As of today, Saturday, Sept 20, www.fivethirtyeight.com shows Obama significantly ahead again in electoral college votes. Which means the pendulum in the media will swing in favor of the opposition because ... Kathleen's Axiom is relevant again:
Axiom: TV news programs and networks and their major print subsidiaries are profit-motivated, not news motivated.Therefore: (a) their goal is to keep highest numbers of adrenalin-driven eyeballs on TV sets or op-ed pages (b) because that keeps their advertisers paying prime-time (aka higher number of viewers) rates to advertise, which (c) translates into bottom-line profits
Therefore: when it comes to 'news' the more controversial, or shocking, or adversarial, the better. Sub-axioms: debates are better than rallies, unless you can find equally-stirring rallies to show on split-screen
If there were a way to measure it, how much the one candidate is ahead would predict how many times the cable personalities ( I refuse to call them news people) will do 'fact checks' or try to keep the standing even.
In the case of a great portion of the media: more pain (for the viewer) equals more gain (for the stockholders and executives)
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so when making phone calls or talking to voters this weekend, keep in mind that they have a high probability of having seen something on TV news in favor of McCain and critical of Obama.
About the FISA bill:
My Observation #1: Grownups don't get to have all their choices in black and white. Only in shades of gray.
(ref. Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity -- last century sometime)
This is a good example of a "shades of gray" matter -- and therefore it makes for endless political fodder to both extremes, each pole of which wants to feel "right".
My Opinion #1: It is so refreshing to have a person who will be a world leader who is not afraid to be a grownup. Who is not afraid to admit that there are shades of gray.
And most of all, who is not afraid to state clearly his decision in the midst of that. He never promised we would agree with him about everything. (e.g. that this is a "red phone moment" -- who invented THAT phrase, anyhow? )
President Obama only promised he would tell us exactly what he thinks -- and in this case, also he told us why.
Does anyone really think he made that decision for monetary reasons?
He's actually voting AGAINST the power of the executive office he is seeking!
Talk about refreshing!
The April issue of Fast Company magazine has a fascinating cover article titled "The Brand Called Obama: Win or Lose, Barack's Rise Reveals a New Reality in the Marketplace Here's what it means for business"
The quote on his picture (which dominates the cover) is this one: "If you're looking for the safe choice, then you shouldn't be supporting a 46-year-old black guy."
One of the quotes in the article which caught my eye was this, from
Karen Scholl of Resource Interactive, a digital ad agency:There is a new, authoritative consumer empowered by the Web. And they can smell a fake.
And this from the article as well:
Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has long considered himself a political independent. An Obama encounter at a campaign event inspired him to take up arms for the Democratic candidate. But he can't quite explain why. "I'm still struggling to articulate what it is about him beyond the issues that I care about," he says. Newmark then fumbles his way to this realization: "I see him as a leader rather than a boss." A leader, he notes, gets people to do things on their own, through inspiration, respect, and trust. "A boss can order you to do things, sure, but you do them because it's part of the contract."(part of next paragraph)But Obama epitomizes a new way of thinking called "adaptive leadership" which is now being taught at Harvard's Kennedy School, among other places. This approach, as Stephen Bouwhuis recently wrote in The Australian Journal of Public Administration, is effective in handling problems that necessitate "a shift ... in ways of thinking across a community." While a visionary puts forth a specific plan to be implemented, an adaptive leader works with constituents to devise one together.
Old-style "I will do ......"
Barack-style "WE will ............"
You can see it in the latest ad from HRC running in Pennsylvania -- the 3am morph that talks about the economy. And we are supposed to believe that she will fix it.
Does anybody really believe anymore that politicians will turn a switch and solve our economic woes, without all of us digging in and doing what it takes to make the changes happen?
For way too long people have heard campaign promises, and for way too long have known that those evaporate as soon as the swearing-in parties are over if not sooner.
So, thank you Barack, for not making promises about "THE government" but continuing to remind us that we ARE the government.
From Wikipedia:
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (October 1, 1746 – October 1, 1807) was a clergyman, a soldier and a politician of the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Post-Revolutionary eras in Pennsylvania.
There's more, but this part of his political career is interesting to me:
Muhlenberg was elected to the first U. S. Congress (1789-1791) by the entire state of Pennsylvania as an at-large representative. (His brother Frederick was the Speaker for that same Congress.) He was the first founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793. He served in Congress as a Republican from 1793 to 1795 and 1799-1801 for the 1st district. He entered the U.S. Senate in January of 1801, but resigned on June 30th of that same year.
Tonight, Barack Obama was the first USA Presidential candidate to address an audience at Muhlenberg College since Richard Nixon.
Awesome turnout last night.
There's a community face on the Lehigh Valley now. Some of the veterans of the Democratic Party were there -- folks from the West End in large number == there should be Obama signs sprouting up like crocuses today judging by the queue to buy them!
The diversity of the group was exciting. While standing in line to get inside, I met a young man from Kenya who's been living here for a long while, and his wife from "the city." He was surprised when I asked him about Kawangware (grin). I met a man who came here from Newark. A retired KU prof who travels around the world saving coral reefs. And lots of others.
There were babies and grizzled old union folks. A whole palette of colors. Red and blue balloons. And like anywhere in Pennsylvania, food!
It's hard for folks just arriving to get "into" the Valley sometimes. So, locals, let's give the kids from around the country (and the world) a chance to help us get the new community and government with real roots that we need!
Lehigh Valley CAN!
