Archive: Year: 2010

I was struck by something as I listened to President Obama speaking in Elyria, Ohio, last Friday, at one of the occasional townhalls he has held out in Ohio whenever he deems it important to get out of Washington and be seen "connecting" with the public. It wasn't just Obama's constant use of the refrain "I'll never stop fighting for you." (My friend David Corn notes he used the word "fighting" 14 times in his prepared remarks.) It was how often he said "I." I didn't run for President to turn away from these challenges. I didn't run for President to kick them down the road. I ran for President to confront them - once and for all. I ran for...

It's interesting to see how the Internet factors into the Supreme Court's earthshaking decision in the Citizens United case to overturn a century's worth of jurisprudence restricting corporate and union money in politics. I'm going to skip over all the details of the case, and the equally troubling question of judicial activism, as these are really topics beyond the purview of techPresident and are already being hotly debated elsewhere. But to understand how the majority and minority justices in this landmark case discuss the role of the internet in our political ecosystem, you need to understand this much of the larger frame. To Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, the First Amendment rights of corporations shall not be infringed,...

A very quick comment on the meaning of yesterday's special election in Massachusetts, in terms of the role of technology in changing politics: First, I couldn't agree more with what Nancy wrote here yesterday: The Internet seems to have equipped Brown to catch, collect, and amplify the enthusiasm that grew around his campaign -- both pro-Brown energy, and anti-Coakley, anti-Obama, anti-health care reform (and anti-Republican establishment) sentiment. And then there's the simple logistic factor that, because this was a special election triggered by the death of Ted Kennedy, this was a condensed campaign schedule. That's probably a major deal here because if there is the anything the Internet seems to be good at, it seems to be catalyzing excitement at an amazingly...

Politics junkies in the U.S. are focusing rabidly on today's special election in the Massachusetts Senate race, but it's worth noting that Haiti is still garnering much more attention online. Here's the Trendistic chart comparing tweets using the words "Haiti," "#MASen" (the generic hashtag for the race), "Scott Brown" and "Martha Coakley": And here's a similar comparison using Google Insight for Search:...

We're pleased to announce that the eighth annual Personal Democracy Forum conference will be taking place this June 3-4 in New York City, at the beautiful and centrally-located CUNY Graduate Center (5th Ave and 34th St.) If you want to save money, you should take advantage of our "early-early-bird" registration. We're making a limited number of tickets available between now and February 15, after which prices will go up. So, if you know you're planning on coming--and you know who you are--why not book now and lock in our best price? This year we're proud to be featuring these confirmed speakers, a most diverse and accomplished group: Saul Anuzis, Chair of the GOP Technology Advisory Council Nick Bilton, The New York Times Susan Crawford,...

Next Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts to fill the remaining three years of Ted Kennedy's term in the U.S. Senate is drawing a lot of attention, not only as the latest test of the national political winds, but also because if Republican Scott Brown defeats Democrat Martha Coakley, the Democrats will be down to 59 votes in the Senate (counting the two independents) and the health care bill may die on the vine. Both national parties are pouring money and troops into the state and the polls suggest it could be a close race. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to see what the online metrics might tell us about next Tuesday's vote. And on the...

Marta Evry is a 45-year-old film editor who works on television shows and movies in Hollywood. She took off six months in 2008 to volunteer full time on the Obama campaign, ultimately working as a Regional Field Organizer for CA-36. Along with her co-RFO, she ran many dozens of phone banks for Obama from August 2008 to election day, managing some 1,500 volunteers who made over 500,000 phone calls to swing states all over the country. Since then she has remained active as a community organizer, running the blog Venice for Change, and working on everything from health care reform, to marriage equality to California budget issues. She is also a delegate to the CA State Democratic party and a...

I'm going on GritTV at noon eastern today to talk about the Obama Disconnect with Karoli. You can watch it here:...

My friend Ralph Benko, author of The Webster's Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World, emailed me a very interesting response to my back and forth with Mark Tapscott. With his permission I'm sharing it here. It's Ralph's interpretation of how Saul Alinsky, the veteran community organizer, might analyze Obama today. The page references are all from Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals, (Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc./New York, October 1989 printing). Ralph writes: Obama has chosen the path of the Leader, rather than the path of the organizer. Alinsky (pp. 79-80): Finally, the organizer is constantly creating the new out of the old. He knows that all new ideas arise from conflict; that every time...

If you can sign an electronic pad at the supermarket to pay your credit card bill, why can't you sign the touch-screen of your iPhone to sign a political petition? That question is now being put to the test by the Citizen Power Campaign in California, working with technology developed by a company called Verafirma. The ballot initiative they're working on aims to strip public employee unions of their ability to tap member dues for political activities (a proposal that may not be constitutional) but leave the politics aside; the potential to open a new front in ballot petitioning is what's important. As far as anyone knows, this is the first time in the U.S. that ballot initiative signatures are being...