HRC: Offering Solutions . . . ten years too late.

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Tuesday February 19, 2008 · 11:02 AM PST

2008/02/19 · 11:02

Everyone has a few nasty habits that they don’t usually discuss in polite company, and one of mine is paying attention to marketing trends. I know, I know, it’s disgusting, but . . . well, I need to for my job. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

When you observe the intricacies of an election campaign in marketing terms, you get some memorable – and not always particularly successful – slogans, commercials, campaign songs, yard signs, even buttons out of the process. Since Madison Avenue and its spiritual cohorts took control of campaigning back in the 1960s, no campaign for the presidency is complete without a full list of official branding, up to and including a catch-phrase that sums up the candidate in one easy-to-read bite.

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Saturday February 02, 2008 · 10:34 PM PST

2008/02/02 · 22:34

Since I put up my diary about Obama Dads, things have gotten a little . . . strange.

For one thing, I’ve been inundated with "attaboys!" and questions about my "organization" – which is ironic, considering the point of my fellow Obama Dads and I doing what we do is that there is no organization. That being said, suddenly there are t-shirts and blogs and proposals for websites . . .

. . . and among the many questions I’ve received, one begs an answer. Just who are these Obama Dads?

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Tuesday January 29, 2008 · 6:05 PM PST

2008/01/29 · 18:05

Chew on this, Mark Penn.

Four middle-aged (Gen X, ages 38-41) fathers, middle class, each making between $28k and $43k a year, three of us college educated, two of us college grads, and between us we have 8 kids (10 if you count steps). Two black, two white. All four of us found ourselves doing something none of us could have predicted a year ago, and something that would be unthinkable a century ago. We were all campaigning – hard – for a Democratic candidate for President. Who happens to be black. In the Deep South.

One of us is a pragmatic libertarian (mois). Two are generally apolitical types who have only voted sporadically over the course of their lives, and then usually for whichever candidate didn’t seem as bad as the other. One is a registered Democrat who grew up in the bowels of the Rust Belt, and who voted whichever way his unionized dad did, when he bothered. Of the four, one (me) has ever donated to a campaign.

We’re the Obama Dads. And we’re fired up.

Poll

1728 votes Show Results

I am:

1728 votes Vote Now!

I am:

an Obama Dad, and fiercely proud of it! Fire it up!

669 votes

an Obama Mom.

442 votes

partial to Johnny Depp.

115 votes

A Hillary supporter, and all this blatantly sexist crap Just Isn't Funny.

63 votes

an Edwards supporter.

239 votes

Undecided.

33 votes

Pie

167 votes

It's On Like A Pot Of Neckbones!

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Thursday January 10, 2008 · 8:50 AM PST

2008/01/10 · 08:50

I bumped into friend (and fellow Obama supporter) H. this morning when I stopped at the German bakery for coffee.

H. is just a few years older than I am, the son of two 60s era civil-rights activists and prominent members of the community. (H., by contrast, hasn’t ever been terribly active in politics, which irritates his widowed mother to no end.) I've known H. for over twenty years. We did a six-week temp job together in our misspent youth, had a couple of classes together, fellout of touch, fell back into touch, and like you do in a small Southern city, we run into each other every couple of months . . . say when we stop at the same place German bakery for coffee.

Of course after the obligatory "How’s your folks? Wife? Kids?" exchange I took the opportunity to sound him out about what he (and the other members of the Black community in my town) were thinking in the wake of Iowa and New Hampshire. We have a history of discussing race and politics and exchanging views, so he wasn’t shy about responding – especially since both of our cars were sporting Obama ’08 bumper stickers.

What he had to say was interesting.

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Monday January 07, 2008 · 9:47 AM PST

2008/01/07 · 09:47

Yes, come in, have a seat, Ma’am. Thank you for taking the time to meet me like this. This won’t take long.

I just wanted to let you know personally. It’s been a hard, hard decision – but it’s one we had to make to fill this vitally important position. We’ve had far more great candidates than we anticipated, all with excellent qualifications, but we had to pick just one. This is an essential position, after all, and – well, let’s just say that the current man on the job is on his way out. And he left one heck of a mess. So that makes this job doubly important.

As I said, we’ve had several outstanding candidates, yourself included. We winnowed the list down to three, carefully researched each resume, evaluated the candidate’s record with the organization, and listened intently to each succeeding interview. With that kind of talent available, it wasn’t easy, and we were genuinely impressed with the candid ideas each of you brought to the table. And after a long, intensive review, I'm sorry to say that we’ve decided to go with another candidate.

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Thursday December 20, 2007 · 11:47 AM PST

2007/12/20 · 11:47

Christmas is crashing down on me like an unstoppable wave, but I couldn’t pass this up: after it became known that the Clinton campaign registered two new domain names (votingpresent.com or somesuch) with the presumed intent of launching a political attack site denouncing Obama’s record of voting "present" in the Illinois State Legislature, I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

The idea, it seems, is that Clinton is going to hammer him on "waffleliness" or some other lightweight charge (the drug dealing Islamic madrassa thing didn’t stick, apparently) because he used a common procedural tactic in the conduct of his tenure as a representative. The stats are elsewhere and I don’t have time to dig ‘em up, but the gist is he voted "present" about 3% of the time. The funny thing is, this does nothing but good for Obama: it draws attention to his record as a state legislator, working within the party and the state congress to achieve important local and state-wide legislation. It also draws attention to the fact that Hillary (ta-da!) has no record as a state representative. Or any other state office, for that matter. More on the flip.

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Saturday December 15, 2007 · 12:22 AM PST

2007/12/15 · 00:22

When I happened across a diary from Lying eyes in the wee hours of the morning, I couldn’t help but fire this off. Basically, the diarist very politely (and dripping with condescension) asked "young people" to "back off" and please let Hillary win this one, huh? Willya? Please? I mean, isn’t it the Boomers’ time, now that their parents are mostly dead or in that home out by the Interstate?

I felt compelled to write in response, not to her particular diary, but to the idea that the two frontrunners represent a generational divide – one is almost tempted to use the term "gap", if the Boomers hadn’t trademarked it for their own justification for political rebellion in their youth. The fact is that while both candidates have their share of supporters from across age and class and gender, Clinton is most clearly the candidate that represents the interests of the Boomers, while Obama has the interests of Gen Xers and those that follow. There is an essential divide, here, and it’s important to call it out.

Poll

216 votes Show Results

I am a:

216 votes Vote Now!

I am a:

Boomer supporting Hillary - how do I work this damn keyboard again?!?

5 votes

Boomer supporting Obama

37 votes

Gen Xer (or younger) supporting Hillary

14 votes

Gen Xer (or younger) supporting Obama

48 votes

Boomer supporting someone else

53 votes

Gen Xer supporting someone else

34 votes

Searching for MILF porn on the net and came across this diary by accident

15 votes

None of the above

10 votes

The View From The Kitchen

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Monday November 12, 2007 · 10:38 AM PST

2007/11/12 · 10:38

I had a chance the other day to revisit one of my former employers from my food service days, an independent downtown seafood restaurant. I worked here nine years during college, off and on, and managed it for four of those nine. I like the place. It’s got a beachy feel, lots of nautical clutter, it and the seafood is first rate, if expensive. I wandered back into the kitchen to say howdy, and unsurprisingly, B was there. B has forgotten more about cooking fish in the last five minutes than you ever will learn. He’s an older black gentleman, he’s been with the joint forever, and when you taste his marinated and grilled tuna steak a heavenly chorus erupts in your mouth.

B has also voted religiously in every election he’s been able to. He’s not an activist, but he’s an extremely loyal and dependable Democrat. He’s as rank-and-file as they come, and I trust his opinion implicitly on such things as who the black community in my strongly-blue city is supporting. Our conversation was interesting.

Poll

33 votes Show Results

Do you think Hillary's support in the African American community is overstated?

33 votes Vote Now!

Do you think Hillary's support in the African American community is overstated?

Yes

20 votes

13 votes

Stephen Colbert: The Golden Gadfly

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Friday October 19, 2007 · 11:45 AM PDT

2007/10/19 · 11:45

When one encounters such bald-faced egotism and blatant self-promotion as is regularly displayed by Stephen Colbert, one must pause in admiration of the sheer audacity it takes to so masterfully play the celebrity game. But simply laughing at the antics of Comedy Central’s brain trust and dismissing Colbert’s stunt as meaningless entertainment is missing something more important, here. While the pundits wave off the thing as a publicity stunt for book flogging purposes (which it most definitely is, and brilliant at that) they fail to recognize the possibility of Colbert having a very real effect on the Democratic primary process.

Poll

115 votes Show Results

Should Stephen Colbert use his Favorite Son candidacy to attack the Democratic front runner, raising legitimate concerns about her candidacy that the Main Stream Media is afraid to cover?

115 votes Vote Now!

Should Stephen Colbert use his Favorite Son candidacy to attack the Democratic front runner, raising legitimate concerns about her candidacy that the Main Stream Media is afraid to cover?

Yes! I find his parody and satire a delicious late-night post-bong snack!

106 votes

No! She's already had the inaugeral invitations printed!

9 votes

Jon and Barack and Hillary and Oprah

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Thursday August 23, 2007 · 12:44 PM PDT

2007/08/23 · 12:44

You have to love the irony of the fact that Jon Stewart, goofy, snarky guy-most-likely-to-sell-you-a-bag-in-the-dorm Stewart, is having more of an effect on the political process than most of the partisan talking heads shows. I credit the rise of John McCain as a serious candidate to The Daily Show’s great series of comedic "ambush interviews" in New Hampshire, Mo Rocca and Steve Carrel asking off-kilter questions with a vicious deadpan. The fact that McCain got the freakin’ joke and was willing to laugh about it, on TV, in the most stressful political crucible known to man, humanized him and made him a likable Republican.

Last night Barack Obama made his first – but probably not his last – appearance on The Daily Show. I’ll spare you the play-by-play – it’s pretty adequately covered elsewhere. But this was Barack’s debut to The Daily Show’s highly net literate, college educated, pot smoking audience, and I’d have to say he killed. More postflip.

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Wednesday August 08, 2007 · 9:36 AM PDT

2007/08/08 · 09:36

Okay, there’s a lot of pandering to special interest voting blocs in the presidential race, and I appreciate that. But there are also voting blocs that don’t get pandered to enough, and there are some seriously potent opportunities for an enterprising candidate to claim a few percentage points by doing so.

When the GOP really messes something up because of its own pandering, a wise candidate should jump all over it. And the GOP did just that when, just before the last Congressional session ended, it effectively outlawed internet gambling. The move was largely to appease an uneasy Evangelical base that saw most of its pet issues – abortion, gay marriage, etc. – going nowhere. Since casinos tend to be heavy contributors of the GOP (Just ask Jack Abramoff) and they didn’t like the competition, the GOP figured that they could kill two birds with one stone by outlawing the transfer of money for gambling through US banks. Mumble something about funding terrorism and the children. It was an afterthought, a coda of legislation. Blatant pandering to the base.

Poll

26 votes Show Results

Should the Democratic Party support the legalization of Internet gambling?

26 votes Vote Now!

Should the Democratic Party support the legalization of Internet gambling?

Yes

16 votes

8 votes

Shut up and call if you don't love money.

2 votes

It Only Takes One Chickenhawk

SicPlurisPoenaPrestantia

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Thursday August 02, 2007 · 4:33 PM PDT

2007/08/02 · 16:33

While listening to the testimony, or lack thereof, from GOP Bright Young Man J. Scott Jennings, a 29 year old junior assistant toady in the Imperium, it occurred to me that it would only take one Imperium staffer to realize what a historic place he or she would have in history, if they were to ignore Bush’s claim of Executive Privilege and testified, truthfully and under oath, to Congress as to what, where, when, why, and how. They would be forever hailed as the patriot who began the dismantlement of the Imperial Presidency.

The Imperium chooses its toadies carefully, not emphasizing, oh, I don’t know, maybe competence as a major factor in hiring, but certainly loyalty. And that has, thus far, paid off. Claims of executive privilege and out-right stonewalling have kept the Congress at bay from looking into Bush’s underwear drawer. But the pressure is mounting, now. Contempt charges are beginning to fly. And if the threat of Bush’s "displeasure" are serious deterrents to truthful Congressional testimony, then that must be weighed, in their frightened little minds, against the idea of someday facing real Congressional wrath, up to and including multiple felony counts.

It would only take one. More on the flip.

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HRC: Offering Solutions . . . ten years too late.

Anatomy of an Obama Dad

Mark Penn take note: Here come the Obama Dads

It's On Like A Pot Of Neckbones!

An Uncomfortable Exit Interview

The Gang Who Couldn't Spin Straight

Boomers: We don't like Hillary. Deal with it.

The View From The Kitchen

Stephen Colbert: The Golden Gadfly

Jon and Barack and Hillary and Oprah

Cheap And Easy Votes

It Only Takes One Chickenhawk