Will Sarah Palin Help? She Already Has.

It's an open question whether John McCain's choice of half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will significantly shift voters to McCain's side. But her out-of-right-field selection helped in two important, short term ways.

First, the announcement completely such Obama's air out of the room. Even the lefty blogs are entirely done talking about his speech last night, about the historicity of the moment, about the bounce. All anyone is talking about is Sarah Who? and what does it mean. It's Sarah Palin's news cycle, Barack Obama is just living in it.

If McCain had made a more conventional choice, it's unlikely he would have shouldered Obama out of the way quite so successfully. The most conventional choice -- Pawlenty, probably -- would have elicited something like "Yeah, that's what we thought, and how will that relate to the race after Obama's historic nomination last night . . ." By making a selection this unexpected and risky and historic in its own right, McCain/Palin has dominated the conversation since noon.

Second, Sarah Palin being a woman has softened somewhat the fact that Sarah Palin is a Christian Right darling. If McCain had picked a relative unknown and inexperience man with lockdown social conservative credentials, the move would be widely seen as a pander to the religious right base. Because Palin breaks a gender barrier (at least as far as GOP veep choices), her selection is seen less as a sop to the hard right than as more maverickiness from McCain.

Will this advantage endure in the long run? Time will tell. Palin's youth and inexperience cause problems, both by blunting the same criticism of Obama and heightening concerns about McCain's age. And it's hard to claim maverick status when you've picked the least qualified candidate on your short list purely because she might help win an election.

Still, no question that McCain/Palin have won this day.

About a Blog, and Other Stuff in the SocMedVerse

It's been over a week since I posted here. As usual, I have my excuses. In the past week [deep breath] school started for the girls, the wife and myself, which necessitated the usual getting back into the groove, plus two open houses, and I got my biggest freelance job to date which included attending a day-long meeting, and I had one other meeting about a different business opportunity and two different repairs on the house, plus a marathon doctor appointment for one kid and the usual schlepping about to lessons and the Olympics ended and the Conventione happened. Oh, and I got sick (twice) and threw out my back (once).

So yeah, it's been a bit of a week.

One thing I learned (over again) from all this is that if I'm not writing all the time I get rusty. Pieces I should have banged out quickly felt like passing stones or something. So when I get busy in the future, I'll try harder to write something, anything, here just to stay fresh. And keeping you all entertained is of course a bonus.

Funny thing is I get nervous about blogging when on deadline. If someone is paying me and sees blogging happening, will they think I should be doing their work? etc. Thus far every job I've gotten has included some vetting by reading the blog. But since I need this to keep my chops (and get the next job, apparently), clients will have to deal.

With all that, I wasn't entirely dormant in blog world. First off, I'm integrating my social media lives, as you can tell from the shiny new widgets, stereo right. The first is links to the three other social networking sites I use, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Below that is a Twitter feed window showing my last n tweets.

As you can see, I've gotten into Twitter quite a bit. The really attentive reader may notice the de.lico.us (which thankfully is just "Delicious" now") widget is gone. I had fallen down on keeping it updated and now if I see a cool article I tweet it. Unfortunately the badge doesn't let you click directly through to the article, you have to click the tweet which takes you to a Twitter page on which the link shows up. Nonetheless, if you see something you like, that's how to get there.

And of course, you can always Follow me. My tweets are about 50/50 original versus replies to others. I realize that seeing the replies here doesn't help much -- hearing half the conversation and all that. So it goes. I'll also warn that the tweets range from substantive to pithy to quotidian. Oh, and that's where most of my snarky one-liners go these days. I will warn you that I've installed a utility that automatically feeds links the posts here. Other people feed their blog to their Twitter and post Twitter on their so I'm taking it on faith that this won't cause rift in the blog-time continuum.

My use of Facebook has evolved over time. Back when candidates started using Facebook and MySpace I started accounts just to see what the candidates were doing. Since I can't do so much as look at MySpace without getting a raft of pornspam friends ("come to my website which has my really fun pics, lol") I've let that go to seed. Meanwhile, old friends keep finding me through Facebook, so that's what I'm using it these days. Up next I'll be posting some family photos so various friends and family can see how the kids are doing. So if you're Friends with me, look for that.

LinkedIn is supposedly the grown-up, get noticed and get work social site. I know people who have gotten work through it, but thus far, nothing for me. Again have hooked up with some old friends though. As for work, nada. We'll keep playing with it to see what happens.

OK, so with that bit of a waggle, hopefully I'm back in the blog game and will try not to leave for days on end again. I've been thinking much about what I want this to be. Probably you will find more local stuff and more policy stuff, and less about the national race. On the other hand, I definitely have some thoughts about the last few days so you never know.

Just as long as it's fun.

APC Presents Jennifer Brunner. Ohio 16 Debate

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will speak before the Akron Press Club (and yr. humble blogger is on the programming committee, but did not arrange this one.) Secretary Brunner will speak Thursday, Sept. 4 at the Martin Center on the University campus. Lunch begins at 11:45.

Details and info on reserving tickets here.

In addition, APC's contribution to the Ohio 16th contest is nearly settled. PolitickerOhio reports that candidates John Boccieri and Kirk Shuring have agreed to three debates, on of which will be co-sponsored by APC and the Bliss Institute. Still a few details to be ironed out.

The Brunner program is up now on the Upcoming badge and subsequent Press Club programs will be added as things get posted on the website.

Craig Simpson: D'Oh!

Craig Simpson is a reporter on the Rubber City Radio stations and a frequent guest on Eric Mansfield's NewsNight Akron. Now he also runs a blog and last week posted about Akron's JCC hosting Maccabi Games, a Jewish youth athletic event. The post is, ah, problematic and Jill pointed it out. In response to comments from Jill and I, Craig says he's only kidding.

Actually, he says he was kidding and that some of his best friends are Jewish and that if anyone is offended, he's sorry. Yes, the Lighten Up crackback, the My Best Friends defense and the If You Were Offended non-apology apology. The three favorites of people who say stupid crap and won't own it. A trifecta of douchebaggery. Well played, sir.

Oh, and he tells me to be a real man. So apparently my offense has to do with my lousy bench press, or something.

*Sigh*

We shouldn't have to keep having this conversation, but apparently we must. So here are a few tips for navigating the treacherous straights between effective satire and actually trafficking in hate. And I'll type slowly so even Craig can understand.

First off, people have to know you are kidding. No, really. Because, you see, the reason that these stereotypes are so powerful and destructive is that people actually say them and mean them. And mean harm by them. By this measure Simpson's post fails. He starts off arguing that Jews shouldn't sequester themselves from the rest of society for exclusive activities. This is a stock Limbaughian rant. Without knowing whether Simpson is actually Limbaughian, it's impossible to know that he's kidding.

Then he segues into a bit about what interfaith games might look like. This is painfully unfunny but at least it looks like it's supposed to be funny.

Then the head-snapping last paragraph:

Come on, the Jews have most of the money and run most of the business world…do you REALLY need to rub it in our faces have your own freakin’ Olympics!? Just stick to penny-pinching, lawyering and filling up the upscale communities in America’s suburbs.

I'll wait until you recover from the spasms of laughter.

There.

This, apparently, is where he goes so over the top that he thinks anyone would know he was kidding, Would that it were so. In fact I know intelligent professional people who think think nothing of trafficking in the standard money-grubbing Jew stereotype.

In his defense Craig maintains that his Jewish friends thought this was all Big Laffs. Setting aside the real possibility that his friends were just being abundantly polite to their ignorant but harmless goy friend, this argument still falls. His friends have a context for knowing that he's kidding -- the context of knowing Craig Simpson. Without that context it looks like he started a standard right wing diatribe and in the last paragraph shared too much.

Which brings us to a second problem. If you are going to satirize hateful stereotypes, actually satirize them. Just reiterating them isn't satire. Simpson is engaging in the Andrew Dice Clay method -- pretend to be a bigot by actually sounding like a bigot, but do nothing to make the bigotry sound ridiculous. In the Diceman's case, the satire claim was just window dressing to make his actually bigotry look something close to respectable, but his audience was laughing at the objects of his rants, not with them. In Simpson's case, it just turns out to be not funny, unless you share the actual views he posts.

By the same token, understand that if you are satirizing, you are still trotting out ideas that hurt people. It's a project you should approach with some delicacy.

Finally, if you try this and it doesn't work, admit it. I've worked this line myself -- in the immediately preceding post in fact. It's easy to make a mistake and hurt people. Where I come from, a big part of being a real man is to admit when you've made a mistake. And no, "I'm sorry you were too sensitive to know I was kidding" is not actually an apology, it's an insult.

Looking over Simpson's work, it doesn't look like he has the chops to thread this needle. Stick to sounding smarter that Phil Trexler, Craig. It's about as high as you can aspire to.

I'm Sure It's Just a Coincidence

That controversy erupts over a donation to McCain from a board member of a gay pickup site the same week that Blender reports that McCain's favorite song is The Gayest Song in Pop Music History:

xkcd Takes On Diebold

Excellent on every level:



Original here.

So, want to know why I don't post more often. OK, aside from Teh Kids and Teh House and Teh Fits and Starts of The Freelance Business it's because I can't leave well enough alone. This post is just fine with the cartoon and link, but I had to go and Google "Diebold McAfee."

So the "problems" at issue are the vote tabulation problems found in four Ohio counties and subject of a suit brought by Sec of State Jennifer Brunner. The lawsuit, btw, is less a Stolen Election Guy thing than a business transaction thing. If you buy a machine that doesn't work as advertised and have the resources, there are legal avenues at your disposal (but if you are some poor schlump who bought a laptop that keeps blinking out, your are simply in for long waits on the phone to Bangalore.)

So, a fun cartoon and a bunch of additional information that you did not need. All part of the service provided here at Pho's Akron Pages.

The Political Wisdom of my 11-Year-Old

Kid Z's spontaneous take upon seeing McCain's second "celebrity" ad during the Olympics:

That's terrible. He shouldn't be allowed to do that. If John McCain wants to be President the ad should say "John McCain would be a good president and here is why." Why does he have to diss Obama?

People shouldn't vote for McCain because he doesn't say why he would be a good president, all he does is diss Obama.

I'm so proud.