The Political Voices of Women

The Democratic National Convention begins today, and the latest poll numbers are being spun by the media as proof that Hillary supporters are not on board with Obama. How much weight do you think these polls really carry?

From where I sit…The media (not Hillary or Hillary supporters) are responsible for any real or imaginary riff in the Democratic Party. In a nutshell, it goes like this – Build her up, knock her down, and then suggest she bail-out before all the votes are counted. The trouble is, media manipulation does affect actual outcomes, and the Republicans are champions at media manipulation. A perfect example is the Bush administration, and how they learned very quickly, that the media couldn’t change lies into truth, but they could change lies into the perception of truth. Unfortunately for democracy, perception trumps truth every time. So, not surprisingly, the McCain campaign is using all the latest media hoopla to their benefit. Will it work? What do you think? Here is the latest from around the web.

Read more »

A lot of people have been asking me about the best ways to keep track of the news coming out of the Democratic Convention in Denver. We all know you can watch cable news and read the major newspapers, but I decided to make a definitive list of the best alternative ways to follow the events of the DNC.

• The Twitter community will be tagging their DNC-related tweets with “#dnc08.” To follow the conversation about the convention on Twitter, use Twitter Search and type in “#dnc08″ or “#bigtent.”
• RSS Feeds: EchoDitto has put together an OPML file of all the DNC credentialed bloggers (excluding Big Tent bloggers) that you can import into your feed reader (I did this with Bloglines).
• CSPAN’s Convention Hub is a great site that incorporates social media tools like Twitter, YouTube, and Qik, as well as blog roundups.
• PBS’s NOW has put together “Adventures in Democracy: Election 2008” that tracks convention news, candidate fact-checking, a forum, and several other tools to help citizens make election decisions.
• outside.in should be a very good source for a local view of the convention.
• The Sunlight Foundation is tracking the convention party circuit with “Party Time,” another part of their noble and neverending quest to shine light on how political money is used.
• Frankly, I think corporate America is now engaged in greenwashing, but if you want to track how the DNC’s green efforts, go to the DNC’s green news.
• BlogHer’s Guide to Political Bloggers widget is a great resource if you want to track women who are blogging at the convention. You can also add the BlogHer Guide to Political Bloggers as an iPhone application.
• RGJ’s Anjeanette Damon will be at the convention to provide local coverage. You can also follow her blog
  vada_politics.pbs&plckBlogId=Blog%3a47c0e9e3-2bcd-439f-8b7a-bfc5884a1123&sid=sitelife.rgj.com”>Inside Nevada Politics on Twitter.
• And last but not least, you can follow Nevada’s official DNC state blogger Hugh Jackson at Las Vegas Gleaner.

You can track me at the convention on Twitter, FriendFeed, Political Voices of Women, BlogHer, on this blog, at my blog  Reno and Its Discontents, and possibly a few other places still to be named.

What happened to the text messaging???

AP reporting Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s VP

New York Times – Obama Chooses Biden as Running Mate

*As more information comes in, I will post it here.

I was just checking out some of our community posts, and I came across this by Pamela Lyn…

Recently our own “Myrna the Mynx”, Tracy Viselli and Sarah Granger were prominently featured in a
MediaShift post entitled “Will the Big Tent in Denver Help Bloggers Break Through“?

The article broke through to Digg’s front page. Check it out.

Also See:

The Big Tent Home Page

In Denver, during the Democratic National Convention, there will be a special location for protesters. That’s good, right? This area is being called the “Free Speech Zone.” But, how “free” will this zone be? I guess that depends on how free people will feel being in “caged” locations. Is it just me? Or does it seem odd to have the “free speech area” caged in? Let me know what you think in comments.

Apparently, there is also a warehouse being setup arresting protesters.

Here is an interesting behind the scenes look, at the caged free speech location, and the secret detention center.

—

Free Speech at the Democratic National Convention

If there’s one thing the United States stands for, it’s unfettered free speech. It is vital to a functioning democracy. Unfortunately, the increasing use by government and law enforcement officials of “free speech zones” and other stifling tactics to purge dissent has largely undermined the First Amendment’s safeguards for political free speech.For example, President Bush’s Presidential Advance Manual outlines the specific strategies his administration has used to “minimize the demonstrator’s effect.” It includes such Orwellian tactics as selling tickets exclusively to presidential supporters and creating “rally squads” of supporters who will surround and drown out protesters with pro-Bush chants. The manual also discusses the strategy of asking local law enforcement to create a designated protest zone, “preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”

Free speech zones have been employed by both Democrats and Republicans at past political conventions. This year, however, Democrats face the embarrassing possibility that they will be the only party actually caging dissenters. Protesters at the upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver in late August will be corralled into caged “free speech zones” made of chicken wire and chain link fences which are located more than two football fields from the delegates’ entrance. Those who attempt to exercise their First Amendment rights outside this makeshift cage, which is partially obscured by trees and sculptures, will be arrested.

The Death of Free Speech at the Democratic National Convention

Surprise, surprise– the “party of change” is afraid of the potential of “free speech.” Protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver late August will be relegated to “free speech zones,” because security supersedes freedom in this Orwellian, post 9/11 world. Those not happy with keeping their voices confined to zones where their speech is contained and neutralized will find a newly built home at “Gitmo on Platte,” complete with stun guns and barb wire fences…

—

So…What do you think about this? Is this any way for a country that prides itself on freedom, to treat it’s own people? It seems the presumption here, is that protesters are nothing short of criminals. I think this is a very sad commentary on the state of our “so called” free country. What do you think?

Will You Be Blogging The Democratic National Convention? I’m attempting to get as many of my ducks in a row as possible, before I begin to blog about the convention. Here is how you can help me, and we can help each other.

If you will be blogging the convention, please leave me your link in the comments of this post. I want to develop a list of bloggers that I (and anyone else) can refer to, for links and stories on the convention. If you are going to the convention, leave me your link. If you are going to be doing a play-by-play from your home, leave me your link. Let me know in comments, how often you will be blogging, and where you will be blogging from.

And, if you are a member of The Political Voices of Women Community…Please cross-post as many of your convention posts as you can to our community blog. I will be using many of them as guest posts for this blog, and may also use some in my convention coverage for The Care2 Election Blog.

It seems I will also be oovooing the convention for Care2, along with Care2 bloggers who will be at the convention. Will you be oovooing? If so, please let me know, maybe we can do something together.

Well, I think that’s it. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hillary Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination at the Democratic National Convention. I think this is a smart move, and possibly the only way to bring Obama and Clinton supporters together. It’s more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, that will honor Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the White House. I imagine this decision may also contribute to more people wanting to watch the convention from home. And…until the bitter end, I will still hold out hope that Obama makes Hillary his running mate.

Here is some of what is being reported on this around the web…

ABC News’ Kate Snow reports…

A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination at next week’s Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News.

“Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone’s voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination,” a person close the negotiations said. “It’s to honor everyone who worked so hard on both sides.”

Clinton’s Historic Bid To Be Honored…

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will have her name placed into nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver later this month, people involved in the talks said, and the Obama and Clinton teams are preparing to make a joint announcement about how the question of honoring Clinton’s historic bid has been resolved. It was not immediately clear whether that will include a full roll-call vote or some other mechanism — the arrangements were apparently still being worked out late last night — but people close to Clinton expressed a high degree of satisfaction with how the conversations with the Obama campaign had gone.

Read more »

This is from a post by Lisa Witter for The Huffington Post.

It’s the Women, Stupid.

Did mismanagement lose Senator Clinton’s bid for the White House? Or was it Mark Penn’s bad strategy to woo women?

It’s clear from Joshua Green’s The Front-Runners Fall piece in this September’s Atlantic that Mark Penn was counting on XX chromosomes to usher Senator Clinton in as the Democratic Presidential Nominee.

Picking women as a target audience was a wise choice, no doubt about that. Women are the “gender gap” in modern Presidential elections, and by some estimates make up to 59% of primary voters.

Penn got that this campaign was about “the women, stupid.” What he didn’t understand how to reach them. Despite the infighting and power plays that Green’s piece chronicles, missing the mark on women was perhaps Mark Penn’s most fatal mistake on the Hillary campaign.

. . .

Of course, there is never one thing that makes or breaks a campaign and it’s easy for us to snicker with cockiness about how we would have done things differently. But women are the most important constituency you can reach. They are not a niche audience and you can’t communicate with them the same as men. When Penn assumed he had the female constituency in the bag, by a 3 to 1 margin no less, he underestimated his audience. Future campaigns take note – you can’t have a gender blind campaign, just as you wouldn’t want a color blind one.

READ LISA’S FULL POST AT THE HUFFINGTON POST

Also See:

From The New York Times…

Bill Gwatney, the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, was shot in his office in Little Rock Wednesday morning and died a few hours later, police officials said.

From The Associated Press…

Witnesses said the gunman entered the party offices shortly before noon and said he wanted to see Gwatney about volunteering. Party officials said the man forced his way into Gwatney’s office and fired three shots, then fled in a blue truck.

“He said he was interested in volunteering, but that was obviously a lie,” said 17-year-old party volunteer Sam Higginbotham. He said the man then pushed past employees to reach the chairman’s office, where he fired three times.

Gwatney, a former state senator and a Hillary Rodham Clinton superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention this month in Denver, had served 10 years as a state senator.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, issued a statement calling the 49-year-old Gwatney “not only a strong chairman of Arkansas’ Democratic Party, but he is also a cherished friend and confidante.”

After the midday shooting, the suspect was chased into Grant County, south of the capital, and apprehended after being shot. Police fired at the man but it wasn’t known whether he also suffered self-inflicted injuries.

Statement by Barack Obama on the passing of Bill Gwatney…

“Michelle and I are heartbroken to hear about the tragic loss of Chairman Bill Gwatney. We’re praying for his family and friends and all who worked with him and loved him.”

Here is a guest post from community member Card Carrying Buddhist, who is also at No Blood for Hubris.  [If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Obama: Just Not Man Enough to Run With Hillary

It’s pretty stupid for a presumptive nominee not to run with someone who would pretty much guarantee a Democratic landslide in the fall, don’t you think?

So, why is Obama being stupid?

Why is Barack Obama not happily, eagerly, excitedly, passionately offering Hillary Clinton the VP spot?

It makes no sense, does it?

He doesn’t need 18 million votes?

His ego is too fragile?

He’s scared that Hillary Clinton might both outshine him and outthink him?

And he just doesn’t want to be out-shone nor out-thunk, periodically?

That would be a sure sign of Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome, sweetie.

A troubling thought. Very troubling. Very damaging to the party, and to the country. Unpatriotic, really.

Will Barack Obama, for the good of his party, be growing some cojones anytime soon?

And if not, why not?

———

What do you think?  Can Obama win without Hillary on the ticket?  Will Obama put his ego aside and ask Hillary to be his running mate?  Would an Obama/Clinton ticket win in November?  Let me know what you think in comments.