techPresident - Mike Huckabee - Comments

OMG, the first post on Election 2012

Micah L. Sifry — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:27:00 -0400

Zephyr wins the prize for writing the first techPresident post about the election of 2012. Watch the tag "2012 election" for more, you know they're coming.

[Big sigh].

You're totally right. I

Zephyr Teachout — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:23:54 -0400

You're totally right. I should take it down. I was just trying to justify why anyone would want to Huckwatch except that he's interesting. After this year, I'm through with the Presidency.

Valdis, I appreciate this

ChrisM — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:58:44 -0500

Valdis,

I appreciate this post and the original post on the topic.

Friends talking to friends was a key part of our Huckabee web strategy and was particularly effective in small states. You mention Iowa and I might also add Kansas as another example of where this strategy worked well (and caught many people by surprise). They also happen to be two small states with a similar chemical makeup that frankly favored a candiadte such as Gov. Huckabee.

We arrived at this strategy after coming to grips with what a low budget campaign could and couldnt accomplish online.

We then deliberately promoted decetralization, messaged consistently to our local lists of supporters with local signatures, encouraged bloggers within the states (after assessing where the blogosphere stood on the race (pro Mitt and Fred)...we ignored 90% of the national blogs and instead focused our attention on small blogs and on the small groups of people reading these blogs, people we believed were more likely to think similarly and act cohesively) and finally we deliberately pushed traffic to the Meetup groups and encouraged local activity.

All of these online actions strengthened our support within these networks.

Offline our work with local pastors and community leaders, (doing the same types of things) was critical and far more influential in many instances than what we did online.

We certainly weren't geniuses about this. The guerilla nature of our campaign and lack of funding forced us into strategizing this way online,(it would have been nice to have an ad budget like McCain and Romney) but once we were there, we realized we were onto something and pushed it like crazy.

Re: Obama Bests Clinton Reaching Last Minute Voters Online

Xavier Lopez-Ayala — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:43:37 -0500

See my post (with pictures) here: http://cerebralpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/03/re-obama-bests-clinton-reac...
Although I did enjoy your post, I wanted to point out that it is based on signing up to the site. When you visit the Hillary Clinton website, it automatically detects your state of residence and adjusts the front-page content to be state specific (something which could not be replicated using your test).
If you are in Ohio the front-page content is specific to this state, including the "Hillary TV" videos that are preloaded (in Ohio, the most recent ad "Partner," is prominently featured, as are ads featuring Gov. Ted Strickland and former Sen. John Glenn).
Obama"s campaign website, conversely, loads into one of those pesky and annoying sign-up screen. When I click "skip" it does not redirect me to an Ohio-specific site, instead to a more general site.
I think that Obama wins with last-minute voters online ONLY if they sign-up as supporters (or at least for information). Hillary"s campaign website makes information specific to voters in the state of Ohio more accessible and readily available than the Obama campaign website, which is the best way I believe to convert undecided and last-minute voters.

debate

mary62 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:34:26 -0500

Did Obama know questions before last nights debate?
I think so, because.
When a person in a debate is asked a question they pause, think and then answer.
Mr. Obama did neither when asked questions, even the best debater will tell you the same thing.
It would not surprise me, the way MSNBC favors Obama.

about youth and war

Freedomfighter — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:52:41 -0500

If young voters are voting simply on the war then they are wasting their votes. Military decisions should not be determined by politics and for the most part, won't. Clinton admits it, Obama lies about it, and Paul is wearing a tin foil hat. If people were being drafted, then there would be more reason for the war to be relevant. However, I think people should be more concerned about jobs and education and taxes. The comments about soldiers above is not correct. The military troops we have now are the oldest soldiers the US military has EVER had. 55% are 26 or older. I think this is why young people are having a larger impact in this election.

http://www.militarycity.com/advertising/circulation.html

Clintons Vote for War

T Ruth — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:45:29 -0500

Her words don't square with the facts. I will never vote for her. Obama 08

"Better"? Still a stretch...

ben.sayre — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:49:21 -0500

Something like what you're talking about could be possible some day, but you're still a long way from outlining a new science here. ;) You yourself note that the metric is not at all straightforward to interpret, e.g., in the case of Ron Paul - though he also dominates the Hitwise and Technorati trends, doesn't he?

Agreed

Chuckumentary — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:02:29 -0500

I think we do need to be more critical of citizen journalism, so I'm glad you point that out. I think we're in this early stage where it still feels new, we tend to pat ourselves on the back for doing it at all, and be sensitive to criticism because it's a lot of work for little/no pay. :-)

That said, we need to get beyond that stage and focus on how can we actually make citizen journalism better? We have to look critically at the content and process and basically grow up a little bit.

Until that happens, I will continue to remove my shirt while mocking Brit Hume.

Absolutely

Joshua Levy — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:09:00 -0500

Chuck, I totally agree and didn't mean to give you guys, or any CJs out there, short shrift. I'm obviously (I hope it's obvious!) a huge supporter of citizen journalism. But to my mind projects like Assignment Zero have focused a bit too much on how it gets done rather than on the fruits of its labor.

That said, you guys, the New Assignment team, and others are definitely creating actual sausage, and it's been great.

Sausage

Chuckumentary — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:00:48 -0500

Hey Joshua, thanks to linking to what we're doing at The UpTake.
I agree, CJs talk a little too much about themselves (i'm particularly guilty of that - look I'm doing it again!)

At the same time, we like to show how the sausage is made, or even better to not make sausage at all. I think it's okay to put ourselves in the story and have some fun with it. More serious stories, I prefer to have nothing between the story and the viewer.

Ron Paul's Revolution Fogged Out In Iowa

littlebier8 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:49:13 -0500

Two nights ago, I wasted considerable time watching CNN, MSNBC, and FOX to monitor Ron Paul's progress. I say "wasted" because in every single pie chart they had percentages for Mitt Romney, Michael Huckabee, and Fred Thomson, and then this gray, foggy section that was "Others." Who was in that section? Well, there was Rudolph Giuliani with roughly 4%, Duncan Hunter with <1%, and Ronald Paul with over 10%. So basically that foggy area in the pie chart represented the "dark horse" candidate, only 3% behind the so-called front-runners Fred Thomson and John McCain, and 6% ahead of the so-called Republican Rudolph Giuliani. Despicable. The mainstream press (I know I sound paranoid and annoyed, and I am) are trying to ignore Paul's message and his support by lumping him into the "Other" category. No, he didn’t win, or even place, but getting 10% with limited news coverage and little position-recognition, in a state known for its pro-war stance, in a predominantly pro-war party is not just noticeable, it's a miracle. He nearly beat two big-name candidates, but is he given credit? No. FOX News is also planning to cut Paul out of a New Hampshire debate tomorrow, prompting the NHGOP to withdraw its support from the debate. I am sorry Rupert Murdoch, but the Revolution won’t be called off because of a little fog.

Walk and kill

Colin Delany — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:22:05 -0500

Better get that royalty check in the mail to Huckabee...

Colin Delany
e.politics
http://www.epolitics.com

Why?

Kristen — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:32:40 -0500

Why does minister automatically mean conservative, and vice versa? I know quite a few liberal ministers, and I also know quite a few conservative atheists.

I agree that Huckabee is not a true conservative, but neither are the vast majority of republicans, and it has nothing to do with religion.

(I'm the daughter of a former pastor, and all of my family except for one cousin are either Democrats or apathetic liberals.)

FCC and other state monsters.

voluntaryist — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:46:00 -0500

Celebrate the sovereign individual

Ron Paul would abolish the FCC, IRS, Federal Reserve, and much more. Without the net he wouldn't have a chance and vice versa. They need each other. The net represents the last vestige of freedom of speech. Paul is the only candidate who will protect it.