I met and talked with many aspiring Democratic politicians in Austin. None of them were as impressive as Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich who is running for Ted ‘Hulk Tie’ Stevens’ senate seat. When I get the energy, I will tell you the reasons that Begich has the potential to be a star in Congress, but for now I’ll just note that he ran his first television ads recently and jumped out to a 50%-41% lead.
Another impressive politician I talked to is Jim Slattery who is running for Pat ‘Cover-Up’ Roberts’ seat in Kansas. Slattery and I slung the bull over a breakfast buffet at Champions Restaurant. He’s the first politician I’ve ever strategized with that thought it was key to talk more about abortion. In this election atmosphere I would have thought it wise to keep the focus off of ‘cultural issues’. Slattery disagreed. In his heavily pro-life state he feels it is necessary to educate the voters about the impracticalities of abortion prohibition. He didn’t cite any polling to back up this assertion but he knows his state a whole heck of a lot better than I do. I suppose it’s possible that Kansas still has so many single-issue anti-choice Republicans that it is necessary to aggressively take the issue head-on.
When hobnobbing over cocktails with high-level House and Senate staffers I discovered that the House loves to blame the Senate and the Senate loves to blame the House for everything unpopular that goes on. In this case, both sides were eager to place the blame for FISA completely on the other chamber. It was amusing to witness, and also educational. When they weren’t blaming each other, they blamed telecom money rather than any high level of complicity on the Democratic side.
Markos was passing out advance copies of his new book Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era. I’m almost done with it and it is excellent. I don’t know if Harold Ford Jr. had had an opportunity to read it before he made his appearance at Netroots Nation, but if he did it might explain why he was so hostile and unhappy to be there. Kos absolutely skewers him in the book.
Mike Stark has giant panda balls-of-steel. I’m still waiting to see the edited version of his video confrontation with John Fund and Grover Norquist where he asked them if they had even been a couple.
Al Giordano is just as fun and interesting in person as you would suspect from reading The Field.
Hanging out with Latino bloggers LP (thanks for the room the first night), Duke, XicanoPwr, and Man Eegee was a pleasure and I sincerely hope that they all rise up to have a bigger voice and even some power in the emerging progressive majority. Visit them at The Sanctuary.
Yet, if the Latino outreach was better this year, the African-American outreach was still lacking. We have to do better in Pittsburgh.
The best panel I saw was Energize America partially organized by Jerome a Paris of European Tribune. It’s always great to see Jerome.
Amanda Terkel is as smart and charming in person as you would expect by reading her kick-ass blog, Think Progress.
And, of course, some bloggers are just as dull and obnoxious in real-life as you would expect from their online personas.
Thanks for the additional write-up, Boo! I am so excited about Begich, and feel proud to be working on his campaign (even if it’s in a fairly small way – making the graphics for the site).
I was very pleased to see the Rasmussen report on it… however, I was confounded by this: “Rasmussen Markets data suggests that Stevens has a 98.0 % chance of winning re-election in November. ” I’ve never seen such a disparity between the polls and the market data. Perhaps people just can’t believe Stevens could be toppled?
Begich is a very interesting guy and he’d be really, really valuable in the Senate. I also think he’ll be a bit of a media hound (a la Joe Biden) but we’ll have to wait and see.
ohhhhh… thanks for the clarification – I has suspected Rasmussen was conservative, but thought I was being touchy. 🙂
You’re the best Boo. Looking forward to the rest of it…after the mini jet-lag.
“And, of course, some bloggers are just as dull and obnoxious in real-life as you would expect from their online personas.”
Now who would they be? No hint required.
Now wait a minute! I wasn’t there—that was some impersonator.
“I suppose it’s possible that Kansas still has so many single-issue anti-choice Republicans that it is necessary to aggressively take the issue head-on.”
There are a LOT of voters in Kansas whose single-issue is abortion. In fact, just yesterday there was a letter to the editor in the Topeka Capital-Journal saying that, but it was regarding the 2nd District Congressional race.
http://cjonline.com/stories/072108/opi_307051092.shtml
I want that Stark video. more details please, or a link?
The Rude One.
that’s too fucking funny.
keep an eye out for a possible further Starkapade in Baltimore tonight.
I think that he thinks that MORE abortion talk is useful because of the deranged climate in Kansas.
From the standpoint of opinion, opinions range from far far left to far far right. On abortion, people like me beleive that abortion should be freely available for any reason before month 6 (left=2). Others believe that abortion should be available for any reason before birth itself (far far left=1). Others believe it should be restricted but available (centrist=3). Others believe it should not be available at all (far right=4). Finally, there are people like the previous attorney general of Kansas who favor prosecution of mothers (far far right=6).
If Slattery believes that most people are between 2.5 and 3.5 (which I believe), then he probably wants to position himself there. If Roberts is at 5 or 5.5, then discussing abortion does make sense, to ensure that people realize that your position is sensible, centrist and LIKE THEIRS.
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In psychology, looking at opinion like this can be done with the method of unfolding.
And… “Educate the voters”– what a concept! More, please!
So who’s dull and obnoxious? I would love to know.
I’m not going there.
I figured. I’m not on the super-secret blogger email lists, though, so I had to ask. Your tact sets an example for us all.
Then don’t go there at all.
Now I wonder if I was one of the turds. How could I not?
I thought you were totally cool.
Thank you.
Actually Boo and I had a nice conversation, I thanked him for his Patreus observations.
[sigh] I should not have wondered, I dunno why my weenie got in a twist over it. None of my business anyway, even if I was one of the dullards.
They know who they are. That’s good enough.
From this and other things I’ve read, it sounds like there was decent access at NN. I’m hoping to attend in Pittsburgh.
Just saw this. It was great meeting you too, Boo, considering this was one of the two community sites where I got my start. 🙂
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