Holiday link dump

I can always tell when a holiday weekend is coming up because hits on Politizine just drop off the face of the earth. I can only assume that people are actually doing something other than looking at blogs. Imagine that. Wow.
For example, over the last 12 hours, the blog has exactly two hits on it and one of those was me. Usually, overnights, I get about 10 and change. Sometimes less, sometimes more. Some of them are overseas folks or night owl political junkies. But when those holiday weekends come, look out. The hits just drop off the face of the earth. And, ya know, that's kind of a good thing. It actually shouldn't be that surprising, especially with summer ending and all.
Since it is the Labor Day weekend, I will be doing the same thing other people seem to be doing: I'm going to be staying away from the computer for a bit. I will probably be back on Monday sometime, when I will be working for at least a few hours. Monday holidays are the worst for the publishing industry because it means you lose one of your key days to get things done.
However, Rory, one of my co-workers, came up with a cool idea: He is going to drive around in the town he covers and find people working on Labor Day. I think I may steal that idea, too, just because the holiday means were a little short on stories for the week [I can almost see the headline: Working on the worker's holiday ...].
So, for your reading pleasure, here is a holiday link dump, essentially sharing some interesting things which I haven't had a chance to post until now. Obviously, if our government attacks Iran or some other strange thing happens, I may jump back on. But for now, spend a few minutes here and then join me in shutting the computer off and living your life for a bit.

Other Smithfield boycotts and protests
This caught my eye while breezing through the Somerville Journal this week: ["Protest centers on Market Basket selling Smithfield products"]. I lived in Somerville for a few years and still like to keep up with what is going on there.
As previously noted, I and others are actively boycotting Smithfield products for other reasons: ["Boycott Smithfield Foods"].
Interestingly, or not so, I never did receive a response from Smithfield after emailing the company's corporate customer service department. I guess they don't really care about how I feel as a customer [or now, former customer, actually]. I mean, not even a form letter? Wow.
Although, they do seem to care about their corporate image: Politizine was visited by both a big law firm based out of Virginia and a corporate branding firm from Wisconsin after I posted the boycott blog entry. The corporate branding firm specifically searched "smithfield foods" on Google's blogsearch and spent just under 8 minutes checking out the site. One of their corporate links states the following: "Managing Issues: Focuses on protecting reputations and managing perceptions." Gee, how about not treating your corporate neighbors like sh*t, literally, for starters? It's interesting that Smithfield can spend time doing this but can't simply respond to my boycott email or spend the money they are spending on lawyers and corporate branding firms to clean up their messes. What backward corporate thinking in this alleged age of corporate enlightenment. Onward.

Campaign 2008
It was only a matter of time: ["Stop Her Now!"].
And, it was only a matter of time: ["Run Ralph, Run!"].
Former President Jimmy Carter gives John Edwards a wink but not a nod: ["Carter embraces Edwards on poverty, environment"].
An interesting dual endorsement here by the machinists: ["Trade unions back Clinton, Huckabee, Edwards"].
The Dems' 1988 nominee wonders about the party's chances: ["Dukakis, Once Burned, Refuses to Be Optimistic About 2008"].
Richardson, Dodd, and Biden sign onto DNC pledge: ["Democratic candidates asked to take primary pledge"].
More "proof" that Bloomberg probably won't run: ["Rather Says Bloomberg Ruled Out White House Bid"].
The Unity 08 group held an online talk about ballot access: ["Chat Transcript"].

Fox attacks Iran
I've never been a big fan of Robert Greenwald ever since I spent money on his "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's war on journalism" DVD and realized that it was full of inaccuracies and half-truths [Plug: I've commended for being one of the only people in the media world to point out these inaccuracies, as noted here: "'Outfoxed' film misfires"]. While it is important to have the Greenwalds of the world out there watching the watchers, they need to get the story right.
However, this clip of compiled comments about the coming war with Iran he has put together is totally hilarious:

Short cuts
* Vince McMahon seems to want to do something about 'roid use in the wrestling world: ["WWE suspends TEN superstars"]. It's about time, frankly, considering all the deaths involved in the wrestling world of late. And, yes, I admit it, I will actually sit and watch wrestling for a bit if I find it out. Since I downsized to the basic cable service to save money, I don't get to watch it much. But, it is fun for a laugh or two. I joke to my wife, who still watches the soap opera she watched as a teen, that wrestling is like a soap opera geared towards males.
* For those of you who follow Boston media, you might be interested in reading this long piece from Boston Magazine: ["...And Now a Few Words from the Hosts"].
* More on the media, this link about the fabulous American Journalism Review: ["Journal's Pains Reflect Media's Malaise"]. This magazine, as well as the Columbia Journalism Review, is a must read and not just for people involved in the profession. However, I will admit that I often don't have time to read through CJR, never mind AJR. For this reason, I have never subscribed to AJR and only usually pick it up when I find it for free. It is work, if you will, to find the time to update yourself about your work! I would add that it is "big journalism" that is a dying format, it seems. Small micro publishers and local blogs are a rapidly growing sector and may be the wave of the future.
* Two important things from Dan Kennedy. First, this column from The Guardian: ["The dogs of war"] and this: ["Robert Dushman"]. Dushman was a stand up guy and I will always be grateful to him for his assistance in getting public documents when I was editor of The Winchester Star. Granted, it was what my company paid him to do. But, he was a great help.
* Lastly, I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago: ["Pentagon Paid $999,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers to Texas"]. So, there is a million dollars for this but not for all kinds of other things which need to get paid for. Unbelievable.

Quiet days

Sorry it has been so quiet out here. I've been busy. However, I did want to post some round ups and some other quick things and then get back to life.
The last week has been a quiet few days for political news, in the wake of John Edwards' announcement and the death of President Gerald Ford. But that probably won't last long. The 2008 presidential race is becoming very interesting to watch with all kinds of candidates sticking their toes in, wondering, What about me?
On the WSJ redesign, I must say that it is really great. While it lopped off an entire column, the color is crisp and the reporting is in-depth and worth reading. It is almost like reading the Sunday New York Times every day. It is that good. I've always been impressed with the articles - that's the reason I started a subscription - but now it is better than ever. Here is what Yahoo! Finance says about it: ["Wall Street Journal Unveils New Design"].

The Internet
A few days ago, Janice - and I believe this is Janice from Area603 but I'm not sure - asked me the following:

What role do you think the internet (especially blogging) will make in the upcoming presidential elections, if anything. Will it be a greater/lesser/same factor as the last election and why?

Good questions. Thank you for them and thank you for reading.
First, the Internet has become a major force in everything we do in our lives, not just elections. From personal communication, to advertising, to how we get news and entertainment, almost everyone and everything is affected by the Internet. The Web will probably continue to be a force to be dealt with on many different levels.
Campaigns need Web sites to communicate with voters. Voters need Web sites to actually find out stuff about candidates since much of the broadcast media doesn't really cover campaigns in-depth anymore. The newspapers continue to do a pretty good job and there are some pretty good political television reporters, like Andy Hiller of WHDH, Jon Keller of WBZ, Joe Battenfeld, a print reporter who I think still works for Fox25, all in Boston, and Scott Spradling of WMUR here in New Hampshire. But everything else is spotty at best. Radio talk shows tend to only have hosts blathering on and on. There are even fewer doing real news in most markets. So the voters have become more reliant on the Web for information.
Whether the Internet will have a greater role than usual, I don't honestly know. There is a burnout factor which I don't think we are all taking into consideration. The Internet could eventually reach a point where it maxes out. In some ways, it already has. Like television, there are too many choices. Our lives are getting busier and busier which means that there is less time for surfing the Web or doing anything else. I think people could get so bombarded by it that they will turn away from it, similar to the way they have turned away from network television. Why watch when you can do? I know that personally, I have turned back to physical newspapers and away from the Web. I like smelling the ink and looking at the way in which ads are laid out on pages and things like that. Reading the new WSJ in hand, for example, and then going to the Web site to link a story I've seen are two different experiences entirely. One is clinical and mechanical, the other is fun, for lack of a better way of saying it.
Second, I think blogging will be influential as elections continue but not because of the reasons which some people might think. Blogging, which is considered a new medium, isn't much different from the leafleting and print sheets posted during the days of Thomas Paine. The only difference is the technology. Instead of a printing press, I have a laptop. Instead of posting my prints on the marquee outside the local tavern, I use the Web. It has become easier to share thoughts and ideas. It is think, point, click, and you're done. Since the beginning of time, humankind has wanted - and needed - to be heard and blogging provides this outlet for people. Take it from someone who was a notorious letter to the editor writer who almost never writes anything to the papers anymore. The recent UL piece is the first thing I've had in the paper for almost a year. But, I don't need to write to the paper. I can write here and other places, like Area603. A letter writer may not get as much traffic or readership but who cares. That isn't really the idea of the process.
My roundabout point is that blogging will have influence over politics and elections because it is a broad way of communicating thoughts and ideas with others. Voters will be able to find more information than they ever were able to find before and campaigns will be able to communicate with voters better than they were able to do before. Some people will be left behind - especially those folks on the bottom end who can't afford a computer or Internet. But you can get Internet at the library for free in most cities and towns. In addition, the more people put ideas and thoughts out there, the more they share with others. It isn't much different than the old days of communicating political information at Elk's Lodges and Bingo Halls ... it is just more widespread than it ever was before.
I do worry about the civility of debate and discourse in the process of blogging and the use of the Internet. You can get into some pretty rabid arguments out here in cyberspace. The art of the argument is part of the fun. The key is to remember that we are all Americans and we need to respect the opinions of everyone because of that. It can be hard to do but it is the only way.

Saddam
Of course, as we've all seen, Saddam was executed. I'm not a death penalty advocate at all but I must admit that if anyone should have been executed, it was probably Saddam. But, all the other people who have blood on their hands because they helped Saddam kill thousands, should also face some sort of punishment. Don'tcha think? Here are a couple of columns which make some good points. Andrew Cockburn has this piece: ["So Long to 'Our' Tyrant"]. And some pretty good media commentary here, about the spotty coverage: ["The Low Profile: CNN and the New York Times Execute a Denial of History"].

2008 Roundup
Here are some of the articles over the last few days:

This Gannett columnist has a look at 2007: ["In politics, '07 could be fast, furious, transformational"]. The six questions are good ones to ask.

This article looks at going after the MySpace crowd: ["Campaigns head to MySpace"].

Over at the Statesman, this columnist is looking at a field of firsts: ["Diverse presidential campaign could produce some historic 'firsts'"].

While this column looks at conservatives: ["Breaking Down the 2008 Presidential Race"].

And this article outlines organizing in Florida: ["2008 race heating up here"].

John Cox gets a light crowd in Nashua: ["Five people show up for presidential candidate's fundraiser"]. Hey, at least he got five! Cox was also in Concord, being interviewed by Karen Testerman for her show on WDER and also made the news on WKXL 1450.

Giuliani, lost: ["Revealed: Rudy's '08 battle plans"]. Well, his play book, at least. He also hosted some New Hampshire bigwigs recently: ["N.H. bigs see Rudy Prez run"].

The AP looks at Sen. Chris Dodd's ability to raise money here: ["Dodd well-positioned to raise money for 2008 presidential bid"].

Sen. Sam Brownback will announce in two weeks: ["Brownback to move on presidential bid"]. With Tommy Thompson also sniffing around: ["Thompson Says Core Supporters Pledge $1 Million to His Campaign"]. News from both of these guys is kind of a no-brainer. With Sen. George Allen and Sen. Rick Santorum out of the race, there is a conservative vacuum which can't be filled by Newt, The Adulterer, or "Guy Smiley" Romney. And there are people who don't really like Sen. John McCain. There is room for a dark horse. Keep an eye out for the press to start looking into some of Thompson's cushy corporate welfare deals he lined up for friends when he was governor. It is bound to get more tread if he runs.

Lastly, who is Lanakila Washington? Well, you can find out here: ["An Official Presidential Announcement"].

NH PRIMARY AFTERMATH
What happened in the field?
For readers out there, I thought I would share with you a quick overview of how the field organizations of these campaigns performed in just one neighborhood of one New Hampshire city. Starting over the summer, my household received promotional materials from most of the campaigns and did so up until the Monday night before the primary. Here is some of the analysis:

Door knocking: Despite being just up the road from a relatively affluent - and very walkable - neighborhood, our house was only visited by two campaigns: The Gephardt campaign visited once, with an old guy, and a college student from the south on a Sunday afternoon and the Edwards campaign visited once, delivering a copy of his "Real Solutions" book, on a Monday night before a local book signing promoting his "Four Trials" book.

Events: Over the summer, Dean had one neighborhood event - a meet-and-greet at a local farm - which was attended by about 75 people. However, no one in the neighborhood was notified about the event: No leaflets, no postcards, and no phone calls - a major promotional mistake. I happened to stumble upon it on a Sunday afternoon when I drove by it on my way to a softball game. Gephardt's son Matt had a coffee at a house about a mile from here, discussing health care, and area residents were notified via postcard. Nothing else happened in the neighborhood or if it did, we were not notified.

Mailers: The Kerry campaign sent numerous mailers. The mailers were glossy and issue-oriented, pressing his health care, environmental, and economic platform positions. Most of the mailers were sent during the summer and fall - when he was down in the polls. However, one negative mailer - which attacked Dean and Clark - was mailed a couple of weeks ago, with a newspaper endorsement mailer sent out during the final week. The Clark campaign sent two mailers - one was a personalized postcard from a woman in Arizona, a new phenomenon in campaign mailing strategies, where people from other states write postcards and letters to undecided voters. The other was a four-color platform piece. The Dean campaign sent one glossy mailer in October, a profile piece resembling a Newsweek cover. They did no other mail to our area for the rest of the campaign. Lastly, all the campaigns were using voting lists that were at least three years old, probably bought from a consulting service, and not obtained from local town and city clerk offices and purged by hand. In New Hampshire, the voting lists are a bit different than in other states. In Massachusetts, for example, a candidate can get a free complete CDR of the latest list of voters once a candidate is declared. Whereas here, state-wide lists are not provided to candidates electronically. A candidate either has to buy a list from a company - which may not be a recent list - or go to each individual town and get an electronic list for a payment, usually $25. A state-wide list is available to campaigns but only in paper form, copies of all the state's voter checklists, and the last I heard it was about $1,200. But then, the data from the paper list has to be entered into a computer to be used for mailers or checklists, a daunting task for even a well-organized campaign.

Literature drops: A few campaigns did drop off literature in the neighborhood. Both the Edwards and Gephardt campaigns dropped off literature twice. The Kerry campaign dropped off a CD-Rom with campaign information on it. The Lieberman campaign dropped off a single profile leaflet.

Signs: As the saying goes, signs don't vote, people vote. But signs do show a presence for a campaign. And the signs were plentiful in the neighborhood, especially starting after the holidays. Dean had the most signs up early, peppered around the neighborhood during the summer and fall. Kerry signs started to creep up slowly in late fall. Clark signs also appeared with a handful Edwards signs and one for Kucinich. One Lieberman sign was seen. Some residents swapped their signs, one moving from Kerry to Dean in the last month. Others had dual signs, representing two different views in a household.

What does this all mean?: In a state where retail politics is everything, a lot of the campaigns failed to do the work they needed to do in order to introduce themselves to voters, especially early on, when they had a lot of time. Too much of the New Hampshire focus seemed to be about getting voters to come out and see the candidates, compared to previous campaigns where the candidates went to the voters. Candidates seemed to have an office in every town, whereas in previous years, a campaign might have one or two offices. For Dean, who had numerous offices, this may have spread his organization too thin, with the right hand [Manchester] not knowing what the left hand [Concord], was doing. Too much concentration seemed to be put on having town hall forums and not enough on door-knocking. When a candidate door-knocks a neighborhood, he creates a buzz. Neighbors start talking about the fact that a presidential candidate actually came by and knocked on a door. Bill Bradley was able to do this effectively in 2000, actually reaching out to people on the beach during the summer and visiting people's homes at other times. Sure, a couple of the campaigns started to do this on Monday, when there was nothing left to do. But, the human touch - instead of the rock concert touch - can make a big difference.
Gephardt dropped out after Iowa so what energy his campaign offered here proved irrelevant as the primary approached.
The Clark campaign started too late although finished in a surprising third place. He was completely lost during most of the debates and seemed clueless on most issues.
Lieberman should have done much better here because he is so conservative. While the base of New Hampshire primary voters tends to be more liberal - hence the effectiveness of having Ted Kennedy stump for Kerry - independents seem to be moderate to conservative. Lieberman was able to pull together some McCain independents, but his message did not connect and he came in a distant fifth.
Edwards surged - but he did not have the field organization to assist in controlling and maintaining the surge. Sure, missing third by a few hundred votes is pretty remarkable for a guy who was very low in the polls. Many from the Gephardt organization offered to work for Edwards at the end. But the campaign said they couldn't pay them so they went elsewhere - mainly to Kerry. This was short-sighted by the Edwards camp. There had been rumors that Edwards was already reaching his maximum spending limits in New Hampshire, but I have no idea what he spent this money on.
The Dean campaign failing to inform neighborhood residents about their event was a major problem. If this happened throughout the state, then he potentially missed meeting thousands of voters. The Dean campaign also failed to contact voters via mail in the late stages of the campaign, instead sinking millions in TV ads in the last days of the campaign and handing out 75,000 videos of Dean with his wife. The Dean campaign was different from many campaigns of the past because it was a more holistic environment, as described in a Concord Monitor article. Campaign volunteers were not told to do certain jobs for the candidate. Instead, they were asked what they would like to do for the campaign and then tasks were created based on the interests of the volunteer. The organization was also said to be more group-think and not top-down leadership. While this is an interesting way to keep volunteers plugged in and can accentuate the best abilities of different people, a campaign also has to make sure the hard work of winning gets done. If everyone wants to noodle on a blog, organize a Meet-up that turns into a fan club meeting and not a serious organizational meeting, or work on a Web site, but not do lit drops or make phone calls, a campaign will be doomed. At the end, the UAW, SEIU and others tried to kick the old-style campaign into gear, enough so that a whole second building was rented to coordinate the volunteers and phone banks. Unfortunately for the insurgent, it was too little, too late. Karen Hicks, a protege of former NH-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, should be commended for taking a no-name governor, from a very small state to a second-place finish.
Three weeks ago, Kerry looked dead. But with the help of Shaheen, a master organizer in New Hampshire, he was able to turn it around. The bumper sticker slogan "Dated Dean, Married Kerry" seemed laughable in December. But it will be remembered for years to come. Also, hundreds of Massachusetts residents and political operatives spent a lot of time here doing work. These guys are fierce campaign operatives. They know how to win campaigns. They know how to play a hand. And they know all the tricks - dirty and clean - of politics. But Kerry also had some help - a lot of help - from the national press corps - and the elites of the Democratic Party - who manipulated the national press corps into challenging the validity of Dean. The result was instilling fear into the voter that Dean couldn't beat President Bush. Sure, Dean probably shouldn't have screeched during his third place speech in Iowa. But Kerry has some major flaws that haven't been looked at. And these elitists could be leading the party down a dangerous path.
Take one example: Massachusetts Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh, who is a partner at the Dewey Square Group, is a FoxNews political analyst. The Dewey Square Group is Michael Whouley's firm. Whouley is Kerry's field organizer. So when Marsh is spinning about Kerry looking presidential on TV, she is benefitting her business partner, with no disclaimer about her financial ties by FoxNews. This isn't unusual over at FoxNews. Bill Kristol is an analyst, even though he was one of the architects of the Iraqi invasion plan through his thinktank, the Project for a New American Century. It isn't like FoxNews has 20 million viewers either. So, the manipulation is limited. But the newsmakers, the junkies, and the influential watch the news channels. And they regurgitate the spin - even if they may not know where it is coming from or who is behind it.
The footnote of the New Hampshire 2004 primary will not be about field organization, candidate missteps or public policy positions. What will be remembered about this race is the manipulation of New Hampshire voters through tracking polls after the Iowa Caucus results and the voters' obsession with beating President Bush in the final election.
Now, on to the south and west.

PoliticsNH.com gets it wrong
PoliticsNH.com was one of the go-to sites during the New Hampshire Primary.
In the early stages of the campaign, the site kept track of how candidates were faring with the state's power elite. A tally board of endorsements was posted, with candidate ups and downs. But by the fall, the site shifted from gossipy content to hard news content, with numerous reports from the field. And they, well, mainly one guy, James Pindell, did a pretty good job. However, on the newspaper endorsements page, they got it all wrong.
According to the site, Wesley Clark and John Kerry each received five endorsements, Joe Lieberman received three, Howard Dean and John Edwards each received one: ["Endorsements"]. But while looking at the actual endorsements offered by newspapers, Dean received nine endorsements, not one.
The publisher of Salmon Press, a chain of eight newspapers, endorsed Dean for each newspaper. In one of the newspapers, the Berliner Reporter, the editor endorsed Edwards. In another, the Carroll County Independent, the editor endorsed Kerry. But PoliticsNH.com didn't post the publisher's endorsement, only the editor's endorsements. When informed of the inaccurate information via email, PoliticsNH.com did not make a correction.
Bias? Manipulation? Against Dean? Who knows. But whatever the reason, the site gave a false impression about the endorsements and left a gray mark on an otherwise excellent political site.

Apologies to the normal
First, it was MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Now, a columnist in Texas: ["Difference between us and Dean? Not a whole yell of a lot"].

We who work in the news media owe Howard Dean an apology about the way we reported his primal scream during the past week. We are responsible for a grave injustice.

No kidding. The media throttled Dean like he was a plucked chicken and it was pretty pathetic. And now a do-nothing Massachusetts senator, a northeastern liberal, with blue-blood ties, is the frontrunner. Yikes. Is this a recipe for disaster? Maybe. Unless Kerry puts Dick Gephardt on the ticket and lets the guy run wild across the Midwest in the general election. Otherwise, it is probably over.
Speaking of pundits, here is the Boston Globe's Brian McGrory's take on it: ["Dear voters, You're fired"].

A brokered convention?
It's possible: ["Down to the wire?: Tight campaign may lead to brokered convention"].

As a political scientist, a brokered convention is almost too much to hope for,'' [Dante] Scala said. "It might be good for the party because it would keep the Democrats in the public eye for weeks and weeks - it's a new story. And it might keep (President) Bush off the front pages for a while.

I have been saying that I doubt there will be a brokered convention. But I bet it will come close to that. And a look to the future: ["Next round of primaries looking more crucial"].

Push push, shove shove
Al Franken, violent? No, he's just preserving free speech while suppressing others: ["Franken fights back vs. Dean dissenter"].

Other stuff
About $9 million dollars was spent on advertising alone for the New Hampshire primary. This seems a bit low but who knows. Not all the candidates can spend money like Steve Forbes.
When asked if he would take the VP slot on a Kerry ticket, Edwards snapped at a Channel 7 reporter, "No!" adding, that Kerry might be considered for a place on his ticket.
Unconstitutional!: Well, it's about time: ["Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional"].

The Humanitarian Law Project, which brought the lawsuit, said the plaintiffs were threatened with 15 years in prison if they advised groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds' campaign for self-determination in Turkey.

Jeez, a peaceful resolution? Who would want such a thing?

More polls
Survey USA has the latest tracking poll numbers:
In South Carolina, John Edwards has a solid lead with 32 percent; Wesley Clark has 17 with Howard Dean close behind at 16 percent. John Kerry has 13 percent and the Rev. Al Sharpton slips down to 10 percent. Joe Lieberman has 5 percent and Dennis Kucinich has 1 percent. Undecided make up 5 percent.
In Arizona, Kerry has 30 percent with Clark at 24 and Dean at 23 percent. Lieberman has 10, Edwards 7, and others have 3 percent. Undecided makes up 2 percent.
In Florida, Kerry has 38 percent, with Dean at 16, Edwards has 14, Clark at 10, Lieberman with 8, Sharpton at 6 percent. Other make up 3 percent and Undecided have 5 percent.