smays.com

You ain't seen the last of the GOP!

It's pretty easy for me to avoid and ignore most of the die-hard McPalin/Bushie neocons who are non-stop whining about losing the election. They're like the Japanese soldiers holed up in caves for years, unaware the war was over.

But I have a few friends who fall into this category and I can't/don't want to avoid them. I've been careful not bring up the subject of politics but they delight in baiting me. They're Ernest T. Bass to my Barney Fife.

"Ernest T. was an ignorant and obstreperous mountain man with a penchant for rock throwing, who was known to wreak havoc on the otherwise quiet town of Mayberry. A wild, belligerent hillbilly, he had a scruffy appearance, a maniacal laugh, and often spoke in rhyme. When threatened with the law, Ernest T. would generally run off yelling his famous catchphrase, "You ain't seen the last of Ernest T. Bass!" -- Wikipedia

I understand that my friends want/need to complain and vent. But I don't want to listen. So I'm printing up some little pocket cards to hand out.

This man feels your pain. He agrees with you. He doesn't want you to be hopeful or happy. He needs your anger.

Please, call/email/write him. Get it off your chest and then we can talk about the weather or hockey or that girl with the cute butt.

Audio interview with Pawlenty on YouTube?

Ana Marie Cox interviewed Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. I was wondering why she posted the audio-only interview to YouTube when slides started started flashing up. Sort of like sub-titles of what she was thinking as she asked and/or he answered.

It would have been tempting to throw up some stills but not doing so was more effective. I can't recall seeing something like this before. I cross-posted from politix because I found the approach intriguing.

Dan Shelley reveals "secrets" of talk radio

Back in my radio days (daze?) I co-hosted a daily, hour long talk show. It was mostly the kind of silliness you find on morning shows but we (Tom Colvin did the show with me) had a good time. And we were never angry.

Most of the talk show stars with which I'm familiar are a) pissed off and b) really, really conservative. Before I stopped listening (many years ago), I often wondered why they were so angry.

My old pal Dan Shelley offers something of a behind-the-scenes look at talk radio as practiced at WTMJ in Milwaukee, where he was news director and program director before taking a job in New York.

"To begin with, talk show hosts such as Charlie Sykes – one of the best in the business – are popular and powerful because they appeal to a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised and even victimized by the media. These people believe the media are predominantly staffed by and consistently reflect the views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held and deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA."

"To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.

"This enemy can be a politician – either a Democratic officeholder or, in rare cases where no Democrat is convenient to blame, it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be the cold, cruel government bureaucracy. More often than not, however, the enemy is the “mainstream media” – local or national, print or broadcast."

"Forget any notion, however, that radio talk shows are supposed to be fair, evenhanded discussions featuring a diversity of opinions. The Fairness Doctrine, which required this, was repealed 20 years ago. So talk shows can be, and are, all about the host’s opinions, analyses and general worldview. Programmers learned long ago that benign conversations led by hosts who present all sides of an issue don’t attract large audiences."

While reading Dan's article I found myself thinking of talk radio hosts as "professional" wrestlers who get really mad once in the ring. They forget it's not real and they are entertainers, not athletes or warriors. Of course that wouldn't work in the WWF. Somebody would get hurt.

If anyone knows of a soft-spoken, optimistic, not-mad-at-anybody, conservative talk show host, gimme a shout. I'd love to hear what that sounds like. And if there are any WTMJ listeners out there, I'd love to know Charlie Sykes' on-air response --if any-- to Dan's article.

UPDATE: Mr. Sykes responds (podcast)

I Told You So!

Strange/muted tension at work today. I am one of a handful (five? six?) of out-of-the-closet Obama supporters in our office. Two years ago, Bush supporters roamed the hallways like Senior jocks, administering titty-twisters to freshmen Liberals. As Bush devolved into the pariah he has become, they shed their Neocon uniforms and melted back into the crowd.

Today, the morning after the majority of Americans said they'd had enough of W and his ilk, I gave the gop'er's lots of room and resisted the Snoopy Dance. And they found other things to talk about as we passed each other in the parking lot.

A few have dropped a little chum in the water to see if I'd bite ("Boy, the country is in trouble NOW"). But it's hard to lay this shit-storm at O's feet after only a few hours.

But it's coming. A few of my pals are already looking forward to playing "I Told You So," but I'm ready.

I'm encouraging them to chronicle every misstep of our new president. If they don't have a blog, I'll help them set one up. They can share their anger and despair with the world. And me.

For those that insist on sharing their political angst with me in person, I'm introducing a new feature on my politix blog:

"I Told You So."

I'm keeping an audio recorder with me at all times. When the subject turns to President Obama's latest terrorist/socialist/liberal sin, I whip out the recorder and let them have their say. Which I'll post to the politix blog. Unedited and unfiltered. A bully digital pulpit.

Don't want to go on the record, no problem ("Did you see 30 Rock last night?").

Seriously,  hope it doesn't come up. I HATE talking about politics. Or religion. Or my sexual fantasies. I've posted on this before.

So, if you love me... if you enjoy my company, but hate my politics... don't read my blogs. And I won't read yours. But we can both have our say and spend our time together talking about movies or books or that smokin' hot intern.

Hockey Mama for Obama

"This is not really an Obama area."

I grew up in Kennett, Missouri, the county seat of Dunklin County. So when I heard the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a front-page story (by Todd C. Frankel) about Bootheel politics, I headed for the paper's website to check it out.

I wasn't really surprised to learn than Dunklin County was Obama's worst showing in the primary. Just 18 percent.

But then I was heartened to learn that the Obama campaign has two office in the county and that Sheryl Crow's momma and daddy volunteer for O.

They have a Republican campaign HQ but if I read the story right it's a first for Dunklin County.

The story quotes Ronnie Johnson who's "voting for McCain. Or rather, against Obama."

"He is reluctant to explain this at first — "You don't want to know why," he says."

"The others on the porch goad him. And Johnson, a lanky 20-year-old white man who works as a meatcutter at a grocery store, starts to talk about an issue that has persisted throughout the campaign: race."

"It is not just that Obama is black, Johnson says. He has heard that Obama is Muslim. (Obama is Christian.) He also has heard rumors that Obama refuses to salute the American flag, and that Obama has promised that black men will have more rights than white men. (Independent fact-checking groups say these rumors
are false.)"

"He's white," Johnson says.

The story concludes with a couple of demographics: "Dunklin is one of the poorest counties in Missouri. The unemployment rate hovers near 9 percent. More than a quarter of the population lives in poverty."

Not sure we'll see this clipping on the Chamber of Commerce bulletin board.

Radio station streaming live video from Palin event

Sarah Palin is holding a rally in Springfield, Missouri, and radio station Hit 99 FM is streaming video live from the event. They could have made it easier to find but deserve props for the effort. I'm having trouble getting audio but perhaps that will change when the event gets underway.

Interesting that this is a music formatted station, not a news/talk'er. David Brazeal is there and might interview someone from the station. We'll post it here if he does.

PS: This is what we lovingly refer to as "a face for radio."

Opie, Andy and The Fonz for Obama

See more Ron Howard

If this doesn't do it, nothing probably will. [This post dedicated to AGS fanatic David]

Crappy Hour with Megan and Annamarie

Tell me what is better than two hot geekettes talking trash early in the morning. No, I'll tell you. Nothing!

"When the chips are down and all the prayers to God to win the election and protect you from witchcraft haven't worked, everyone knows it's time to call in the big guns: the forces of evil. And, if they're too busy helping the Axis of Evil get nukes and shit, well, then you can always call in the forces of pettiness and covert racism, as they've been helpful in many an election here in the States. But Swampland's Ana Marie Cox and I will insist on, at a minimum, throwing rhetorical spitballs at the hordes and making assfucking jokes as the sky is falling, so there's that."

Best line: "Pfister? I hardly knew her." Read the post.

It's good to have friends when things are tough

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Politix: The final 30 days

I stopped posting to my little Politix blog a couple of weeks ago. The reasons are fuzzy and unimportant. I'm bringing it back for this final month before the election. I'm convinced we are at a pivotal moment in history and --if we survive it-- I want to be able to look back on what I thought was interesting or important or noteworthy. And it will free up space for the silly shit here.

"Like watching Gidget address the Reichstag"

[Alert: McCainiacs and Palinistas can skip this post. You won't appreciate Matt Taibbi's biting wit or pithy rage. Go watch a Sean Hannity re-run. And I've had some email reminding me I had said I wasn't going to write about politics anymore. I believe what I said was, I would no longer 'discuss' politics.]

My favorite political writer, Matt Taibbi has outdone himself with his column  on Sarah Palin. When interstellar archeologists dig through the rubble of what was once the U.S.A. and wonder what the fuck happened, I hope they stumble across Mr. Taibbi's column. Every line is a gem but I'll share just a few of my favorites:

"Four-chinned delegates from places like Arkansas and Georgia are pouring joyously out the gates (of the GOP convention) in search of bars where they can load up on Zombies and Scorpion Bowls and other "wild" drinks and extramaritally grope their turkey-necked female companions in bathroom stalls as part of the "unbelievable time" they will inevitably report to their pals back home.

Only 21st-century Americans can pass through a metal detector six times in an hour and still think they're at a party.

Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

But Americans like politicians who hate books and see the face of Jesus in every tree stump. They like them stupid and mean and ignorant of the rules."

And we love Sarah.

twitter populi

Hang on. This will all be over soon.

Sarah Silverman pulls out the big gun

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

And do right-wingers ever make fun of themselves?

Spanking Sarah Palin (video)

Terry Heaton post on "media elitism"

Terry Heaton takes a thoughtful look at the charge the media has a liberal bias. I've pulled two paragraphs from his thoughtful essay:

"I believe the press is inherently biased towards a liberal perspective, because educated people, among other things, are generally more exposed to the value of tolerance than those who are not. Chesterton wrote that “Tolerance is the virtue of people who don’t believe anything,” and that is a core component of conservative thinking. It’s not that conservatives aren’t tolerant; it’s just that it isn’t elevated to the status of core value as it is with liberals."

"One issue I do see is that because conservatives are predisposed to law-abiding and put faith in hierarchy, they are more open to direction from the top. In that sense, the qualities and character of the person at the top are critical."

"Conservatives ride the wind of the esoteric when it comes to certain issues, but liberals have their feet firmly planted on the ground and in the middle of those issues. In this sense, the two never talk with each other, because they’re not even in the same space."

Which reminds me why I decided to stop discussing politics. A vow I quickly broke but now renew. It's like getting off crack.

KookyLiberals.com

I find no shortage of blogs and web sites poking fun at what we used to call "The Right."  I recently tweeted for examples from the other side and Planet Nelson pointed me to a brand new blog called Kooky Liberals ("Making fun of left wing kooks, democrats and liberals as often as humanly possible.")

I wasn't specific in my tweet but what I am really looking for are some really funny conservative blogs. Funny like The Onion or 23/6.

"Vote Vagina!"

Today I heard --for the first time-- the phrase: "The Vagina Factor." I'm sure there are more thoughtful explanations but this is the one that googled up for me:

"Its essentially saying that women really don’t follow nor care about the issues as much as they’re just dying to vote VAGINA!!!!!!"

I mentioned this to Barb --who is very intelligent and very pro-choice (much loved by NARAL)-- who replied: "I understand that."

So we now have "Yellow Dog Democrats" and "Vagina Republicans?"

PS: I founds some images to go with this post but opted not to use them.

"Hey, watch this!" (I'm gonna vote for Obama)

Story at Missourinet.com

Twittering the Dems convention

Twitter was clearly the communication tool of choice at Gnomedex. Folks were using it for just about everything. Arranging meet-ups; announcements; and snarky comments/praise for the speakers. I heard several people say they were blogging less and relying more on Twitter.

Just googled "twitter democratic national convention" and see that lots of people will be twittering the Dem's convention this week. Find someone you trust/enjoy (Rocky Mountain News?) and follow them.

Everything WILL be different

You know that scene in the old horror movies where one of the female characters is hysterical and the female lead slaps her to snap her out of it?  That's what came to mind reading this post by Dave Winer, explaining why Barack Obama does, in fact, represent change. The entire post is must-read for Obama supporters, but here's my favorite idea:

"Think of it like this. One day you're using Windows and wake up the next day and all your computers are running Mac OS X. It's still a computer. It's still fundamentally the same experience. But it works a bit more logically, and you don't get in trouble as often. It's not foolproof, but it's a bit better."

I've been put off by some of Obama's recent moves, and people are lining up to tell me, "See!? See!? He's no different! He's just another politician! Don't you feel like a chump now?"

Actually, I feel more like the father who's son keeps getting the shit kicked out of him on the playground and finally gets up and kicks the bigger kid in the balls. Playing nice only works when everyone is doing it.

If the only change we get from Obama is he's not Bush... that will be enough.

"Candidates for Sale"

I've said on more than one occasion that Matt Taibbi is my favorite political reporter. I tend to believe the things he writes. And his latest piece in Rolling Stone makes my stomach hurt. Here's the short version:

"For all the excitement that Barack Obama has garnered, and all the talk about a new day in Washington, it would be tragic if the real legacy of his election victory was to finally expose the essentially unchanging, oligarchic nature of our political system. It's the same old story: Money talks, and bullshit walks. And don't be surprised if we're the ones still walking after November."

I'm not ready to flush my hope for Obama yet, but I promised I'd own my support for the guy. And do it here.

Jarvis: "Covering conventions a waste"

From the BuzzMachine: "Forbes.com reports that the number of journalists covering the conventions this fall will remain at the same level as 2004 and 2000: 15,000 of them. What a waste. The outcome of the conventions is known. There will be no news. Why are these news organizations sending so many staffers there?

Ego. That’s it, pure ad simple: Our man in Denver. Instead of your woman. It’s for bylines, bylines the public couldn’t care less about. The coverage will be no different outlet to outlet. We can watch it all ourselves on C-SPAN.

The conventions aren’t news. Anymore they are only staged events to get media coverage. And it works. But it’s not for the public good that they’re covered.

Don’t try to feed me that line about how they’ll be covering their local delegations. Their local delegations never make news — not since 1968 anyway — and their actions couldn’t be more predictable, less newsworthy. If you want to cover the locals, cover them at home — before the event. But you still won’t get any news from them."

Ouch. That's a little close to home. Each of our networks send reporters to the Big Show. I'll leave it to the real journalists to argue Jarvis' point.

I will offer one other rational for sending a reporter to the convention. It's kind of cool. I know, I know... it's a hell of a lot of work... certainly no vacation. But for reporters below the national level, getting to go to a Big Event like this is something of a spiff. There I said it. Now where did I put my Shit Storm helmet?

Okay, now YOU be McCain

I promise you, if I can get my hands on these, we'll have some fun. They gave them out at the Iowa State Fair and Auntie Kay snagged a couple. I fear, however, they have not survived the ensuing weeks in the Radio Iowa newsroom. (See earlier post: "5 Things Not to Leave in a Chimp Cage."

Keep your Blackberry under your pillow

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican -- endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday morning. I think my friend and co-worker Kay Henderson broke the story. It got a lot of national play and her blog post generated 3,000+ page views. I'm sure we got a bunch more at RadioIowa.com. I asked Kay how she got on the story so early:

"I sleep with my blackberry. I woke up at 6 o’clock, checked the ‘berry, and went back to sleep.  As I sort of floated out of dreamland I must have heard or sensed the vibration the ‘berry makes when there’s an incoming email. I pulled the ‘berry from underneath the pillow and read the email sent at 7:14 a.m. from a source in the Obama campaign, alerting me to the fact that former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach would be endorsing Obama in a few hours, during a telephone conference call being organized by the Obama campaign.

I called the newsroom and gave Matt – our morning anchor – the details for him to include in our next newscast, then roused myself from bed and walked into my home office.  I started blogging by feel, as I hadn’t found my glasses yet.  By 7:45 a.m. I had a fairly complete blog post up about the news.  It included text from a speech Vice President Dick Cheney gave at a Leach campaign fundraiser in 2003, explaining the Leach-Cheney-Rumsfeld connection.

I kept updating the post through the day.  An addition at the top – the opening Leach quote -- came from a noontime interview.  The McCain folks emailed responses, which got to my email box by 1:50 p.m."

A couple of things in Kay's account stand out for me. If she had waited until she got to the office to check her email, she might not have had the jump on the story. Should all reporters sleep with their Blackberry under their pillow? Well, yeah, if you expect to beat Kay on a story.

And that she blogged the story before having her Cheerios. A whole bunch of political reporters follow Kay's blog.

And while the technology is cool, there's no substitute for having the contact in the Obama campaign.

When nobody controls the cameras

NYTimes.com: "When Congress adjourns, so do C-Span’s live broadcasts because the sole cameras that record the sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives are controlled by the members of Congress.

On Friday, when several dozen Republicans decided to stay on the House floor and discuss energy legislation after the House adjourned for a five-week summer recess, the cameras and microphones were turned off. So the first source of video was a congressman who streamed live pictures to the Internet using his cellphone camera."

Just one more (small) example of how things are changing. If any feature prompts me to break down and buy a real mobile phone, it will be the ability to stream live video when there's no wifi.

JibJab: "Time For Some Campaignin"

The JibJag guys still have the stuff. A dose of wicked reality humor. Had to pull the Flash player. Screwing up my page load.

"Anonymity encourages irresponsibility"

"The blogs... the good news and bad news about blogs. First the bad news. The bad news is anybody can say anything about someone and they don't even have to put their name on it. In fact, the anonymity
encourages irresponsibility. And it is pretty frustrating, I'll be honest with you, that's why I just stopped reading this stuff a long time ago.

"The good is, when there are allegations made, in any variety of formats, there are people who know the facts, and step forward, and correct the facts. People who put their name on it and correct."

[Sen. James Webb on bloggers]

Some politicians get the Internet... and some don't

Don't bail before the big finish. Worth the wait. [Thanks, Bob.]

"The Beltway-Blog Battle"

Writing in Time Magazine, James Poniewozek has an interesting take (The Beltway-Blog Battle) on the passing of Tim Russert.

"...the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market."

The New Meida vs. Old Media argument got tiresome a long time ago, but Mr. Poniewozek offers a fresh take. A few paragraphs to wet your whistle:

"In their original division of labor, the old media broke news while the blogs dispensed opinion. But look at two of the biggest stories of the Democratic primary: Barack Obama's comments that working-class voters are "bitter" and Bill Clinton's rope-line rant that a reporter who profiled him was a "scumbag." Both were broken by a volunteer for the Huffington Post website, Mayhill Fowler.

Traditional reporters were aghast at Fowler's methods--the Obama meeting was closed to press (she got in as a donor), and Fowler did not identify herself when speaking to Clinton. But mainstream media had no problem treating the scoops as big news; if she had overheard both quotes in the same way but told them to a newspaper instead of publishing them, that would have been considered a coup.

The case against Fowler, in other words, was about process and credentials, not content. If sources stop trusting us, reporters asked, how will we do our jobs? But however sneaky her methods, Fowler's stories prove that one reason sites like Huffington have an audience is the perception that Establishment journalism has gotten better at serving its powerful sources than its public. Fiascoes like the Iraq-WMD reporting gave many the impression that the old rules mainly protect consultant-cosseted public officials who need protection least."

[For more on the Mayhill Fowler story, here's a bit of audio with Arianna Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media's internal Future of Journalism event on 18th June 2008.]

Mr. Poniewozik poses this rather rude question regarding MSM: "...if 3 million people read Drudge and 65,000 read the New Republic, which is mainstream?"

Obama-McCain Twitter Debate

Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident: "Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter."

This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I'll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.

Clarification

Last week I posted that I had decided to avoid discussing politics. In the next paragraph, I said that I would continue to post on political topics, I just wouldn't be having pointless --often strained-- debates with friends.

As if to confirm my decision, I quickly heard from a couple of readers who observed, "THAT didn't take long!" ...referring to my next post dealing with politics. And they were miffed that I sometimes turn off comments on a post. It's not that I don't care what you have to say, I'd just rather read it on your blog.

And while I haven't entirely eliminated politics from smays.com, I try to put most of that stuff on Politix. Again, it's a journal... not a debate or even a conversation. I suggest Fox or MSNBC for that stuff.

One final point. The company I work for owns a number of news networks, in several states, but I have no editorial input or oversight for those newsrooms. I help with maintenance of their websites but that's it. Nobody reports to me, I am a staff of one.

Obama Fund Raiser

Remember the first time you had your picture taken sitting on a pony? Or in Santa's lap? Or that first prom photo? That's exactly what it was like getting my picture taken with Senator Barack Obama at last night's fund raiser in St. Louis. Assuming of course that you waited in line for two hours with 250 other kids and paid two grand for that pony picture.

This was my maiden voyage in the world of political fund raisers and I had no idea what to expect. My friends Henry and Lorna were there too, all of us first-timers. In fact, a lot of the people I met and spoke to were first-time contributers. I thought that was interesting, given that it cost $2,300 for the privilege of having your photo taken with the man that that might be the next president of the U. S. But these were true believers and everyone seemed happy to pony up. (no pun intended)

It's just a guess, mind you, but I figure they took in more than half a million from the VIP'ers and --at $500 per-- another $200,000 from those that heard Senator Obama speak but didn't get to shake his hand. Closing in on 3/4 of a million dollars. Not big by GOP standards but not too shabby for a couple of hours.

So, what do you say to the man you hope will be your next president when you have about 10 seconds with him? I had narrowed my remarks down to three possibilities:

"O. Kay Henderson says hey"
Kay is the news director of Radio Iowa and interviewed Senator Obama numerous times during the early days of the campaign for the Iowa Caucuses. I imagined the senator responding with something like, "You know Kay Henderson? No shit?! Tell the girl hey back."

"I've been waiting all my life for a president with a good jump shot."
I scratched that one quickly given the racially charged atmosphere of this campaign.

"In the sixties we thought we'd change the world. You've made us believe again that we can."
"You did, you did change the world" was the senator's response. At least that's what I heard. I confess I was pretty star-struck. Which surprised me a little.

The aides hustled us through the line quickly and in a couple of days we can go to a website and download that pricey photograph. We'll share it here, of course.

I guess I'm really "all in" now, as far as campaign contributions. And I'm glad I had last night's experience. There was a very exciting vibe in the room throughout and I kept trying to imagine a John McCain event sparking the same tent revival feel that pervaded the evening. I think they're gonna need a lot of swift boats.

PS: Henry (retired MD) gave Senator Obama a tip on how to stop smoking. Not sure what Lorna said. Lorna reports she said, "I hope we're not sucking your energy." A nice thought but kind of risky in such a noisy room.

PPS: I didn't get any good photos because I didn't want to move around or risk a cavity search by the Secret Service guys. Here's the VIP line before it got long and rowdy. If you look closely you can see the  "x"  taped on the floor so the  Senator would know where to stand.

UPDATE: Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign.

Role of social media in Obama's success

Podcating News points to (and excerpts) CIOZone article that takes a look at the IT strategy behind Obama’s campaign, which includes Chris Hughes, who was one of the three co-founders of Facebook and now runs the campaign’s my.barackobama.com, which itself is a sort of social network.

"The Web site allows the campaign to be “owned by the masses,” Spinner says, but he encourages even big donors to complete the transaction through the Web site, saving himself the time it would take to drive to their home or office to collect a check. Although hillaryclinton.com eventually matched most of the features of barackobama.com, the Obama campaign embraced the Web more enthusiastically and fielded many of those capabilities about six months ahead of the competition, Spinner says. “The DNA of everyone working on the Obama campaign is very much a startup mentality, where what matters is how you build it, how fast you roll it out, and how you tie it together.”

Six months. A long time in the online world. Will be interesting to see how the McCain campaign does in this space.

No more talking politics

"Never discuss religion or politics." It was one of the few rules I set for myself that I actually followed.

I'm not a fan of organized religion so it hasn't been difficult to avoid talking about it. The same was true for politics until Obama began running for president. Sure, I'd been bashing Bush for years but it was only when I came out for Obama that friends started trying to pull me into mini-debates.

In my enthusiasm for Obama and the better future I hope he represents, I broke my rule and engaged in these discussions. Big mistake.

Looking back, I now see the point --the only point-- of these encounters was to convince the other guy he was wrong. Even with friends, there was a negative undertone to these discussions. I'd go in feeling up and positive... and come out down and negative.

So I've decided to avoid discussing politics. We can talk about anything else you want... my sex life, books and films, The Office, whatever. But no politics.

I'll post on political topics here, but that's strictly therapeutic. I don't expect anyone to read these posts and, frankly, discourage it. smays.com has always been, first and foremost, a personal journal. A place to write some things down.

There. I feel better already. You should, too.

My first primary

I paid scant attention to general elections for the past 40 years. And less to primary elections. We knew JFK was something special but I was too young to vote. Since then it's always been the lesser of two evils (with accent on the evil).

But this one has been different. Bush & Co. have demonstrated what happens when people are willing to put a dummy in the White House because he goes to church and don't talk too pretty.

So tonight is our final game in the league play-offs (World Series in November). We're celebrating. And looking back.

I pulled the photos above because they take me back to the beginning of primary season. A time when Radio Iowa News Director (and pal) Kay Henderson could talk to Senators Obama and Clinton without a scrum (the preferred term for a bunch of pushy newsers) of network reporters.

What did Obama really think of his chances during those early trips to Iowa? As Hillary sat down with Kay, did she have any inkling her sure thing wasn't.

I hope to have a chat with Kay when things slow down (for her). She's been covering the Iowa Caucuses for 20+ years and I'm eager to get her take on this years primary campaign. Watch this space.

Kay made some time for me (22 min).

Download henderson060508.mp3

Is that a camera crew in your pocket?

Mark Halperin and the folks at Time have their digital shit in one neat pile. Check out this exclusive video with David Axelrod, just after learning that the Associated Press has declared that Obama has secured the majority of delegates to the Democratic convention and will win the nomination.

Looks like Halperin is shooting with a small, hand-held camera. No mic (except for the camera), a little jerky but talk about immediacy.

McCain's short list for VP leaked to press

And Lee Camp has it over at 23/6. Romney and Colin Powell both made the top ten, and for good reason.

PageCast: Short, sweet and real

There are just so many things I like about The PageCast, I'm not sure where to begin. First, what is The PageCast.

It's a 60 second video by Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, previewing the three stories that he thinks you should be watching for today. You'll find it on the top/right of The Page. Big whoop, right? Okay, here's some of the things I like about this simple idea (and this particular PageCast):

• It maximizes the reach of a popular, plugged-in political reporter.

• It's short. One minute. Easy to watch, easy to produce.

• It's real. Or at least it appears real. Today's PageCast was recorded in what appears to be Mr. Halperin's hotel room in South Dakota (prior to Tuesday's primary). And he obviously just came from the gym or a run. (Note to TV and Hollywood directors: THIS is what real sweat looks like. Not the little spritz you put under your star's arms and on his chest. Save this image for future reference). And Mark hasn't shaved yet. The guy looks like we all do on a Sunday morning.

• Zero production. If I had to guess, I'd say he recorded this with his Mac Book sitting on the hotel desk. Probably in one take. He emails the file to some web monkey who uploads to The Page and it's done. No crew, no director, no editing.

The news directors of our radio networks would be great at this. And their listeners/readers/viewers would eat it up.

UPDATE: My buddy Kay reports that Mark Halperin records PageCast between 7-9 a.m. (usually), wherever he happens to be and in whatever he happens to be wearing. If he's on the West Coast, he usually records them at night. He thinks of what he wants to say just before he begins recording (or in the shower or at the gym), on his MacBook Pro (edits with iMovie).

The idea was prompted by the desire to put video on The Page, while keeping it easy to produce and watch. Just as I suspected. Simple idea, well executed.

OK, Hillary, would one more vote make you happy?

For you slower kids, the inmates are the super delegates.

smays.com/politix

Good news. No more political posts here at smays.com. Maybe. I gotta represent for my man Obama but I know how boring political frothing can be. And it's a long time until November.

So I've set up a new blog at smays.com/politix where I can chronicle the the rise (or fall) of the USA. We'll probably include and RSS feed in the sidebar but we'll make it easy for you to miss the partisan stuff.

Ashcroft booed for Obama-Osama gaffe

From  rawstory.com: "Former Attorney General John Ashcroft drew the ire of students at liberal Skidmore College this week when he confused the name of Barack Obama with that of Osama bin Laden.

"All I'm saying about the Patriot Act," Ashcroft began, "is that the elected representatives of this country, including Osama ..."

His words were met with a roar of disbelief and disapproval, as he continued stammering, "uh ... you know ... not ... Obama." Ashcroft attempted to say "I'm sorry" but was drowned out by prolonged boos.

"I did not mean to ... I'm sorry about that ... I apologize publicly," Ashcroft went on as the boos gradually subsided."

Accident or strategy? Watch the video.

"If the news is that important it will find me."

This just in... the young process information differently. According to this story at NYT.com, "...younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one."

"A December survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press looked at how media were being consumed this campaign. In the most striking finding, half of respondents over the age of 50 and 39 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds reported watching local television news regularly for campaign news, while only 25 percent of people under 30 said they did."

"Rather than treating video-sharing Web sites as traditional news sources, young people use them as tools and act as editors themselves."

One quote in the story really jumped out at me:

“If the news is that important, it will find me.”

What does this mean for those of us in the news business?

Sound bites, talking points and YouTube

Really interesting story at Politico by Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej about how YouTube is helping move us away from sound bite coverage to something more substantial.

"In the 1968 presidential election, the average amount of time given to a sound bite from presidential candidate on the network news shows was 43 seconds. In 1972 it dropped to 25. By 1988, it had shrunk to 9.8 seconds, and in 1996, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs and the Brookings Institution, to just 8.2 seconds. By 2004, a study by USC and the University of Wisconsin found that it had risen slightly to 10.3 seconds, but for all intents and purposes this was hardly much of an improvement.

Until now, all of national politics has operated within the context of those shrinking numbers. Since TV was the only way to reach millions of voters, and the only way to get your message across was to a) buy expensive airtime for 30-second TV ads or b) get free airtime by saying something memorable (and not damaging, unless aimed at your opponent), successful politicians have gotten very good at sticking to their talking points, speaking in sound-bites, and avoiding gaffes or detailed conversations as much as possible."

My man Obama is proving these assumptions are out of date:

"So far, Obama's videos have been viewed more than 33 million times on YouTube.com — and that's not counting partial views, since YouTube only reports a full viewing as a “view.” His campaign has uploaded more than 800 video clips, and adds several more a day."

In a pre-Internet era, the endless replayings on television of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sound bites denouncing America would probably have deeply damaged Obama's candidacy. But millions of voters have been flocking to the web to watch his 37-minute response to the controversy.

Our longest newscast on our four state radio networks is 4 minutes. Only three of those being news. Even more popular --with affiliates-- are our one-minute "capsules." Formats which demand shorter and shorter sound bites.

But we now routinely post longer --sometimes complete-- interviews with the stories we post to our websites.

I have to believe everyone is better served by new media alternatives.

obama@whitehouse.gov

The Obama campaign seems to have their online shit all in one neat pile. The email I've received suggests they've got someone smart doing their digital stuff. So I offer this suggestion, in the event O. goes the distance.

President Obama reads, answers and acts on one email --from an American citizen-- every week. Let's say, on Friday. Here's how it might work:

Anybody can email the president once a week. Yes, people will try to find ways to scam this but you can deal with that.

On Friday morning, 10 emails are selected at random and forwarded to President Obama's in-box. He looks through them, picks one and responds --personally-- to the sender.

If action is required, the email is forwarded to the appropriate subordinate who has to DO something because the president --and the country-- will be watching.

The media gets a copy of the original email, the president's reply, including what --if anything-- will be done.

Think about it. If the president actually made something happen --personally-- 50 times a year, that would be pretty cool. Of course, some will ask the president to do things he cannot. And he can simply reply, "I don't know what the hell to do about that."

The odds of your email being selected are about the same as winning the Lotto but so what. Somebody's email got through.

Dark Ride

Republicans stopped visiting (if they ever did) smays.com a long time ago. So this video is unlikely to offend anyone but Hillary supporters and they hit the door right after the neocons. The rest of you can just hunker down until November when I hope to return to DEFCON 5.

Bob Cesca produced the mash-up above: "The song and the speech compelled me to ... assemble this mash-up as a tribute to everyone who has endured this seven-year-long dark ride; and to everyone who hopes that America can and will change for the better.

Until recently, I honestly didn't think it was possible. And even though it's only the beginning, Senator Obama's campaign is clearly our best shot to, at the very least, turn the tide against this seemingly interminable darkness."

John McCain's Magic 8 Ball

One finds the most amusing things at 23/6.com. Like John McCain's Magic 8 Ball. A clever post with a delightful headline ("John McCain will turn this war around right now if you don't shut up").

Q: Do you remember where you parked your car?
A: My feet hurt.

Q: Would you bone Hillary?
A: How about you say that to my face?

Q: When did you have your last bowel movement?
A: Would you like some hard candy?

Spooky how dead on the answers all were.

Vote for me!

I've probably posted on this before but only the clinically obsessed or house-bound reader would know that, so...

If you're going to run for office in Dunklin County, Missouri, you have two methods for telling your story to the voting public: yard signs and the even more powerful 4x8 plywood sign placed in strategic locations. You might run a few radio spots but that wouldn't do the job if your opponent out-signed you.

One thing before I go on... anyone swayed by a political ad on TV is a fucking moron. You are cattle (maybe sheep). And you are legion, hence all the ads on TV. But you won't live forever and your children are not watching TV. I hope they will be harder to reach and mislead. Where was I?

Oh, yeah. My friend Terry sends us this example of state-of-the-art political media from my hometown. (No offense intended, Patrick. You have to do what you have to do. Good luck)

"Hillary's Last Stand"

Writing in the March 20th issue of Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi explores "The tragic self-martyrdom of a groundbreaking politician."

"The Clintons always represented the notion that the old Democratic Party of unions and LBJ liberals was a thing of the past and that the way forward involved making nice with big business and the military. Her husband passed NAFTA, deregulated Wall Street, rammed through welfare "reform," bombed Kosovo, chided Sister Soulja, opened the Lincoln bedroom to any foreign nation with spare cash and won two elections.

Winning convinced both of them that they were saviors of everything right and decent in the world. They'd discovered the winning formula, and we were welcome to kiss their asses for finding it. And so what if the formula involved selling out the unions on a series of draconian and insane trade deals, or cozying up to one of the most regressive employers in the world in Wal-Mart, or hiring an evil lobbyist stooge like Mark Penn to be your chief campaign strategist, or voting to give George Bush the authority to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq?"

Matt Taibbi is far and away my favorite political reporter (right after Kay Henderson!) and I buy a copy of Rolling Stone just for his pieces.

His latest leaves the reader with the impression that Hillary is kaput. I'm not so sure. He calls her "one of the most awesomely complex and fascinating public figures in the history of our country."  But not in a good way.

I couldn't find the article online but will update this post if I do.

Tracy Morgan funnier than I thought

I almost never watch Saturday Night Live. Just got out of the habit. Didn't find it amusing anymore. I've watched Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan on 30 Rock and fell in love with Tina. As for Tracy, not so much. Thought he was one of the weak elements of the show. But I think I've sold the man short. (And he's not afraid of Tina Fey)

This past Saturday, Tracy Morgan responded to Tina Fey’s promotion of Hillary Clinton three weeks ago with his own defense of Barack Obama.

MORGAN: Why is it that every time a black man in this country gets too good at something, there’s always someone come around and remind us that he’s black? First Tiger, then Donavan McNabb then me. Now Barack. I got a theory about that. It’s a little complicated but basically, it goes like this: we are a racist country. The end. It’s not the people in this room, but if we’re not a racist country, how did Hillary Clinton convince everybody in Texas and Ohio that Barack didn’t know how to answer the phone at 3 in the morning? Let me tell you something, Barack knows how to answer that phone. He’s not going to answer it like, (soft, frightened voice) “Hello, I’m scared. What’s going on?” He is gonna answer it like I would get a phone call at 3 in the morning: “Yeah, who’s this? This better be good or I’m going to come down there and put somebody in a wheelchair.”

Some things never change, Seth. People saying he’s not a fighter. Let me tell you something. He’s a gangsta, he’s from Chicago. Barack is not winning because he’s a black man. If that was the case, I would be winning. And I’m way blacker than him. I used to smoke Newports and drink Olde English. I grew up on government cheese, I prefer it. Now there’s all this stuff and all this talk about the pastor. Barack has to stay away from the pastor, ‘cause he’s too black. But just because he knows the dude doesn’t think…doesn’t mean that he’s gonna think like him. Look, I have a friend who goes to strip clubs, that doesn’t mean that I am gonna go to the strip club.

SETH MEYERS: But you do go to strip clubs.

MORGAN: Yeah, but I go for the girls, not because my friend is going. I have integrity. Barack is qualified. Personally, I want to know what qualifies Hillary Clinton to be the next president. Is it because she was married to the president? If that were the case then Robin Givens would be the heavyweight champion of the world. If Hillary’s last name wasn’t Clinton, she’d be some crazy white lady with too much money and not enough lovin’. That’s where I come in. I know women like that, you do not want them on the phone at 3 in the morning. In conclusion, three weeks ago, my girl Tina Fey went on the show, she declared that “bitch is the new black”. You know I love you, Tina. You know you’re my girl. But I have something to say. Bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president, bitch."