Maicol

[cont. from above]
- HRC: Big effort to get FL & MI to count. Again, sad because it's so delusional.
- HRC: So I read the site as pretty corporate, streamlined, sad, and scary. People seem to be in denial. They really do seem convinced that somehow they're going to win.
[continued below]- BHO: The Obama blogs, in contrast, are vastly more expansive. Bloggers race to be the first to comment on a new posting, and scrolling through one can find not only standardized cheers & accolades but incisive analyses, poems, prayers, screeds, songs, observations, insights, dissent, argument, debate, recipes, parodies, satire, and tons of links to other sites. It's an amazingly diverse set of voices.
- BHO: Networking infrastructure is very highly developed; there are groups, friends, events, all kinds of mechanisms designed to get people in touch with each other. Very densely integrated.
- BHO vs. HRC: The average blog posting on the Obama site garners about 1,000 comments (there are, on average, 5-6 new blog postings per day, meaning there's about 5,000 to 6,000 comments from readers per day). The average number of comments per blog posting on Clinton's site is about 50 (hence the "5 percent" comment above).
- It'd be fascinating for an M.A. thesis or some enterprising political scientist to compare & contrast the Hillary & Obama sites. They are very similar in structure and profoundly different in tone & substance.
- Peace! posted 03/31/2008 at 16:43:08

It's a pretty illuminating exercise to compare & contrast the websites of Clinton & Obama; here's my take:
- HRC vs. BHO: Hillary's blogs display about 5 percent of the creative energy and excitement as the Obama blogs. Egregiously offensive comments are excised on both sites, though the bar is considerably higher on Obama's site; one has to say something really nasty to get the comment deleted; on Clinton's site, even a small measure of dissent can result in an excised comment.
- HRC: The predominant sentiment on Hillary's site can be described as "championing the underdog". For example: "please don't quit" - "up against tremedous odds at times she has continued to fight and press on for us" - "WE WILL FIGHT TO THE END TOGETHER!!! Hillary is a true FIGHTER!!! GO HILLARY!" followed by a couple dozen more exclamation marks - that sort of thing.
- HRC: The overall tone of the comments is pretty hopeful, but it's a very peculiar kind of hope - self-referential hope, folded in on itself - a stiff, self-righteous, desperate kind of hope. A fair number of people are seemingly convinced that Hillary will end up winning the nomination. One guy talked about winning PA by 85 percent. Shooting for 86 percent and settling for 85. That just seems very sad because it's so delusional.
- HRC: There's a LOT of pleas for money. Lots & lots & lots. Well over half the comments. [continued below] posted 03/31/2008 at 16:42:30

Hilarious and pointed - really enjoyed your self/Hillary/self-analysis. Classic. posted 03/31/2008 at 16:52:41

Come on back Samantha! We need you! You should never have resigned to begin with, but you really oughta come back! posted 03/26/2008 at 20:34:34

Absolutely right. This is the defining event of our era. To hear John McCain proclaim the Iraq debacle a "success" makes my heart race & blood boil. Success?? This is without question among the most consequential foreign policy disasters in American history. Iraq represents a staggering strategic setback for the US, with untold pernicioius consequences for (a) the domestic economy, (b) America's standing in the world, (c) balance-of-power politics in the Middle East and South and Central Asia. (Though ironically, and to my mind, diminished US capacity to influence events in these regions would prove a salutary development.) To hear McCain describe the Iraq war, this unmitigated disaster of historic proportions, as a "success" makes me wonder what planet I'm living on. Or what planet McCain and his ilk think they're living on. Honest to Pete. posted 03/25/2008 at 00:53:22

Plank - I'm also from Michigan and I, too, accept the DNC's decertification of Michigan's delegates; the state Dem Party was idiotic to try to push ahead of the line, but that doesn't mean I (and lots of folks like me) will do anything other than vote for our preferred candidate come November -- and I can guarantee you it ain't gonna be McCain. posted 03/23/2008 at 00:18:51

Gary47 - Exactly right. Conventional wisdom has it that leaders like Obama come along only every generation or two, and that we'd be idiotic to reject him. For once, conventional wisdom is spot-on. Barack Obama will rank among the top half-dozen presidents in US history. posted 03/23/2008 at 00:11:18