I’m not sure whether this is supposed to be funny or not.
I’ll let you make your own judgements.
Sun 29 Oct 2006
Sun 22 Oct 2006
I’ve just started The Way to Win by Mark Halperin, the journalist whose early morning rigor allows me to read all the significant political news by 11 AM.
I thought, with the current elections basically over, this is the perfect time to begin looking forward to 2008. Within the first 100 pages, The Way to Win posits that without the approval of the Gang of 500 early on, a candidate will never gain the momentum necessary to win. In what the author refers to as the “Profile Primary” candidates are given sprawling 4000 word biography pieces that while of little interest to voters, are of tremendous interest to reporters and consultants who end up shaping public opinion among the early adopters of political cycles. I digress. Suffice to say, important stuff.
So we’re left with a few simple rules, I’ll submit a few for any readers with political aspirations.
Visit a supermarket in an average-sized Midwestern city. Check the prices of a gallon of milk, a package of diapers, a box of cereal, and a six-pack of beer. Memorize them.
As a side note, for gubernatorial candidates, if you’ve held the job of Education Commissioner, and build your platform around the FCAT, it pays to know a little bit about the test.
Thu 19 Oct 2006
MySpace was popular for all of 30 microseconds before politicians and political strategists thought of using it for political gain. After all, it is part of the job of a good politician to have a giant social network for good constituent relations. In other words, a good candidate for public office knows you, and wants to meet your friends and family (and beg for money, but that’s beside the point)
My point is that MySpace was never designed for this. Most social networking sites were never designed for serious dialog, and MySpace in particular seems to be more of a stealth/viral marketing engine for the 15-35 demographic than anything else.
Well, there is now something designed for the politicians who want to reach a large constituency and the citizens who want to reach policymakers without the intervention of special interest groups. It’s social networking for the group of people known as Opinion Drivers or Influencers. Not sure if you’re an Opinion Driver? If you have a blog with decent readership, you are.
I’ve talked about this before, only now it’s officially open for discussion. Still sounds promising, check it out at hotsoup.com