Senator Gigglebrand's Big Branding Problems

I’ve been complaining to anyone who’ll listen that our Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is doing herself absolutely no favors in preparation for a Harold Ford incursion on “her” Senate seat, despite the recent noise that she is “hitting back” and the “gloves are off” etc. As ludicrous as Ford seems to many of us, and wow is he, yes-still he’s something of a threat, even though she is loaded for the campaign. He could actually become a halfway serious contender! Here are two things in two days that are not helping!

• This article yesterday on Senator Skinnybrand, all about how she is like, oh my God, slimming down, you know? After, like, the birth of her son? She’s, like, dieting and exercising! Okay, so now that she has locked up the vain 32-year-old non-voting lady vote, what’s next?

• How about… exchanging snippy tweets with Harold Ford? Really? (Ford had said that Gillibrand and Charles Schumer needed to “understand that you’re not elected to the United States Senate to be a parakeet or to take instructions from the Democratic leadership.” Which, actually, is not a very good characterization of Schumer!)

Man. Her 1802 Twitter followers are just going to be, like, super-miffed with Ford over this outrageous “parakeet” comment. That actually wasn’t name-calling! It was actually a characterization of her behavior. That’s how messages get communicated-and stick. Some real ground-breaking adventures in campaigning and press management here, right?