2 Days After: Whither Twitter?

Has anyone wondered what will happen to the BarackObama Twitter feed now that the election is over? How about his Facebook page? All these social networks and blogging tools were of great use in the campaign, in getting votes and contributions. But now that he has won and is moving on to the task of governing, will his administration continue to use these services, and if so, how? Given how innovative they have been with social networks so far, I can’t imagine that they would just stop. Barack Obama has over 125,000 followers on Twitter, and that number is likely to only increase if he continues to use Twitter as President-Elect and President.

So, will the next White House Press Secretary or Communications Director have to blog, tweet, make Youtube videos, and post photos to Facebook? The Bush administration never bothered much with this stuff, but Obama has already set up a new transition-and-beyond website in the style of barackobama.com: www.change.gov. An ambitious url if I ever heard one. We are in the early days yet, but this seems to indicate that the Obama administration plans to be just as involved with online and social media as the Obama campaign was.

Obama has a different job now that he is President-elect. Before he had to inspire people to help his campaign and vote for him. Now he has to inspire people to help their country and make real sacrifices. Bush was never willing to ask that of Americas. Bush would have never asked people to drive less, turn off the lights when they leave a room, not buy SUVs. It just wasn’t in his ideology. Obama however, he can and, I think, will. He has the charisma and gravitas to ask Americans to sacrifice, to take responsibility, to do for their country and world instead of themselves. It will take all these things to overcome the confluence of crises facing the world: food, energy, financial, climate.

Change.gov has already started to do this. There is a section along the top called “America Serves”:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

So Obama is calling on Americans to give of their time and selves to improve their communities and world. It will not be a simple task, but as strange as it may seem, Twitter and Youtube are ways to do that. Because this is where the young direct their attention, and it is the young that will be most willing to answer this call. Already I can feel it, tugging at me. I tried to be cynical, to remember that politics is a game, and often a petty game at that. But as I listened to Obama’s victory speech the other day and my eyes welled up, I decided that I wanted to be a part of the movement that, hopefully, will turn their desire to change into the impetus to make it happen.

I’m following your Twitter feed, Mr. President. Send me.

0 Days Left (!): Liveblogging at 3:50 PM. Look it up.

3:50 PM: “Principles.” Joe the Plumber is on CNN telling us to look up “principles.” “You’re upset that someone makes more money than you, cry me a river man. Principles. Look it up in Websters.” Okay. Fine. I looked it up. You know what it said? It said that Joe the Plumber teabags horses. FACT. This man has clawed his way so fiercely into celebrity. In a way it is impressive, the quick caricature he has become. And yet he keeps telling people to look stuff up. His strategy is a lot like saying, “well, it’s a little more complicated than that.” It allows himself to sound ominous and “in-the-know,” but saves him from actually having to articulate himself. Now people want him to run for office, but I’m confident that no one will vote for a man that has been thoroughly documented to teabag horses. It’s true. Look it up.

Rick Whatever, the main afternoon anchor on CNN looks like he is on goofballs. He’s got two young-uns with him, one GOPOBOT, the other in the tank for Obama. At the bottom of the screen messages sent through Twitter and Facebook scroll by, completely with emoticons. That is pretty goddamn future. He keeps telling people that they have “valid points” but never actually says anything. Just a couple minutes til the Situation Room makes this guy obselete.

An anti-Obama ad about Rev. Wright just came on. For some strange reason, they bleeped out the “damn” in Wright’s classic “God DAMN America!” Doesn’t that sort of make him sound less scary? I thought we finished with this guy months ago. Ugh. For those who never figured this out, Wright is part of the old guard of black activists who believe in exclusionary and isolationary “black power,” who want revel in their group identity. Obama represents a new wave of black activists that believe in joining with other communities, that are less interested in identity and more interested in social and economic progress. Wright and Co. are not so willing to let go, obviously.

4 Days Left: The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Sarah Palin

Everyone is all agog or agrin at talk that Palin may “go rogue.” With her reportedly becoming ever more frustrated with her treatment by campaign handlers and likely incensed by her portrayal in the media (a portrayal that is partially driven by her own party), it isn’t hard to believe that she might stray from her script, say something besides “We’re a couple of mavericks” (a contradiction in terms, I believe).

This all begs the question of just how much the McCain knew about Palin when they picked her. My suspicion is that they thought much more about her gender than about her politics. Sure, they knew that she was far enough to the right to get the base excited, but I don’t think they ever expected how much of an ambitious firebrand she would become once thrust onto the national stage. The pretty, folksy, locally loved governor from a state with a population a third the size of Brooklyn’s? Who would have thought that that pit bull hockey mom would have had such a bite, or whatever?

The act of choosing her was, as a political shocker, completely brilliant. She dominated news cycles, conversation, everything—and all right after Obama’s big acceptance speech. Obviously Schmidt and McCain, for whom these sorts of Hail Marys are bread and butter, had been deliberately saving their VP pick until after Obama’s. They had months to announce it, after all. But rather than spend that time vetting around for the right person to help lead the country, they kept it in their pocket to play for strategic advantage. Like chess.

Eventually, though, the weight of their sacrifice in not picking a more qualified running mate began to show itself. It is dragging them down now, driving away the very independents that they thought putting a woman on the ticket would draw. That doesn’t matter to her fanatical fans, but it matters on election day.

It’s been strange. The common sentiment from many corners had been that this election is about Barack Obama: whether enough of the American people would accept him and be comfortable with his readiness. Since Palin was choosen, however, this election has become almost as much about her readiness. I’m pleased to see that she has not held up under scrutiny the same way Obama has, partially due to being “mishandled” but mostly through her own doing. Now everyone is wondering what will become of Palin if/when McCain loses. Will she be, as rumored, “shredded”? (Is that worse than being thrown under the bus?) Or will she lead the GOP into an ideologically bloody internal war between those with the money and those with the hate?

In that fight, I’m not sure who I want to win.

13 Days Left: “The Man Obama”

This election has captured the public imagination in what I suppose are often unusual ways. Well, perhaps not the election itself, but certain characters in it. Hillary, with her fierceness. Obama, with his charisma and near-messianic appeal. Ron Paul, with his tenacity and ferocious following. Palin, and the unexpected way she has entered the public eye. Palin alone has sparked a revival on SNL, as I’m sure we have all seen, and made Tina Fey’s performances of her one of the most anticipated events on television each week.

The comedy produced this year has been, to delicately pick a word, intense. Tina Fey’s Palin is only the beginning. George Saunders did a truly astounding piece in The New Yorker called “My Gal”. This is the kind of piece that requires readings, aloud, at 2 AM to roommates and friends and people pulled in from the street.

It is a strange season when a politician inspires the kind of fan fiction treatments that Obama has. Random Acts of Shark has some of the best and weirdest Obama fan fiction out there. Start with Barack Obama vs. The Pirates of Wichita. Here’s a teaser:

A cry went up. The Audacity had pulled astern of us, and dropped anchor, and pinned us with her swivel guns. I heard a snap of cording, and a thump, and then the man Obama stood on our deck, still gripping the rope he had swung over on.

We stared. Perhaps it was the fact that he was nine feet tall; perhaps it was his eyes, which were as gentle and compassionate and fierce as a mother bear’s; perhaps it was his armor, each chain link of which had been forged from the smoking remains of the Liberty Bell. Not even the Ronpaul’s man thought to raise a hand against him.

“Bravely fought!” he cried. “Who is your captain?”

We pointed mutely at the corpse and, I swear, I saw a single tear trickle down his face. He wiped it away and I gasped, for I suddenly understood why the Ronpaul wanted him dead; his hand came away gilded with dust, for Obama cries tears of molten gold.

The author has created a whole mythology, in which every major player in this campaign takes on epic, fantastical proportion. This continues for thousands of words.

What is it about Obama in particular that inspires such treatment? A friend of mine commented on how, especially early in the campaign, Obama acted as a blank canvas onto which liberals would paint their own hopes and dreams. Many people did not know, precisely, what Senator Obama believed in, or where he stood on certain issues. Rather, they just assumed, sometimes incorrectly, that Obama believed what they believed, cared about what they cared about. People see Obama as whatever they want him to be, and so in a few odd visions he becomes the central figure in reimaginings of America as more wild, more dangerous, more interesting. This instinct has a long tradition. Science ficiton has often provided us with Americas that are exciting and ungoverned, with heroes and villians, and every place a frontier or urban jungle. America is huge, especially in our minds. It is only natural that we wonder about, if not exactly wish for, an America that is less mediocre?

Obama, with his charisma and rhetoric about a better, greater America, is a natural figure to attach to these imaginings. Unfortunately, Obama is just a politician, and one with a steady hand and a primarily pragmatic instinct. If we want some danger-savior to come and break down our edifices of mediocrity, Obama is not him. No politician is, and certainly no one running for president. But that is probably for the best. As much as we like to dream about strange and wild Americas, living there would be too dangerous and too unstable for most to enjoy.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of these election fan fictions, and of some of the characters so central to them. If/when McCain loses, what will become of Palin? Does she fade from celebrity, or does her momentum carry her forward to greater heights? We’ll see.

These are strange times. Best write from them while we can.

15 Days Left: Those Drunk Internet Men

Everyone does a “I can’t believe how disgusting some people are” post like this eventually, so here’s mine.

The latest news out of the tubes is that Obama is cancelling campaign events for the next few days to visit his ailing grandmother. There does not seem to be very much to lose or gain from this move. I’m sure Madison, WI will survive without him, and in the meantime he gets a round of free and sympathetic media coverage. Is it bad that I’m so cynical as to think in those terms? Not sure. I think it would be naive to assume that no thought at all was given to how taking this time off would affect his chances in two weeks. Surely there was a meeting on it, yes? Whatever. Let us hope that the senator’s grandmother recovers her health quickly.

Not long after the story hit, a friend of mine emailed me a medley of horrible, insensitive, usually racist comments left by various Internet scum. Some speculated that Obama was going to take the opportunity to forge an American birth certificate, while others merely celebrated the elderly woman’s imminent death. I won’t repost any of these. You can probably find a few of them yourself if you poke around. Needless to say this makes me wish I could knife people in the balls over the Internet. Alas, I cannot. Are McCain supporters just evil creatures? Could be. But I can’t help but suspect that one would likely find a fair number of equally horrible and insensitive (although probably less racist) comments if someone in John McCain’s family fell ill. We have known for several years now that the ability to post anonymously on the Internet brings out the worst in people.

Still, it is unnerving to be reminded that these people are out there, the racist fucks. I try not to associate with such individuals, knowingly, in my daily life, but they still exist, lurking in the smelly corners of America’s many assholes. You know what the worst part is? These people have votes.

Let’s hope they are too hungover on Nov. 4th to find the polls.

18 days left: The Essential Schizophenia

Two and a half weeks to go. Then the election, and the end of this campaign that has dragged on so long, that has torn and tugged at our hearts, that has kept us riveted and bored, that has made us flush with anger or made us swell with hope. I haven’t lived through enough to say for sure, but I suspect that this election season has had as many twists and turns every month as most past campaigns have had in their entirety. Two and a half weeks to go. Let’s see if we can’t figure out where it all went wrong.

In a year or two, when everything has cooled down and we are deep into trying to figure out how, exactly, the Obama administration is going to fix all this, some journalist from Rolling Stone or New York Magazine, or a team from the Washington post will finally piece together the story—or at least a story—about how exactly the McCain campaign fell apart a second time. I’m not from Rolling Stone, and I haven’t talked with the people on the inside, but if I had to make a guess, and outsider’s assessment, I would put them blame on Steve Schmidt.

Steve Schmidt is a savvy political consultant of the most basic type. When he was brought in in early July, McCain’s campaign was floundering, lacking real direction and leadership. Schmidt got them all “on message” more or less (I am constantly amazed by the apparent similarities between Schmidt and Alan Schact The Smiler’s political consultant in the comic Transmetropolitan). But in the process he made McCain the candidate into something very dissonant to the McCain that built up such a unique reputation through the 90s and early 2000s.

You can see this essential schizophenia on this moment’s main headline at HuffPo: McCain Blasts Robocalling…Oh, That Was In 2000. McCain is using the same robocalling firm that took him down in the 2000 primaries, spreading (false) rumors that he had fathered a mixed race baby out of wedlock. Even by modern political standards, this is desperate hypocrisy.

Schmidt runs McCain the way Rove runs Bush. They aren’t interested in who their candidate is or what they believe in. They are interested in putting forth a winning image; if they could they would create a new candidate from wholecloth. The difference is that in Bush Rove found a much more malleable partner, one willing to throw himself fully into the character Rove designed for him. McCain is tough and confident and independent—all good qualities for a politician—and so when asked to do something that goes against his gut and better judgement, he balks and grinds his teeth. The result is the nervous, ruined character we saw speak in front of green screens, or the slouching, smirking troll that shuffled around at the second debate. That’s not McCain, not as he used to be.

But McCain is playing to win. He has to. The game for the Presidency can’t be played any other way—there is too much money and too many careers and egos tied up in it to do it any other way. So when it came to the tough decisions, I think McCain held is tongue and trusted Schmidt, the person he hired to make sure he won.

The image of McCain as this great maverick statesmen of the late 90s is greatly embellished, but it is a good myth nonetheless. McCain could have run a campaign from the moral high ground. He could have picked his friend Joe Liberman to run with him, instead of that strange political animal Sarah Palin. He could have held off going too negative and trusted his that his much liked qualities of independence and experience would win out. Unfortunately, in politics, sticking to your principles may be a luxury that only the candidate leading the polls can afford. And anyways, McCain has long been struggling to keep the better angles of his nature above water—since his wounding defeat in 2000, I expect. Schmidt brought the schizophrenia into focus, but there were plenty of other straws on that old camel’s back.

Presidential ambition does weird things to some people, especially when stymed. We saw it a bit in Hillary’s last struggling days. You convince yourself that a greater good awaits the world if you can just win, and so ends elipse otherwise unappetizing means. But, if you are as principled as you think you are, you get flusted and lose your way. Only the genuine ones actually win. Bill Clinton never had a problem with this morally questionable dichotomy. Bush was eager to be the vessel of a vicious ideology. And hopefully Obama, with his unflappable charisma, will prove this rule again.

The ever-shrude Votemaster at electoral-vote.com said it simply today: “One of the lessons of this campaign may end up being: Be yourself.”