KIOSK HELLO

Oh dear Mass­a­chu­setts, what you have you become? When we vis­ited your state and saw all of the Sub­aru Out­backs zip­ping around we thought for cer­tain we were deep in friendly ter­ri­tory, how were we to know?

It’s a good wake-up call to any­one who voted for Obama… time to get engaged once again and stop com­plain­ing that what we are get­ting from “the Man” is not enough or rip­ping on the short­com­ings of the party. It’s a huge improve­ment over what we had the 8 years prior and you bet­ter not for­get it. Sure, I have some prob­lems with the heath care bill, who doesn’t, abor­tion not being included being one BIG prob­lem I have;  no pub­lic plan and my being forced to dance with the big providers being another. How­ever, get­ting out on the dance floor for the first time in so many years one can not expect Sat­ur­day Night Fever moves, you have to develop a good hustle.

From a strictly visual and super­fi­cial view­point this is what I see: Scott Brown: brand­ing that looks like most crappy generic con­sumer pack­ag­ing, ie: fami­lar to the main­stream man, a pol­ished “every­man” atti­tude, he’s edu­cated and he dri­ves a truck!, a team of daugh­ters, one of which was OMG on “Amer­i­can Idol” sur­round­ing him, as well as a dot­ing wife and the required bunch of red faced white guys stand­ing behind him. Martha Coak­ley: brand­ing that matches Obama, neu­tral with just enough design, no cute girls sur­round­ing her but a bunch of stale aca­d­e­mics who get their duds at Talbots/Brooks Broth­ers at best and she looks like she is address­ing The NYU Law Review, a valid orga­ni­za­tion but fairly dry. This is Cast­ing 101. Where is the pizaz Dems? Which angle gives the couch pota­toes more to bite into? Who gives the Democ­rats their style direc­tion? Who are they reach­ing out to, the acad­e­mia and the “higher-educated”? I hate to say it but that’s not the major­ity in any coun­try and it is even less of the major­ity in the United States where sadly “higher-education” is not for all.–$$$$–(Hopefully com­mu­nity and trade col­leges soon come back to life.)

Now, I am not say­ing an image over­haul will win elec­tions and change pub­lic view. But I am say­ing that becom­ing part of the image means the image changes. We need to become a part of the image to make it change, to make it cur­rent to get it in gear. That’s one of the many ways to tackle chang­ing things from “the same old…”.

Regardless…clearly it’s time once again to get engaged and involved. We have had a year off and we have been rest­ing on our lau­rels. We are com­ing back to the States next week and if we get a few peo­ple in on it with us we’d like to do more than make combs and posters sup­port­ing our party of choice. But we need help to get the ball rolling. So please, let us know if you are in it to win it, not just one elec­tion but the big pic­ture too. We have an inde­pen­dent busi­ness to run and all we do is work work work but WE and YOU have to find the time TOGETHER to make it happen.

Thanks for lis­ten­ing and think­ing and doing. If not some­thing with us do some­thing on your own but please don’t just complain.