Edwards and the People Powered Express
Submitted by Jerid on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 2:23pm.
John Edwards is back and in a big way.
I spent the morning checking out his presidential website, and reading up on some of his staffers.
Edwards starts the day with a YouTube video announcing his intentions to announce (I know, a little hoky there) in the coming day.Things to note about the video. The man uses a derivative of "I" only four times in the entire 2:30 video. Instead, everything's about me; I'm the big show; It's all about Jerid (and YOU!) and what "We" are going to do together. The point here is that Edwards the candidate is making a play to take the spotlight off himself and instead put it on the voter. Not a bad play. Another candidate took this messaging strategy in 2004. His name was Howard Dean. Edwards even squeezes in a call to action. Playing off the people-powered motiff, he states:
"I'll ask millions of Americans, including you, to join me in taking action and taking responsibility, not sitting around and waiting for someone else to do it. But actually going out and doing it ourselves, from the ground up. And taking action NOW. We're not waiting for election day...We're going to ask you to do things today..." followed by a request to join his OneCorps program now and forward the video to you friends and family now. Like Dean, he's following through on promises to both empower and lean on the activists
Edwards also doesn't waste anytime staking out his attack. Who's he go after? Hillary? Obama? Nope, McCain. "We need to reject this McCain Doctrine of surging troops and we need to leave Iraq" Two points Johnny. One sentence alone identifies McCain as his public target, associates McCain with the troop surge, and reminds voters that Edwards is for bringing the troops home while McCain (and others) are advocating to keep them in harms way in Iraq. As for the website and the toys, John's obviously getting good advice.
A friend sent me word that Edwards had "uber" blogger Robert Scobles on hand at the announcement today. Scobles isn't tapped into the political blogosphere like Kos, and mydd. Rather Scobles is involved with the tech blogging side (think slashdot, among others). The real significance here is that Edwards is expanding beyond the typical online outreach circles...and he's reaching beyond political circles to those that have the absolute best know how and skills. His webpage reflects this outrach, on the frontpage there's links to viral media sources and networking like facebook, myspace, flickr and youtube. Also, the Edwards campaign embraced the new wave of text messaging for various venues throughout the site. Additionally, the OneCorps concept seems to be a play off of Dean's houseparty strategy from '04. Instead of rallying around the candidate though, OneCorps is built on a community service concept. A quick search on their site reveals 24 chapters in Ohio, with a chapter of 15 members within 3 miles of my house. Not bad. All in all, the site's a virtual toybox for activists looking to get their feet wet as Edwards encourages "Today". Impressive.
Mark
Submitted by Jerid on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 2:39pm.
No, I'm on board with you. Personally I lean towards Richardson as well. I love Bill's foreign policy experience and I still think immigration is going to remain a huge issue for the next decard (with or without a reform package from Congress in the coming year).
The whole point with Edwards is that I'm impressed with the package. I'm not even looking at issues right now. Presentation matters immensely. I'm impressed with Edwards shot out of the gate (aside from his snafu with releasing his announcement a day early online "accidentally).
I really like Edwards
Submitted by JeanLR on Fri, 12/29/2006 - 10:13am.
I was actually emotionally moved during his announcement speech/press conference~ not because of "flowery language" but because of the obvious transformation I saw as evidenced by his demeanor, substance, clarity, and message; his composure demonstrated to me an authenticity in his views and his desire to lead our country in a positive direction~
Edward's has grown so since the 2004 primary season where I first became aware of him~ the fact that he has spent the intervening time since the '04 election devoted to learning, helping, traveling, expanding his experience and knowledge, speaks volumes to his personal character and his ability to think big.
I am solidly impressed :-)
Nifty.
I'm still holding out for Bill Richardson right now. Sure, Edwards apparently has got a great marketing/consulting team behind him right now, and his hair IS great, but I'm looking forward to someone with something on their record to point to, and Richardson is one of the few that comes to my mind that fits that mold. And maybe someone who could potentially carry their own state. But alas, I digress.