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May 24, 2004
Personal Democracy Forum 9AM Monday
Personal Democracy Forum
9AM Monday morning, May 24th. Reporting from the New School and the "Personal Democracy Forum," a Jerry Michaelski - Andrew Rasiej production. I'm surrounded by bloggers. Jeff Jarvis in front. Anil Dash, of Moveable Type, to my left. We're here to talk about the affect of the Internet on the politics game. Following, my stream of consciousness notes.....First Up: Former Senator Bob Kerrey, now President of the New School:
- the key issue for an administrator -- and for a campaign manager -- is whether "to relinquish control."
- "takes more effort to set up a government than it does to influence a government that already exists."
- talking about "open source briefing." "I promise you that on September 11th, the most important source of information he [President Bush] got was from television....still a presumption that 30 second television ads are important, "but, my God, George Bush just spent $70 million on negative ads and it hardly moved the needle."
- Is blogging good or bad? It's neither good or bad..."blogging is like gravity."
- "Say what you want about Drudge, but...by dint of his relentless work...he's become a credible source."
- Blogging will continue to be important. We still need to encode and decode with words. People who can write, and that's not a small thing, will be influential. But..." eventually we may not need to so much. More "I'm personally influenced by sound." Expects more video and sound.
The first panel: "New Tools and Dynamics...."
(Meanwhile, they're broadcasting the chat on a screen behind the panel. Between blogging and chatting, it's difficult to actually pay attention to what anyone is saying.
- Nicco Mele, webmaster for the Dean campaign: "the most extraordinary thing: people started posted pictures of their meetup...old ladies in Nebraska, people in NYC...this broad tapestry of America started to emerge from these meetup pictures...."
- Dave Pollack of MSHC, the agency of record for John Kerry's fundraising: must create a sense of urgency.
What works in terms of driving action or making an impact?
Afternoon panel: Joe Trippi and Senator Ron Weyden
- Weyden talks about his "Stand by your ad." Explains that "open-ness" and "transparency" is good, but require accountability. He plans to launch a "Stand by your ad 2" bill to deal with negative, deceitful Internet campaigning.
- Trippi talks about "going negative in the time of Jefferson. "How do you go negative on the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence?" Trippi asks? Turns out Jefferson's opponents "went around on horses and said Jefferson was dead."
- Kerrey: "I don't think most people have any idea the levels to which the system has sunk with regard to fund raising." The "corrosive, stench" of fund raising. It's not that Senator X receives money from some group on Tuesday and then makes a certain vote on Thursday. "I'm sure that happens, there's no doubt about it. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that we have an election on the first Tuesday of November. People sleep in on Wednesday, but on Wednesday the fund raising begins, and it doesn't stop, year in and year out."
- Joe Trippi: "I think that John Kerry is missing a big opportunity." He's showing up on his Harley, hang gliding. The whole tone of his campaign -- and it's not different from Bush's -- 'Look at my, I'm amazing.'"
- "Fundamentally, it is the money. It's the money stupid. We're buying our government back."
- He should say, "Look at you, YOU'RE amazing." The American people have not been asked to be involved in a long, long time. And a campaign that recognized that could light a fire...."
- "The retail politics today is not knocking on anyone's door. We took regular people out of the process."
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Posted by oliver at May 24, 2004 09:10 AM