Well, the Dow is falling again today, but considering that the Senate didn't do anything that was unexpected, last night's vote had little effect on the reaction of Wall Street and companion global exchanges. We'll have to wait for the House vote for that. Of course the big story today is the Biden-Palin debate.It will likely draw a bigger audience than Obama-McCain 1. First of all, it's not taking place on a Friday night, and second, people will be watching this for the same reasons they watch NASCAR or the Indy 500. People want to see the crash. They'll be watching and listening for the gaffe, stumble, or clever one-liner. Between the two candidates, the viewing audience likes the odds. Look for big numbers tonight.Much has been made of the McCain campaign's efforts to lower expectations for Sarah Palin. Of course, recent Palin interviews have helped that cause as well. But tonight, it will be interesting to see what standard the viewing audience chooses when it comes to judging her performance. Does Palin have to be more substantive than Biden? Up for the job as Vice President? Show she has the capacity to step in as President? Of just perform better than she did during the Katie Couric interviews?Given that we're a nation at war and confronting the most daunting economic crisis of our generation, I hope we set the bar high for both of them. I hope neither crashes. It would be terrific if we could simply hear 90 minutes worth of sound debate over issues that will shape America's future. Let's watch and see! Go Joe!
Crossposted at http://clientserviceinsights.blogspot.com
The media have been complicit in not reporting the real math in the Democratic Primary. Barack is not going to lose this nomination, and everyone knows it. Hillary's campaign, badly crafted as it was, is simply hanging onto the bumber of the car. Bill Richardson has signaled that it's time to let it go.
It's an amazing time in our history. I remember writing about how I believed Barack would be the nominee on the day of his announcement both here and on my other blog. I always believed in the candidate, but the campaign has exceeded my highest expectations. There's lots of work ahead of us, but thus far, nicely done.
I'll be shifting my content back to my new blog Client Service Insights (CSI/Season 2). I look forward to talking about all that this candidate and this campaign has taught about the future of America and the world.
You may recognize the line from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Yesterday, on Hardball, Chris Matthews pulled it from his memory bank as a way to describe what Hillary's campaign must be saying about Team Obama. Chris was interviewing Brian Williams, who also invoked his own, albeit slightly altered quote in describing the Hillary campaign, "Something happened on the way to the nomination."
Hillary's hearing footsteps, and they're growing louder and stronger. Those footsteps aren't just Obama's, they're ours. Let's continue to build what may become the most formidible grassroots coalition in our nation's history.
Score one for the Barack Obama new media team! When noting links at the bottom of a blog post, the H, at least the H if used in Hillary, defaults to a lowercase h. (See below).
It's a bit small if you will, but amusing!
Yesterday, The Bivings Report posted a review of BarackObama.com. The post also includes links to previous reviews of the Hillary and Edwards sites. It's interesting stuff. The Bivings Group is a DC based internet communications firm that I reference from time to time on my professional blog Client Service Insights (CSI).
I'd love to hear your comments on the review, as well as your personal experience on the site. Lately, I've had difficulty just getting on. I'm hoping that site traffic is just so high that the server is simply overloaded from time to time. At the rate this campaign is growing, this issue needs to be addressed quickly.
One of the wonderful phenomenons of this campaign is how this young Senator is inspiring people to not only reconnect with the political process, but also to serve this nation as community organizers. The grassroots effort and local leadership at work so early in this presidential campaign is unprecedented and something with which I hope Seneator Obama is extremely proud.
In my initial post, on the day of Obama's announcement titled Public Service, I said:
"The reason I think he'll win is because of what has shaped him. I'm not talking about his parents, mixed race background, political experience, or his time at Harvard Law School. Obama's greatest asset is his experience as a community organizer. It should be required duty for anyone who plans to run for public office. Grassroots community service promotes people who listen, people who care about the challenges that face average Americans, and those who truly understand that one person can make a difference.
"Obama is a once in a generation candidate whose commitment to public service is actually greater than his personal ambition. He's a powerful combination of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Whether one is a Republican, Democrat or Independent, we owe it to ourselves as a country to listen as Obama makes his case for hope."
One person will make the difference in this campaign. You!
How about a three-year term for our sitting president? Everyone wins. The country can get back on track and W can go home to Crawford where he'd rather be anyway. We'll hold a national primary on September 18, 2007 and a general election on November 5th. (Seems all the states want to move up their primaries anyway, so let's really give them their wish.) General election winner Barack Obama could then of course take the oath of office on January 20, 2008.
It could be introduced into the Congress as the Obama-McCain Crawford bill. It would receive bipartisan support and the president would probably sign it. The Constitution? Bush hasn't minded tinkering with it before, why would he stop now?
For those of you who have a day off, enjoy! If you don't, then don't work too hard and relish the easy commute.
Just when you thought you had a grasp on Barack's heritage, we find out in a piece that ran in The Spoof, that there may be more to Barack Obama's lineage than meets the eye.
According to the article (click on the link above for the complete story), "It seems that Barack Obama has Irish roots after all, not just like Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton, but better, thus making him eminently suitable to be a President."
I'll have to check to see if there's an Irish-Americans for O'Bama group! Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!
As many of you have heard by now, Rush Limbaugh inserted foot in mouth again yesterday commenting on a statement Obama made during his 60 Minutes interview.For those who may not have had a chance to read the actual transcript of Rush's call for Barack to renounce his being black, it begs the question why Rush doesn't renounce being an idiot. As you'll conclude from the transcript, Limbaugh would be faced with the more difficult task.LIMBAUGH: Steve Kroft said, “Your mother was white; your father was African. You were raised in a white household. Yet at some point you decided you were black.”[OBAMA CLIP]: I’m not sure I decided it. Uh, I think, uh, you know, if you — if you look African-American in this society, you’re treated as an African-American, uh, and, uh, when you’re a child in particular, uh, that is how you begin to identify yourself.RUSH: So are we to conclude here that he didn’t define himself as black, that the way he looks does? (Sigh.) Okay. We’ve got Obama’s wife in here. We’ve got John Howard from Australia coming up, but, “I’m not sure I decided it”? Well, if you didn’t decide it, then how did it happen?Well, when you look like that, that’s what you are.Well, renounce it, then! If it’s not something you want to be, if you didn’t decide it, renounce it, become white! BREAK TRANSCRIPTRUSH: Okay, back to our Barack Obama Audio Sound Bite Marathon. What are we up to now? Let’s see. Oh, yeah. Obama just said he wasn’t sure that he decided he was black, that if you look African-American in this society, you’re treated as an African-American, and when you’re a child in particular that’s how you begin to identify yourself. If you don’t like it, you can switch. Well, that’s the way I see it. He’s got 50-50 in there. Say, “No, I’m white.”Link
As many of you have heard by now, Rush Limbaugh inserted foot in mouth again yesterday commenting on a statement Obama made during his 60 Minutes interview.
For those who may not have had a chance to read the actual transcript of Rush's call for Barack to renounce his being black, it begs the question why Rush doesn't renounce being an idiot. As you'll conclude from the transcript, Limbaugh would be faced with the more difficult task.
LIMBAUGH: Steve Kroft said, “Your mother was white; your father was African. You were raised in a white household. Yet at some point you decided you were black.”
[OBAMA CLIP]: I’m not sure I decided it. Uh, I think, uh, you know, if you — if you look African-American in this society, you’re treated as an African-American, uh, and, uh, when you’re a child in particular, uh, that is how you begin to identify yourself.
RUSH: So are we to conclude here that he didn’t define himself as black, that the way he looks does? (Sigh.) Okay. We’ve got Obama’s wife in here. We’ve got John Howard from Australia coming up, but, “I’m not sure I decided it”? Well, if you didn’t decide it, then how did it happen?
Well, when you look like that, that’s what you are.
Well, renounce it, then! If it’s not something you want to be, if you didn’t decide it, renounce it, become white!
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, back to our Barack Obama Audio Sound Bite Marathon. What are we up to now? Let’s see. Oh, yeah. Obama just said he wasn’t sure that he decided he was black, that if you look African-American in this society, you’re treated as an African-American, and when you’re a child in particular that’s how you begin to identify yourself. If you don’t like it, you can switch. Well, that’s the way I see it. He’s got 50-50 in there. Say, “No, I’m white.”
Link
Aren't they just two sides of the same coin? Not in my experience, and not according to Jim Lukaszewski either. As part of a recent radio series called "A Century of Spin," criss communication guru Jim Lukaszewski stated, "Truth is 15% facts and 85% perception."
Lukaszewski illustrated his point this way," if a car accident were witnessed by four people on different corners, each would have a different version of what happened when the cops showed up."
Lately, as a PR professional, I've experienced one too many instances where journalists unabashedly hid behind the facts to tell a version of the truth that suited their needs and biases. My guess is that the truth lies on the street corner that sells the most newspapers.
When it comes to political campaigns, media not only hide behind facts, but they call political operatives who lie to voters "geniuses." The media are willing accomplices to the tabloid politics of our time.
If truth is in the eye of the beholder as Lukaszewski claims, I can live with that as long as media ask something of themselves and the candidates in the form of intellectual honesty. It will be a big first step toward helping the American people regain trust in our leaders.
Obama has called for something better than the "gotcha" political coverage of the past. Let's hope even one journalist is paying attention.
I'm all for the first amendment. However, there are some days when I'd like it if someone in the Congress would introduce legislation that would deny internet/computer access to the intellectually dishonest and the politically impaired.
For the heck of it, I ran a google news search on Barack Obama today. Much to my chagrin, l found an article at the very top of page one by Ben Shapiro titled, Iran: Praying for Obama. Shapiro's prior claim to fame was authoring "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth." Nice.
In this article, Ben writes, among other obsurdities, "The political embodiment of that post-modernism -- that nihilistic resignation -- is the modern Democratic Party. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democrats' bright new star, is no more capable of global leadership than Jacques Chirac. Obama's politics of 'understanding' dictates that evil cannot be fought -- it must be placated with psychobabble."
Seems Shapiro does know something about babble and about being psycho.
If Barack Obama hasn't had a healthy dose of it already, then Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today will be among many opinion pieces (now that he's an announced candidate) that will cover everything BUT his qualifications to be President.
Subjects in today's piece ran from photo shoots, the beach, and smoking to body language, facial expressions, and irritability. Let's just hope Ms. Dowd had a bad hair day, and she'll actually make a positive contribution to helping voters understand which candidate we should send to Washington.
That being said, if Obama is getting irritable in February of '07, he'll be screaming at his own kids by this time next year if he doesn't dial it back a little. I don't care if he's quitting smoking or not, this is a marathon not a sprint. He's out of the gate quickly and positively and that's great. But the lights are only going to get brighter and the power of the microscope more intense. While I can't imagine the rigors of a Presidential campaign, I have run 13 marathons. Staying positive and regarding the pain you feel as simply "weakness leaving the body" is how you survive the marathon. I suspect it may help Obama prevail in a long political campaign as well. Go Barack!
Obama's reference to wanting to transform a nation rather than simply win the Presidency was a smart use of language, but it was much more than just semantics. That's why it was so effective. There's a growing collective belief that Hillary is driven primarily by winning and being in power. Hillary appears totally contrived; Barack is authentic. At a time when we need to reestablish trust in this country, Barack is off to a great start.
Obama carefully framed his sense of urgency for seeking the office of President. It's not just about winning; if it were, he would have waited. It's about the need for leadership at a critical time in our history. He believes he can provide it, and the courage of his announcement will compel voters to listen to his ideas. Let the games begin!
