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 Sunday, December 14, 2003
Dem Candidates' Reaction to Saddam's Capture. The Democratic contenders for President had varied reactions to Saddam's capture. Some are now siding with Bush and criticizing Dean--dumb... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Almost all the candidates used the news to further their own political agendas, such as ging after Dean. Except for Dean. Dean's reply was something that a front-runner can afford to be - stateman-like: He deflected questions about the Democratic presidential race. 'President Bush deserves a day of celebration,' Dean said. 'We have our policy differences but we won't be discussing those today.' 9:45:50 PM 
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Mike Clough: "The Gore endorsement may spur the party's ardent centrists to rally more openly behind Wesley Clark, the candidate who most closely matches the centrists' profile of an electable candidate: a strong-on-defense, progressive Southerner. This is especially likely if, as many observers believe, Clark is the preferred choice of the party's chief centrist, former President Bill Clinton." [Scripting News]
More fodder for my Gore-Dean vs. Clark-Clinton thoughts. But I think that any article that discusses political observers, pundits, polls, what have you are going to miss what is happening because it is under the radar. It will be interesting. But this campaign will not turn on visions of the past as much as it turns on hopes for the future. I, for one, hope for a future where we stop acting like a bully and start assuming a more adult role in the worldwide community. 9:27:35 PM
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But we all know that. Aldus Persuasion was the best. Keynote comes cloes. But so many people try to make them look like Powerpoint Presentations. I used to loath seeing those slides with the awful yellow letters on a blue background. Why could MS not have come up with a better default template? Because they did not have to. 9:14:28 PM
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Okay, this may.... Okay, this may call for what, back in the old days, we used to call reporting. Yesterday, President Bush said that if Halliburton's overcharged then they've gotta pay up. "I appreciate the Pentagon looking out after the taxpayers' money," the... [Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall]
Awfully hard to audit those Iraqi matters if the office in charge is not allowed to. 8:55:18 PM
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Dean's campaign considered as a coordination problem (Clay Shirky). Fascinating Everett Erlich piece on Howard Dean’s candidacy considered as a coordination problem. Erlich’s idea is that Coase’s theory about firms being information gathering machines applies to political parties as well, and that what Dean is doing is using the... [Many-to-Many]
This comes close to explaining what is unique about Dean's campaign. His organization is working WITH the technology rather than trying to make the technology work FOR the organization. The quote about Dean actually running a 3rd party campaign but wanting to capture the Democratic 'brand' is any interesting perspective. 8:50:16 PM
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More on the UK inquiry. Nick Hasell, Larger capitalisation shares - Reed Elsevier, Reuters, mm02, London Times, December 13, 2003. Excerpt: "Reed Elsevier [stock] fell to a nine-month low on concerns over an impending House of Commons investigation into the science publishing market and the increasing support for 'open access' journals....Meg Geldens, a highly rated media analyst in Investec Securities, highlighted these two issues yesterday [the UK inquiry and the rise of open access journals] as she repeated her cautious 'hold' advice on Reed. She also highlighted recent moves by high-profile university libraries --such as Cornell, Harvard, University of California and University of North Carolina-- not to renew their bundled journal subscription contracts with Reed in their present form." [Open Access News]
More Elsevier problems. For-profit journals are in danger. I was doing a literature search and found what looked to be a nice review article. The for-profit publisher wanted $115 to read the paper, non-refundable if I fond out the paper was not really very good. that is a problem when charging for access. Why in the world am I going to pay money for something without knowing if there is ANY value to the content? Things willchange. 8:46:47 PM
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It's Maybe Just About Almost Over. So, I don't know. I think the Gore endorsement is pretty big news - it makes Dean "legit", and undercuts... [The Poor Man]
Here is my conspiracy theory about Gore's endorsement. The core of the Democratic machine resides in the DLC, being run by Clinton's people. Gore's are all gone. DLC in 2002 does not believe any demo can beat Bush in 2004, so let Leiberman run while setting stage for resurgence in 2008. But Dean throws a wrench in this strategy. His campaign is outside the control of the party bosses, both DNC and DLC. He is not beholden to either of them for money or influence, as are the other candidates. They do what any good machine does - they try to stop him. Thus in comes Wesley Clark, the new annointed DLC choice, with many of Clinton's people involved in his campaign, giving him big money early to get up to speed against Dean.
Clark will be the only one to seriously challenge Dean because the DLC will make it so. Now, why Gore? To me his endorsement of Dean throws down the gauntlet to the Clinton-controlled DLC. He can not regain control/power since he and Clinton do not really see eye to eye on a lot of things. By endorsing Dean, he chooses sides. if Dean does win, Gore gains influence over the course of the Democratic party, influence he does not have now. If Dean loses, he has not really lost much.
This campaign for the Democrats will come down to two sides - the Dean grassroots, unpolitical machine vs. the DLC-Clinton defintiely poltical machine. New style vs. old style. In my opinion, the old style wll not create a candidate wh has a chance. The Democrats will not be able to beat Bush if they run a campaign as usual. Rove is too smart to allow that. The only hope they have is to leverage the ability of an adaptive network of people to move rapidly and be nimble. Dean's campaign could win, but only if it is smart enough and quick enough to rapidly route around the damage that will be inflicted by standard political machinations. That is is novelty, its strength. Without that, the Democrats can not win.
Instead of wondering how in the world Dean has managed to galvanize a large group, to get critical union endorsements, to get Gore's endorsement and trying to leverage that to generate a winning campaign, the DNC and DLC are foing their best to hamstring it. All to further their own agenda.
Well, that is my view and I am sticking to it, no matter how much proof to the contrary turns up. I expect the DLC to be one of the last organizations to get on board with a Dean campaign. They will pour money into any effort to keep that from happening. Because if Dean wins, Hilary in 2008 becomes problematic. 5:44:17 PM
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Although some people will never be convinced (conspiracy buffs are just that way), the use of DNA tests to verify his identity should get us quickly onto the next steps. Our most significant prisoner of war and a probable war crimes defendant. 5:22:48 PM
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