with no real news to distract me...

[gfish]

I've been rereading my 2004 election post-mortem. I'm reasonably pleased with how well it still stands. I'm very glad to have been wrong about the Democrats lurching to the right. For the most part, though, I don't think (with the beautiful exception that is the Obama campaign) that we've actually become that much smarter about the media. We've been facing a largely incompetent, corrupt, demoralized, completely out of touch opposition. With luck¹ that will continue through 2010, but I don't want this to be a repeat of the Carter administration.

1: With real luck the GOP will spend a couple cycles divided, with the corporate conservatives fighting the social conservatives for control, maybe even calving off a couple (short-lived) new parties in the process.

Comments

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

We can but hope.

I've been waiting for a real third party for a long long time. The green party was actually on the ticket in my area (I didn't vote for them but in one local case) but they have some serious issues they need to iron out before they are taken seriously by people even with the current environmental issues.

Of course most people still aren't noticing those unless they affect their beer and football or drive up the price of that Ford OMGITSHUGE! SUV.

[spinnerin-ftw.livejournal.com]

It's nice having a candidate that stands for things I believe in and is charismatic to boot.

I'm really interested in seeing how the Obama campaign social media savvy spreads (or doesn't) to the rest of the party. I know some of the people who worked on the Obama iphone app, and I'm thrilled that they built a system that turns campaigning for a candidate into a points-earning game. Maybe they learned from the successes and failures of Dean's campaign?

The Bus Project (http://busproject.org/) is another one to keep an eye on. They've managed to get people who would otherwise sit around talking to their same group of fellow city-dwelling liberal friends to campaign for progressive candidates in the rest of the state--essentially by turning campaign trips into a fun party.

[socialistboy.livejournal.com]

as i noted in a comment to your 2004 post, i can't believe it happened. i knew then he could do it, but honestly until tonight i still thought somehow it wasn't real. in fact i still don't really believe its real. i'm expecting court battles and a reversal, even though it is clear. i called it in 04, when i voted obama into the senate, this is my guy. i hope he can live up to the hype.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I think he will. And you're pretty lucky to have been able to vote for him twice now! The scene downtown Seattle was insane tonight. It was like a happy WTO.