DNC Convention Mobile Blogging Test One

This is the first test of the mobile blogging process where I use my
iPhone to send a blog post complete with text

I will do this many times during the day just to keep a kind of active
journal, you know?

Obama VP: Biden, Clinton, Bayh, Kerry or Clark? Who? - DNC Convention

Any day or moment Senator Barack Obama will pick his vice presidential running mate. But who should it be? Senator Joe Biden? Senator Hillary Clinton? Senator Evan Bayh? Senator John Kerry? Or General Wesley Clark? I talk about these possible choices and who I favor, which is an Obama Clinton ticket.

The reason I favor an Obama / Clinton ticket is that it would reform the party and unity would be the word. I still hold it's the most exciting and electrifying of all of the possible combinations before us that are realistic.

Evan Bayh is a popular two-term Senator who comes from Indiana royalty, but outside that state, where can he be most effective? He's just not exciting in my view.

Senator Joe Biden is a fighter and well-known around the World. I think he would bring a lot to the Obama brand, but I'm just not sure he can move the voters like Clinton could.

Then we come to Senator John Kerry, who's ran before and for President. Senator Kerry would bring a large email list and donor base but I think Obama / Kerry would be seen as a match of two elites.

General Wesley Clark certainly has a compelling story, and a war record that surpasses that of John McCain. Clark's been a powerful ally to Obama and would make a great choice to bring liberals solidly into the Obama tent. But can he draw votes? That's the question.

For my money Clinton's the best choice, even with the negative energy she seems to draw from others. But Clinton's not far and away the best selection and I could be swayed to someone else if I knew they would bring votes. Perhaps Kerry could best do that. We shall known soon.

Obama Campaign texting strategy

Last week, the Obama campaign sent supporters a message, via email and text, that they could "be one of the first to know" who he selects as VP if they would just text 62262 and get on the list. At the time, there was some discussion as to whether this was a smart (read this) or not very smart (read this) move. While it can certainly be argued, as Leonce Gaiter did over at HuffPo, that such a strategy cheapens the process, the true genius of this move won't really be seen until November.

The Obama campaign has been very smart in their use of technology. They announced on the web, made huge news for revolutionizing web based fundraising, and have employed text messaging to mobilize their volunteers. They also have a prominent presence on Twitter, FaceBook and MySpace. With the tease of getting a jump on the VP news, they surely signed up thousands more to their text messaging list. Come November, this should pay off when they text these folks to remind them to vote.

I texted 62262 to see what would happen. I received an acknowledgment text immediately. But here's more of that genius: a couple of days ago, I received a text asking for my zip code. Assuming that folks respond favorably and give the campaign their zips, the campaign has just built a new list of supporters to text not just for voting, but for volunteering, which is where one voter turns into 100.

We have yet to see what will actually happen when Obama selects his VP and sends out the news via text, but right now, the strategy looks like a good one for long term voter mobilization.

Saddleback blowback

Beyond any reasonable doubt the public knows that Senator McCain was not in the "cone of silence" in Warren's Green Room at Saddleback, despite his own dodging that question live in front of the pastor's assembled audience when he quipped that he'd been trying to listen through the wall. McCain - or his handlers - evidently lacked the confidence to approach the interview as advertised on a level playing field with Senator Obama, although by most estimates Warren is a friendly interviewer to the McCain campaign and those attending the event were receptive to McCain's candidacy.

Fine; politicians who have survived for decades in DC are likely to seek any advantage, but what does it say about McCain's character that during the interview intended to illuminate the candidates' character and values, conducted by a pastor, that a man who wants so desperately to be President would dance around the truth in front of a national TV audience as though... well, as though he was denying sexual relations with an intern?

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Katie Couric Digg's The DNC Convention

Katie Couric's discovered "Digg" for the DNC Convention. See her video-blog here:

Convention News from DemConWatch

- The opening gavel is only 7 days away. Convention related events start as early as Thursday with the Stonewall Democrats National Convention. You can find info on this and a lot more in the DemConWatch Convention Calendar

- Jon Meacham from Newsweek and Chris Cillizza from the Washington Post will be streaming live coverage 7 hours a day from the convention.

- Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic will also be streaming.

- Senator Norm "Teeth" Coleman wouldn't go to the Republican convention if it was held in Minneapolis.

- The DNCC posts a construction update. They need to be done by Friday for the Open House.

- Qwest has reached an agreement with its workers.

- We should find out who Obama's VP pick is sometime this week.

- Pay Equity Pioneer Lilly Ledbetter has been added to Tuesday's speaking schedule.

“We are honored that Lilly Ledbetter will address the Democratic Convention,” said Senator Barack Obama. “The fact that women are paid less than their male coworkers for doing the same job is unacceptable in the 21st century and counter to both the progress we've made and our shared values as Americans. Lilly Ledbetter's case before the Supreme Court has once again awakened the nation to this discrimination, and it's time we join together to right this wrong and pay women equal pay for equal work." - DNCC Press

- The Big Tent is taking shape

Christine Pelosi On Obama, Clinton, And The California Democratic Party's Denver Shindig Location

This is the first video kicking off our coverage of the Democratic National Convention and events leading up to it. This one was a $2,300 a plate fundraiser for Barack Obama at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA, Sunday August 17th, 2008.

As part of the event, an Obama Rally was held outside of the hotel. Two, perhaps three people with bullhorns were leading the crowd in "Obama" cheers, and one I recognized.

Christine Pelosi, daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the author of the well-received book "Campaign Boot Camp" a guide to successful campaigning, as well as a California Superdelegate supporting Senator Barack Obama.

I asked Christine about having Hillary's name placed in nomination and she skillfully ducked the question as only she can do. Instead, she said she was looking forward to the voting process, and reminds us that she's been a delegate since 1996.

Then Christine informed me that the California Delegation will have its party Wednesday Night at the Denver Museum of Natural History. So, if you're coming to Denver and are a Californian with political connections, that's the place to be.

History favors McCain: Saddleback retrospective

McCain did talking points at the Saddleback forum, and he's been a known name since before becoming a household word during the Keating 5 scandal. Talking points worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign, so perhaps McCain did "win" the contest at Saddleback, as some pundits are espousing. And McCain has decades of name recognition going for him, clearly.

Obama relied on candid answers during his Saddleback appearance, which may impress people more now that we've seen the result of 8 years with a talking point president that put the economy in a tailspin (not just for today but for whoever ends up paying for Bush's war,) but obviously many find it easier to be comfortable with the talking points style of politics.

When Bush ran against Kerry, the talking point approach was reinforced by unabashed attack politics, albeit largely handled by surrogates. It worked. The term "swiftboated" as a way to describe the effect of the lies on Kerry's outcome on election day is as recognizable in the lexicon as the overuse of a "-gate" suffix for something that brings down a major figure.

So the question becomes:

Will those who prefer talking point prepared and vetted by a politician's handlers turn out to vote in larger numbers in November, or will those who prefer a President they can believe, and trust?

People knew, back when Bill Clinton ran, that they couldn't actually trust what he said, based on "didn't inhale." They understood it to be a socially acceptable answer, but not the unvarnished truth. In fact, we expect our leaders to conceal certain things from us in the name of national security, so it was curiously reassuring. That "didn't inhale" response may have been the pivotal point in electing a man with only state-level experience to the Oval Office. Then, late in his term, President Clinton began quibbling over what terms such as "sexual relations" and "is" meant... and we got George W. Bush as the country reacted to Clinton's disingenuous, political responses when the subject was personal.

So, will celebrity, attack politics and talking points win? Despite my own preferences, and hopes, it will take a lot of people showing up on election day and expressing their true desire for a candid, honest form of politics to make that happen - and like it or not, history favors McCain. Still, I'll advocate on behalf of the outsider, Obama, and vote for him in November.

I don't blame all Republicans for the state of the economy and the debt we're facing. I might've been suckered by the doctored intelligence reports, myself, when it came time to vote on various Iraq issues, and I surely believed Colin Powell, who soldiered on dutifully for his Commander In Chief in front of the United Nations and the world. We goofed, frankly -- yet this remains the one place I want to live and raise my family.

I just think under the leadership we've had since 2000 that we've gone down bad paths, and I'm ready for a pragmatic, candid, visionary leader to take the U.S.A. in a new direction.

That, my friends, is the audacity of hope.

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Rick Warren Admits Not Voting For An Adulterer (McCain? Edwards?)

It appears that Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren admits that he would not vote for an adulter. The question came up before the Saddleback Forum, where U.S. Senator and GOP Nominee for President John McCain did say that he regretted how he treated his first wife.

It's widely known in political circles that McCain cheated on his first wife with the woman we now know as Cindy McCain. CNN's Mary Snow asked her about the question, without success:



This liberal Christian group called Matthew25 also took issue with the McCain Adultery matter in this commercial:



This is the story:

In 1965 John McCain, a member of the US Navy, married an attractive model named Carol Shepp. In 1967 McCain was sent to Vietnam. It didn't take long before McCain was shot down and taken prisoner. Carol waited faithfully for McCain during his imprisonment. In 1969, Carol was in a terrible car crash. She was thrown through the windshield and suffered serious injuries. But Carol would not allow her POW husband to be notified of what had happened to her because she didn't want him to feel any additional stress. She stood by her man, alone, for the 5 years he was in prison.

McCain was released in 1973 and returned home to find that Carol's accident had "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight." [4] McCain no longer had a trophy wife he could feel proud of.

By the late 70's McCain had engaged in adulterous behaviors, as chronicled in the book "The Nightingale's Song" by Robert Timberg. Timberg wrote:

"Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates. At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In 1979 John McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley at a military reception in Hawaii. [1] Cindy was a millionaire and very attractive. McCain was eighteen years older than the wealthy Hensley, but that didn't stop him from developing an adulterous relationship with her. [2]

McCain says of their first meeting, "She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 18 years my junior but poised and confident. I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

That's what happened. How the public will handle this as the campaign wears on is the unknown story.

Rep. John Murtha Thinks Hardball's Chris Matthews Should Be Senator

At an event U.S. Rep John Murtha said that he believed long-time political pundit MSNBC and former San Francisco Examiner Columnist Chris Matthews would make a great Senator

To me, that would mean the loss of a great political pundit.

Rick Warren Screws Up: Tickets To Saddleback Sold For $500 And Up

Say, what's Pastor Rick Warren up to, charging $500 and up for a ticket to the Saddleback Forum and not telling people on the website according to this YouTuber. Look, the errors regarding this debate are starting to add up. I have no objection to the Forum and I enjoyed it.

But I do have serious problems with the way Warren guided Senator McCain to address a Darfur issue McCain would not have mentioned on his own, and I don't like that Pastor Warren essentially let McCain give the kind of stump speeches that Senator Obama was told not to give.

That's not right and Pastor Warren owes the country an explaination for it.

Saddleback Forum - Obama Thoughtful | McCain WarMonger

My take on tonight's Saddleback Forum. I felt that Pastor Rick Warren set Obama up by first having him go before McCain, then telling him not to give stump speeches while having or allowing McCain to give stump speeches and not challenging him on it.

When I hear Senator McCain all I get is "war. war. war." When I hear Senator Obama, I get "talk. think. decide." That's a huge difference, indeed. For someone like CNN Contributor David Gergen to be massaged to sleep by the words of Senator McCain is totally criminal. And it really is, because we're not electing a story teller, we're electing a president.