What is a guy to say when his own President suggests that children take responsibility for their own lives and future? I mean, REALLY! - take responsibility? Where are we living now - in America? Pluh-leeze!

You can read the entire speech here (thanks Jesse!). A few excerpts:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

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Its over three years since I had been a campaign manager for a Congressional Campaign, and I was cleaning up my blog and discovered a couple of half completed notes on being a campaign manager that I planned on publishing for others to benefit from my experiences. In the intervening years, I got extremely busy and never had the time to edit and update.

Today, I thought - why the heck not? The information is still relevant and the ideas may help some new campaign manager learn some lessons from this crib sheet instead of from the fire of a candidate (or campaign). As I go through my notes, I will write some of my thoughts out - and capture them in posts.

Lesson #1: It’s all about the money.

One of the lessons I learned in running a Congressional campaign is that a political campaign is like making sausages - you never want to know how it is done, but you can appreciate when it is done right.

In building a campaign from the ground up - or improving an existing program - you face a lot of operational issues:

• getting low-cost, high-quality facilities,
• getting the best staff for the least amount of money,
• growing connections both within the district and the District,
• creating compelling marketing materials that hit the high points, but keep the powder dry,
• and so on.

And, aside from the operational ones - the interpersonal issues of political candidates and their families, the issues of staffers and volunteers - all of these are part and parcel of running the campaign.

But when it comes down to brass tacks, with all of these issues looming, what truly matters in the eyes of everyone is the money.

Money determines viability, strength and success in the future. Early money determines your perceived viability of the campaign. Effective money management determines the nature of your campaign management. Growth of money determines your future viability in various situations - including television, radio, print/direct mail, online and other outreach mechanisms.

Since money is the constraint on your campaign - consider the following suggestions when trying to create an effective political campaign:

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I have been watching the coverage of the passing of “The Lion” and thought of the two times I met the man.

Back in 2003, where I had joined the Kerry Campaign, we were in the DC office working away - and with the Dean Campaign having waves of good press and momentum, our office felt somewhat like a dead man walking. When JK brought on Mary-Beth Cahill, the office had an almost “game-over” feel - and suddenly, we were brought into the main conference room for a “meeting”.

As we were milling about in the room, suddenly - this enormous personality walked in with two dogs. I had never met Senator Kennedy before - and from television and other appearances, I assumed him to be a tall man like JK. This man was jovial, enthusiastic and here to raise our spirits.

He gave one of his patented “Kennedy speeches” which was designed to lift our spirits. And, truthfully, it did.

It is a shame to see a man with his legacy of service pass - but it is an honor to his memory that we commit to his work and carry on - beyond the short time he was with us on the earth.

A friend of mine from Genius Rocket sent this to me this morning, and I thought it was quite funny in its informative sarcasm:

by Tom Tomorrow

What has me thinking is - where is the direct impacting investments?

Why did the Cash for Clunkers not actually be directed for better gas-mileage, lower polluting cars versus just any car?

Why has the TARP investment now not focused the energies on freeing credit for small business and rather resolving the issues of the accounting rules to ensure solvency?

Why does the Fed allow for big banks to borrow at incredibly low rates, but charge exorbitant rates on small and medium size business loans? An article in the Financial Times on August 2nd had me thinking about how the bigger banks are leveraging their position in the market where they are the gatekeepers to the American market for small and medium sized businesses and consumers.

The sad part is - with their need to generate profits - are they forgetting that the situation that is being created is still driving to an imbalance that will need to be rectified?

Will someone please stand up and point this out - without the usual partisan rhetoric?

When will the situation turn around?

So - imaging my surprise when I get my email this morning (with one of my emails I gave to the Barack Obama Campaign) - but a letter from Paul Dunn, Alex Sink’s Campaign Manager (via the Florida Dems email list).

Intriguing.

One of the things I never truly enjoy is getting emails from other lists - I would have been happier if they had reached me through other means, but it looks like the Obama list is being rented out to other Democratic candidates (or someone is migrating them?).

As for Mrs. Sink - I am a big fan. I spoke with her years ago when she was running for CFO and even created a proposal for her and her campaign. I knew she would win then (she was the best candidate for the job - and had solid managerial experience that we sorely need in Florida).

Today, with her candidacy on the ascendancy in Florida, I think there is a true opportunity to have a business-minded person in the Governors seat. Mrs. Sink has demonstrated solid management experience both in the public and private sector.

I know I will be voting for Mrs. Sink in the Fall.

Wha? From the Washington Post:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) announced this afternoon she will resign from office on July 26 and return to private life, a stunning decision by last year’s Republican vice presidential candidate to leave office before the end of her first term.

“We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities,” Palin said in a news conference alongside a lake in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

Using a basketball analogy, Palin said, “I know when it’s time to pass the ball for victory.”

Palin, 45, is a major star in the GOP and is seen as a leading candidate for the party’s presidential nomination in 2012. Her decision not to run for reelection in 2010 and to leave office imminently came as a shock to Republican strategists today.

“We’ve seen a lot of nutty behavior from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that,” said John Weaver, a longtime friend and confidant of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party’s presidential nominee in 2008 whose of selection of Palin catapulted the first-term Alaska governor to national prominence.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R), who will succeed Palin, appeared with Palin and complimented her service to the state.

Do we really think there is nothing to this?

UPDATE (11pm EST): Just reading the Daily Beast and see that there might be a scandal brewing in the world of Palin. Supposedly, there is an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd. We shall see.

Again, I am amazed at the mainstream media’s preoccupation of the “Craigslist Killer” - as if the website itself was the birth of this psychopath’s actions. I loved Craig’s response to the ABC Nightline report:

“My first reaction is sympathy, I mean I feel pretty bad for the victims and their families. I don’t like it at all. Beyond that, well, how would you feel if … the bad guy watched what you do on TV and started calling [you] the ‘ABC Killer?’ That’s pretty much how I’m reacting,” Newmark said. “It just feels bad. You know, remember, I’m spending a great deal of time here fighting bad guys.”

Creating the name for this killer using the media source that the victim may have come from is almost as silly as it is stupid.

I can only wonder what will happen if someone swindles the members of a high-end dating site - and we will then hear about the “JDate Swindler” or the “A Small World Con Man” or whatever. Or what if someone uses a GM car to go to the commissioning of a crime? Will we be calling the bank robber “The Buick BadGuys”?

Can the MSM get over the anger it has for Craigslist and focus on building its own business model? I know that Criagslist is encroaching on the tried and true model (Newspapers Brace for Ad Battle as Craigslist Grows, NPR) Focusing on what is essentially a very simple, community-managed web site that has grown from a simple email list to a trusted, community managed source of content is nothing to be attacking. The newspapers ALWAYS had a chance to be here - and could still be here as other magazines and newspapers are doing (like The Village Voice BackPage and the New York Times).

Stop being fearful and be aggressive. Focus on building - not on bemoaning about the “death of newspapers”. We will always need newspapers - an editorial voice with the money to have the best reporters and researchers protecting our rights - and we, the people, will pay for that to happen. Especially when we need an aggregator of all of the events in out world to resolve what is “important” and what is “noise”.

Be the leaders, not the whiners. Please.

Reading the articles these past 12 hours and wanted to say, I have to agree with many of the people’s opinions extolling the selection of Aneesh Chopra as the new CTO of the Obama Administration including Tim O’Reilly and Alan Davidson. To quote Tim:

“Aneesh Chopra is a rock star. He’s a brilliant, thoughtful change-maker. He knows technology, he knows government, and he knows how to put the two together to solve real problems. We couldn’t do better. “

I, myself, have also been knee-deep in various Government 2.0 projects in recent weeks, and must admit in the wisdom of having someone who understands both technology and government bureaucracy.

In one of my engagements, I met with a number of CIOs, deputy CIOs and other members of the technology community of a large Northeastern state, and I was encouraged by the restrained frustration they felt in wanting to do new things, but were concerned about the bureaucracy that they all felt might hamstring their progress. My most poignant story came from one of the project managers who described their outreach program for helping citizens with insurance issues, and when we discussed the idea of “crowdsourcing“, he rightly introduced me to the legal issues that a state government might face with information coming from a government source that may or may not be correct.

In the Government 2.0 Camp event in DC last month, there were some incredible people from the IRS that have really stretched the horizon working on building a community that will expand the reach of services, but always have to be cognizant of the constraints of the law and mission of their organization.

And at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco earlier this month, Andrew McLaughlin described the issues that the government faces when attempting to address the need for transparency while maintaining the safety and security of the nation.

In all cases, the need for an understanding of the bureaucratic lay-of-the-land is paramount in the largest business organization on the planet. While he may not have a technical background (his degrees are in public policy), I wish him nothing but the best in resolving the many issues he has to face.

Chief Performance Officer

One thing that may be overlooked in most stories is the announcement of Jeffrey Zients as Chief Performance Officer - a role which I have become intimately familiar with over the past five years. When you place a CIO with a CTO, the CIO’s role is often to deal with the budgetary issues of the organization, changing policies that govern the business practices within an organization. The CTO (in a startup) usually focuses on new technologies and is supposed to be familiar with the issues that can make or break a product direction - in the case of government, the goal is to understand the issues that will shape the public policies that can affect the infrastructure of the nation as a whole.

But the role of CTO and CIO rarely has any performance metrics on them - aside from revenue and costs - how to make money (grow the GDP) or to save money (reduce the costs within the organization). In the case of a CIO of such a large organization, someone must take the lead in understanding other secondary and tertiary benefits for optimization in the long run. TO this, I am happy to see someone had the forethought to consider this role.

Best of luck to the team.

I have been enjoying feeling a bit of déjà vu watching a bunch of people at New Work City discussing the issues of Open Government in NYC (four years ago, a similar group gathered at an office to discuss Andrew’s run for Public Advocate at the time). Convened by Matthew Cooperrider, a group of people including Noel Hidalgo (part of the State Senate office of the CIO), Andrew Rasiej (from PDF), Nancy Scola (from PersonalDemocracy.com), Britt Blaser (from iYear), Lou Klepner, Alex Linsker and many others.

After a brief introduction to everyone’s background and interests - the group began to discuss various ideas about what they think Open Government is about.

Thoughts about what the purpose of this was:

• working groups
• needs/resources
• specific causes
• project-based meetups
• a support network
• education
• PAC
• give voice to collaborators on the inside
• develop a manifesto

We adjourned with a discussion on connecting in a couple of weeks with a “manifesto” and begin to better focus some of the groups efforts.

Signup for the google group at :http://groups.google.com/group/open-government-nyc