This election cycle, many people have complained that the traditional media has not been doing its job all that well. The general complaint is that instead of giving voters the information they need to make informed and intelligent decisions, the ratings-driven mainstream media increasingly focuses on distractions and sound bites. Some have called for the reform of our traditional media; others have simply bypassed it.
We believe in engaging the non-traditional media. Here are a few of our new-media mentions from the past week:
Today, The New Policy Institute, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) affiliate of NDN, is excited to announce that we are expanding our new Spanish-language voter mobilization campaign, Adelante, into Nevada.
Adelante, Spanish for "Moving Forward," kicked off Tuesday with an extensive radio buy in Colorado and the launch of a Web site, www.adelante08.org. The campaign encourages people to vote and explains the process of voting, including early and absentee voting, to what is projected to be a large pool of first-time Hispanic voters.
Today, Adelante will begin airing the same ad, "Acuérdate," or "Remember," that is airing in Colorado, in the Las Vegas media market. The ad will air on Las Vegas radio stations KISF, KWID, KRGT and KRNN.
The Adelante campaign was launched with the support of people just like you. You can help us add more ads to the campaign and expand into other states by contributing today. Please click here to support Adelante, or contact David O'Donnell at dodonnell@ndn.org or 202-544-9200 to learn more about what you can help the New Policy Institute do.
Hoy, el centro de investigación llamado The New Policy Institute, un filial de NDN sin fin de lucro y no-partidario, lanzó una campaña para motivar a ciudadanos Hispanohablantes a votar este Noviembre.
La campaña se llama Adelante. Comienza esta semana con anuncios a punto de saturación del mercado de radio en Colorado, y con una página de Internet, www.adelante08.org. La campaña hará dos cosas: por un lado ayudará a motivar al público a votar y por otro lado explicará el proceso para votar, incluyendo información sobre votación temprana y votación ausente. Se espera que gran parte del público serán Hispanos que van a votar por primera vez. La primera fase de la campaña comienza hoy en Colorado. Entre hoy y el día de las elecciones, Adelante lanzará cientos de anuncios en Denver (estaciones KBNO, KXPX, KJMN y KMXA), Colorado Springs/Pueblo (estaciones KNKN y KRYE), y en Fort Collins/Greeley (estación KGRE). Para escuchar el primer anuncio, “Acuérdate”, o leer el guión del anuncio y la traducción al Inglés, haga clic aquí.
Para más información sobre el electorado en los Estados Unidos, vea el reporte recientemente publicado por NDN, Hispanics Rising II. Durante muchos años, NDN y sus filiales han luchado para asegurarse de que la voz de la comunidad creciente de Latinos sea escuchada dentro del gran debate que informa a la democracia Estadounidense. Esta campaña es el capítulo mas reciente dentro de este esfuerzo de muchos años.
-- Guión del anuncio -- Español:
MUJER: ¿Qué tan lejos hemos llegado?
HOMBRE: Acuérdate de Roberto Clemente.
MUJER: De la misma Selena.
HOMBRE: O de César Chávez.
MUJER: Sí, hemos llegado muy lejos, pero no podemos vivir de glorias pasadas.
HOMBRE: Este año, de ti depende decidir si nos quedamos hasta donde hemos llegado o seguimos avanzando.
MUJER: Sigue adelante y vota.
Mensaje pagado por Adelante, NPI y el Tides Center.
The New York Times this week reported that 17% of American households are now cellphone-only, and that number may reach 20% by the end of the year as tougher economic times and less expensive and easy-to-use mobile devices lead to increased cell phone use.
This trend raises interesting questions about the 2008 presidential election. Higher percentages of cellphone-only users are Millennials and minorities than the national average, and they tend to be more progressive than traditional landline users. For instance, a recent Pew Research Center poll found that cellphone-only voters greatly favored U.S. Sen. Barack Obama over U.S. Sen. John McCain: 61% of voters that were leaning toward a candidate went for Obama, compared to only 32% for McCain. Of those cell-only voters that were certain about their vote, 46% went for Obama while only 18% were voting for McCain.
One common concern is that this trend might throw off national opinion polls by under-representing young people and minorities. Polling companies are certainly aware of this problem, and use statistical weighting and more cell-phone polling to compensate – for example, Gallup now includes cell phones in every national poll they do, and Pew does strategic cell-phone surveys to adjust for differences between groups. While there is no real consensus about whether these measures sufficiently correct for the influence of cell-only voters, we should not assume that Obama has a “hidden” five-point advantage that will materialize in November.
More important than the challenges they pose for pollsters is the fact that cell-only users tend to be more transient and are less likely to be registered to vote. They are harder to reach for voter registration and get-out-the-vote initiatives, but are critical to Obama’s success in November. The Obama campaign understands this, and has revolutionized the use of mobile technology in politics by launching Obama Mobile, which uses SMS messaging to help register voters and remind them to actually vote, as well as to send them regular campaign updates. By inviting people to sign up to receive the text announcement of his VP choice, the Obama campaign added many new mobile numbers into their database, which should translate into increased turnout from cell-only users come November.
The Obama campaign has also launched Obama Movil, the Spanish-language version of Obama Mobil. This is especially important, given that Hispanics are more likely to be cell-only users and use text-messaging more than many other demographics (49% of adult Latinos use text-messaging on their mobile phones, compared to 31% of whites), but use the Internet and landlines less than other groups. Mobile technology is therefore critical in reaching a demographic that could have a profound influence on the outcome of this election. The Obama program seems poised to build on the success of similar text-based programs for Hispanics.
NDN and the New Politics Institute have been talking about the increasing importance of mobile technology to progressives for some time, and we are finally seeing the new politics coming of age in a big way. To read more from us about how mobile technology is changing politics as we know it, read our NPI papers Go Mobile and The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation.
Right on the heels of Senator McCain's latest foreign policy gaffe, his side-kick/Vice Presidential running mate decided to take a crack at dispelling these "attacks" about her lack of foreign policy experience. Just to put this in context: in the past week a bomb was detonated at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, two U.S. ambassadors were expelled from Latin American countries, and the ambassadors from those nations were similarly recalled from the U.S. (not to mention the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, of course). The importance of the actual knowledge - not just "experience" travelling - and understanding of these complex international relationships by Presidential candidates cannot be understated. It is anything but unfair to demand that the persons running for the highest seat in the land possess higher than average knowledge and understanding of the different regions in the world and our interest in each.
In this town hall meeting Gov. Palin basically says that we shouldn't fear because she and her running mate might not be ready now, but they will be ready "on January 20", "God willing". And she explains her credentials in the area of foreign policy: she'll be ready because she "has that readiness"...she's "ready to serve". "You can even play stump the candidate if you want to" by asking her "specifics, with specific policy or countries."
The New York Time's Adam Nagourney has an excellent piece today reflecting on how the changing media environment is fundamentally altering the model of modern campaigns and advocacy.
During his first inaugural address in 1933, President Roosevelt said these now-famous words:
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
He was addressing a nation plunged into economic despair, a nation searching for someone to blame for these financial woes, a nation that was scared of massive technological shifts already underway, a nation open to demagogues.
Fast forwward to the Republican Convention in St. Paul in 2008. By any standard, it was a huge marketing success. Enormous flags on jumbotron screens. A homogenous audience that looks nothing like our country does today. What was the underlying theme of the Republican Convention? We don't have to change. We can turn back the clock and keep things just the way they were. When she spoke, Gov. Sarah Plain expertly played the crowd:
I grew up with those people. They're the ones who do some of the hardest work in America, who grow our food, and run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich writes today about this fear of change in an excellent column. He notes the Republicans' use of peoples' fear of the demographic tidal wave headed our way that will leave whites the minority in the United States by 2042.
He also includes a paragraph on a favored Republican scapegoat: illegal immigrants.
And, last but hardly least, fear of illegal immigrants who do the low-paying jobs that Americans don’t want to do and of legal immigrants who do the high-paying jobs that poorly educated Americans are not qualified to do. No less revealing than Palin’s convention invocation of Pegler was the pointed omission of any mention of immigration, once the hottest Republican issue, by either her or McCain. Saying the word would have cued an eruption of immigrant-bashing ugliness, Pegler-style, before a national television audience. That wouldn’t play in the swing states of Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, where Obama already has a more than 2-to-1 lead among Hispanic voters. (Bush captured roughly 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004.)
In his paragraph on illegal immigrants, Rich links to a USA TODAY report about new polls NDN released last week. The polls, conducted by long-time NDN collaborator and pollster Sergio Bendixen, show overwhelming support for comprehensive immigration reform in four key battleground states: Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The polls also show that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama holds a significant lead over U.S. Sen. John McCain among Hispanics in these states.
To learn more about why these four states matter so much in the new politics of the 21st century, read our report from earlier this year, Hispanics Rising II.
It's clear that the southwest and states with heavy Hispanic populations are the new battleground states -- and are part of the change that many people fear.
Palin and her fellow Republicans may play upon this fear of change, but the McCain campaign is no dummy.
Where was Palin campaigning yesterday? Carson City, Nevada.
Earlier this week, NDN and its long-time collaborator and pollster, Sergio Bendixen, released a new set of compelling polls that shows overwhelming support for comprehensive immigration reform in the four battleground states of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.
To read the compilation of the four polls, click here. To read the Executive Summary of the polls, click here.
Despite another week of Palin-mania, the polls, released at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's Public Policy Conference, received a good deal of attention in the press, which is beginning to understand that the Hispanic electorate may very well determine who is sitting in the Oval Office next January.
Marcelo Raimon covered the poll for ANSA, Italian News Agency.
In his post, McCain's support boost does NOT include Latinos, The South Chicagoan's Gregory Tejeda cites NDN's new polls in his explanation of why he thinks McCain is not picking up new Latino support.
The Thaiindian News reported on the polls in its report, Hispanics support Obama in four crucial states: Poll.
Columnist Ruben Navarette cited NDN and Bendixen's polls in his recent piece, Palin could help McCain with Latino vote.
The Tampa Bay Times blog, The Buzz, carried the USA TODAY article about the polls and the immigration reform issue.
Adrian Perez from the Latino Journal also showcased the poll coverage from USA TODAY.
And yesterday, Markos Moulitas, or kos of dailykos.com, wrote this about the polls:
Great new NDN polling of Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico shows huge support for comprehensive immigration reform (PDF) in some of the states most affected by immigration. I'll have more on this poll later.
Check back later for more on the immigration reform issue.
And just for fun - I think Matt Damon brings up a good point.
I love the comment a VERY conservative friend of mine made when I sent him this video: "Caring or quoting what celebrities think about anything is usually cause for a punch line, but in this case, he happens to be correct."
His comment reflects how during this election, unlike any other, people are switching parties, switching preferences, and reflecting over a broader array of issues that are less substantive but no less relevant - issues like race and age in a Presidential election, the role of a Vice Presidential nominee - much more than in the past.
A few hours ago, I got off the phone with my Dad who was driving by Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Seeing the large crowds and commotion, he asked if I had heard whether "anyone big" was visiting. He said he thought U.S. Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin were making a stop there, so I looked it up and confirmed to him that he was right, prompting him to react with what seems to be the prevailing assessment surrounding the GOP ticket: everyone was there to see Palin.
McCain, who was quick to label U.S. Sen. Barack Obama as a celebrity, now embraces, perhaps even encourages, the glamorous reception with which his running mate is met. It seems like he was right to do so in the short-term, as the focus of the election, as Simon has mentioned, has shifted to Palin. Though that's not really surprising, given that the timing of her introduction left us either amazed by her acceptance speech or wondering who she is and what she believes.
Yet while the scramble for information over Palin was especially hurried after she was chosen as McCain's running mate, the dust has since settled from her speech in St. Paul. And with the clearing comes more information - from her understanding of institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to her conduct as Governor. What little we are learning about Palin comes from her interactions with regular citizens since she has been absent from the talk shows, as well as through close friends who speak well of her personally but seem mixed when the subject turns to politics.
All of this unravels before our eyes, gets us caught up in Alaska drama, and deflects attention away from McCain towards Palin. Recognizing this, and maybe trusting the media and the American people to do its due diligence on Palin, the Obama campaign is bringing the focus back to the GOP nominee and his Party's record. Its latest ads, "No Maverick" and "Naked Lies", as well as his speech on education are good examples of this strategy.
Meanwhile, McCain continues to tout Palin - whose speech is the only one from the GOP Convention that is highlighted on McCain's YouTube channel - and that maverick nature of theirs. As mentioned above, plenty of people have and will sift through Sarah Palin's past and credentials, which frees us up to focus on the notion of the maverick.
One definition from Princeton shows that, as a noun, "maverick" has two meanings: First, a rebel; and second, an unbranded rage animal that belongs to the first person who puts a brand on it. An adjective for the term: irregular.
While the bit about the "rage animal" seems to align itself with one of McCain's purported problems, I must acknowledge that the term maverick does connote a positive image in the "independent in behavior or thought" sense. We're familiar with that image. It's what defined the John McCain of yesteryear and won him public admiration from all sides. Yet things changed for him when he was branded the GOP nominee and started marching to the beat of a different drum, avoiding or outright fleeing from his once admirable stance on a whole slew of issues. Instead of sticking to his guns, he gave into the brush-clearing tactics of his predecessors.
It's almost tragic, really. The glorified way in which he painted his maverick image is now broken, and in its place we are left with an all-too-familiar ideal that begs for real change we can believe in.
Update: The Huffington Post is chronicling the news sources that are speaking out about the McCain campaign's recent tactics, which seem to evoke the irregular nature of the maverick.
Update II: Reuters shows how McCain finds the campaign trail to be more hostile when Palin's deference-deserving persona isn't with him on the trail.
Update III: Brave New PAC weighs in on the maverick's campaign in the video below:
(Note: You are now free from my random musings and long and tedious '08 Updates, as I have left NDN. Unless a new Kanye West video comes out and I can relate it to the work of the NDNBlog champions, it's safe to say that I will be appearing much less in the months ahead. I do look forward to returning occasionally, and hope to see you all soon! Thanks for putting up with me for so long...)
Thoughts about our content? Suggestions for how we can improve our blog? Anything else on your mind that you want to share with us? Please, send it our way - shoot me an e-mail at dboscov-ellen@ndn.org. Thanks, and hope to hear from you!
