Obama won on message and not web 2.0

For all the discussion on Obama’s campaign utilizing social media and how web 2.0 were game-changers in 2008, his social media director says Obama’s political message was the key component in his victory.

From the link:

Social media may be the flavor of the moment for corporate marketers but these tools won’t work for everyone, according to the man who led the social media component of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, saying it was Obama’s message — and not the medium — that carried the 2008 election.

“Message and messenger are key. This isn’t going to work for every organization or every start-up business if the message that you are selling isn’t resonating,” said Scott Goodstein, the CEO of Revolution Messaging and formerly the external online director at Obama for America, during a speech at the Ad:Tech Singapore conference on Wednesday.

Obama, who was elected president last year, used the Internet and social media — a broad term that encompasses social networking sites, blogs, video-sharing sites like YouTube, and message service Twitter — to spread his views on key topics and organize his supporters. But the candidate, not social media or the Internet, won the election, Goodstein said.

“It was an honor to work at the Obama campaign because at that point in American history we had the right candidate, the right message,” he said.

Franken to be next Minnesota senator

Norm Coleman has lost yet another court battle. He won’t be a senator for Minnesota, but he’s continuing his tilting at windmillsto prevent Al Franken from being seated.

Not sure what he’s up to here, unless he’s following orders from the national party to keep one more Democratic senator out of the chambers for a little while longer. From what I’ve read Coleman has completely burned all his bridges in Minnesota, among the general population and with the state’s GOP. Governor Tim Pawlenty is probably seriously harming his reelection hopes as well by not certifying the election.

From the link:

A three-judge state panel Monday declared Al Franken, a Democrat, the victor in a Senate race here that has dragged Minnesota through prolonged litigation and recounts. The panel dismissed a challenge by Norm Coleman, the Republican who had held the seat, to a count that left the two men separated by 312 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

“I would call on Senator Coleman to allow me to get to work as soon as possible,” Mr. Franken said after the ruling.

But that seems unlikely. Lawyers for Mr. Coleman immediately announced that they would appeal the decision to the state’s highest court.

The promise of additional litigation means that Minnesota could go without a second senator for weeks, and potentially months, before a victor is certified in the race.

Franken will be anounced as Minnesota Senator

Breaking news here in the middle of the night — in a serious blow to any hope for Norm Coleman’s campaign, the Minnesota Canvassing Board will announce Democrat Al Franken as the victor in the drawn-out recount.

From the link:

The board was to meet Monday and was expected to declare which candidate received the most overall votes from nearly 3 million ballots cast. The latest numbers showed Franken, a Democrat, with a 225-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

But after the announcement, there will be a seven-day waiting period before an election certificate is completed. If any lawsuits are filed during that waiting period, certification is conditional until the issue is settled in court.

Coleman, who led Franken on election night, hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit challenging the results, claiming there were irregularities that gave Franken an unfair advantage.

The Coleman campaign also has a petition pending before the state Supreme Court to include 650 ballots that it says were improperly rejected but not forwarded by local officials to St. Paul for counting.

Looking back at 2008

And what a year it was. We had a historic election that will place the first black president in the White House. Even if you take away that extraordinary fact, the whole election cycle was just wild, full of twists and turns.

We’re also in historic territory with the global economy. Who knows how this thing will shake out, but what’s going on is unprecedented.

And looking toward the coming year, NFL playoffs are about to begin — without the Dallas Cowboys or the New England Patriots, but with the Miami Dolphins. Whew. And the coaching carousel is already in full swing.

I extend my wishes for a wonderful 2009 for everyone.

Jefferson loses 2nd congressional district

This is good news for the Democratic Party. Sure Cao is a Republican, but the party got rid of the corrupt Jefferson.

From the link:

Political newcomer Anh “Joseph” Cao, a Republican, has beaten nine-term incumbent William Jefferson, a Democrat, in the 2nd Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.

With 79 percent of the district’s 492 precincts reporting, Cao, a Venetian Isles attorney who has enjoyed strong backing from local and national GOP organizations, is leading 53 percent to 43 percent over Jefferson. Green Party candidate Malik Rahim has 3 percent, while Libertarian Gregory Kahn is trailing with less than 1 percent.

The district, which was drawn to give African Americans an electoral advantage, covers most of New Orleans, most of Jefferson Parish’s West Bank and parts of south Kenner. About two-thirds of the district’s voters are registered as Democrats.

As predicted, turnout appears to be have been dismally low.

Jefferson, who is seeking a 10th term as he awaits trial on federal charges of bribery and public corruption, had expressed concerns that his base of African-American supporters might assume that he had won re-election last month and stay home from the polls today, potentially dooming his re-election effort.

I don’t think we learned much …

… that statement is a direct quote from an unnamed Republican senator from this Politico piece. That long walk in the wilderness looks pretty likely right now.

The election is still warm, but weeks have passed with no easing of the bad taste in the collective GOP mouths.

And Sarah Palin is still on a publicity tour thanks to a $3M PAC ad campaign. Until she’s no longer a viable “face” for the Republican Party, things will not improve.

From the link:

The Republican U.S. senator sits glumly across the restaurant table.

“I don’t think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see,” he says. “We have the same gridlock.”

By the “same gridlock,” he means that party hard-liners, both Democrats and Republicans, will remain in control of the machinery of Congress. And that means more of the same. It means more politics as usual — especially in his party.

“We need someone who speaks from the center,” he says. “Sarah Palin is not the voice of our party.”

He talks a little about immigration. He is a moderate on immigration, which is to say he is out of step with most of his party. He says the Republican hard line on immigration hurt the party with Hispanics.

Barack Obama won about two-thirds of the Hispanic vote this year, up from the 53 percent that John Kerry won in 2004.

And the Republicans are very, very worried about the Hispanic vote. They see the African-American vote as largely gone, but the Hispanic vote was a possibility in future elections. If only Republicans knew how to appeal to Hispanic voters.

So the circular firing squad begins apace

The game’s not over and the GOP is already taking shots from within. Expect this to get worse over the next few weeks regardless how the election turns out.

From the link:

The blame game is beginning among Republicans, even as Sen. John McCain struggles to catch up in the polls in the campaign’s final days, report a trio of top Politico writers. Jonathan Martin, Mike Allen, John F. Harris write: “With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—-much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.” McCain himself participated in an interview with the Washington Times, complaining about the problems created by the Bush administration. Beyond that, “the candidate’s strategists in recent days have become increasingly vocal in interviews and conference calls about what they call unfair news media coverage and Barack Obama’s wide financial advantage — both complaints laying down a post-election storyline for why their own efforts proved ineffectual…Top Republican officials have let it be known they are distressed about McCain’s organization.” And there’s a debate about why McCain chose a “reform” rather than an “experience” message.

Update — Here’s more on the subject — he even uses the phrase, “circular firing squad” in the intro — from Marc Ambinder.

Charlie Cook breaks down …

… the dwindling hopes for McCain and the GOP.

From the link:

At this point it would be difficult to see Republican losses in the Senate and House to be fewer than seven and 20 respectively. A very challenging situation going into September turned into a meltdown last month, the most dire predictions for the GOP early on became the most likely outcome.

The metrics of this election argue strongly that this campaign is over, it’s only the memory of many an election that seemed over but wasn’t that is keeping us from closing the book mentally on this one. First, no candidate behind this far in the national polls, this late in the campaign has come back to win. Sure, we have seen come-from-behind victories, but they didn’t come back this far this late.

Second, early voting has made comebacks harder and would tend to diminish the impact of the kind of late-breaking development that might save McCain’s candidacy. With as many as one-third of voters likely to cast their ballot before Election Day, every day more are cast and the campaign is effectively over for them. The longer Obama has this kind of lead and the more votes are cast early, the more voters are out of the pool for McCain.

One word — ouch.

More bad news for the GOP

It was a given that this election year was going be rough on the Republican Party, but things are really looking down and might even be worse than current polling reflects.

Even the buzz is working against the GOP.

From the link:

2. Enthusiasm is much higher among Democrats than among Republicans. The latest Diageo/Hotline numbers show that 72 percent of Democrats are enthusiastic about voting for their candidate, as opposed to 55 percent of Republicans.