Martin Atkins' Tour:Smart: 24-Hour Democratic Party People!

Politicians are the new Rock Stars…….Hillary Clinton just turned down the millions she can get from the party so that she can raise the even more millions she really needs herself – Obama just came in at over 30 million for his campaign. Maaaaan, I wonder who’s doing his t-shirts? So, I left a message for James Carville – does he use any strategies from the rock ‘n’ roll world to promote politicians, win races? Get to the top of their charts?

On page 500 or so in my book, Jim Holohan talks about his experiences with Senator Gary Hart and then Al Gore, scheduling events on the road – I loved where he says he decided to take a trip from NYC to Colorado to intern for Hart – after a month of interning he landed a job and then transferred over to Al Gore’s campaign when Hart hit complications. Just a quick heads up about working in any sought after field – it’s tough (wow, that’s right up there next to "America is Big!”) It’s very tough. You have to risk and sacrifice to get where you want to be – not, of course, sacrifice in the devil worshipping sense! Although that could work……….

Some of my strategies are taken directly from The War Room documentary and then reinforced by episodes of "The West Wing." Season 7 highlights the allocation of resource theories especially – going dark in a state that cannot be won – to enable a chance in a swing state. I took these ideas and applied them to my touring schedule – it works! But you’re going to need a big board and some dry erase markers and be prepared to get upset when the bass player’s friend wipes the last leg of the tour off the board with his back when he’s sliding by to grab another beer.

The more I learn about the political world, it seems that there is a great untapped resource within the music community that would be valuable to any campaign. With millions of dollars to spend, it seems like putting a music business think tank on a retainer would be a no-brainer for the new Clinton campaign. Except, maybe, they might get this result:

“Yes, we’ve been at this for a few days now, here is a list of our rider requirements, the seven different kinds of milk and non-milk we need, juices etc, and some ideas on how to best handle travel arrangements: Simon won’t fly, Peter will only use green vehicles (not green vehicles – they just need to be painted green!) but there are two of us who will only use GREEN vehicles in the other sense – so maybe if you had a green vehicle that was also painted green?? And, hello, hello………..” Perhaps it’s the other way around, the music business really needs a few politicians and their machinery to get it all sorted out? They could put Elvis Presley back out on the road, with the Beatles and Nirvana! Wow, and you thought they were all dead……silly!

Are the two worlds of music and politics becoming interchangeable? It’s all politics, hype, and sleight of hand… they should all read SPIN! Politicians travel in tour buses, whilst more advanced in product placement techniques – the political campaigns, just like any large organization, they could use a free floating music based hype machine to increase the number, diversity, and effect of scheduled events. The music business (or at least my part of it) has always been about making things that shouldn’t happen – succeed. The idea of applying those innovative problem solving skills to a broader subject would be exciting to say the least. Except, maaaaan, George Bush, well, that really makes the head spin. He seems to commit some kind of Milli Vanilli infringement of truth that any reasonable person might hope to get away with once in a lifetime, every single day.

Whether it’s the Democratic party, the Green party or the 24 Hour Party People party………..the operative word here is ……cash!……

....someone needs to put the ARTY back in PARTY!

Less blither, more really useful stuff next time……..
Happy 4th!
Martin

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/music/21838/