Sunday, December 31, 2006

On Edwards and Tranformational Politics


Two very infromational and thought-provoking threads of comments on these two MyDD posts:

Transformational Politics -- Why the Dean Campaign was Different

Nominee, Movement Leader, or Both

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 7:25 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink


Saturday, December 30, 2006

NC town hall event today


1pm EST

It's so nice to live just around the corner...

Last night I went to the HQ for the volunteers' meeting, then had dinner with some OAC bloggers. We got special V-VIP tickets for today so we'll all (about 30 bloggers) sit together right up front and liveblog and take pictures and shoot videos to post afterwards. I'll do that here by updating this post.

This morning I walked the dog around the Village Green and watched the people test the sound system etc. There are bloggers already sitting and eating in the restaurants around the Green. The weather decided to change today - it is much colder than yesterday and an occasional raindrop can be felt. I still expect a huge crowd.

Excitement is in the air. The local businesses are quite excited about the prospect of the HQ in the neighborhood - two years of good business as campaign staff, volunteers and visitors need to eat, have their clothes cleaned, ship some mass-mailings or take a break and go see a movie, buy a book, have some coffee or go to the gym.

BlueNC bloggers are meeting at the pizza place at 2:30. The doors open at 4:00. The anthem will be sung at 4:30, followed by a band. JRE is suppposed to address the crowd at about 5:15. Stay tuned.

2:15pm

Good, the Sun is out again. I don't think I'll be liveblogging, but will try to take and download some pictures right afterwards.

6:30pm

Just got home after the event. It was huge - police estimates about 5000 people! By 3pm there were already two lines of people waiting to get in, each line at least a 100 yeards long. We got in early - the power of being a blogger in this campaign. Lots of bloggers from OAC and BlueNC. We managed somehow to get in all together all the way in front around 4pm. It was quite warm - I had to take my coat off for a while.

I took some pictures but now I cannot fine the cable for downloading photos anywhere in the house! I'll keep trying and will upload the pics sooner or later.

In the meantime, Amy has put some pictures on her liveblogging diary up on OAC.

8pm

Still no sign of the cable - it is driving me crazy!!!!

But I found another excellent blog summary of the event here.

At about 4:45 the anthem was sung by a very little girl (I understand she sings it at UNC games as well) who belted it out with an amazing power!!!!

Then, Del McCoury band played - it was great to finally see them live. They are fun and funny and relaxed and it is nice to see a band openly supporting a candidate (especially this early on) and not fearing how that would affect the sales of their CDs.

Edwards showed up at about 5:30 or so and the crowd roared! Elizabeth was dressed in red and looked great. Cate, Emma Claire and Jack were there - wow, how much the little kids have grown since the last time I saw them.

There is a video clip here and Amy will put up her video later tonight or tomorrow on her liveblogging thread, so you can see/hear the whole speech.

While I liked his 03/04 speeches (both the Millworker one and Two Americas one), this one is so much better, much more mature, realistic and honest. There is nothing there I would not sign myself. Heck, if I was running, that is what I would like to say.

11:45

Watched the TV coverage. Local ABC affiliate did a much better job than the local NBC affiliate, e.g., picked better quotes, etc. The BlueNC sign was seen, full-screen, on ABC, though. Both stations went out of their way to find, out of thousands of fervent Edwards supporters, a few people standing outside who are not as commited and who could be duped (and later smartly edited) into saying something wavering, or mentioning Clinton and Obama, or something silly about just having had an election and it's too early for another one. The NBC guy even stated that most of the people there were not supporters but just "curious"! Moron! Yuck!

1:00am

Paul, Sally and Kirk were also there. I was looking for them, but in that crowd... I had the V-VIP ticket for Kirk and looked for him in vein. Anyway, knowing that Kirk was an old wolf of a reporter I knew he could get himself wherever he wanted, not that the campaign volunteers were stopping anyone from getting wherever they wanted if they only knew they could! I just put on the air of importance and crossed all lines and went through all gates an hour before the whole thing started.

Anyway, check out the comments on Kirk's DK diary as well as this thread on BlueNC.

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 12:57 PM | permalink | (2 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink


Friday, December 29, 2006

JRE links for today


A Blog Around The Clock: The Netroots Candidate

Sally Greene: Edwards launch

Kirk Ross: Edwards is in

Ruby and Brian

Mark Kleinschmidt: John Edwards announces plan to run for President

Jake Luddington: John Edwards Town Hall Streams Live and John Edwards Answers Blogger Questions

Scoble: Jake’s video of Edwards

Paul Jones: Edwards - Scoble connections and Sally and EdCone and Scoble (and me) on Edwards announcement etc

Shakespeare's Sister: John Edwards for President

Pam Spaulding: Edwards, Biden, jump into presidential race and John Edwards addresses marriage equality question at N.H. town hall gathering

Ezra Klein: Edwards vs. the Deficit Hawks (also here)

Kevin Hayden: Edwards in 2008

BlueNC: And so it begins...., Live from Iowa, it's.....what day is it? and John Edwards - back to New Orleans (political cartoon)

Orange Politics: Dec. 30 Edwards announcement in Southern Village and Elizabeth Edwards, keeping it real

Anton Zuiker: Edwards in '08

Iddybud Journal: Bloggers Appreciate Edwards' Appreciation of Net

Anonymoses: It's Official! John Edwards is in the Race! and Prelude to a Blogger President: Edwards & the Democratic Future

Benny's World: Blogger Sit Down in Iowa

Wampum: John Edwards speaks and Sweet....

The Carpetbagger Report: Edwards rejects Rubinomics

Firedoglake: Bringing Poverty To The Table

Taylor Marsh (on Huffington Post): Missing the Edwards Message

Culture Kitchen: It's your last chance to vigorously molesticate our advertisers

Bob Geiger: Why John Edwards Changes Everything

Digby: So It Begins

jcsinclair: John Edwards Meet and Greet

Below Boston: John Edwards announces he is running for President;will be in NH tomorrow, We are in portsmouth NH with John Edwards and The web e-mails in a question.

Iowa For Edwards blog

Edwards08 bloggers: Report from Edwards Des Moines Event Today, Online Town Hall from New Hampshire and Behind The Scenes

DailyKos Diaries:
Why New Orleans
Edwards in N.O. Pretty Darn Good
On Edwards, Hillary, and Obama
How Edwards' Announcement is Playing in the Press
John Russell Makes Case For and Endorses John Edwards for President in 2008
Photos from John Edwards' Presidential Bid in NOLA
John Edwards: Progressive Populist
Edwards 2008
Edwards: Need to Reject the McCain Doctrine of Surging Troops...
John Edwards- Act Now
The McCain Doctrine = Brilliant Framing
John Edwards Event in Des Moines
LIVE ONLINE TOWN HALL WITH JOHN EDWARDS at 12:30 PM ET/9:30 AM PT
Videos of the Edwards Event in Des Moines

Added on 12-30-06:
chuckles1 on DKos: Edwards 08: Crowd Size and the Press

Aldon Hynes: JFK in Running Shoes, My New Hampshire Summary

Blue Hampshire: Edwards Declares War On Hope (and it's about time)

Dempov: John Edwards - The Right Leader at the Right Time

Don Dodge: Scoble and John Edwards in New Hampshire

Scoble: In Reno

Ezra Klein: Edwards vs. the Deficit Hawks, Iowa and But Can He Raise Taxes?

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 3:26 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink



WaPo


Dan Balz wrote two excellent articles this week:
Edwards Scooped by His Web Site
Edwards Turns to Non-Traditional Campaign Model

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 1:36 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink


Thursday, December 28, 2006

Blog Coverage of the Announcement


Here are the earliest diaries on DailyKos.

Scoble is liveblogging his trip to NOLA here, here, here, here and here.

Many blogs are covering the announcement - here is a small sample:

Benny's World
Random Thoughts from Reno
The Real Paul Jones
skippy the bush kangaroo
anonyMoses
Blue Girl, Red State
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Edwards 08
Billy the Blogging Poet
The Nation blog
Exile on Jones Street
Iddybud (also here)
Jeff Pulver


Ezra is also in NOLA, blogging from there.

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 8:36 AM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink


Wednesday, December 27, 2006

johnedwards.com is up and running


Edwards has unleashed his campaign website, where you can find all the info, join the discussion on the blog and see a preview of what he'll say tomorrow in NOLA on this video:



Also, go and recommend this live vlog from NOLA.

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 10:46 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink



John Edwards to announce tomorrow


John Edwards is announcing his presidential candidacy tomorrow in New Orleans, followed by a tour of town-hall meetings in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina and North Carolina. I'll be at the last one and may have some pictures etc. I'll probably resuscitate this blog to avoid cluttering the new one with all the political horse-race stuff.

Liveblogging from the event in NOLA are a couple of bloggers at OAC. Scoble will also be there.

I hope that Ford's death does not suck out too much air out of news-shows on TV tomorrow.

posted by Bora Zivkovic @ 5:35 PM | permalink | (0 comments) | Post a Comment | permalink