SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Willie Brown on Delegates

This is part of my coverage of the California Democratic Party Convention in San Jose, Ca.

Sf Mayor Willie Brown's Giving a Rousing Speech At Cal Dem Con

I'm at the California Democratic Convention and sitting at the Press Table in the general session hall at the San Jose Convention Center, listening to former San Francisco Mayor and Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown give a passionate and rousing speech on what it means to be a Democrat.

"Democrats are supposed to fight," he said to a standing ovation, "you're not a Democrat if you don't fight."

Brown's taking the assembled state democrats on a kind of "memory lane" but with a message. "We all need to participate in order to beat these Republicans."

Here's that speech:

Hillary Clinton - Get Out Of The Race

I'm going to take issue with my good friend and valued contributor Dave Kaye and ask simply that Senator Clinton get out of the campaign for President. At this point, she can't win and can only cause more damage to the Democratic Party.

All of this rancor could be focused on John McCain, but here we have Hillary throwing rocks at Obama and James Carville's not helping matters with his thugish behavior.

Hillary Clinton- Stay In The Race

As the conjecture and acrimony accelerates over the tumultuous and exceedingly contemptuous Democratic contest,many high ranking elites in the party are strongly suggesting for Hillary Clinton to abandon her Presidential aspirations.

While an ardent and enthusiastic Barack Obama supporter, I feel adamant about witnessing the primary season continue. In contrast to the perspective of Senators and Obama supporters Patrick Leahy, Chris Dodd and Bob Casey, the prolong contest has the distinct ability to serve for the betterment of the Democratic party and the eventual nominee.

Even though both formidable contenders are allocating their time castigating and bashing each other, they are still eerily close to John McCain in the majority of polls. Once a nominee is selected and he or she is able to concentrate on the issues facing the country and on what McCain is seeking to offer the American people (a third Bush term), Democrats will finally be united and able to see their poll numbers sky rocket profusely.

Still, it does not serve Mr. Obama well to have several of his most prominent backers yearning for the elimination of New York's junior Senator and contributing negatively to the overwhelming positive and constructive nature of the Obama campaign. There is a significant amount of time for the stalwarts in the party to unify behind Mr. Obama and embark on a quest to defeat John McCain in the general election.

Whether people agree or disagree with the actions of the Clinton's, one certain thing is for sure: Hillary and Bill are persistent and resourceful, thus eradicating their opportunity to forfeit the contest they once had surely wrapped up several months ago.

Newspaper Ad Revenue Drops 10 Percent In One Year

In perhaps the best sign of the impact of New Media on traditional media, "Editor and Publisher" reporter Jennifer Saba tells us that the newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in ad revenue in a half-century. She wrote:

According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.

Meanwhile, online ad revenue now represents 7.5 percent of total newspaper ad revenue, up almost 2 percent from 2006.

What we're seeing, in my view, is the transformation of media from primarily offline to eventually a balance of online and offline. But in this I don't think the nature of jobs in this industry will be the same. My prediction is that the best-paid writers will contribute to different online platforms and not just one, reflecting the fact that one site can't command readership online as consistently as it can offline.

Bloomberg Introduces Obama's Economic Speech

So, the dark horse in the 2008 campaign seems to have hitched his fortune's to Obama's momentum - what will it spell in the long run? Is the NYC Mayor now ahead in the VeePstakes? Granted that other luminaries endorsed and commented on the Obama positions, it was Michael Bloomberg there on the podium at Cooper Union. The Senator's entire presentation is available via his web site. This surely comes at a time when voters are worried about the growing storm of foreclosures on main street while troubled about the administrations evident focus on helping out those on Wall St.

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign has accused the Obama folks of keeping the Theft of Valor story of her not exactly dodging sniper fire in Tuzla in the news to distract people from the "Wright scandal." Now I know Bill didn't inhale, but what of Hillary's staff? After all, the more people learn about Jeremiah Wright the better it has worked for Obama! The latest polls, taken before the rebukes from military vets would have had much if any negative impact on Clinton's numbers show Obama bouncing back nicely from a slight dip, and the interpretation is that Wright won't be a negative factor while the Tuzla story, which has been lively on the web for 24-48 hours, is still gaining traction in the traditional media and hasn't yet been reflected in polling data.

Is the Clinton campaign hoping that they can resuscitate the Wright story to eclipse the sequence of increasingly tall tales the Senator spun about the risk of sniper fire, or simply mis-speaking yet again? Are the Clinton's Bosnian Chickens coming home to roost?

Sarah Lacy Is A Cool-Ass Chick At Valleywag Happy Hour

If you read my blog on a regular basis, or if you read Valleywag, or if you attended the Facebook SXSW event, or all of the above, then you've probably heard of Sarah Lacy. You've also undoubtedly formed an opinion about Ms. Lacy without meeting her; a common habit in today's media-driven culture. But you've also certainly not met Sarah Lacy.

Well, I did, and she's one cool chick.

For some background, Sarah Lacy's the person who interviewed Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook at SXSW and got panned for what some said was a "softball" set of questions. Sarah took the entire event in stride.

As a seasoned writer for Businessweek and a tech-finance video reporter for Yahoo!, Sarah's used to mean comments and controversy. She even tossed water on TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. (No kidding.) But you never know who a person really is until you meet them and talk with them, and listen, and get a feel for who they are -- not the whole deal, mind you but a good part of it.

I met Sarah at Owen Thomas' Valleywag Happy Hour event last Friday at what is called, but is soon not to be referred to as, Moose's in Washington Square in San Franciscos' North Beach. Sarah, my friend and business colleague Paula Storti, and I enjoyed oysters, tea (for me), and cocktails and just talked about whatever came up.

That's off the record.

But I can report that Sarah Lacy's fun, smart, opinionated, interesting, and just plain cool.

So the next time you tech-heads go off on her, consider that it may be because she's cooler than you are and you just can't admit it.