Palin’s next steps

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 2 Comments

Sarah Palin is stepping out of her shell to appear on SNL this week. This is a critical appearance – not for 2008, which is pretty much decided, but for her future as a Republican leader.

Palin’s selection as McCain’s veep energized the Republican party for a short period of time by signalling that the national ticket was willing to add a candidate who not only identified as a conservative but had governed (and lived) as one, as well. After a primary season where candidates fell all over themselves to quote Ronald Reagan, Palin was different in that she walked the walk. And of course, Republicans were eager to have their views articulated by someone other than an old white guy – just as the Democrats were when they rushed Barack Obama to the national spotlight in 2004.

This weekend, Palin begins the next phase of her political career. If she can hold her own and roll with SNL’s punches, she can earn a position of relevance as a GOP spokesperson and set up a possible 2012 run for the White House.

Game on!

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

News broke this week that Barack Obama placed campaign ads in online video games. Obama’s campaign has been very innovative throughout this campaign cycle – most notable their iPhone application which turns your mobile phone into a satellite campaign office. I’m not sure this is a great example of technical innovation, but it shows the pervasiveness of both advertising and political campaigns.

You might also imagine it shows the Obama camp has too much money, that they are wasting resources on ads directed at stoner teens who can’t – or don’t – vote. But if you look at the demographics of online gamers, it actually makes sense to advertise in this space. In fact, online gamers spend three times as long on their computers as they do in front of their TVs. It’s actually a pretty bright move.

The biggest value was, of course, the free advertising the Obama camp received from the news media for using such a novel advertising tactic – a less-controversial equivalent of the strategy behind the “Daisy” ad.

Content is king

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Radiohead‘s last album, In Rainbows, went triple platinum and made more money than their previous album. This is big because they “sold” their album online before its official release – and set their price at “whatever you’d like to pay.”

This is a good thing to pay attention to if you’re a creator of content. Now more than ever, you have to produce quality to break through the noise that comes from consumers having so many media options and choices. But Radiohead also demonstrates that if your product is good, the money will follow.

Punishing success

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Listening to the rhetoric this campaign season, and looking at polls that say people feel the country is heading in the wrong direction or that a deep recession or another Great Depression is right around the corner, one gets the feeling that our national confidence isn’t high.

The criticism heaped on a high school team that won 91-0 – even after pulling their starters and laying off their hapless opponents – may have a connection. Is our Gross Domestic Self Esteem Index low because we are afraid to succeed?

Our pursuit of terrorists turned into a nation-building exercise rather than a kill-people-and-break-things mission. The candidate who will likely win the White House has a campaign predicated on the idea that America as it is currently constituted is set up to ensure failure for certain classes of people. And when he gets in, his tax policy will punish anyone making over $200,000 per year.

America has, from its founding, been suspicious of power. It seems we are equally suspicious of ourselves.

Where’s MY tax cut?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

I tried out Barack Obama’s “tax cut calculator.” It doesn’t seem to work. It looks nice, but when I tried to enter my information the problems started.

First, it wouldn’t take all the information required. Next, it started processing whatever information it did have, but I couldn’t tell what it was doing or how it was manipulating that data. Then it gave me a brief message about staying informed.

I didn’t get any details about my tax cut – just the same short message, over and over again.

Hey, wait a minute…

Obama: We’re taking your money. Get over it.

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

I don’t have to make it up: He said it to a plumber from Ohio. To illustrate the courage of his convictions, he even tries to explain marginal rates to make the tax hike sound not so bad.

It plays well in the polls to wage class warfare and say that you’re only taxing “the wealthy” – but the reality is that those taxes hurt the people who are expanding the economy. Government prints money, but businesses create wealth.

(By the way, if all this sounds familiar, it should.)

Happy Blog Action Day

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

In case you missed it, today is Blog Action Day – a day when blogs all around the internet talk about a certain issue and link to sites that talk about that certain issue. Today’s issue that we are taking action on is poverty. How, you may ask, are bloggers taking action? Let’s go right to the horse’s mouth:

“Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. “

At this point, I feel compelled to say that “awareness” and “discussion” are not “action.” They are awareness and discussion. “Action” involves volunteering or donating. It’s easy to link to a non-profit whose job it is to call on more government funding to help these people out. That’s a lazy solution for people who want to feel like they have made a difference without getting their hands dirty.

But even though the temperature has been in the 80s this week in Your Nation’s Capital, it’s going to get cold soon, and there are going to be folks who can’t pay the home heating bill – or worse, don’t have a place to call home at all. There are always too many people who, for whatever reason, can’t get enough to eat.

As a good friend of mine once said, poverty is not a social problem – it’s a personal problem. Each person who suffers from poverty, homelessness, or hunger has their own path to that destination. That’s why small, local charities are the best equipped to deal with it through personal attention and help.

Your local homeless shelter, your church, or any number of community charities can use your time – and the people they help will appreciate it. So take action.

A promise is a promise…

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

John McCain has promised to bring up Barack Obama’s relationship with 1960’s activist/terrorist William Ayers in their debate this week.

I guess that’s good, but on the off chance that Obama has a glib reply prepared, McCain may want to find something else to ask his opponent. Some things I would like to see discussed:

Coming soon: SNL joins the 21st Century

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 2 Comments

This weekend, my brother and I were remembering of our favorite SNL sketches. I wanted to watch it, so I dialed up Hulu, the free video site that includes content from NBC. Nothing. I had to go to Google Video to find “Sabra Price is Right.”

Funny enough, Mashable today reports that a new SNL website is in the works. The site would feature (legally uploaded) clips to watch.

Lorne Michaels and company are apparently still working out a revenue model for the site – which means they view this as a separate business venture from their TV show. But beyond their recent election-related ratings boost, SNL has spent the past few seasons struggling to find the relevance it once had as a source of cutting-edge comedy.

What better way to create a buzz and excitement about the show than to release their sketches online for the viral email-forwarding crowd? And what better way to track which three minute sketches (buried in a 90-minute show) generate audience reaction? To be on the cutting edge of comedy, SNL must join the cutting edge of technology (beyond Andy Samberg’s Digital Shorts).

Putting union thugs back in charge of elections

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

The most interesting part of this week’s Presidential debate wasn’t even part of the debate – it was this commercial:

If you need to watch it again, I don’t blame you – that’s leftist stalwart George McGovern opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA. This creatively-named legislation would let union officials – i.e. goons – look over a worker’s shoulder when he or she casts a vote to unionize, replacing the apparently outdated concept of secret ballots. The hope from organized labor and Democrat circles is that this would lead to an increase in union membership.

Union membership has been steadily declining despite a small uptick in 2007 – and the states where the economies have been most prosperous have been those with right-to-work laws.

Barack Obama (who is receiving $3 million worth of campaign help from his union buddies) is promising to sign the bill – which has been blocked by filibusters but has already passed the Democrat-controlled House. Considering what unions have done for the economies in places like Michigan, that would be an unwise move. Obama would do well to listen to fellow Democrat McGovern.

(For more information on keeping secret ballots in union elections, check out www.myprivateballot.com.)