Vacuous political observations

Poliblogs

This morning on NPR (which I listen to when stuck in the early morning stampede across the San Fernando Valley), the desperate media was stuck talking about the new kids on the block, the weblog folks. Dave Winer was interviewed and had his usual spiel. Jay Rosen was also quoted (it seemed a good quote but my mind had quite displaced it by the time I broke free of four lanes full of drivers with atrophied right legs just as we hit the crest at La Tuna Canyon). The whole interview ended with the standard DW brainwashing when the reporter opined that the dismissal of weblogs would be toast by 2008 because everyone would have their own. I'm sure that he really meant that everyone involved in such a major political activity would have a weblog. I'm still going to call 'time traveling' on this reporter.

I'll agree that by 2008, it seems quite possible that a large number of politicians will have adopted sanitized, well screened, frequently updated web sites. Oops, wait, they already did. We'll skip the staffers, hangers on, lobbyists and a hoard of others who influence policy and refine our final choices; their existence is predicated on backwater channels and money, they'll show up doing guerilla marketing (good luck counting that), but will otherwise be AWOL.

So, really, we're down to the people who are selected as delegates. They're usually a wonderful collection of local, county and state political hopefuls, appointees and the self appointed with politicians of every stripe in between. Four years from now, web based media will have made a more significant dent in their psyche, and perhaps the delegate who today trusts only "The New York Times" will have more places to look, and if they're really involved, dive in and comment. Making them more active and involved in more discussions will be win enough. Getting every delegate to bare their soul in a personal fashion will be a heck of a lot harder.

Barack Obama

I'd never heard of Obama (the so called skinny kid with the funny name) until this weekend. I actually listened to the radio tonight just to see what he had to say...

"They would give me an African name, Barack, or 'blessed,' believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success," he said.

"They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential."

He's a slick, polished and passionate speaker who has obviously been tagged for future stardom should he be elected in November. More when I find the full transcript.