Why I Oughta...

All right...I am working on getting credentialed for the GOP Convention in NYC. How cool would that be. I have been putting the heat on some of the folks around the office about the credentials and about a new powerbook... As David Dring says, "Keep asking until someone says 'no'."

As usual, I am running in about 15 different directions. I have 45 things in my head and I can't get one of them done. We had a special guest in today from Southern California to work on a project that we're going to be rolling out on September 20th. It should be really cool. You'll all hear a ton more about it. In the meantime, we have a ton of other stuff to work on. Thanks to Rick Klau's encouragement , we're really working hard to move the blog to a different space and to make it a bit better. We have a great vendor in 1871media, but we (read I) want to do some stuff that I'm not sure that they are capable of.... We'll see. Their guys have been great, but I think that we're overwhelming them a bit. In the mean time...we're working on a "TV" site. I'll let you guys go try to figure out what the url is. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll have more than a "landing" page over there and by Monday, we'll launch a litt...

My co-contributor Lance Stevens pointed out some stuff to me yesterday. He was all a twitter with excitement over the DNC and the online resources at his fingertips. He pointed out Chris Matthews Hardblogger and some of his contributors. One of those contributors is none other than Mr. Joe Trippi. I've recently gotten to page 139 and 149 and someone's name twice! (more on this later) Anyway, Joe had some things to say about 'Market Demos' and trying to attract some youth's to the movement : It’s all wrong. The key to this election will be young people, disaffected young people, young people who have never voted before- and I’ll be damned if I am going to come up with some cutesy name for them "like Sons and Daughters of Nascar Dad and Soccer Moms." Just shoot me! What is remarkable about this election cycle is how for the first time in decades the younger generation of Americans is the most active and energized. How they communicate with each oth...

The Washington Post writes about Laura Bush and her record collection . I've always been a Bushie, but this pushes me firmly into the Laura camp. I'm all over her, now. She sent Bob Dylan's "at Budokan" to the girls at a summer camp when they were in the sixth grade. I'd love to pow-wow with Barbara and Jenna. Sit around listening to "Just like a Woman" or "I shall be Released" on bean bag chairs. Anyway...back to reality.... That's just crazy. Good crazy. I have all sorts of imagery about that Laura the Librarian and the counter-culture now.... I'd love to see what else is in the collection. GW probably threw in some of his Oak Ridge Boys...

All right, now that all of that DraftDitka nonsense has been settled, we can get back into the groove over at in the JoinCross space. It was certainly a fun ride while it lasted. I never thought that it would have blown up so rapidly and reached so many people. This really tells me the power of the blogosphere. I kinda used this as a test case for myself. When I compiled the initial media list to blast out the press releases, I only used a handful of 'traditional' print journalists. The top dogs. You know? But what I also included was about 1,000 blog writers. Everyone that I could find, I included in our media list. That's really how this whole thing blew up. I have been talking to reporters the past few days and have been telling them this same story. They tell me how they read blogs and how they (the blogs) have a way of keeping stories going, creating stories, and pointing out stories that the "mainstream" or traditional press misses. Let this be a lesso...

Dan Johnson-Weinberger who is a bright, but progressive political follower had some things to say about the Draft Ditka Movement : My hat is off to the Illinois GOP media operatives who have launched the Draft Ditka campaign. My guess is it's ... the smart guys running ... Tom Cross' online media work.  It's a brilliant tactical move.  ...And to get Mike Ditka in the converation about the Senate race? Brilliant! They've got *nothing* right now. They don't even have a candidate! And somehow just talking about Mike Ditka as a potential candidate gets more attention than Barack Obama. It's great, great media work by the GOP operatives. Notice the conversation isn't about the almost unprecedented train wreck where there isn't a candidate in mid-July and the potential replacements keep saying no (Rauschenburger pulled out a few days ago). Instead the converation about the IL GOP is about a fresh, fun story involving a Chicago icon. Just great work.  I...

For the U.S. Senate Seat, that is. I've heard a bunch of names bantied about and some make sense and others don't. The obviously most intriguing one is Patrick Fitzgerald. It seems like he's not interested in the job. His spokesman for the 'G' says: “[Patrick Fitzgerald] is not running for any electoral office. He has had no discussions with anyone about this matter," Sanborn said. "He is very happy with and intends to keep performing the job he has. I am denying there is anything to this whatsoever.” So, of course, the Illinois Leader (the conspiracy theorists that they are), say that the 'insiders' floating Fitzy's name just want him out of Illinois. There may be a bit of truth to that, but more importantly, he may be the only  guy  that can win. There are some other interesting names that I can think of. Corrine Wood. I always thought that this was going to be her seat. She had to run for Governor a few years back. She could have pas...