Barack Obama's campaign unveiled its latest attack ad this morning -- a 13-minute "documentary" on John McCain's ties to Charles Keating, the chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Assn. who was charged with fraud, racketeering and conspiracy in the savings-and-loan scandal of the late 1980s.
The ad was rolled out with the same kind of promotional fanfare that you'd expect for the latest indie flick.
Over the weekend, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe introduced a 30-second preview of the film ("Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis") in an e-mail to the campaign's extensive list of supporters. Plouffe urged recipients to forward the e-mail "to everyone you know" and to stay tuned for the premiere of the full spot.
It debuted at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) today on a website specifically created for it.
Production-wise, the spot shows what a campaign awash with money can accomplish these days; it's heads and shoulders above the average political ad (as well as being far more ambitious in length).
Clearly, it was in the works for a while -- and comes now as McCain's campaign over the weekend launched a new effort, assaulting Obama for his ties to Bill Ayers, a founder of the notorious Weather Underground radical group almost 40 years ago.
And then afterward the networks switch to what seems to be a palpably proliferating panoply of pundits who tell us all instantly and precisely who won, who scored and lost points and what it all means for America's future? And they keep consulting open laptops for their perceptive notes and quotes?
And sometimes you wonder who appointed them and what makes them think they know more than you?
Well, maybe they don't. The brilliantly observant folks over at Gizmodo.com were watching CNN's political palaverers, including here on the nearest end the big legal expert Jeffrey Toobin. Here's a photo of the panel during coverage of last Thursday night's vice presidential debate:
But the clever Gizmodo.com folks didn't leave it there. They examined the photo more closely.
To see what they found, click on the "Read more" line below.
Yet another shibboleth-shattering move in this precedent-sitting presidential campaign -- in advance of tonight's vice presidential debate, John McCain's campaign has released a web video that depicts Joe Biden as a master of the inappropriate, off-key comment.
As the game traditionally has been played, McCain surrogates would be front and center, touting his grasp of an array of complex subjects and depicting him as a far superior wordsmith to Sarah Palin -- all in the hopes he falls terribly short.
Instead, we get to watch a Biden blooper tape, culminating with a narrator intoning: "Ready to Gaffe? Yes. Ready to Lead? No."
[UPDATE: Barack Obama aides are adhering to the traditional playbook as tonight's encounter nears. Our colleague James Oliphant, writing for the Swamp, relates that Obama campaign honcho David Plouffe today characterized Palin as "one of the best debaters in American politics."]
Still time to register at Twitter here to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell.
It no doubt comes as a real shock to most Americans that presidential campaigns end up selling stuff to raise money and advertise their brand names.
T-shirts, hats, buttons, stuffed donkeys and elephants, pennants, mugs, books, you name it.
Pretty soon, we expect some kind of Sarah Palin lipstick button. Former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney even had a political button collection, one for all 50 states (Alabamans for Romney, etc.), that some of us button collectors wished we'd bought.
Which is interesting from a kitsch point of view.
But what our clever website buddy Paul Olund did was wade through all the advertising for this stuff and create a tag cloud, which allows us to see word patterns otherwise hidden.
What themes, for instance, does the John McCain campaign add to its merchandise to help sell its message? What themes does Barack Obamause?
Obviously, the top candidate's name is most used. But you might be surprised to see what various themes emerge from each campaign. Go here and check out Paul's good work.
Now we know the real reason Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain doesn't do e-mails. Who wants their stupid personal messages plastered all over the World Wide Web? :-(
Overnight, his GOP vice presidential running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had her private e-mail account hacked into and a couple of her messages and family photographs published online.
In fact, if you sent a message to gov.sarah@yahoo.com recently, there's a chance it too will soon show up online. Although that account has now been deactivated.
Someone hacked into that private account Wednesday morning, found 84 unread messages (Gee, wonder why she hasn't been keeping the account up to date these last 17 days) and published two fairly innocuous ones online.
Quickly, someone changed the account's password and closed the account off. The McCain campaign denounced the break-in as an invasion of privacy, and the FBI and Secret Service, now responsible for her protection, are on the case.
The Ticket hacked into David Sarno's blog over at Web Scout and found he has the full story here. Mark Silva at the Swamp has a different version here that examines the political possibilities of using a private e-mail account for official state business.
(UPDATE: An updated paragraph citing McCain learning computer skills is appended below.)
As part of its effort to show the 72-year-old Republican Sen. John McCain as old and out of touch, the Democratic Party's hip campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, which frequently says it honors the former POW's military service to his country, Friday released a new ad.
As noted Friday by our blogging colleagues over at the Technology blog here, the ad says, among other things: "1982, John McCain goes to Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't.
"He admits he doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail."
Here's the ad. Listen for yourself.
Like many of his generation, McCain does not like to talk details a lot about his wartime experiences, certainly not about any lingering physical symptoms. To be honest, it could sound like complaining and, as he's ruefully noted, unlike many others, McCain did come home.
The former pilot does joke sometimes about flying his plane into a telephone-pole-sized North Vietnamese missile.
Last week in his speech to the Republican National Convention, McCain opened up more than usual, mentioning his two broken arms and broken leg from ejecting over Hanoi, and his 66 months of imprisonment and torture, calling it simply working him over.
But something he did not go into in that speech were ...
If you know a little something about online social network sites -- Facebook, MySpace, Fark, Digg, Twitter, etc. -- you'll want to jump right over our Mark Milian's item on how they are shaping and being used by politics and politicians these days.
And as soon as we punch the button to post this item, it too will make its way on to some of those sites. To find out how to enroll in The Ticket's Twitter, see below.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Join those receiving every Ticket item -- plus special offline tweets from The Ticket's writers -- sent directly to your cellphone. To register for free instant Twitter updates from The Ticket, go here to "follow" us.
Along with the thousands of Democrats pouring into Denver in preparation for the Democratic National Convention, there will also be a few cows. No, Elsie isn't on the Democratic ticket (yet). These cows are much more technological -- they're cell sites on wheels, also known as COWs.
Wireless providers have spent months ensuring their networks can handle the sudden flood of calls and text messages that'll be made during the Democratic convention, which began today in Denver, and the Republican National Convention, which begins next Monday in St. Paul, Minn. That includes bringing in COWs and COLTs (cell sites on light trucks), which cost around $20,000 each to deploy.
"We're looking at the largest amount of data and traffic to cross our wireless network of any event to date," said Jace Barbin, general manager of AT&T for the Rocky Mountain region. Our co-blogger Alana Semuels over at the Technology blog has much more details on this behind-the-scenes development.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Photo of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Baltimore Sun
And just a reminder that you can join the growing throngs preparing for the rest of this political season and beyond by having every Ticket item -- plus special offline Tweets from The Ticket's writers starting with the party conventions -- sent directly to your cellphone.
Our friends over at the LATimes.com Technology blog aren't wasting their time speculating about when the announcement will be made or what its message will be.
Instead, Jim Puzzanghera has an interesting analysis of what the text message/e-mail strategy says about Obama's campaign.
Puzzanghera points out that that the tactic will make supporters feel like they're an integral part of the campaign -- and, perhaps more importantly, create a database of mobile users for future campaign communications. (In other words, if you've signed up for the VP notification service, don't be surprised to receive a text from the Obama campaign on Nov. 4 reminding you to vote. And no doubt several money appeals in the meantime.)
We've said before that Obama is technology savvy. And as Puzzanghera also points out, new data from Nielsen released today confirms that the Illinois senator has been generating more online buzz than his opponent, John McCain.
According to the date, there were 3.3 million unique visitors to BarackObama.com in July, compared with 1.6 million unique to JohnMcCain.com. But McCain picked up some ground there, gaining 353,000 unique visitors in the month, compared with 239,000 by the Obama site.
The place where McCain gained ground was website video streams. Total streams viewed on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled in July to 1.01 million.
Hmm, could those numbers have anything to do with McCain's controversial ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?
-- Kate Linthicum
Photos: Barack Obama holds his BlackBerry in St. Louis last month, before a conference call with supporters. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press
Another day, another John McCain Web ad that depicts Barack Obama as an air-headed creation of celebrity culture.
References and images include Elvis, The Beatles, Bono, Wayne and Garth (of "Saturday Night Live" fame) and, most improbably, a Taco Bell (!).
[UPDATE: The use of Wayne and Garth -- the two stoner characters memorably etched by Michael Myers and Dana Carvey -- came to the attention of copyright lawyers and led to a slight re-editing of the spot, as The Times' Dan Morian relates here.]
Most controversially, the spot features one young woman complimenting Obama's "aura," and a second young woman singling out his "very soft eyes" for praise. And then there's a fellow saying of the 47-year-old U.S. senator and father of two who defied long odds to emerge as one of the two main contenders for the most powerful office in the world: "Hot chicks dig Obama."
The ad begins with an excited narrator saying: "You've seen him in London, Paris and Berlin. Now you, too, can join 'The One's' fan club in America."
Later, the narrator cheerily asserts: "We know he doesn't have much experience. And isn't ready to lead. But that doesn't mean he isn't dreamy."
McCain surrogates will light-heartedly defend the ad as simply another effort to inject humor into the serious business of running for the White House.
Others will wonder how much more demeaning the McCain camp can get toward its rival -- and whether the Democrat and his aides will figure out a way to effectively counter the ongoing assault.
The new ad surfaces on the same day that Mark Penn -- unabashedly continuing to offer his insights at Politico.com after helping guide Hillary Clinton from frontrunner in the Democratic race to also-ran -- gives his professional blessing to the much-discussed McCain "Celebrity" ad that linked Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
Writes Penn: "Clever negative advertising works. That is reality."
So have you been sitting in your living room watching TV and rolling your eyes at the political ads and thinking, "my daughter's hamster could do a better job?"
Yeah, we know. We read the blog comments sections, too. There are a lot of experts out there.
Well, the folks at You2Gov.com are giving you armchair communications directors a shot at doing your own ad. Though, frankly, the name they conjured up for their contest makes us wonder about their own marketing acumen: "The You2Gov $1,000 Cash Contest for Best 30 Second TV Commercial for Each Major Party Presidential Candidate!" Not exactly "The quicker picker upper" of slogans, you know?
But the contest itself could be fun. The deal is you create a 30-second ad for either John McCain or Barack Obama -- or one for each if you're feeling ambitious -- and upload it to YouTube then submit the link at You2Gov's site by Sept. 30. Registered users of the political social-networking site get to vote but "an impartial panel of experts" will decide the winner (think: Supreme Court, 2000 presidential election).
Oh, and according to You2Gov, it is a two-party system. They say you can make ads for McCain or Obama, but they leave out Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and other third-party types. Which is too bad -- a few of Ron Paul's backers came up with some pretty clever ads on their own.
Winners get $1,000. And remember, the idea is to make ads for a candidate, not against one. Let's not go negative, people -- leave that for the experts.
Hillary Clinton, slowly ramping up her public presence following her loss in the Democratic presidential race, fielded questions today in the Web chat she had promised, but revealed little about what was most on the mind of political observers -- the role she and her supporters will play at the party's upcoming nominating convention.
More revealing, by far, were the comments posted by Clinton enthusiasts as the chat unfolded.
Many said they would like to see her name placed in nomination at the convention -- a potentially discordant note at a confab whose main goal will be to promote party harmony for presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
Other questions typed in to Clinton made clear that some of her backers have come to terms with her defeat.
Clinton hit the expected chords in her responses to the 12 questions she fielded.
Do you really want Obama to become president, one person asked, or “are you just saying what you have to?’’
Clinton replied: “ I am completely committed to helping Sen. Obama become the next president of the United States and urging all of you to do the same.’’
Still, she was noncommittal when asked about the prospect of her name being placed in nomination. Some of her supporters want to see that happen, as a show of respect for her year-and-a-half-long campaign.
Clinton wrote: “Sen. Obama and I share the goal of ensuring that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected. I want to assure everyone we are working together with Sen. Obama's campaign and the [Democratic National Committee], and I am confident we will have a successful and unified Convention in Denver.’’
The comments appended by participants were not so circumspect.
Now that it's beginning to look like this Internet thing is going to be around for a while, the Commission on Presidential Debates has decided to try out one of these newfangled online thingies called MySpace.
The commission was formed in 1987 to organize the candidates' verbal faceoffs every four years. The commission is composed of such political relics as former Sen. Alan Simpson and Newton Minow, who worked for the last sitting senator to win the presidency, John F. Kennedy, back about the time this Obama fellow was being born.
Never exactly cutting edge, the commission announced Wednesday a partnership with MySpace. How it works is MySpace will do something called live-streaming of the debates, starting Sept. 26.
It's really amazing. You can actually watch the debates on a computer screen at the very same time as millions of other people are watching on the four broadcast television networks. No, really.
"We get blamed by people for being Neanderthals," said Janet Brown, the commission's executive director. "But just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to include it in the debates."
Which is probably why the commission does not yet have any of those video kind of screen jobs of historic debate moments that you can watch on its website. That'll likely take another 21 years to evaluate.
But they do use microphones now.
Our LATimes.com blogging buddy Jim Puzzanghera has the incredible full story over here on the Technology blog. Will somebody please show the commission members how to click on the link and go there?
Ostensibly, it's part of her ongoing effort to stay in touch with her backers and hear of their concerns.
But as she notes at the start on the video promoting the online chat, there remains that little matter of retiring the hefty campaign debt she incurred in falling from the frontrunner's perch in the Democratic presidential race and ending up an also-ran to Obama.
She offered thanks in today's message to those who have contributed money that helps, as she put it, "pay the small vendors" for services rendered to her campaign.
No mention, of course, of the big vendor whose bill represents a significant chunk of the debt -- Mark Penn, who fresh from helping derail Clinton's White House run has been dispensing occasional wisdom at Politico.com.
She does mention Obama -- once, and with emphasis. She applauds efforts to "work together" to elect him "so we will be able to fulfill the goals we care so deeply about" (universal healthcare prime among them although, as she stressed during their marathon primary battle, his plan on that issue is not near as sweeping as hers).
You have to admire a skewer well-plunged, and this is one is. Combining a little mockery of Barack Obama's social networking success, the huge success of Facebook, and a lovely eye for satire, the Republican National Committee (at least, it looks like they're behind it) has put up BarackBook.com. (With a hat tip to Michael Turk over at techPresident.com).
Maybe the move by a company that's worked closely with the former first lady is just what it seems: yet another step by Hillary Rodham Clinton to prepare for another run for the Senate from New York in four years. Or another run for the White House. We won't know, of course, for some time.
But that comes with the news, as reported in The Ticket early the other morning, that Clinton has urgently requested her 2008 general election supporters to approve transfer of their unusable donations for this year's presidential race over to her 2012 Senate campaign.
(And then, potentially, into a new presidential campaign fund, as she did with $10 million of her surplus 2006 Senate campaign funds).
If this year's donors don't approve that transfer soon, Clinton must return the '08 money by Aug. 28.
The respected blogger Marc Ambinder of TheAtlantic.com is reporting tonight that a company associated with Clinton's top advance team leaders, the Markham Group, purchased that domain name on June 8.
June 8th? Why does that ring a bell? Why, that's the very next day after her "I-give-up-and-heartily-support Obama" speech where her family was dressed for a funeral.
Clinton sources told Ambinder the New York senator was committed to helping elect Obama on Nov. 4, but she wanted to keep her options open for later. Imagine that in a seasoned politician.
Come 2012 Clinton would have to choose which race she'd enter. Two years ago in her first Senate reelection bid, her main website was HillaryClinton.com, which she still has. Plus HillPac.com for her political action committee and another one for her '08 campaign debt donations.
So why would she need another website with 2012 in it, unless.... Her disappointed presidential campaign supporters may take heart. But will they still help elect another Democrat this November? Or sit it out and let '12 fall to her?
We are just six weeks out from Clinton's '08 surrender to Barack Obama. And, surely, everyone knows exactly what that means: only 223 weeks left until the 2012 election.
A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.
The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared. John McCain and Obama have been going at it heavily in recent days over the benefits of the surge.
The Arizona senator, who advocated the surge for years before the Bush administration employed it, says the resulting reduction in violence is proof it worked with progress on 15 of 18 political benchmarks and Obama's plan to withdraw troops by now would have resulted in surrender.
When President Bush ordered the surge in January 2007, Obama said: "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse," a position he maintained throughout 2007. This year he acknowledged progress, but maintained his position that political progress was lacking.
Tuesday, while Obama gave a speech on foreign policy, the New York Daily News was the first to notice the removal of parts of Obama's campaign site listing the Iraq troop surge as part of "The Problem." An Obama spokeswoman said it was just part of an "update" to "reflect changes in current events," as our colleague Frank James notes in the Swamp. The update includes a new section on the rise of Al Qaeda violence in Afghanistan.
But some might see the updating as part of Obama's skip to the political center now that he's secured the Democratic nomination. "Today," McCain said Tuesday, "we know Sen. Obama was wrong" to oppose the troop surge.
An old quote of Obama's criticizing the "rash war," which helped him with the left wing of his party and helped differentiate his stand from that of Sen. Hillary Clinton, a primary opponent who voted for the use of force in Iraq, has been replaced on his site by one saying that ending the Iraq war will make America safer. That's more of a general election message.
And hat tip to the folks over at the Wake Up America blog for their continuing trenchant analyses of the summer campaigns in general and, specifically, for highlighting the video below that contrasts Obama's pre-surge position with a more recent interview of David Axelrod, his chief campaign strategist, denying Obama's statements. A reminder of how carefully voters must listen during these last four campaign months.
And, yes, we know Rep. Ron Paul isn't going to be anybody's nominee. But he could be.
We are sincerely indebted to loyal Ticket reader Travis for this morning's week-ending chuckle.
He found a website that lets you nominate anyone for president (insert name here) and incorporates their name in a most realistic TV news video report.
You can see how ridiculous the site is by watching this version -- before you start pranking family and friends. (It might take a minute or so to load if busy.)
And thanks again to Travis. If anybody else comes across good/fun/unusual political sites, just send them to The Ticket please. We might highlight yours.
To be sure, no politician goes online like normal people, not unless he/she wants those candid opinions published somewhere or subpoenaed by somebody else.
So it's not surprising that GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain claims to be computer illiterate. When George W. Bush entered the White House, he stopped e-mailing his brother Jeb for the same reasons.
What's a little unusual is that one of the country's most tech-savvy women, Carly Fiorina, is touting McCain's economic plans as tech-savvy and tech-friendly. Fiorina, who used to head Hewlett-Packard, has emerged as a prominent surrogate spokeswoman for the Arizona senator.
She says it matters not whether the former fighter pilot is on IM or Twitter. It's his broad, thoughtful economic and tax plans that are good for the tech world.
Our colleagues over on the Technology blog have the full story.
So, you want to know where John McCain and Barack Obama have been on the campaign trail? Where they've been in their lives? Google has a new toy tool that lets political junkies get cartographic.
Our colleagues over on the Technology blog have the details and a deeper explanation of Google's intent to have people adapt the tool for their own uses.
But there already are a lot of different ways to play with it. This, for instance, shows you the McCain and Obama campaign trails. This is a "bio map" of McCain, and this is of Obama. The Twitterati have got one going. So far, nada for tracking delivery of late-night pizza to various campaign headquarters, or kitchens where couples are arguing Obama versus McCain. But you just know that's coming sometime.
A personal favorite: Huffington Post's fundraising map. See if you can spot yourselves in there.
It's Friday, and we have made it our mission to find something with which you can waste valuable work time. Thank you, John McCain Web folks, for supplying it.
Great news for political junkies! PBS is gonna broadcast gavel-to-gavel television coverage of both parties' national conventions this summer.
Years ago the commercial broadcast networks stopped their blanket coverage. The inner, internecine workings of democracy are not boffo broadcast. Scenes of people in funny hats and long-winded politicians just can't compete against episodes of "Lost" and correspondent and technician overtime at such affairs can cut into profits.
But PBS says it will carry live coverage of all the proceedings:
This summer's national political conventions take place (Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO; August 25 to 28; Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN; September 1 to 4), The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will produce 24+ hours of live.
Prime time coverage to be broadcast in high-definition nationwide on PBS. These eight nights of convention coverage will be the only complete broadcast coverage made available by a U.S. broadcast television network.
The PBS coverage will be anchored by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," from sky boxes overlooking the podiums in both convention halls. Lehrer will be joined by, among others, NewsHour senior correspondents Gwen Ifill, Ray Suarez, Judy Woodruff and Margaret Warner.
Political analysis will be provided by New York Times columnist David Brooks; syndicated columnist Mark Shields. Presidential historians Michael Beschloss and Richard Norton Smith will add historical perspective and Andy Kohut, President of the Pew Research Center, will update viewers with the latest polling information.
In a recent story, Politico.com noted even though the commercial networks don't plan on doing much coverage, what they do will look good since, like PBS, they'll all be broadcasting in high definition.
And like PBS, the other networks will be using the Internet to carry coverage not provided over the air.
Even though the commercial networks have cut way back, you get the sense they still want some props for what they're doing, based on a quote from ABC News Vice President Bob Murphy in the Politico.com story:
"If we covered conventions for ratings, we would have gotten out of the business a long time ago," Murphy said.
Good thing there are round-the-clock blogs like this one.
--Frank James
Frank James writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau. Photo Credit: PBS
On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.
Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.
Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.
In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.
His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.
His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.
Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."
Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.
The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.
The Washington Times on Sunday teased a recent interview some of its staff had with Tom DeLay with a short story reporting that the conservative firebrand is having no success persuading his wife to back presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Christine DeLay, the once all-powerful House majority leader from Texas told the newspaper, is planning to vote for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.
Today, the Times gets to the guts of DeLay's comments: His dire view of what looms for the GOP, at least in the near term.
The core problem, in DeLay's view, is that in the age of the Internet, Democrats have adapted more adroitly than Republicans to tapping into the power of independent groups who share their philosophy but don't want to be part of a traditional party structure (think MoveOn.org).
"People out there that are making decisions are not focusing, in my opinion, on what it's going to take to rebuild the conservative movement and rebuild the Republican Party. They're living with 10-, 15-year-old technology. They still believe if you raise enough money, go on television enough, you're going to win. Those days are over," DeLay says in the story (which can be read in full here.)
By now you've all likely seen the "God sent Hitler" video that went viral and led John McCain to reject the support of the Rev. John Hagee, who had already sparked a massive controversy over his comments about the Catholic Church.
None of these videos that go viral crop up organically -- a little virtual rain, some virtual sun and voila! the seed germinates. The guy behind the dissemination of the Hagee video is named Bruce Wilson, and the folks at techPresident link up to his explanation of what happened, and when.
Reading it is a bit like watching sausage getting made, but for those with more than a basic consumer's interest in how some of this stuff works, it makes for interesting reading.
Mark Glaser is a veteran journalist who writes a regular column called "MediaShift" on the digital media revolution for PBS.org He's also a very handsome fellow, as you can see.
Glaser is a recognized expert on the rapid and bewildering changes that are revolutionizing the media world that we all consume and rely on and criticize and that is so vital for the proper functioning of a democracy.
This month Glaser chose to write his column about The Ticket. So he's obviously a loyal Ticket reader. Here's a snippet of the interview with Andrew:
This was spring of last year, and they asked how I saw the blog developing. Well we had to be different. I asked myself: What do I enjoy about being online? If you distill it down, what I liked about being online was it was like beachcombing. You never know what you’ll find. And that’s the opposite of what newspapers have tried to do over the years. You’ve got the most important story in the upper right, and you’ll have a picture here above the fold and it’s less important as you go down the page. [The newspaper] is directly contradictory of what the new experience is where I’m in control and I’ll go where I want. There are no lane markers, you can jump to wherever you want and do what you want.
Unpredictability was at the top of my list. And we had to be pretty well informed and well written, and Don and I had done a lot of that. And I liked the idea of having it run around the clock because a lot of blogs shut down at night. The first thing I wrote, I said we wanted this to be a dialogue, and sometimes I’ll go in and put comments on other people’s comments. Then we’ll have a discussion with others commenting, and I find that to be exciting. It’s like a conversation, imagine that.
For those interested in learning more about that media topic in general and this blog in particular, that column and his columns are available by clicking here.
On any sane politician's don't-do list, being photographed with a porn star ranks right up there with crossing state lines for a rendezvous with a high-priced prostitute.
So with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's career-ending sexcapade fresh in everyone's memory, it was no surprise that there wasn't a member of Congress to be found when adult-film performer Stormy Daniels (at right, photographed at the Grammy Awards earlier this year) appeared in Washington on Thursday.
Although she came to the nation's capital to highlight the adult entertainment industry's efforts to protect children from inappropriate online content (e.g., the stuff the industry produces), and lawmakers love to tout anything that helps keep kids safe when surfing the Internet, appearing with Daniels at the National Press Club was rated NC-17, as in: No Chance a politician would get within 17 miles of it.
Daniels was showing off, as it were, two new public service announcements for the industry's Restricted to Adults website label. Unveiled last year by the Assn. of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) -- a group largely funded by the adult entertainment industry -- the label tags sites as inappropriate for anyone under 18 years old, allowing them to be blocked by filtering software.
"I do not want children viewing my site or adult-only content,'' said Daniels, who for this occasion was dressed like a politician ...
This could be the ultimate merger of politics, the Web and entertainment. The Republican National Convention and John McCain's campaign have teamed up to solicit user videos of "someone in your neighborhood who goes above and beyond the call of duty to serve what Sen. McCain calls, 'a cause greater than their own self-interest.'" Then viewers get to vote on the best submission. The winner gets a pass to the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Of course, the devil is in the details. When you look at the FAQs, the convention staff winnows down the submissions to five finalists, and then they'll open it up to a vote. Kind of like a private primary by the insiders to winnow down the list of acceptable candidates (now, that's democracy). So you can probably write off any chance of a talking snowman making the cut.
Still, the Republicans have generally lagged behind the Democrats in Web innovation. This might catch them up a bit. Meanwhile, we'll be watching for the Paulista backlash. Ron Paul's supporters have proven themselves to be adept at both the Web, and videos. And since they're still fighting for a bigger place at the St. Paul table, you can bet they'll be submitting.
And you can also bet that if they don't make the "final five," they'll be flaming (read any comments section on a blog post about Paul).
Based on the presentations (and presenters) at the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in New Haven, Conn., today, one could easily conclude that the two leading presidential candidates had taken the roles of the two guys in the Apple commercials.
Both Republican John McCainand Democrat Barack Obama sent surrogates to the confab. For Obama, it was Daniel J. Weitzner, far right in photo, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is a member of the campaign's technology, media and telecommunications committee. Weitzner, who helped draft the campaign's tech policy positions, looked Steve Jobs-cool in his light tan blazer and open-collared pink shirt. And he had his Mac laptop with him on the lectern.
Carrying water for McCain was campaign special counsel Chuck Fish, far left. An intellectual property lawyer by trade, he took a more buttoned-down, corporate approach: dark gray suit, white shirt and tie. And no obvious sign of any Apple products.
Sometime around 5 p.m. EDT today, watch for a little bit of Web and White House history: President Bush's first interview conducted only with online organizations.
Mike Allen of Politico.com will be questioning the president for the online and ink-on-paper outlet, as well as Yahoo.com. A video crew will record the roughly 20-minute session in the Roosevelt Room at midday for posting about five hours later, just as the president is scheduled to leave Washington to begin a five-day Middle East trip.
Is it a big deal? Not in the format.
"It's just like any other interview," Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said.
And Allen, per usual, will offer up a story on the talk. But the online sites also will provide access to the full, unedited video, along with sections parceled out on different topics.
For Allen, Politico.com's chief political writer, the interview will be much like any other --except it will be conducted in front of a video camera.
This being L.A., a suburb of Hollywood, we thought it worth nothing that Spike Lee has some opinions of the Clintons, which he'll be discussing tonight on Bloomberg TV's "Night Talk" at 10 p.m. Eastern (and yes, we know Lee is a New Yorker, but still, it's the movies).
Lee, a former Bill Clinton supporter, has slapped the Clintons around before, but the release pushing tonight's interview sounds like it might be worth checking even if just for giggles' sake (also on podcast for you tech-savvy folks).
During the interview Spike talks about why he no longer supports Sen. Clinton in the Presidential campaign, "if you know anything about the Clintons and what they've done in politics, they are gonna knock out some kneecaps." He said Bill Clinton has been "playing his whole thing like he is the great white father." "I think that they thought this thing was going to be over Super Tuesday, and Obama's a nice young guy, but they didn’t see him as a threat, but when things started to play out the way they did, then they saw their whole thing was in jeopardy, and that’s when he isn’t just the nice young little guy anymore ... he's our blood enemy -- and then that's when you start to see the things come out the side of President Clinton's neck, comments he meant in South Carolina."
Well, that should add to the calm and dignified political discourse of the campaign, no?
Among the most common sights on Capitol Hill are congressional aides, lobbyists and reporters, heads tilted down as they thumb-scroll through the e-mails on their BlackBerrys or frenetically thumb-type messages.
Obviously, the wondrous and devilish devices are not confined to the nation's political capital. It wouldn't surprise anyone, however, if the little devices were first called "crackberries" in D.C. because of the early addiction folks had to them.
But after reading a story on Politico.com, we're feeling less inclined to poke fun at the capital's BlackBerry fetish. It turns out a BlackBerry can double as a sort of OnStar service to summon help in a time of need.
Herman Wang, Washington reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, was an apparent victim of a terrifying home invasion at his house on Capitol Hill. The bad guy bound and gagged him, actually stuck a sock in his mouth. So that's not just a saying.
Before the bandit left with Wang's cellphone and laptop, he indicated an accomplice was on the way. Wang was able to get the cords off his hands and thought, who would have a BlackBerry always handy? A Capitol Hill staffer, of course.
By using his wife's computer, which the thug hadn't taken, he e-mailed an SOS to Lee Pitts, who is press secretary to Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
Pitts must be one of those congressional aides who's constantly reading his BlackBerry. He read Wang's note within a minute and immediately called 911. The police arrived within minutes.
The moral of this story, of course, is to keep those BlackBerrys charged, if not for yourself then for a reporter you don't know from some newspaper in Tennessee.
-- Frank James
Frank James writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau.
The power of suggestion combined with the power of the Internet is an awesome phenomenon to behold, as illustrated most vividly over the last couple of days by the saga of the reflection in Dick Cheney's sunglasses.
The Ticket, foolishly preoccupied with other matters, comes late to this, but as virtually every Web-surfer knows, a photo that had been posted on the White House Web of the vice president fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho, apparently a few years ago, has become a sensation. And it's not because we've become a nation of avid anglers.
No, the reason is that a blog posting earlier this week postulated that upon intense inspection, the reflection in Cheney's trademark sunglasses revealed (pardon us) a NAKED LADY. And that was all it took to generate an extraordinary buzz.
As of a few minutes ago, a Google search of "Dick Cheney" and "sunglasses" came back with more than 87,000 hits. The 100,000 mark is sure to be breached soon.
Times reporter James Hohmann this afternoon tracked down Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride, traveling with the vice president on fundraising stops he's making in Colorado and California. She reiterated what other White House staffers have had to spend time explaining -- upon close examination, it's clear the reflection simply caught the vice president in the act of casting a rod.
"He’s fly fishing," she said, understandably a bit exasperated. "That’s what he’s doing."
And no, she added, there were no naked ladies in the vicinity.
Readers, as always, are invited to comment -- give us your reflections on the reflection.
-- Don Frederick
Photo: David Bohrer / The White House via Associated Press
Any Westerner who's lived in Asia is not surprised to see people wearing T-shirts with Abraham Lincoln's visage and the English characters spelling "Rinconil's Birthday." Or the "Hello Have a Happy Weather" beauty salon.
So it probably shouldn't be too surprising -- just a little weird -- that a Chinese search engine and online marketing website named Baidu this week chose none other than the American presidential candidate Barack Obama to grace its homepage this week for a while.
He looks a lot smaller in Chinese though, kind of cute, a little grinning cartoon Obama standing next to what's described as "a dapper donkey."
Obama is waving a net or blanket and looks to be about to cover up the Chinese characters for Baidu. Of course.
We heard him say the part about unilateral bombing of parts of our ally Pakistan, but we missed the ceremonial covering of Chinese characters plank in his platform.
According to an explanation, Obama is the sixth personality to grace the Beijing-based Baidu logo since November and the very first foreigner. Others included Hong Kong entertainers and some survivors of a large snowstorm somewhere. Pretty elite company.
And, it should be pointed out, avoid federal spending limits.
The folks at VoterVoter.com have gone live with a website that lets you upload your own ad for a candidate or a cause, or to chip in money to buy airtime to place an already existing ad. You can even target where it will air, giving you a chance to break into that Jamestown, N.D., market.
VoterVoter.com is nonpartisan and for-profit. It's a subsidiary of WideOrbit Inc., whose investors include the Hearst Corp., which means a media company has a stake in a web company that
lets people buy air time through media companies. Which is vaguely reminiscent of all those X and Y physical characteristics charts from high school biology.
But we digress. VoterVoter.com takes a 15% cut of the air time purchase for placing the ads, so getting your voice heard out there in the chorus of democracy isn't cheap. But then, you knew that.
Some of you may be just recovering from the terror that struck deep into your heart upon seeing the recent Hillary Clinton TV ad about the 3 a.m. call to the White House maybe possibly who can tell concerning some awful crisis while your innocent little children sleep peacefully in their beds -- unless perhaps the wrong person, say a maid who doesn't speak English, picks up that White House phone.
Hillary looked really well-dressed to be answering the phone at 3 a.m. But those Clintons are known for late-night doings. Still, that ad was credited with helping her win the popular Democratic primary votes in Texas and Ohio because it raised latent questions about Barack Obama's experience in handling a national crisis, although he's got two little girls of his own.
We've previously mentioned here that ad sparked a series of spoofs, probably the highest credit something can earn in today's popular culture. And that Casey Knowles, the little girl in that stock footage filmed eight years ago for a railroad company, isn't so little anymore. Actually, she'll be old enough to vote this fall and plans to do so for someone named Barack Obama, if he makes it that far.
