Nothing happens by accident in politics. The latest case in point is the flap over Rush Limbaugh.

It started with a seemingly offhand comment by President Obama, chiding Republicans for following the marching orders of the guy who, let’s be honest, has gotten a ton of us interested in Republican politics. In the weeks following, the White House has taken repeated jabs at Limbaugh – to Limbaugh’s delight. In a story published last week that I just stumbled across, Politico reveals that this has been a strategy months in the making. After finding high negative ratings for Rush Limbaugh in October polls, Democrats have been waiting for the right flap to arise and give them a chance to hang Limbaugh around the Republican Party’s neck.

The behind-the-curtain strategy of what seem to be spontaneous events, like this Limbaugh controversy, demonstrates a key value of Washington – that governing is campaigning by other means.

Will it keep working? The Republicans won’t get any overt help from Limbaugh, and why should they? As he has always said, his success “is not determined by who wins elections.” Without a single Republican in Congress, Limbaugh could count on a reliable daily audience – and the longer a controversy like this goes on, the more he can add to that audience. The tete-a-tete with the President also gives Limbaugh figurative weight, as if he really is a key thinker for conservative/Republican circles.

Truth be told, it’s more likely to be the other way around: Limbaugh is more likely to parrot GOP talking points than to devise his own platform for America. It’s not a matter of laziness, but of reality: he’s putting together a radio show, not a political movement.

Which raises an interesting point – as critical issues come before the federal government, why is the White House talking about a radio show blowhard? Aren’t there real issues they should be working on?

The folks at Right.org are giving away stimulus/bailout checks! And they’re also giving out stimulus/bailout invoices…

Incidentally, if you think you can make a better video panning the stimulus, you should enter Right.org’s contest to do just that. Grand prize is $27,599 – your share of the stimulus.

With news coming this week that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s print version may go the way of the Rocky Mountain News, we may be at the cusp of a new era in local news reporting.

The Post-Intelligencer (P-I) looks like it will shut down it’s printing presses and release an online-only version. Aside from printing and delivery, it means the P-I will also cut out reporter travel – national stories will be covered by wire services or by other sister papers in the Hearst network.

(Sidebar: Since it’s in the Hearst network, will the last printed word in the P-I have to be “rosebud”?)

There’s no dwindling market for local news, as the TV ratings show. But local daily newspapers are dinosaurs – slow-moving and cumbersome. The question is how the old media outlets adjust in a new media world. Will they see the online world as a way to stave off extinction for a few years, or will they find a way to evolve?

Chances are, the P-I – and other similar papers around the country – could do very well writing stories and posting them online. But why stop there? Online, they won’t be confined as they were on the printed page. They have multiple forms of media – audio, video, and everything in between – at their fingertips.

The dangerous trap here is thinking in terms of “media buckets” on a local level, as people have thought for decades: the TV stations are in the video bucket, the radio stations in the audio bucket, and the newspapers in the printed word bucket. There are no buckets online, so it doesn’t translate.

The end of the P-I’s print version isn’t necessarily an ending, but a liberation. The P-I can now combine printed stories about Seattle with short video news segments and podcasts. It can exist on its website as well as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Ning, and everywhere else. It can serve the people of Seattle, and be the authority on Seattle to everyone else.

The dinosaurs didn’t die out overnight, but eventually time caught up with most of them. Except for the smart ones; they learned to fly.

“So here I am, getting older all the time / Looking older all the time / Feeling younger in my mind…” – Goldfinger

Today is my 30th birthday, and I’m pretty excited. To celebrate, today’s post isn’t about the White House, online media, message development, or anything else like that. Or, come to think of it, maybe it is about all that stuff, in a way.

Today, I’m sharing with you 30 lessons I’ve learned that have helped shape who I am as a person over the first three decades of my life. I’m not going to say I’ve always followed each one to the letter – but when I have, I’ve found I’m a lot happier:

30. Be nice to people on the way up – not because you’ll see them on the way down, but because it’s the right thing to do.

29. Try to keep your sense of humor. Laughing at the mundane speed bumps keeps you well-grounded.

28. The Beatles had it right: All you need is love. So did the Dave Matthews Band: Turns out, it’s not where but who you’re with that really matters.

27. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.

26. To-do lists are effective; and prioritized to-do lists are even better. But make sure your priorities are in order.

25. A job is never really yours until you’re ready to leave it.

24. Ideas don’t have consequences. Actions have consequences.

23. It’s important to be honest with others, but even more important – and sometimes more difficult – to be honest with yourself.

22. In recreational sports, play hard but don’t take it too seriously.

21. Your best friends will be your best friends through an awful lot. But don’t abuse that, because everyone has a limit.

20. Good things come to those who wait – but only what’s left from those who hustle.

19. State education may not be considered the best schooling, but it’s the best education. And the nuns… well, don’t get me started.

18. Government shouldn’t force you to love thy neighbor, and in reality they can’t. You should already be doing that on your own.

17. “Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.” – Winston Churchill

16. If you can ever work from home, do it.

15. Appreciate your surroundings.

14. “Toil is good for the soul.” – Dan Klenck

13. My Mom was right about just about everything.

12. If you hold on tight to what you think is your thing you may find you’re missing all the rest.

11. Viewing yourself through others’ eyes can be a useful exercise but a dangerous habit.

10. Pray as if it all depended on God, but work as if it all depended on you.

9. If you ever need to get pumped up – for a new job or any other endeavor – a viewing of the Mighty Ducks is just what the doctor ordered.

8. Fear, anger, and aggression are the ways of the Dark Side.

7. Come to think of it, my Dad was right about just about everything, too.

6. Follow your gut. Where I have regrets, it’s usually because I over-thought things; I’m not nearly as regretful about times I’ve followed instincts that proved to be wrong.

5. In every crisis, there are elements of danger – and elements of opportunity.

4. There are such things as guardian angels.

3. In tough times, you have to keep smiling and dare the world to knock that smile off your face. And when it tries to do just that, you have to smile wider.

2. Family comes first.

1. This one just hit me this morning: You’re only old when you wake up in the morning and feel like your best days are behind you. If you wake up every day feeling like you are about to embark on a new adventure, you will always be young – no matter how long ago you were born or how sore your body is.

I hope you have a very happy March 5, 2009!

The Girl Scouts understand two concepts which have escaped the people at the controls of the economy: supply and demand.

The Girl Scouts of America have announced sweeping changes in order to boost membership. Recognizing that this isn’t 1955 anymore, the concepts of campfire sing-a-longs, sewing and cooking, and even merit badges are being replaced by video conferences, financial responsibility training, and a leadership development curriculum. With more girls socializing online, blogs and online networks are emphasized (which gives the Girl Scouts a chance to teach about online safety, too).

Breathe easy, those peanut-butter-and-chocolate cookies aren’t going anywhere.

Of course it’s sad when traditions are phased out, but the Girl Scouts are reacting to the reality of dwindling membership – the organization was forced to change to meet the needs and demands of today. By clinging to those traditions, the Girl Scouts could serve nostalgia-seekers, but not the young girls who need them – and they would slowly die out.

Any industry seeking a bailout should heed the example of the Girl Scouts. And if the parallels aren’t readily clear, maybe they could go door to door selling thin mints for a week or so – apparently, you can pick up pretty sound economic lessons that way.

The weekly White House “YouTube” addresses aren’t going to be on YouTube anymore. Instead, the videos will be hosted by a customized player. In the absence of a formal explanation, some are suggesting conflicts over YouTube’s privacy policies.

As Cnet chronicles, the White House has been under criticism since the beginning for choosing Google-owned YouTube as its video hosting platform. The change may silence criticism of the White House, but it won’t solve any of the root privacy concerns circling around Google and YouTube.

Could the White House have used its bully pulpit to make YouTube more secure? It certainly would have been a better service to internet users – after all, the folks who follow the President’s weekly addresses probably view hundreds of other videos on YouTube as well. President Obama could have been vocal in calling on YouTube to change its policies to better serve its users.

Of course, it may not be about privacy. YouTube is more than just a video site – it is an online community. The President’s Weekly Address is just one of millions of videos; and being on a site like YouTube invites comments and video responses. Maybe YouTube is too public a forum; perhaps the White House is unwilling to sacrifice their message monopoly to engage in a legitimate back-and-forth debate.