August 2008 Archive

Just surprised by the selection of McCain’s VP - after an uplifting experience in Denver. But heck, humor like the one above or this make the case better than not.

I have spent the night with some amazing people - and want to write up about last night and the past couple of days over the next day or so. I promise some thoughts and thanks.

Speaking: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, Inc and Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Air America Radio

RM: For the last twelve years, the comments have been - this is the Year of the Internet. Well, is it this year?
ES: I am one of those people who have been saying that the outcome of the election on the margin would be from the Internet. And, in 2006, I think the first step happened. Remember the George Allen and the macaca moment which caused the switching that seat and turned the Senate which, in turn, turned the tide against the Bush Agenda.

The second step got started 2.5 years ago - prior to then, there was no way to be a legitimate challenger in the Presidential election and invading the media without coming in “sideways”. Obama with a small team and via various media channels has been able to become a “real” challenger.

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Jumped into the T. Boone Pickens portion of the Big Tent event. Listened to Carl Pope, executive from Sierra Club who mentioned a couple of issues I am concerned about:

• The rescinding of the Executive Order on the protection of the coastlines now means that the Moratorium that was passed by Congress and signed by the President is coming to an end - soon. Even if we do nothing, the moratorium will expire and the coasts will be available for drilling - if Congress and/or the President does not take this as an issue.
• Recently, 18K acres of coastline was just released, and over 90% did not have bids - and the other 10% had dismal bids. For some reason, there is no action on those regions.

T. Boone is an interesting person - very interested in solving the problems, and getting other peopel to understand the problem.

There are over 250M vehicles on the road of America today. 1MM hybrid plug-ins would barely impact the gas consumption of the US. But if you could electrify the trucks - or switch to natural gas - could impact our gas imports by 30%.

I am sitting at home, preparing for the trip to Denver tomorrow, and watching the video of Senator Kennedy and watching JK and others speaking about Senator Kennedy. I remember when Sen. Kennedy came into our small brownstone in DC and cheered us on, right after we had the changeover of campaign managers. We were suddenly brought into the main conference room, and were to see someone. And in walked Senator Kennedy with his dog.

It was funny to watch this lion of the Senate come into the office and get us fired up back when we were one point below Rev. Al Sharpton in the polls, and he was there - cheering all of us on.

Watching him tonight, it reminded me of that speech, but it was obvious that Senator Kennedy was in a different state - but he is here to fire up the convention - and I think he did.

Quotes from Senator Kennedy

“Yes We Can, and Yes We Will”.

“BO will close the book on race, agenda, group against group, straight against gay. BO will be a commander in chief will ensure that our fighting men and women will be committed to a mission worthy of their bravery.”

“Our people rose to the challenge of making it to the moon. We reach the moon, we scale the heights, I have seen it - we can do it again. Not simply victory for our party, but renewal for our country. The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream lives on.”

While I have been in China this past week, I have been shuttling between hotels and conference rooms - while I see all sorts of people running back and forth to events, dinners, friends and such. I see a country of diversity and similarity and one that is more concerned with the life of today in China and their families.

When I turn on the BBCNews or CNN, all I see is the hub-bub on whether or no Obama has chosen his pick for VP. Will it be Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, Tom Kaine? Truthfully, I am not worried.

One thing I have appreciated from this campaign has been their steady hand on handling the various issues, preparing for the inevitable conflict that is to come. Whomsoever they chose, I think it will be the right person - since, once they are chosen and presented to the world, we will naturally see them next to each other.

I, for one, think that a Biden or Bayh would be a good partner for the fight - and I think that Edwards would have been excellent - if not for his unfortunate failing. I still think he has a lot of fight left in him - and like all fighters, he will come back. But at the present time - I wonder, like all of you. Looking forward to his choice in the matter.

UPDATE: Sounding more and more like Sen. Joe Biden - so says the guys at Politico (heck, even Ben Smith is calling it - maybe). But still nervous about calling it for him.

I, for one, would love it if it was him. Smart individual, incredible depth of knowledge, and a real person - I saw him once on my Amtrak right to DC one morning and he was in the midst of some work with his Communications Director. Not one sense of air of expectation or exception - just a regular Joe working on whatever he was working on. Sounds like the kind of guy that can bring about some level of skill and authority to the role of the VP, with a sense of keeping his feet on the ground. And maybe he will support Amtrak as well.

I have been incredibly busy this cycle with all sorts of projects (interesting, few in politics), but watching the news has me feeling a little like a prognosticator when watching the sequence of events that have happened this cycle and last one.

The New York Times posted the article, “In Loose Style, McCain Leads a Camp Divided” where the discussion of the candidate, true to his persona, does things his way, and is found (at times) to be at odds with his staff or consultants. Even with the obligatory staff shakeup back in July, he is still finding the challenge of playing himself versus what the pundits, pollsters and consultants want him to be.

This has so many shades of the Kerry 04 campaign, it makes me cringe. In the beginning, we had two (or seven, depending on whose article you read) separate camps running the campaign when I joined, and the culture aptly demonstrated this. As the campaign was floundering, the hits that the staff regularly took with comments from people we assumed were more knowledgeable, all of which gave the teams a siege mentality. And when we emerged to the fore, there was a feeling of correctness and direction that still was fought from the inside to the outside.

Even with the inclusion of Mary Beth Cahill (one of my favorite leaders), the Washington, DC faction and the Boston faction were often at competing odds for the heart and mind of the campaign, let alone the New York faction. In McCain’s situation, I assume he is faced with a similar issue - but in his case, his own point-of-view, moral compass is working hard to frame the discussion in his own mind. A leader who has had to listen to feedback and make a decision that he believes is right, faced with a national campaign where the choices are a matter of hues - that is a challenge as well.

I do not like predictions on campaigns, but the way I see this campaign going - especially with the infrastructure and organization the Obama Campaign has pushed forward, I see a poor showing for McCain - even with an October Surprise.

But a word of caution to the Obama Camp: do not start making measurements yet. That was the undoing of the Kerry Campaign - and cost us the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of people who would have voted if it was not “inevitable”. An old friend told me, a Presidential Election is a marathon, not a sprint. You guys just went through the most grueling part of the marathon and are now in the summer glide. We have a couple of weeks, if not days, before you have another uphill climb. Prepare for it.