BlogHer and Politics
As Zephyr Teachout just wrote on TechPresident,
“As Gina Kooper [sic] (of YearlyKos) just said, “I’m stunned.” I’m at the one of the largest blogging conference by bloggers for bloggers in the world (at the Navy Pier in Chicago), the largest conference of women bloggers in the world, and only two candidates have sent representatives: Edwards and Clinton. “You can see who cares about you,” Kooper said.No other candidate sent a representative. I’m in the very active politics track (a hundred or so in the room right now), and the candidates who aren’t here are foolish. Its like walking past an oil field. I’m stunned, too.”
I’m not stunned, but I am sad. On the plus side, we had just a fantastic show from Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, Kim Gandy, NOW’s President, plus visionaries like Esther Dyson and Faye Anderson.
But we’re just starting out on our political trajectory. Here’s an update from our “Earn Our Votes” session this morning.
By summer 2008, when the two general election nominees are going to be battling it out for women voters, swing voters and otherwise, I have no doubt campaigns will be paying dearly for the eyeballs of vocal, active, women voters.
Corporate American gets the value of this audience: main conference sponsors are GM, Google, Dove, Yahoo!, etc. Why don’t candidates compete for this audience in the same way? What’s missing? Is it just too early? Wrong state?
What I learned from the CNN/YouTube debate
1) I’m a lousy live blogger and who cares. But for a great re-cap, see Catherine Morgan’s video highlights here
1) Hillary Clinton, to my knowledge, was the only candidate tonight to directly address those who submitted videos on YouTube by name, as if they were audience members. Example: at first, I thought she was looking away during perhaps the most moving part of the evening, the health care crisis montage. I thought, this could be a Bush looking at his watch moment…But no, she was noting the names of the questioners, and she addressed them right back. I appreciated this very much.
Even though tonight’s debate was enjoyable, fast-moving, snappy…there was definitely a wall between the giant YouTube screen and the candidates.
Only Hillary broke this barrier.
(New: Hotline’s Blogometer calls Hillary the clear winner, at least…on blogs? But I thought blogs don’t like Hillary?
“Unlike CNN, we did not conduct a post-debate focus group, but we did spend an inordinate amount of time in Daily Kos and MyDD debate comment threads and we can confidently say that Hillary Clinton was, again, the consensus winner of 7/23 CNN/YouTube debate. As favorability straw polls conducted by DailyKos‘ founder Markos Moulitsas demonstrate, HRC is by far the netroots’ least favorite of the big three. Yet somehow after every single one of HRC’s debate performances so far, the Daily Kos comments boards read like Clinton campaign press releases.The strengths that the debates highlight (the depth of her knowledge on the issues, her willingness to take command of the forum, and calm of her presence) all reinforce the campaign line on why she is a better choice than Barack Obama and John Edwards: she is ready to lead now. If Edwards and Obama are losing ground among the only demogrpahics predisposed not to like HRC, what hope do they have with the rest of the electorate”?
2) I also thought the debate touched on gender in a striking way. Hillary had a “go, girl” moment but she also asked John’s question about whether her gender would negate her status among Arab leaders. Why did she have to answer this? Did Condi have to answer such a question in her interviews? Curious why CNN chose this question. Seemed a deliberate attempt to be provocative.
3) I thought this debate was striking because there was a lot of discussion of race and gender, as open and frank as we tend to get in presidential politics.
…we learned Obama’s not black enough until he catches a cab in New York.
And we learned Hillary can be too female (at least in the Middle East), and yet not female enough, at least according to Elizabeth Edwards.
I thought Hillary was good and tough- I loved her quote about not meeting with leaders such as Hugo Chavez or Castro, simply for propaganda purposes. Strong stuff. But she looked feminine, and she had glossy makeup on. Subtle signal, but made me smile. And Katherine Seelye in the NYT Caucus blog noted
“Perhaps the most visually adventurous move was Mrs. Clinton’s selection of a coral jacket, a striking statement in the long gray line of presidential candidates. (It prompted a few comments from the other candidates at the end of the debate. Mr. Edwards: “I admire what Senator Clinton has done for America, what her husband did for America. I’m not sure about that coat.â€
Mr. Obama disagreed. “I actually like Hillary’s jacket. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.â€
Two exciting developments
One, I started a column on TechPresident.com today. Here’s my spiel: “The candidate most effective at reaching women online will have a serious edge in the primary election. Why? More women vote than men. More women are online than men. Given the importance of reaching women online, all of the presidential campaigns have weak online operations for targeting women. Women make the key difference to primary victories, and although each presidential campaign has staff focused on women, they are doing very little to effectively target women online.”
Two: It’s time for a puppy! Meet Happy the Westie (ish- well, mostly Westie). As Nicco wrote:
Kathy Lash (founder of Kasey’s Cure – check it out & send them a tax-deductible gift) has known for some time that I’ve been desperate for my own Westie. And when Laura Pietzsch emailed her about a rescued Westie puppy, Kathy sent it our way:
He was found at a carwash…covered in fleas and ticks…with no collar or microchip. She guessed he had probably been on his own for a while. Medical exam was very good…weighing in at 11.8 pounds. They estimate he is 4 months old. He was given all of his vaccinations and dipped. He has been bathed but is still dirty. Today, he got to play in the dog park so he was muddy. Kecia said that he was having so much fun playing she didn’t want to bathe him again just yet. His temperament is all puppy. Inquisitive and alert.
I can’t wait for Happy to arrive. I hope the cats will like him.
Go, on girl!
I’m thrilled the brill Jennifer Pozner from WIMN has posed these super-relevant questions on her blog: “Frustrated by New York Times discussing presidential candidates’ “trophy wives†rather than those candidates’ positions on important policy issues that have particular relevance for women?
Frustrated by New York Times discussing presidential candidates’ “trophy wives†rather than those candidates’ positions on important policy issues that have particular relevance for women?
Ever wish YOU could moderate political primary debates, so the questions wouldn’t be so predictably out of touch with the social justice concerns of your community?
And answered with:
If any of these ring true, then get yourself a ticket to Chicago for the upcoming BlogHer conference, where you can meet several WIMN’s Voices bloggers, and where I’ll be representing Women In Media & News (and, of course, this group blog) in a session called “Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?â€
Here’s how BlogHer describes the session (scan down):
In a session led by two pollsters — one conservative, one progressive — attendees will work to develop a Voter Manifesto based on questions that women from across the political spectrum agree must be a priority in the next presidential election.
The session will open with a pollster presentation on the results of a pre-conference survey of attendees and the pollsters’ own expertise on what women voters want in ‘08. Next, attendees will break into multipartisan groups to take four critical issues raised by the survey, (such as health care, education, the environment and Iraq). Working together, each group will build a list of the burning questions women who blog really want answered by anyone who wants our votes for president. Attendees will work collaboratively to make a list of 10 questions per topic. And representatives from the presidential campaigns and media will be welcome to weigh in on why certain questions aren’t asked or can’t be answered, at least by their candidate. Lisa Stone will MC the sessions activities. Confirmed experts include pollster Anna Greenberg, Gina Cooper who puts on YearlyKos, Zoe Chafe from WorldWatch, Anita Sharma, who follows early childhood education and healthcare issues, Mary Katharine Ham from Townhall.com, Kelly Dougherty from Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Jennifer Pozner from Women in Media and News (WIMN).
Women bloggers will use these questions to measure the quality and depth of:
– solutions recommended by candidates
– coverage by the media.The outcome of this session will be a template for candidates, (and the media covering those candidates), to follow if they want to address the issues that women voters care about.
It’s not to late to register for BlogHer, but if you want to register, act fast, as available hotel rooms may start to be sparse.
I’d love to see you at my session, or some other time during the conference. And you’ll be able to meet lots of great women in media there — including WIMN’s board member, and Chicago Parent blogger, Veronica Arreola, and lots of women from the WAM (women, action and the media) community – and, likely, various WIMN’s Voices bloggers, too. I’ll update when I know who’s coming.
Dave Winer says impeachment is an option
General William Odom: “Congress clearly and indisputably has two powers over the executive: the power of the purse and the power to impeach. Instead of using either, members of congress are wasting their time discussing feckless measures like a bill that ‘de-authorizes the war in Iraq.’ That is toothless unless it is matched by a cut-off of funds.”
We’re never going to get change in this country until we start routinely using the power to impeach and remove officials who aren’t serving the interests of the country.”
Agree in theory, Dave. But Congress can’t get much done when they leave the criminals in the Executive offices alone- I don’t reckon the country can stomach the kind of chaos and inertia impeachment causes (remember 1998)?
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. In her spare time, Morra enjoys blogging about women and politics. Read her full bio >>
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