This just in via email. Howard Dean will be coming back to San Francisco for a fundaraiser for, I assume, the DNC.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Chairman, Democratic National Committee

cordially invites you to

JOIN THE PARTY!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

The Palace Hotel
2 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA

5:15 PM
Trailblazer Council
Host Committee Reception
$500 write/raise

6:00 PM
“Join the Party” Reception
$50 per person

A Special Thanks to the Members of the Bay Area Democrats

To RSVP, visit:
[http://www.democrats…]

I’ll see you there.

I published this today for Beyond Chron, San Francisco’s Alternative Online Daily.

About a month ago, I was on a radio talk show (KALW-91.7 FM) to discuss the 2008 Presidential primary – when a caller predicted that this would be the “YouTube election.”  Now that any web-savvy citizen can post a video online (or even create a mash-up video that satirizes a presidential candidate), elections will be decided less through conventional media buys – and more through the grassroots actions of political activists who may have no affiliation with a campaign.  With this week’s release of the anonymous YouTube video lampooning Hillary Clinton as “Big Brother,” we know that the caller’s prediction was right.  It’s a brave new world, and campaigns must learn to adapt.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, the video is a brilliant parody of Apple’s famous commercial from January 1984 – which introduced Macintosh computers to the world.  I was six years old at the time, and a few months later my father bought us a Mac, which was our family’s first home computer.  In the new video, Hillary Clinton is the “Big Brother” from the old commercial – while a woman with a Barack Obama t-shirt runs toward the large video screen, hurling a hammer at the last second to break the monotony.

The Obama campaign insists that they had nothing to do with it, and the author’s anonymity has only fueled more interest about the video.  As for Hillary’s reaction, she replied to a group of bloggers that she’s “pleased” that the video is “taking attention away from what used to be on YouTube and getting a lot of hits – namely me singing `The Star Spangled Banner.’  Everybody in the world now knows I can’t carry a tune.” 

Back in January, over a million viewers on YouTube watched Hillary Clinton sing the national anthem at a campaign event, and believe me – it’s painful to listen.  While the clip was initially broadcast on television, it only picked up steam because average users could then just take the video and re-broadcast it on YouTube.  Otherwise, we would have had to depend on large TV networks to decide which political gaffe is newsworthy. 

The clues that this would happen were evident last year.  Republican Senator George Allen would probably have been re-elected – if he hadn’t been so stupid as to call an Indian-American “macaca” while on tape.  The filmmaker then posted the video on YouTube, and it soon became the butt of jokes on late-night comedy.  The “macaca” moment allowed journalists to start snooping about Allen’s racist tendencies, and we soon learned what a twisted jerk he really is.  If not for YouTube, we may never have had a Senator Jim Webb – and the Republicans would still control the Senate today.

The Internet has been around for over a decade, and in the last four years bloggers have made serious strides in how the media covers politics.  But YouTube has taken the online medium to a new level.  Blogs are good for political junkies who want to read the “inside” story, but there’s something about an online video that attracts more attention.  Our society is more accustomed to watching the news than reading it, so YouTube is to the blogosphere as television is to newspapers.

Of course, there’s a difference between the “macaca” video that sunk George Allen’s career and the 1984 parody that reinforces what many people – fairly or not – think about Hillary Clinton.  The lesson from “macaca” is that politicians must be careful what they say, which everyone can agree is a good thing.  But the Hillary episode shows that even your statements or likeness can be manipulated to make a hilarious video.  Unlike “macaca,” that’s something that a candidate can’t control. 

And Hillary is only the latest victim of this phenomenon.  John Edwards has Southern charm, but his vanity was displayed on YouTube in a less flattering light.  Back in November, somebody put up a video of Edwards on YouTube where he combs his hair and looks in the mirror – probably in preparation for a TV interview.  But the creator also added the song “I Feel Pretty” from the musical “West Side Story” in the background – to devastating effect.

Remember Howard Dean’s Iowa “scream” that killed his presidential campaign?  While the television media was to blame for blowing it way out of proportion, Internet enthusiasts also played a hand.  YouTube did not exist at the time, but a website called “Dean Goes Nuts” was created – where bloggers remixed Howard Dean’s speech with “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns `N Roses, “Throw it Up” by Lil John, and even “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys. 

But remixing and distorting someone’s statements or videos for political gain is nothing new.  For decades, candidates have taken videos of their opponents and added music in the background for a powerful TV commercial.  In 2004, for example, the Bush campaign took footage of John Kerry windsurfing to make a negative ad about him being a “flip-flopper.”  The YouTube parody of Hillary Clinton as “Big Brother” or John Edwards and “I Feel Pretty” is just the latest incarnation of a very long tradition.

What YouTube does is allow any person who knows how to put up a video online to play the game – and get wide exposure.  In the old days, only well-paid political consultants and the campaigns who hired them could do this – and they had to pay ungodly amounts of money to put such commercials on television.  YouTube democratizes the political system, by letting grassroots activists drive the debate about how candidates get covered.

Although I don’t like Hillary Clinton and am a big fan of the latest YouTube video, I am very uncomfortable that it is anonymous.  But there’s no question that the creator’s anonymity (and the fact that it was obviously not an amateur) has sparked more interest in it.  I also believe the Obama campaign when they say that the creator is unaffiliated with their operation, and that they’re as clueless as we are as to who did it. 

But anonymous hit-pieces – even if done artfully well – are not a good thing.  If the 1984 parody had been displayed on television, campaign finance law would have required the creator to disclose its identity so that they can be held accountable.  For now, the clip is probably harmless fun – but will it spawn more attacks on YouTube from sources who refuse to let the world know who they are?

It’s too soon to tell, but there’s one thing that we know for sure.  The YouTube election has arrived.

Send feedback to [email protected] 

This is a nice write-up of a private fundraising stop by the DNC Chair in Palm Springs, and the connection between his message and the message we present almost every day on this site is striking.

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, says his party will need more outreach than money to win California in 2008.

The former presidential candidate and Vermont governor was in Palm Springs Saturday for a private fund raiser, as reported on thedesertsun.com Saturday.

“The strategy in California is not to spend $30 million on television,” said Dean, who addressed the media outside.

“People want to be contacted door to door, and they want to be contacted on the Internet, and they want their opinions to matter,” he said.

“If we don’t start doing grassroots politics in California, we’re not going to be able to count on California in the foreseeable future.”

A-frickin-men.  over…

Taking this state for granted the past 16 years has led to an apathetic voter class, a Republican governor, and a general weakening of the state Democratic Party.  There’s no cohesion because there’s no outreach beyond the big urban centers.  The fact that Dean made this pitch in Palm Springs is in itself significant.

Kevin Corcoran, a sales and marketing consultant, said he hosted Dean’s reception in his Palm Springs home “to begin the conversation for 2008.”

Too often, he said, candidates bypass the valley and head to Los Angeles for outreach and fund-raising efforts.

“It’s a great opportunity for the people in our community – the access to Dean to learn about what he’s doing, what the party’s doing and start to develop a point of view,” Corcoran said.

We need a 58-county strategy in California for the future of the party.  The demographic shifts are tremendous and we need to go where the people are going; namely, to the interior counties that offer the best chance for party growth.

Fortunately, the burgeoning of the state progressive blogosphere and other outreach developments have given Democrats across the state the opportunity to band together and offer a real alternative.  But this is only a beginning.

I hope Gov. Dean attends the CDP convention and makes it just as clear there how we need to mimic his “Be everywhere” strategy for this state, which is a message that Art Torres and everyone in the Party must internalize.

…and man did it feel good.

Last night, USC convened two panels to have a sort of election post-mortem, first from a California perspective and then from a national one.

For the purpose of this diary, I’m going to address the national affairs panel because that was the one during which I smacked down one of the rightwing panelists…twice.

And this was no ordinary rightwingnut; it was Flash Report‘s Jon Fleischman.

More over the flip.

Fleischman and Steve Schmidt, who ran Schwarzenegger’s campaign (formerly of Bush-Cheney re-election fame), represented the Republicans on the panel. The Democrats were Democratic communications “specialist” Roger Salazar and Al Gore’s former Director of Political Affairs Karen Skelton. More on them later.

First, Fleischman. This guy was a piece of work, a classic conservative sell-out who’s still carrying Bush’s water. The topic was “what does Bush do now” and Fleischman said the following, no joke (I paraphrase):

I think Bush has already begun doing what he needs to do, which is to work closely with the Democrats in a conciliatory way.

I almost choked, I couldn’t believe those words came out of his mouth without any irony. Was he kidding? My blood started to boil. Certainly someone on the panel would call him out on this ridiculous statement.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

[crickets chirp]

Sigh. But I’m not the sort of guy to raise my voice when not called on. Hell, I’m no Mike Stark. The panelists were speaking and I was a lowly audience member. But then he said it again and this time, it was simply beyond my control. I shouted:

Is pushing John Bolton through conciliatory!?

All eyes were on me. They didn’t quite understand what I’d said, so I repeated myself more clearly and loudly, now that I was actually in control of the words this time. And Fleischman looked directly at me and replied something to the effect of:

The John Bolton situation is more an issue of loyalty for President Bush…blah blah blah.

So, in other words, no, it’s not conciliatory at all, is it Jon? Thank you.

The moderator looked in my direction:

Can you please save questions til the end.

I nodded and raised my hand acknowledging the request, figuring, certainly I wouldn’t have to raise my voice AGAIN out of turn.

Well, I was wrong.

As the panel went on, I noticed Fleischman repeatedly called the ‘Democratic Party’ the ‘Democrat Party.’ And again no one called him on it. I could feel the steam building inside me. Umm, anyone, is anyone going to react…

Then I heard a disturbance from the audience to my right. A guy I couldn’t see was mumbling something about how “Democrat Party” was offensive. He then got shushed by the moderator, so again I yelled out:

Could he please get the name of the party correct!?

Then my friend on the other side of the auditorium joined me:

It’s Democratic Party!

Fleischman never used the term again.

Now, what I did certainly wasn’t revolutionary and it may not even qualify as a smackdown truly, although for me it was new territory; I didn’t know I had an inner Mike Stark.

But the real issue was this:

WHY DID I EVEN HAVE TO SPEAK UP? WHERE WERE THE DEMOCRATS ON THE PANEL TO CALL THIS GUY OUT?

Nowhere. They were nowehere.

Roger Salazar, one of the two supposed Democrats on the panel, posted his recap of on CA Majority Report, to which I posted a reply calling him and Karen Skelton out for letting these right wingers run roughshod over reality.

But honestly, I wish that was the worst thing Salazar and Skelton were guilty of. No, they were also quite adept at perpetuating a couple of media myths about last week’s election:

1. The absence of a national Democratic message to frame the election means that the result was more a function of  Republicans losing the election rather than the Democrats not winning. The Democrats were just in the right place at the right time.

2. Howard Dean was a big loser on Tuesday and Rahm Emanuel was a big winner.

This time, it was the Democrats I had to call out but I waited my turn. I waited until the moderator took questions from the audience. This time I raised my hand like a good little boy. They took 10-12 questions and the moderator never looked in my direction once.

The price for having spoken out of turn.

Well, as it happens, I didn’t have a question anyway. I had a comment. And since I didn’t get to share it last night, I’ll share it with all of you.

I am really tired of hearing people say Democrats didn’t really win on Tuesday, that Republicans merely lost. Oh really? We won majorities in the Senate, House, governorships and state legislatures. Not one incumbent Democrat anywhere in the country was ousted. And all this without a unifying message from the national party.

Yes, of course Republicans lost, they lost big, but largely thanks to Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy, Democrats all over the country, even in the reddest of red districts, won. We challenged in more districts than ever before and fielded phenomenal candidates and because we did that and because there were actual boots on the ground in these districts, we could support those candidates so that they had the resources to make the case to voters that they were a credible alternative to the Republican incumbent and a credible agent of change. Howard Dean belongs right up there on your winners list.

Something like that. I’m still working on it, you get the idea.

I really wanted to tell it to their faces last night, of course, but there was something satisfying about having been banned from speaking.

So as you can see, it was a pathetic display but it was also such a perfect encapsulation of what is wrong with these beltway strategists. I mean, in the end, I started liking the Republicans more. At least they had some audacity. You wanna know who Steve Schmidt named as one of the winners of Tuesday night? Ken Mehlman. HA! On his watch, Republicans lost majorities of absolutely everything and he’s a winner? The way Schmidt put it, without Mehlman, the losses would have been much worse.

Now that guy is a Republican, promoting his own kind in defiance of all evidence to the contrary. There’s something admirable about that.

As I said to Roger Salazar in my comment to his post about the panel:

If you ever wonder why bloggers and the grassroots have problems with establishment Democratic consultants and strategists, think back to last night for your answer. I saw three Republicans on that stage last night; I didn’t see one Democrat.

Are you guys registered over at CA Majority Report yet? We need to use the comments there to pick fights and keep them honest.

Join me in the comments over at Salazar’s post HERE.

I’m also going to be posting some video soon too.  It’s being uploaded as we speak.  The good photos are from randymi, the blurry ones are mine.  😉  Here’s my Flikr set link, and here’s the filmloop:

(If you can make it, please stop by. It’s right off the MUNI line (Van Ness Station) so easy on/easy off. Come meet our DNC Chair and our next governor, Phil Angelides! – promoted by SFBrianCL)

[UPDATE: Link added]
An exciting event for the Angelides campaign this Friday in SF.  Link here

Take Back California Rally in San Francisco for the next governor of California:
Phil Angelides
this Friday Aug 11, 9:30am – 11:00am

Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall, Local 38
1621 Market Street
San Francisco, CA

With special guests:

1. DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean
2. CDP Chair Art Torres
3. DNC Vice Chair Congressman Mike Honda
4. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
5. Assemblymember Mark Leno

Refreshments Served

Please RSVP with Kandice Richardson at 916-448-1998 ext. 163 or [email protected]

Calling all Bay Area Deaniacs! Howard Dean is coming to San Francisco to join Phil Angelides, Gavin Newson, Art Torres and mark Leno for a good old fashioned “Take Back California” Rally!

TAKE BACK
CALIFORNIA
RALLY

FOR THE NEXT GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA
Phil Angelides
With special guests:
DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean
CDP Chair Art Torres
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
Assemblymember Mark Leno

Friday, August 11
9:30am – 11:00am

Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall, Local 38
1621 Market Street
San Francisco, CA
Refreshments Served

Please RSVP with Kandice Richardson at 916-448-1998 ext. 163 or [email protected]

Over the past week or so, I’ve grown increasingly optimistic that the California Republicans played their hand too early and that Schwarzenegger may have peaked too early with his triangulation. Furthering my optimism is our candidates’ showing in much redder states. If our odds are good in places like Arkansas Missouri, how can we possibly count out Blue California?