart in the primary period and became then

deputy director communications in the general election so the primaries about one states doing fieldwork grassroots that's the greatest thing you guys have to be sure that you know it's like where you're best friends forever come from because you're working twenty four hours a day and you're in a sleeping in people's living rooms and it's terrific but then i got to say to help run the communications piece in the general election and afterwards this the sky that we had hired a minute campaign frank greer to do some of the advertising with audio clips and you can help me out a bit of start a new firm and along with me and i said you know i'm going to travel or something like that when he was a humiliating the great wall until nineteen eighty fours terrible end so the government six months so there was nineteen eighty four and our identity update your off to be chief of

staff for senator kent conrad from north dakota was one of our clients we had some of the cinderella hear the first couple years there were three incumbents that we defeated and it was when the democrats have taken over the senate and again it was just sort of out of nowhere we won three santa suits against incumbent republicans which cost of turnover of the senate in nineteen eighty six and the amount that we won it by was just like thirteen thousand votes collective and so you know we're pinching ourselves nobody thought we were great about thirty thousand votes we would've looked again like are stupid you know i think we would pull it off in the same way as we were in the first round of europe had been at the right place right time turned out to be terrific and from their service affirmed was born there some of the presidential elections and then gonna

run right up through a lot of the senators lot of governors the reef begun to work with over the years and is less can say is we make a minute decision a number of years ago that we wanted to bring some of the same unsettling tactics it approaches you know trying to really think through message using research that we use in politics and take it to other places so to date within the firm politics is only twenty five percent of what we do believe it or not in our biggest clients are the gates foundation is our number one client so we may on any given day be working on education reform for deeds or we maybe in africa doing that that's a malaria and immunizations and healthcare for the communication strategies of how to get people involved and the firm has really shifted over the years to be something that is still very focused on issues very focused on change not a typical advertising agency in the way that you know people come to

us to sell camera quick people come to us to sell papers would not do it but when it comes to get up when people think about maybe changing something like an anti smoking campaign raising event at the sky where we we kick it to talk about the la campaign how deedee got wind up working on the ole can really fully did next you know david he was in a lot of television close friend effect see it's a big circle will david axelrod was reporter in chicago in nineteen eighty four when i was running the state for moderate discipline reporter covering the race so he was covering what we were doing with in the state which is where i first came across david and i sit in my office hour after hour waiting for like and i didn't have very much so we become friends ali back at that point and you know even though we were competitors cause he'd be open to another

firm political consulting firm which often going to be so we come in and the next guy in line was david and his guys but we were close and he said you know i'm going to do this obama think this is the end of our six the beginning of a second you got to come to the city and i don't carry it for a part of the kerry campaign we didn't clicking a skylight feeling like i had on the presidential plane was pretty happy to be not doing another couple years of the presidential plane and i really think it's time and i came back a little bit and we go back and forth and then i was on a flight coincidentally sitting next to david out of chicago back to watch uneasily hundred and out of a fire hose i mean this thing is just come over me you know it got is going to spend a little time with obama and i and i knew a little of obama as i do i work in the senate and i got to know obama in the caucus

but i don't spend much time as of course i immediately fell in a week ago and and also think of pakistan is going to be present in that state's and you know blow your inability of pain and those three little boys that are sitting at home one day with a father is you know john explained that one and my wife was in here not another presidential in like two weeks later in atlanta after the announcement for when his run for president and it's great end and the thing about this campaign is this was you've heard about the no drama obama campaign against a lot of campaigns before but this was one where everybody was in it for the right reasons starting with the main guy and whether you are an obama supporter republican democrat i mean there really was a an approach was focused on doing it right for the right reasons there wasn't a lot of the back fighting in

stuffing given off a lot of the campaigns it makes a huge difference and i think he saw that leads me directly to my next question is great set up for it and most people here do know me know that i have extensive background in politics and i'm not so angry yellow on the other side i meant to say and now we typically feel we run better presidential campaigns and yet i think a lot of my friends and i would get you guys all credit the la obama campaign was the best run a presidential campaign a contemporary history and he used to live that life for the forces behind i think that there are things about this race that on are big and small the big stuff as it was his store and you know in political campaigns it's that match of the moment with the person with you know kind of the conditions that are happening around and end all those things aligned pre well and some that was frankly beyond our control it was what was taking place in

the country the economy a lot of that is always within your control or so people were where some of the most important parts of it because you did not have that what was frankly taking place in the clinton campaign again on how closely whether you're watching at that it was a mess i mean they were fighting every day inside and we would be watching across iowa only the middle that every day and that i just never took place and then there were some of the things that went to for example a willingness to take risks and we can talk about some that tonight i mean you know until the campaign was a risk and here he got this guy brock hussein obama and that's a risk i mean a risky for america i'm interested in terms of you know like who's running for election with a neighbor opposite obama is the first one i would either write it so there was less like wait a minute that's all right we'll be ok with that that

sort of connect from the beginning there was a risk to decide you're gonna have a convention and pull the nomination speech in invesco field outside with eighty five thousand people and you didn't know what was going to happen and you know obama's white winter rains get wet you know that there was a willingness to sort of do that in that kind of follow conventional political theory and i'll end and most of the time it paid off and we may play in the stakes in the rules of runs along the way unfortunately there wasn't that can stick to this absolute power so do you guys remember when when mccain was going to hit the zombie and celebrity and you know he hadn't had up it was like paris hilton and all that stuff britney spears and brock about he may be a

celebrity he may be a great guy who can talk in and although he doesn't have the substance to be present so let's go we're taking the sting outside and we're going to do a campaign of that for his actual nomination speech that have been done since john f kennedy jack kennedy did his nomination speech in la daily callously as less than anybody to gaza will this was supposed to get paid about opening up to people right bringing americans in napa people with funny hats like the people in with the horns and the buttons you see in it a political convention it's about you so you wanna go outside in the rollout arrests so we built you know essentially the whole convention operation outside for that night that he's going speak so they're building the whole thing and we can get in they actually see how things were being constructed you know finally until two days before that it was to speak so we're already there

were in the middle of the convention and the last night at invesco field and i go over their responsible for all the stuff to the convention and i walked in and i take a look around and up on stage they have the whole stage line and purple neon lights looks like a game show it looks like you know what was the one where the guy slid up in the booth command of the outgoing you call up in this deal no deal look like the deal or no deal gameshow there was neon everywhere they're so right away with the un coming out through the whole day all you needed was like you know the music and you're ready to go and i haven't heard you know about all my god you know this is like the celebrity thing and go into these guys in production and saying he's coming for rehearsal in twenty four hours all of this is getting torn out all these big huge video monitors caramel

words across tibet saint know if you remember this for the columns and all that this would've felt like the lincoln memorial but that youtube to mike geyser look at his speech in you'll see a very very different kind of silly but like that stuff was like and then it would all be alright work you later renee that's a great story johnson at first well initially is the jefferson jackson dinner is the biggest event in iowa right i was the first date is what we got when we got at least come out of iowa right next to hillary were competing with her and john edwards the jefferson jackson dinner is a big event where all people that are democrats come into this big stadium and each candidate is given twenty minutes to speak obama's written a speech every night actors come in off the road he's actually doing is the best picture of the whole group we got this guy jon favro

why hate because he's like really good looking really smart can really write ulysses of profiles of them young is just like your gender within this is like a rock star so but this is when obama's primarily writing himself so after it finishes eleven o'clock and it gets in his motel room he's right for that you know five days before jefferson jackson day of that yes to memorize this no notes no prompter and i looked at it and i said you know what we get to listen to an ad this is the essence of what this campaign is about scenario this is a defining moment for us elizabeth slowly slipping away that is why the same of

washington's let's build campaigns just won't do that's why but instead of selling them in the united states it's pretty good in those cities i also thought ok i can enjoy a couple more progress needs you know values is very very important to us any part of the question in this campaign one of the challenges was whether people would see him as someone who understood and share their sense of you know

and a fundamental values level and and the irony of that is it his story really is the american dream story of america somebody who worked hard played by the rules in a pull themself up all the stuff you're supposed to do in this country in order to succeed he did but coming from the cells being african american all those things we needed to make sure that we were also connecting with people and what folks in kansas look at him and say yes that's what i get as we get a couple of different ads and shake to re grow that go to that connection to the values peace not just the dishes peace or some of the traditional change pieces so stupid under obama and i approved this message when my earliest memories is going with my grandfather to see some estimates being back

after a sluggish sitting on his shoulders and waving where and my grandfather would say his grandfather fought on patents on his grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line that was his mother would see in him a promise to my mother she said my son is an american used to understand what that means through translation so it's kind of that country i love that those two spots this was actually one of the best nesting spots will campaign in terms of us for me the american dream in education

i want to have that president will expand early childhood education or prevented jews and the truth is going to get your parents we need to turn up to review articles that first salon i approve this message because it's not just about their kids about so the reason for that is you know primarily was the part about parental responsibility the part that people really reacted very very favorably with this was somebody who understood yet and it turned out that he be put on the game boy you know those are things that even though they are a big education issues or whatever service it gets it and that was an important part of when you say that that spot tested there's a campaign to writing reagan nic focus groups yes how did you know with focus groups are a few okay so we're behind the mirrors and were watching how everybody reacts yelling we do mr sinnett now does a lot of mentoring debate frank luntz and others are

doing these tiles say you come in an audience like this will select you in advance based on your background so will say before we begin ok everyone is republican now one everyone's democrat out to everyone is an independent i'll three it will go through if your woman now one of you and you get all the demographic stuff the all that you know characteristics and then we start rolling hats and knows you know for the most part no set up you're trying to influence people and they're dialing on both believability in one set and in terms of how much impact you so that we can see second by second how people are reacting to every part of the net negative or positive and what our opponents are doing it gives us a very good read you know exactly a popular actor the same thing often during the debate is to see how people are acting second by second debate performances for both us and senator mccain saving very big speeches to see how people are reacting one of the phrases that are you know most

powerful laser also the techniques that you know allow commercial advertisers and others but is but obviously there's a lot of that for us that i can do a double negatives because you guys are more like a negative audience i can tell focusing our the general election right wariness sen mccain we knew the economy was going to be very much center you know this campaign and he had come up after us with again a lot of the celebrity stuff over the summer and we have we have heart failure everyday ok so even if your head you're sitting there in a matter what they're doing or they're like oh my god they know something and about to kill a sort of a big on the week right but he kept doing slightly stuff we went you know i don't know that just doesn't seem like at the end of the day when people worried about the house but whether get foreclosed upon the gas prices where they are the economy where his desk and the words can really do

it and at that point he had said the fundamentals of our economy are strong and we you know we were like forgive me what planet this is going on the finals of our economy are strong we're going like this is doing celebrity stuff and on the same day that he said that he was asked a question about how many houses heal it could remember the us so we decided hearing those two things like interest on brock obama and i approve this message or maybe you're struggling just to pay the mortgage on your own but recently john mccain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong then again that same day when asked how many houses he owns mccain lost track he couldn't remember it seven seven houses and here's one house america can't afford to let john mccain move into

another reason i think that's such an extraordinarily successful artist was because it's so understated as factual yeah i mean look we're about to see it we're going to we're going to maybe do a little bit around senator boxer in and senator reid and some of their campaigns but the it when you can allow people either in our words but even better in your opponent's words carry a message no other place and in this instance that's where mccain was it was not over the top was not hyperbolic it was here and it made the point very effectively very effectively yet a number of clients last year to the most one was not maybe sarah boxer manny wasn't as amazing that everybody thought center reed was dead in the water in the campaign so talk a little bit about those two campaign shows a couple spots in each of those shirts

what was was good about six on issues and the social networking still a little bit to sarah boxer california running i against carly fiorina the former hp ceo jim eight hundred million dollars at hp she laid off thirty thousand people i don't think that was really the best year last year if you've laid off thirty thousand people to be running and sort of saying you're the answer to our economic problems one guy's you but it but she did he was an attractive candidate an articulate candidate and i'll throw out their campaign we were working very very hard to make sure that people understood that connection between laying people off and some of the policies that she supported and how she'd taken care of herself while laying those people are as one thing to be like working for a dollar a day or a dollar a year and having to do some hard decisions about when people are it's another thing to be buying

million dollar yachts airplanes and taken away a hundred billion dollars we're weighing three thousand people up but i thought i would show you for entertainment value if nothing else some the stuff that went viral and end in the primary election her consultant with the arenas did a spot that was called demon sheep where they went after their opponents in the primary and basically said tom campbell a very moderate republican from california was really i met a demon sheep you know a wolf in sheep's clothing and that his record was for the show you thirty seconds of what was a two minute spot because i needed to set up my own this was not on tv this was what stephen thompson's

legacy fiscal conservative leaning in sheep's clothing a man who literally helped with the state of california is on the path the bankruptcy of higher taxes and fiscal conservative would just another same old tale of texas plan authored by a career politician who helped guide us into this fiscal mess in the first place so that i needed that to show interest ok so there's all two minute thing it goes after campbell it is not all she turned around that go after his record and all so we decided we needed to play too and we decided to go after not just curling but have a little bit a workout are other two primary opponents on the republican side and we decided to do the mission too in a land where she

came in she didn't mention one we saw the true life story about one man brought california to the brink of collapse tom little aren't accountable architect of the schwarzenegger budget nightmare slash and healthcare firing teachers or spreading terror and now just when you thought it was safe carly fiorina stars in your most terrifying role in cheek cosby's life believing that twenty thousand jobs you have to

be with them californians can still nothing is as it seems it's the return of the image coming june two thousand in a demon sheep to the fleecing of california and jump aboard the next when sheena tea party's over kashmir no sheep or harmed during the making of this film not suitable for most california audiences so little understated the point though is a lot of the stuff is going viral there were literally

millions of people who watch this in a back and forth as they don't know how many swing voters were paying a lot of attention but it sure looked rather a press story back and forth they replied this is just like twenty seconds is something i think i went over the top no one knows from whence became legend goes that had began innocently enough for local politics but one basket attention and the occasional flicker of the television that it was a heady time it wanted more aid without the benefit of foresight we sent barbara boxer to the senate where she took the next long eighteen years the best thing in that low income more and more intimate scenes

them soon because brinkley says like the sun for two minutes we do not yeah they spent four hundred thousand dollars producing that last one and i'm you know i think it went this is an example of where i think you go from having fun and still communicating a message to a place that's really not appropriate for us or them and we just let that go talk a little bit about the majority leader very very tough race even on election day there's a lot of doubt about that those little bit about your shows couple have look i mean this is the toughest race in the country really was perceived to be a goner in fact if you're walking around the halls of washington there were a couple of people who thought that he was already gone and were beginning to think about who was going to be the next majority leader

and yet we believe it's sort of a fundamental level like we had a real chance to win it was hard and in lebanon just to be the senate fourteen percent unemployment highest in the country two thirds of the homes in nevada are upside down their mortgage is more expensive than the value of the house two thirds this is somebody in a year where you didn't want to be an incumbent who was majority leader of the united states senate not exactly an outsider right in two thousand so all those things were stacked against it was our view that we needed to tell a story about both what he did and was able to accomplish but we also found that the more we used him the less credible it was

we need other people to tell that story about the impact of sherry one spot like that and we had a very very extreme a poll which i think was very important in terms of ultimately being able to characterize it that way now i'm a democrat i'm in kansas you know i'm unlikely to overstate i am not overstating the situation on sharon angle who was running against the us she said it the rape victims should make lemonade elements she was for shutting down the department of education she was for eliminating social security it was about twenty minutes he said that if things don't change people may resort to second amendment remedies that is taking up arms against the government this was not somebody in the mainstream of republican thought this was someone prefer out there and we knew but by the end of the campaign we needed to

make sure people understood both the extreme nature of her positions as well as a little bit about me so you can see his first at the only thing you see ree is him doing the disclaimer which we have to do legally very understated and we let somebody else tells story and we don't try to run away from the fact that things are it's bustling and now all that's changed was like a ton of bricks lifted off my shoulders which is here are hundreds of jobs the solar jobs wouldn't be here without harry reid it's that simple and harry reid and i approve this message very understated a whole series of

these errors each through the veterans who have to drive three hundred miles to california to go to the hospital because there was a man in nevada is building a new va hospital for nevada the woman who's the that had cancer and was able to go to his premier cancer clinic where they diagnosed it she's a single mom walking with their little son across the baseball diamond in the reason the cancer center's there and that she's there because we read that each time through the voice of those are the people of hit i was part of it and that we had to do some work on sharing it again this is the most what you call a candidate who says the way things are going the time may be coming for second amendment remedies and armed response to our governments who says attacking the great victim should be forced to have the baby will propose the scientology in this arch program for prisoners and he says that medicare and social security violate the ten commandments and it takes trees sharon angle just too extreme i'm harry

reid and i approve this message so this was a theme that we would carry through throughout the media medical disaster devastating thousands out of work for bp caused it they should clean it up but when bp was pushed to set aside twenty billion for cleanup and to help those who've lost jobs sharon angle denounced it called it a slush fund the same sharon angle who wants to abolish the department of energy and the epa calls it a slush fund when you make polluters pay sharon angle just too extreme and larry and i approved this message so arbitrary but the whole rapped off to the very end was to make sure that people's of couples message and a very successful campaign he wanted to share with me a couple of your own at that advocacy at so let's

take a look at a couple lows and i want our question will open at your acumen but there's really one international the genocide and therefore a different cut at the problem in trying to hit the people wages and see you were four has performed really well this year energy stocks are up and technology is strong you took a little hit a real estate but more than made up for genocide you're really making a killing in dark for is your mutual fund funding genocide find out its leader for power so we were going after fidelity a number of the other big investment houses that we're continuing to do investments within of the sudan and you know ok so let's talk their language let's do the schwab at their way but talk about what the consequences of those investments are jim i want our question

and as i said will turn over to you guys for tonight for a few minutes on obviously the campaign coming up is going to be a lot different than the away camp why or what would you say tonight are the two or three or four factors that you think are most critical in determining whether or not the president's re elected or not if we can't re create what we do did in the way that we've we started out with that assumption i think we'd be in a really bad strategic place because that was history and it was a moment where a lot of things came together i do think the presidential elections ultimately come down to a choice and so there will be again like ok a choice between two different candidates that people will be measuring and things like the debate platform he'll be measuring those two people in terms of proposals as we begin we still are going to need many of you in this room you know we're out we've

got to reignite again i think the youth vote there was something that was magical about what took place last time i don't think we can do it exactly the same this time but helping people understand that they really have a stake in this election whichever way they go i mean did you get a lot of the biggest issues we never dealt with as a country right in our face right now and we've got to help people understand that's what's in front of and if you're a student news they can at a very granular level about whether pell grants are going to be there next year not the selection that are seeing if you're worried about whether you know social security or medicare that have huge changes were talking about it it's our job to help communicate that i won the failures of this last couple of of years to the extent that it's a failure is i'm not sure that we told our story well enough i'm not sure that people appreciate what also been done

but also very cognizant of the fact that people lead busy lives if you're hurting it's hard to tell people oh it would've been or so much worse but for all these great things and this administration i think has a very compelling argument oh i know you're about to lose your house but imagine what it would be like if this guy hadn't gotten stimulus plan through and could afford about one instance was was good or bad it's good but that's a hard thing to convince people but there is a better story that could be told you get a chance to tell during a campaign there's a narrative you can begin to tell during a campaign right now the poor guy as to get up every single day only things are come to the desk of the president united states are things that can be solved anywhere else it could be solved at the department of veterans affairs it would insult to the department of veterans affairs and install solar hillary clinton the state department wouldn't solve the stuff that he deals with every day of the hardest things that

anybody george bush any president has to confront and you know we work we were at an event together well there and any certainty you know how come it was so easy during the campaign in his artists' untold stories now and the answer is well you know you wake up in the morning and there's a nuclear reactor this you know exploding in japan libya is you know i wore we've got an economy that still challenge by a lot of different measures you know you don't get to just go out and have our our heads up and to pick the six events that anybody was president that day it is a very very difficult job to breakthrough even for the president united states we got a lot of work ahead but i think at the same time if we can help people understand the stakes make sure they understand the choice and then you know we can be a pretty place and say okay great you ask the

question to raise your hand now bring my part right here yes thank you are there any democratic candidates with deep pockets that you've declined to work for a cut it out we have been blessed in that impart lock in our timing here we've done pretty well and so we've had an opportunity to go out and end i like to say be as selective about who we work for is they are about hiring us is so far that's worked pretty well what's what's happening more often is they're going to have three times where i start to work for somebody and they didn't turn out to be quite the person that i thought they were and you're committed not finished those races and it was fine but they are people who i was running to you know go back in and worked for him to get

that has been the exception by a long stretch not the rule and down and in the spring it revealed never get through most most days with most of the people there i will say obama is somebody who i fell even so much better about at the end of the campaign and being like i'm a lecture night we were standing up in chicago and just before i went out i was backstage it just for not grant park an air of magical and they're all just people there in the world was watching and it you know i just felt like this is the right guy right now and at the end of a process where somebody just wanna run assesses again from where you're working for is totally opposite like this country for listening this is what's right here business success of the obama campaign episode to do with this use of the social networks that we

did not talk about that a lot today and what tips this development in what way did it change your work or did it change and the great question and this campaign could not have been run ten years ago gary we were fueled by the internet the fundraising in the number of trees that seven hundred fifty million dollars average donation ninety three dollars you know this was critical to the success of this campaign is we're talking earlier about what happened in terms of the ramp up through the primary period and you know we won iowa we thought we were you know when he actually a little hiccough their human remembered we must insure and you know are our assumption of iowa was when you wake up at a new hampshire

and be the nominee and that didn't happen and in fact small store you know we're we just in our last he's got a lot to give his speech that was the yes we can speech for those who will i am videos is going on and the holes in on we wait until the crowds area the whole was in the women's locker room of this high school in new hampshire needless to say we're a little disappointed that our visions of having this over into election year to two contests went rapidly disappeared and i walked in and he was in the coach's office of the womens locker room and nobody was in the showers ocean is in the end it is working on the speech finishing making revisions and

i woke up and he's looked so i said so i guess this is going to go on for awhile is said you know this is the best thing that can happen to us we're getting ahead of ourselves we were ready we need this to happen where to be stronger coming out of this thing at the end of this process by not wrapping up tonight is exactly right we want to organize and she made us and she was an incredible candidate in every one of those states that your question the social networking aspects of having a campaign that extended for a period of time allowed people to be part of something that allow people to be parts of the bigger than themselves where people of california were on their phone on their cell phones talking to people in north carolina

were fundraising apparatus with the war that where the fundraising apparatus was put together all the scenes were critical to the general election both because we didn't win early were allowed to be developed and because we have the apparatus in a social networking app operation think about two thousand to two thousand a in two thousand for fraud into solo the facebook was available in a couple of college campuses like today if facebook was a country would be the third largest country in the world in terms of members something very dramatic happen blogs couple million in two thousand for today hundred and fifty million blogs in the united states the world radically change and so all these things were shifting and the combination of social

networking in this campaign just hit the right time but the fuel it but also to organize around so in all those ways it was just for our question accurately you mentioned social networking and the internet has or banning potter is anyone already using ads for youtube videos to run campaign ads and it didn't make me look so smart i love this guy so yes is the short answer all of you are changing not all view most of you in the back are changing so today the number of people are watching tv shows not just surfing the net and doing all of that but actually watching your your favorite television shows on the line is growing it's not it's financially it doubled in the last three months though the people are watching their tv shows on hulu or other online sites so

we're going to go there and were indeed make sure one of the things it did pretty well last time as we went to where or they were where people were we expect people to come to us so the same way technology is changing again the same things we did in two thousand a year to be able to do in two thousand twelve and one of the things it's really to begin to move is how you reach people where they're actually getting content and i can be lots of different ways of mobile's kennedy airport and all these different things are are areas that we better be on top of organ and this the conversation that time for more question christian the have one when you're carrying an attack advertisement had a good judgment call on whether or not here overstepping their very good question like always there i would never i would never say anything inappropriate i'm ok with it a

couple things first of all if you go too far it's going to blow back and i think the treasury a little example where i think you get the blowback and so testing can help you i do believe that people have a pretty good notes and if you overstep or you lose authenticity or people feel like you're being unfair they can smell like when things we did in this campaign when things even the reid campaign was allowed them to use the actual people are opponents saying things in their own words in that that helped in terms of credibility in after the elections will go to these different universities new level and desegregate here where they bring in all of the campaign people units of a broader press and politics that they do a couple of senators won a harvard won the pen saw it we were the mccain people afterwards in the republic in a

number of these different events where they were coming after us an end revival my god we didn't think that would cut i want what they're seen in their data in the research thats you know the weed in sight so are certain you know at the risk of pennsylvania and there were a couple of ads and you know i went over their guys you see what we can't see and when you attack this with that because you know like we didn't think that was cutting so what we're looking at and they were testing a lot of their stuff which shocked us they were testing some of it but a lot of it they were doing and so i you know answer the question was actually wasn't really hurt us as much as we thought maybe it was and that testing process making sure that they do you are there is a little bit of instinct and that too to just say your ended up where i think they ended up in that one spot in return for more question there is so much anger in the united

states now there seems to be so many missions that are very very play along political lines in this next campaign people seem to tend to lean toward the ugliness rather than what can we do to make it better and sometimes we're feeding that i know the professions the mit i think we got away from that a little bit and the obama campaign there was a sense of trying to do it differently we better remain true to that or we lose he loses his authenticity so we got a responsibility to make sure his next campaign is within the balance i am really really are disappointed that was happening in this country right now in terms of the conversation the fact that we've got these very very big promise we can talk to each other the more

you know i'm a lovely person got and i think my guys are right and i think that a lot of stuff they're wrong but i still have three boys eleven teenage boys we're talking about the republicans is a little shocking sometimes because like i went with my eight year old was five his explain the electoral college it's a little girl and the mother calling on what would images that were more secure and i'm talking about the other side and you know i start with look i think they really believe in this country i don't agree with him on everything but when george bush but he's our president nor have an election at our homage to that conversation is taking place across country but when we eat we all need to be doing a little bit more of that and we all need that it ought not begin before the

conversations and started week week there has to be a song foyt at which people get back to having a conversation and political campaigns i think have been somewhat destructive have been destructive end in having that dialogue but we as americans better figure out ways to start talking to each other union or to have a lot bigger price but i'm obama got so you know hopefully there's no there's the bliss that ken a very slow yeah you've just heard jim margolis who's served as the top media adviser in president barack obama's two thousand eight campaign margolis was speaking with bill lacy of the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas on april thirteenth two thousand eleven recording assistance by lawrence pushed of the dole institute this program along with most other keep your prisons will be archived

on our website k pr that kay you bat edu i'm j mcintyre keep your prisons is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas