Monday, September 27, 2004
Tipping Point
Autumn is truly here in Wisconsin--this morning is crisp and cool, the sunlight is gorgeous, and the trees are beginning to change colors. The weekend was magnificent, all except for the way the Packers took the gaspipe against Indianapolis yesterday. I should have stayed outside frolicking instead of wasting the afternoon on that.
I was out for a while before the game yesterday, and I ran into Russ Feingold at the grocery store. Actually, I saw one of his staffers first, a woman from my hometown, and didn't notice Russ at all. While I was visiting with her, the Senator walked over to me, extended his hand, called me by name, and thanked me for the work I'm doing for his campaign. (A bit of volunteering, and not as much lately as I'd like to be doing.) Down the aisle I saw another staffer who'd clearly tipped Russ to me, but no matter what the genesis of the gesture, it was a nice thing for him to have done.
Yesterday I wrote about Bush's apparent strength here in Wisconsin. On the surface, that would seem to be bad news for Russ. But a poll taken earlier this month shows that about 30 percent of those favoring Feingold for reelection call themselves Bush supporters. That same poll shows Feingold leading his opponent, Tim Michels, 53-39 with nine percent undecided. Another poll has it closer, 51-45. Michels had just won the primary when the polls were taken, however, so they show the state of the race practically before it began, which means it's going to be razor-close before it's done.
So the weather is great and Feingold's out in front, but there's something else brightening my morning today. I actually miss Howard Dean a little bit less after John Kerry's fightin' words upon landing in Madison last night.
Recommended Reading: It's been a big two months for political blogging. First there was the hype about the bloggers who got accredited to attend the conventions; then conservative bloggers got credit for uncovering the forged memos CBS used in its story about Bush's National Guard service. It seems as though political blogging is at a tipping point, where it's about to move from a niche to the mainstream. Billmon, of Billmon's Whiskey Bar, who went on hiatus shortly after I did back in June, came back a couple of weeks later, and disappeared again about a month ago, resurfaced yesterday in the Los Angeles Times with a column about the transformation of political blogging, and his fear that it's going to be co-opted by the same mainstream media for which it's acted as an antidote up til now. That sparked a response by Kevin Drum of Political Animal, in which he discusses different ways bloggers go bigtime. To me, none of them are especially problematical. Sure, getting famous, getting paid to blog, or getting sponsors for your blog, is likely to change the way you write--but the beautiful thing about the blogosphere is that--at least until AT&T, Comcast, or AOL figures out a way to make the Internet a wholly-owned subsidiary--anybody can do it. And if Kevin or Billmon or Kos or Atrios goes commercial and loses their edge, there'll be somebody else to take their place.
Autumn is truly here in Wisconsin--this morning is crisp and cool, the sunlight is gorgeous, and the trees are beginning to change colors. The weekend was magnificent, all except for the way the Packers took the gaspipe against Indianapolis yesterday. I should have stayed outside frolicking instead of wasting the afternoon on that.
I was out for a while before the game yesterday, and I ran into Russ Feingold at the grocery store. Actually, I saw one of his staffers first, a woman from my hometown, and didn't notice Russ at all. While I was visiting with her, the Senator walked over to me, extended his hand, called me by name, and thanked me for the work I'm doing for his campaign. (A bit of volunteering, and not as much lately as I'd like to be doing.) Down the aisle I saw another staffer who'd clearly tipped Russ to me, but no matter what the genesis of the gesture, it was a nice thing for him to have done.
Yesterday I wrote about Bush's apparent strength here in Wisconsin. On the surface, that would seem to be bad news for Russ. But a poll taken earlier this month shows that about 30 percent of those favoring Feingold for reelection call themselves Bush supporters. That same poll shows Feingold leading his opponent, Tim Michels, 53-39 with nine percent undecided. Another poll has it closer, 51-45. Michels had just won the primary when the polls were taken, however, so they show the state of the race practically before it began, which means it's going to be razor-close before it's done.
So the weather is great and Feingold's out in front, but there's something else brightening my morning today. I actually miss Howard Dean a little bit less after John Kerry's fightin' words upon landing in Madison last night.
My friends, entire regions in Iraq are controlled by terrorists. American forces ceded to the terrorist areas of control, yet President Bush keeps insisting that the situation in improving, keeps insisting that freedom is the horizon, keeps insisting the country is going back and it unbelievable that just this morning that the President has said that he would do it all over again, and dress up in a flight suit and land on an aircraft and say "mission accomplished" again.That's telling it like it is, but reading it on the page you don't get the forceful, no-nonsense tone with which he delivered it. It wasn't the speech of somebody soft on terror. It was not the Kerry of the pro-Bush ad running during the Packer game yesterday--the one that repeats the theme that Kerry is weak and a vote for him means you want the terrorists to kill us all. (Bush's defense, of course, is that he never actually spoke the words "mission accomplished," and you didn't really see that big banner he appeared in front of.)
"My friends, when the President landed on that aircraft carrier, 150 of our sons and daughters had given their lives. Since then, tragically, since he said 'missions accomplished,' tragically, over 900 more have died. And, leading senators in his own party, Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican from Nebraska, has said, 'we’re in trouble there, this policy is trouble.' Senator John McCain and Senator Dick Lugar have said it, that the President continues to live in a fantasy land of spin. George Bush owes the American people the truth and he owes the troops the truth.
Recommended Reading: It's been a big two months for political blogging. First there was the hype about the bloggers who got accredited to attend the conventions; then conservative bloggers got credit for uncovering the forged memos CBS used in its story about Bush's National Guard service. It seems as though political blogging is at a tipping point, where it's about to move from a niche to the mainstream. Billmon, of Billmon's Whiskey Bar, who went on hiatus shortly after I did back in June, came back a couple of weeks later, and disappeared again about a month ago, resurfaced yesterday in the Los Angeles Times with a column about the transformation of political blogging, and his fear that it's going to be co-opted by the same mainstream media for which it's acted as an antidote up til now. That sparked a response by Kevin Drum of Political Animal, in which he discusses different ways bloggers go bigtime. To me, none of them are especially problematical. Sure, getting famous, getting paid to blog, or getting sponsors for your blog, is likely to change the way you write--but the beautiful thing about the blogosphere is that--at least until AT&T, Comcast, or AOL figures out a way to make the Internet a wholly-owned subsidiary--anybody can do it. And if Kevin or Billmon or Kos or Atrios goes commercial and loses their edge, there'll be somebody else to take their place.
