Extreme Makeover: Maine Democrats edition

By Megan Stewart, Politicker.com Reporter

The Maine Democratic Party campaign organization, Victory 2008, revealed its new look yesterday with a completely revamped logo, slogan, and website.

Seeking to "capture the spirit of change," Maine Democrats switched their slogan to "change begins with me in Maine" and opted for a logo with a twist on the words Maine Democratic Party: the ‘e' in "Democratic" is backwards.

In a statement released today, Democratic Party Campaign Director Peter Chandler says the letter reversal is a deliberate move "to draw attention to the fact that change quite literally begins with each and every one of us." The backwards ‘e' and the letter ‘m' to the right of it are highlighted even more as both are the only green letters in the otherwise pale blue word.

The two green letters form a backwards "me" showing that "without the ‘me' in all of us, change is not possible," stated Chandler. He added that change in Washington is not possible without the state.

The logo design is also intended to reflect grassroots initiatives undertaken by staffers and volunteers across the state. Chandler said that the state Democrats have been increasingly active this year with a surge in supporters from previous election cycles.

Maine Democratic Party officials believe that about 3000 people will attend this year's state convention and hope to continue to expand the pool of Democrats throughout the state.

MEGAN STEWART is a Politicker.com Reporter and can be reached via email at megan.stewart@politicker.com.

Comments

Their Policies

posted by PatrioticDelegate

are backwards, just like the letter!

05/29/08 11:03 am

Wacky "e"

posted by Rev G

???

What is it with that backwards "e" in "Democratic" or is that some secret symbol? "Change starts with (the flowers cover that word) in Maine." Let's hope they are not changing the alphabet so that all the letters are backwards...We'd have to carry a mirror around all the time to read stuff written backwards.

As everyone knows the E Oborotnoy...the backwards E..(Э, э) is a letter that can be found in several Cyrillic alphabets, typically representing the non-iotated vowel /e/. In Cyrillic Moldovan which was used in Soviet era Moldova and incidentally is still used in Transnistria this letter represents the schwa ə....but I don’t know if that explains what the Dems are up to or not...Some kind of latent Soviet thing.

Also maybe the backwards "e" is some New Age-close-the-opening-on-the-e-to-make-it-symbolize-some-kind-of-we-are-all-joined-together-all-inclusive--on-the-planet-sort-of thingie.

However, of course, I don't know what this symbol signifies to the Democrats but I think the best explanation may be in an article I read in U.S. News & World Report a few years ago..and this may be the reason for the wacky "e"...

A fellow named Adam Galinsky at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management that found during four experiments that power diminished a leader’s ability to adjust to other people’s perspectives. Aha.

In one of four experiments, participants were told to draw a letter E on their foreheads. Galinsky found that when people were first asked to recall a time when they had power over other individuals, they were three times more likely to draw the E in a self-oriented direction and not so others could read it.
So Galinsky concluded that power might drive people harder to achieve a goal, but it comes at the expense of taking other individuals’ thoughts and opinions into account. That makes sense....

At any rate if anyone knows the story behind the Democrats' wacky "e"..please let me know....Literate and caring Americans want to know.....G

06/03/08 11:15 am