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Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback. My answer disappoints them: "Build an ark."
I say this because I've made a career out of counting votes, and the numbers tell a clear story; the demographics of America are changing in a way that is deadly for the Republican Party as it exists today. A GOP ice age is on the way. Read More.
In his Inaugural address, Barack Obama summoned Americans to a "new era of responsibility" and challenged us to end the politics of "standing pat ... and putting off unpleasant decisions." It could have happened. If there was ever a President sitting on a high enough mountain of political capital to lead the country through a series of very painful but necessary political decisions, it is Obama. But sadly, that new era has so far been a promise unfulfilled. Read More.
Alas, my GOTV calling pals at the VA Blue Ridge Lock n' Load gun club have not sent me any photos, but I did get this cool one from a hip Obama phoner working with the "30Barack" group. This is an Obama phone bank -- mostly targeting Nevada I'd suspect-- located inside a giant movie soundstage in Los Angeles. All volunteers. Gotta give kudos to Hollywood; I love the dutch camera angle...
Mike's Blogs on TIME's Swampland
Just heard Obama Manager David Plouffe's view of the world at a groovy TIME magazine event. I'll post some thoughts on it a bit later. But for now, a quick review of last night's Hillary speech and a dire prediction about tomorrow's planned spectacular at Invesco field.
Hillary gave the best speech of her career. It will do Obama some good. The only downside was that it was very generic: a single tap of the word processor key to switch and replace out 'Barack Obama' and the speech could have been changed in two seconds to endorse Chris Dodd. There was no explicit praise for Obama's specific talents and character, just a strong endorsement of the party nominee. Not bad, just not perfect, especially with the Clinton vs. Obama tension talk still very much in the air. We'll see how the former POTUS does tonight.
I think the normally shrewd Obama campaign has a blind spot about tomorrows big speech at Invesco field. The Pepsi center is the visual 'home' of this convention. Having Obama do his big finish in another venue screws up the visual vernacular of the convention. Turn off the sound, and watch the tape. In the end it will look like two different conventions; one visually dominated by Clintons, another by Obama. That is a message of separation, not unity. Also, ask any TV director: staging a TV mega-event outdoors is very tricky. Lots of things are hard to control. The whole Obama speaks to massive crowd thing is impressive, but done. We've seen it before. Finally, the Mount Olympus set looks problematical at best. An Obama staffer assured me it'll look better tomorrow. For their sake, it better. They should have changed this up yesterday and moved to a more intimate man in the arena set up back in the Pepsi center. Obama is the nominee, he should own this house. Maybe I'm wrong; but we'll see how tomorrow night ultimately turns.
Mike's Blogs on TIME's Swampland
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