Did You Get "Tubed"?!

Submitted to Who-TV, Des Moines Plog.

Did you get “Tubed” on Monday night, July 23, 2007?

I did.

It was inevitable that we would all get politically “Tubed” sooner or later. The YouTube debate in Charleston, South Carolina was a first.

When a “phenom” becomes huge, and it does not get more Gynormous than Google/YouTube, it is inevitable that we try it out on politics. More on this later.

The YouTube event was interesting and it was fun. It was colorful. It was not a debate.

“What you say!?”

That’s correct IT WAS NOT A DEBATE! (Can you hear me now that I’m shouting?).

A debate is “… a process of inquiry and advocacy seeking reasoned judgment on a proposition. Debate allows for two or more sides advocating their positions on a given issues under a set of rules with some kind of judgment to follow from a judge or audience.”

I did not see too many characteristics of a debate on Monday night.

Such as?!

Well, for example Mike Gravel spontaneously catching on fire as he flamed all of his opponents for selling out to big money. That was fun but he does need his medications adjusted.

Most of what happened was not because the questions were video recorded and posted on YouTube as opposed to having the same people ask the same questions in the Citadel auditorium where the event took place.

Most of the interesting stuff happened because when you stick a bunch of presidential wannabes on a stage, things will slip out in unexpected ways – both positive and helpful to candidates and not so good (see Gravel above).

One interesting incident was the question to Senator Clinton on how she would deal with governments where women are not accepted in positions of power and are oppressed such as Muslim countries.

Clinton deftly answered that she has met with many leaders in half of the countries in the world and that she would deal with this issue. The subtext was “If you want to meet me on the street corner tonight I’ll show you how I would deal with these people!”

A second interesting accident happened when a “Tuber” (that’s what we call them even when they are not “… a swollen region of an underground stem or root, usually modified for storing food, such as a potato) asked if Osama Obama would have direct talks with North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Chavez, etc.

Senator Obama said he would. Hillary said she would NOT unless the groundwork had been laid and something significant could come of talking to these Axes of Evil. Edwards said he agreed with Hillary.

That’s why they are ranked Hillary first, Edwards second, and Obama third.

Richardson did a nice job with why we can’t have Starbucks-like, standardized voting systems in every state – except that the real answer is that the US is a FEDERAL system of government so states have a lot of power and we don’t want the failed federal government (think FEMA, US Passport office, Iraq).

The one thing that is just intolerable are the air-heads on CNN who are, - “Oh my GOD, this was so cooeal, like, I LOVED it” – reporters especially the “Internet reporters” who stand in front of a huge plasma screen circling stuff we can’t wee at the receiving end and babbling endlessly about some “stuff” that’s on the new. I guarantee that this is NOT what my students want to see or hear; it is not what smart voters want to see or hear.

Well now that we have been “Tubed” I have some suggestions for CNN.

The next “debate” (NOT!) should be a FaceBook/MySpace debate. We will ask the candidates to post lots of pictures of themselves with their friends late on week end nights at bars and clubs in risqué poses preferably some of them showing their underwear peeking through.

After that I would highly recommend a “breakthrough” debate (NOT!) – a first ever – by having citizens text message (IM’ing) questions directly to each candidate, have CNN cameras hovering over each victim as they try to move their thumbs across the keys and answer in “Text Talk”, abbreviated English – Dennis Kucinich - “U R so rite. I wld pl out of IRQ by Jan. I know how to deal with those 4NR’s arnd the wlrd. Well, BB4N. LOL” (I hear that Apple is already planning an iPhone debate).

Finally, one of my students suggested that we have a “Pres. Candidate. CAN YOU DANCE?!” debate. Each candidate is allowed to choose a partner and do two dance routines – a Salsa/Merengue and a Waltz – and voters choose the winner by voting on-line. After all, these people are going to have to dance with the spouses of foreign leaders at White House receptions and soirees.

I give up!

Why not have “Reality Politics”? - Big Brother, House Guest, Pimp My Candidate (where do-over artists take each candidate and make them have a winning candidate look) and American Idol Candidate .

Oh yeah, by the way, Hillary Clinton won the YouTube show. Again. She can handle any format.

Why so @#$!~%^&*? Much Money?

Bloomberg News recently asked me again about money and presidential politics. Here are some of my thoughts:

Question: Why are candidates spending SO much more money on the 2008 presidential caucus and primary races than in previous cycles?

Answer: This is an unprecedented presidential campaign because (1) it's the first open race (no incumbent President or VP running) since Eisenhower AND (2) there is no inheritor to the Republican party, (3) the Democrats have a political adversary and target whom they dislike (maybe hate) more than any adversary in 100 years so Dems are giving money in astonishing quantities.Another reason for ESS (The Early Spending Syndrome) is that this is the first election in American history that is so front loaded with killer primaries. This means that it is crucial for candidates do well in Iowa and New Hampshire AND SIMULTANEOUSLY be out of the starting gate for the Feb 5 super event.

All of that adds up to pouring money early to position yourself and to basically drown your opponents.

Question: How much cash must a viable contestant have a month or so ahead of the Iowa caucuses?

Answer: You don't need very much money in Iowa anytime in the cycle. The foolish candidates who have spent Gynormous amounts of money by bringing in their full national campaign org and TV ads fired shotgun style at all 3 million Iowan's when all they need to target are the 100 K or so caucus attendees are fools! All you need is a hotel room, a car, and one intern to line up get together's at homes, diners, and county fair's. Then you get all the free media you want. One reason they have been spending like drunken sailor's (especially John McCain!) is that this year they are using Iowa (and New Hampshire) as a megaphone for the entire nation.

In other words, their Iowa spending and Iowa events are really meant to get national media coverage and to get the BIG M - Momentum.

Question: If you were advising candidates, how would you suggest they deal with Florida and the Feb. 5 states in terms of ground operations & media buys?

Answer: Feb 5 is a must do killer day. Candidates need to have full bore operations up and running in all of the big delegate states that have moved primaries up early, long before the Iowa caucuses and the NH Primary.

If they don't they are politically dead!

Poor John McCain!

July 2007.
Plogged (PresidentialBlog @ WHO TV, Des Moines, Iowa

Poor John McCain.

He’s been “overtaken by history”.

What I mean is that he WAS (past tense) the maverick, independent thinking, straight shooting war hero. He had principles and stuck with them and people admired him for saying what he thought was right and they liked it.

The problem is that he is still doing the same thing only now he is sticking with his guns on things that the public generally does not approve of or care about.

McCain-Feingold the campaign finance bill does not get him an ounce of credit. For two reasons.

First, it does not work. Second, the Supreme Court rules parts of it are unconstitutional. Ok, three reasons! The Republicans do not like this bill. So his score on that one is pretty much zero.

Then he jumped on board the derailed Immigration Reform Bill.

Well, need we say more?

The bill was an unenforceable mishmash compromise. (Often a compromise is like an animal designed by a committee!). Moreover, the Republican base hated it. But I repeat myself.

Then there is McCain’s support of the Bush surge in Iraq. Actually, McCain wanted a much bigger surge (probably the correct approach militarily but not politically in 2007). The COUNTRY hates it!

So, contributors have been keeping their hands buried in their pockets and the campaign piggy bank is running dry. Of course, he still has 2 million bucks which in my book is a LOT of money but in 2008 we will have a one BILLION dollar presidential race.

So, with Barak Obama raising over $30 million in the second quarter, Romeny in the money, Senator McCain appears to be headed for then political poor house and has fired a large percentage of his staff.

Some people say there is too much money in politics but I say that his overspending on campaign expenses and staff shows he is not a very smart money manager. I mean, would he spend tax money that way?

Also, I know for a fact that money contributions are a valid and important measure of confidence in a candidate.

The several Presidential “stock markets” (including a very good one at the U of Iowa) have been very active predictors of political success.

So, poor McCain lost his shine. He’s lost GOP support. He’s lost the stream of funding.

Very few donors (large or small) want to put their dollar on a guy who has downsized his campaign drastically and who appears to be headed for an early pull-out.

I will not use the word “loser” because McCain is a gentleman and a patriot. I will say that political supporters may not be seeing him anymore as a potential winner and therefore they will invest elsewhere.

Politics is an ever changing and cruel process. You have to always look forward over the horizon or you’ll be run over as he appears to have been.

Poor John McCain. Campaign finace reform only worked for him. He's getting less money to run.