If you work for Hillary Clinton and your candidate's ahead in the polls, your job is to avoid unpleasant surprises - even if it means planting questions in the audience. Last week, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, a 19-year-old college student, attended a campaign event in Iowa - where a Hillary staffer asked if she wanted to ask a question. When Muriel told them what question she wanted to ask, they said "no" and gave her a typed query - one that would not make news, and allow Clinton to repeat her campaign talking points. I got to ask Hillary a tough question at the Yearly Kos Convention in August - but Clinton has done her best to avoid such unscripted moments, as her "inevitable" nomination rolls along. After Muriel got some media attention, the Hillary camp asked her to stop talking to the press. Kind of reminds me how two Clinton staffers confronted me after my exchange with the Senator. Hillary's campaign is running a tight ship, but planting questions to control the message speaks volumes about a candidate we simply can't trust.
I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron, San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily.
In the presidential campaign, we've heard a lot about "experience" (a plus for Hillary Clinton), "change" (Barack Obama's strongest point), and "electability" (which helps John Edwards.) But one factor that has yet to play a role is "trust." It is one thing to hear what a candidate has to say, but how can progressives know who will stick to their guns when the right-wing noise machine attacks - and who will capitulate, triangulate and take our support for granted? If "trust" becomes a major concern for Democratic primary voters, Hillary Clinton could be in trouble. And while a candidate can tout their resume to boost "experience," their platform to project "change," and good poll numbers to push "electability," there isn't much they can do about the fact that voters don't trust them. Especially when you've been in the public eye for 15 years.
The LA Times today had two letters to the editors about their story on Yearly Kos, and boy, do the Billo talking points come out loud and clear. "Hate-Filled!" "Vicious!" "Anti-American!" They cry out for a response. I sent mine in, will you? Here are the offenders.....
The question I asked Hillary Clinton at the Yearly Kos Convention has generated lots of attention. I was moved by the number of people who approached me and said, "great question!" and now it's starting to change the narrative of Hillary's campaign in the mainstream media - as evidenced by this AP article.
But I'm not asking people to thank me. I just did what anyone else is capable of doing - holding politicians accountable by asking a very pointed question that drives the message home. My question was no accident. It was well-prepared, and I put a lot of thought into it. You can too if you take the following advice:
After seeing Gila's latest story on The Liberal OC, I've been thinking. I know, I know. That's a REALLY scary thought. But trust me, it's not scary.
All too often when we think of the netroots, we think of those big, glitzy, glamorous national blogs with all those hundreds of thousands of User IDs. We think of that huge convention in Chicago that just ended. We think big, and we think national. But when you really look at the big picture, the national scene is only a small part of it.
The SF Chronicle just caught onto this, and I'm glad to see them noticing. There's a giant segment of the netroots that hasn't been noticed much, but is nonetheless making a huge difference throughout California, and throughout the nation. Follow me after the flip for more...
It's probably too early to fully process all that went on this weekend at Yearly Kos. Plus, I have to admit that I am exhausted, having stayed up to the wee hours of the morning talking with some amazing individuals, including a number of the tight knit California blogosphere. It is incredible to me that it was only at last year's Yearly Kos that I met Todd Beeton and David Dayen. We have come so far since then, both in terms of friendships, accomplishments and the deployment of many innovative things here at Calitics. The whole ActBlue staff individually told Brian that they use his Calitics ActBlue page YouTube video in trainings. I lost track of the number of people that were thrilled to hear that Calitics is now available in Spanish.
I keep trying to start a coherent and hopefully insightful post, but I am just so fried. However, you really do need to see this SF Chron article from yesterday titled "Local blogs are key to future of politics":
Lucas posted a little bit about the beginning of the YearlyKos Convention, but there's a little bit of California here. In fact, over 200 Californians are registered for this convention. Hey, that's not too bad considering that Chicago is a long flight away from California.
So, Kid Oakland worked really hard to get the regional caucuses set up, and Dave and Julia organized the California caucus. So, thanks! We spent the bulk of the time introducing ourselves, but that's pretty darn useful. Listen, Blogs are great, but at some point we need to get to know each other in the real world.
We also talked briefly about how important California's legislature and legislation is to the nation as a whole. Whether that's for better (the catalytic convertor) or for worse (the anti-tax bug of the late 1970s), California matters. Finally, we wrapped up with a few minutes from some of our great California candidates for Congress. Charlie Brown, Steve Young, Ron Shepston, and Russ Warner each told us a little bit about themselves. And hey, looky we even have a picture with the four of them (thanks, Dante!).
