Politcal Gastronomica

Funny thing – eight days ago, after taking a couple of days to edit my social networks post, one of my thought exercises turned out to be (somewhat) prophetic. In the post, I suggested:

Now think about Senator Clinton, building a virtual campaign office in SecondLife, the 200K member community that allows for intellectual property ownership and currency exchanges. In this case, the campaign has a virtual store within the office where you can purchase “Hillary ’08” paraphenalia with your Linden dollars (L$). To pay the “rent” in SecondLife, the campaign converts those Linden dollars used to buy the campaign gear into US currency through various online exchange sites. (Ooch – those pesky-little rules from McCain-Feingold could potentially problem for compliance issues – but it does help in those data collection needs).

Okay – so I did not have the candidate correctly, but on Thursday, former Governor Mark Warner made an “campaign stop” in secondLife and had a terrific Q&A session with about 30 visitors in the session. The following is a list of blogs discussing the event:

• Wagner James Au, the moderator, reports on his blog (New World Notes) with full transcript and photos. Additionally, he posts a post-interview wrapup of the impact of the event in the main-stream media.
• YesButNoButYes comments on the potential gimmickery of the event (not sure if this is a real blog or just one trying to generate clicks for their ads…)
• My friend, Dave Weinberger jots a note about the visit in JoHo
• Rik in secondLife provides video of the event at his blog, Click Heard Round the World with some his own reporting on what Warner said on Iraq and other topics on this post.
• And reported in Somewhat Frank, Warner might be doing more TownHall meetings over the course of the campaign.

I wonder – the event was sparsely attended (30 residents) and it was the first in the virtual world (as reported by MicroPersuasion). Will others follow? I would assume some might, since it only made a ripple in the main stream media.

Tags: Mark Warner, secondLife,
Virtual Town Hall Meeting,
Virtual Campaigning

Only in Florida can a campaign be sidelined by Mother Nature – and campaigns are trains that, by themselves, are forces to be reckoned with. After Ernesto cancelled the debate for Tuesday, the Davis/Smith campaigns have had a field-day regarding whether or not to commit to another debate.

As reported in the Miami Herald, the Smith campaign decided not to commit to another debate because of the planned campaign stops in Northern Florida. The Davis campaign got a chance to give a shot about Smith’s connections with US Sugar. It was reported in the Palm Beach Post that Davis was ready as of 2pm Wednesday to be at the debate, but by 4pm, the Smith campaign decided that it would not work to be in West Palm Beach and still handle the campaign schedule they had already planned.

Is this horse-hockey?
Being on campaigns now for a bit of time, the time for prep and getting all of the practice in is extremely demanding on a campaign. I can speak to the stressors and efforts put into the Kerry and Deutsch campaigns to prepare for their debates – especially trying to get all of the advisors ready and to agree on what is the best spin on a topic. But, Rod is a natural orator. He was materful in the previous debate – and impromptu has never been his weak point.

Could it be that the efforts of ads, mailers and the previous debate (that is more than likely replying over and over again on PBS) was enough that Rod does not need any more visibility? With the Strategic Vision Poll out (reported by FLA Politics) yesterday, is it suprising the Rod is feeling the momentum that precludes a showing on local television? The amount of votes Rod is going to gain from this North Florida run that he has not already won is miniscule – compared to what exposure he might get given a focus on a West Palm debate. Think about the additional coverage he would get from WSVN and other local stations in a rich Democratic region like Broward County… Or could it be that Labor Day Weekend is not the best time to expect people to see candidates on television – especially since they would be heading out for a holiday with the family, and not sitting in front of the TV.

Truth be told, the race is almost over. After Labor Day, the decision will be made. The people coming out more than likely have already made their mind. The question is – who do you support?

Tags: Rod Smith, Jim Davis, Florida Governor

Got home late last night and watched the streaming video of the Florida Democratic Governor debate between Congress Jim Davis and State Senator Rod Smith. As I watched, I tracked the performance of each candidate on each issue discussed gave my estimate of who performed in each issue to help me better understand the stance. Prior to watching, Davis came into the debate with assumptions of being stiff and not as strong a debater as Smith, whereas Smith would be more in his element.

After watching, and knowing about the race, I would suggest that Smith won over Davis – even though Davis did perform better than expected. The first half was light – and Davis was able to position himself as a straight-talker and more animated than I expected. If I wanted to play a little Oliver Stone, I might suggest that Smith even stumbled and played behind to gain some sympathy for his “nervousness”. But once the two were able to ask questions of each other, Smith’s abilities began to overshadow Davis. And, whereas Davis might have tried to point out how Smith had the backing of big, bad US Sugar – it came off sounding weak. Smith, who initially came off kind of “off” was able to pound on Davis two major points – you did not do your job AND you are a Washington outsider. Incredible as this seems, Davis, who originally used the concept of not being a Tallahassee insider to point out his strength, now found Smith using it to demonstrate how out of touch he was with the issues in State. His technique of discussing his family and being a parent was a nice tactic, Smith’s use of “there’s another Washington answer” during the debate was a deft touch to keep Davis positioned outside the Florida mainstream during the debate.

Style points go to Davis in the debate for performing better than I expected. And Smith, in the debate, still had his almost Baptist minister-like energy, but by the end of the debate, I had begun to get tired of the fast delivery and a sense of over-confidence. His last line in the closing somewhat unnerved me – regarding how Davis had not earned the right to be Governor and (in contrast), he had.

Who will be the best person for the job? I would say that Davis makes me feel that we will be the thoughtful Governor, but Smith has a record of deomnstrating how to handle the issues between working as a minority party with the majority working against him. He knows the system and more than likely would be able to work it much more effectively than Davis, who has been outside the social structure that is Tallahassee. While Smith has the backing of US Sugar (which I have seen first-hand the ability of their negative campaigns), he came across much stronger and more with a strong understanding of the issues and mechanations of Florida politics. Advantage goes to Smith, though I wonder what people in South Florida will say in the coming days.

UPDATE: Fla Politics has a great run down of all of the articles out today on the debate.

What follows are my notes from the debate – and my conclusions on who won the points on each of the issues raised.

Continue reading →