Two years ago, we were in the midst of "macaca meltdown." Here's Webb for Senate campaign manager Jessica Vanden Berg on the impact of "macaca." For Jessica's thoughts on the Webb campaign in general, see the entire Netroots Rising interview. Thanks.
What macaca did was it generated so much media attention, started poking holes in what George Allen was about. The polls didn't change much right away. The money didn't change much right away. It was Meet the Press that really changed things.Between macaca and Meet the Press, we placed a $100,000 buy for the Ronald Reagan ad, which was very controversial. I had a panic moment, called Larry Huynh, asked him if should have given this to Markos before we put it up, I was afraid the netroots would turn on us because of Ronald Reagan. The netroots has a manual: don't be a Republican, don't be a conservative. In Virginia, it's not about being a Democrat or Republican, it's about being a leader. Larry said we should just give it to him when we give it to him, because if he doesn't like it, it could serve the opposite effect.
We did a very small buy in early September. People thought it was a good ad, the Republicans started attacking us. It got so much other media attention, we probably got $500,000 worth out of it. Then, people started to say, "what's going on here." We went on Meet the Press, which was a great venue for Webb, he's very comfortable in that environment. Webb did a great job on that, people saw him, and from that day to 24 hours later, we raised $100,000 online. That was the money turning point.
By the way, I spoke about the impact of "macaca" the other night at Busboys and Poets. I'll post those comments later...