As much as politics has been pissing me off lately, occasionally something will happen that makes me feel as though I’m fortunate to be living during this particular period in history. Today, it was something that I read at the Daily Kos site about a homemade ad spot put together by someone supporting Ohio congressional candidate Paul Hackett. While I don’t necessarily think the ad itself was ground-breaking or brilliant, it did a good job of differentiating between Iraq war veteran Hackett, and the incumbent Republican, a woman presently being investigated for ethics violations. Moreso than by the ad itself, though, I was just struck by how cool it was that we now live in an era in which individuals can get involved at such a level. Thanks to the internet, the online communities that have sprung up over the past few years, and the widespread distribution of tools for working with images, distributing messages, etc, the barriers to getting involved at a substantive level are almost nonexistent. In this case, one man who agreed with Hackett’s platform made an ad, it swept across the internet with the help of bloggers, and it’s already been responsible for raising tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars, for the Hackett campaign. When you think about it, that’s absolutely incredible… I need to remind myself of that every now and then… There’s a very real opportunity to participate in the creation of positive change in the world, and we’re just now beginning to get a sense of the potential.
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Thank you for the link to the ad. It’s been an incredible day to say the least.
Tim
Hackett lost despite trying to appeal to Republicans as a Bush-supporter. It was an interesting race. Now, the Dem leadership claims ‘victory’ because he got such a high percentage of the vote. Well, the earth continues to spin, so it’s another day of successful work here at the GOP. Rush (can I mention that name here?) mentioned the Daily Kos (Haterag) on yesterday’s show…”teetering on the brink” was one of his phrases, If I recall correctly.
A 3-4% vote margin in the 57th most Republican congressional district in the nation is a success??
And you call DKos a haterag, while you listen to Rush, who refered to Major Hackett as “a civil affairs staff puke”??
http://radiocomments.userland.com/comments$trackback?u=140194&p=4294
Shanster, is that really you?
Hackett did much better than anyone predicted. It’s hard to tell, however, how much of that had to do with people in that congressional district moving away from Bush and the Republicans. Hackett was, after all, a pro-gun Iraq war vet. He’s not your typical candidate. And, his opponent is, as I understand it, being looked at for ethics violations.
It seems to me, even with all of this, that a lot of what pushed Hackett so close was the support online. I may be wrong about this, but I don’t believe he got a lot of support from the national Dems. At least I’ve heard that national figures, like Kerry, didn’t stump for him as hard as they could have. It’s just a guess, but I think that perhaps the national organization wrote it off as a loss a long time ago (given how deep red that district has been) and didn’t treat it as competitive. The online groups, like Kos, however, did not. They kept pushing him and they got him pretty damned close. The national organization should be held accountable for the loss, in my opinion. We could have won it.
And it’s absolutely inexcusable that Rush would denigrate someone’s service to their country like that, especially when he sat out Vietman with an anal cyst.
Yes, it’s really me. I occasionally listen to Rush, especially when Jim Rome is on vacation. He defended his ‘staff puke’ remark yesterday by saying that one of his friends used the term as a matter of fact description of himself, then he asked an associate to confirm that Hackett was one…yadayada…I don’t need to defend Rush. I think many of the things he says are correct, many are reactionary, some are funny, and many are just inflammatory and disrespectful. Speaking of…I checked out the DKos today, to give it a fair shake. I found no true hatred displayed on the first page, maybe it has moved to the center.
I think you are right, Teddy, about Hackett being a unusually strong candidate, and Schmidt especially weak. And Shanster, you’re just so darn reasonable.
If Hackett still has aspirations, perhaps he’s earned a shot at the Senate seat.
Kos is running with your idea about Hackett for Senate.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/5/91358/24366
This made me so happy today that I copied it and put it up on my bb and sent it out to 249 email friends. Finally, someone who simply says it “as it is” without batting an eye…and the truth, no less. This is the best description of that pachyderm, Limbaugh, that I’ve heard in years. Limbaugh and Bush….same coin, different sides.
Where do I write Hackett and send money?
http://shows.airamericaradio.com/alfrankenshow/node/3112
LIMBAUGH: All right, we’ve learned a couple other things. This Paul Hackett is a trial lawyer, folks (laughing). He’s a personal injury lawyer like [2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate] John Edwards. And it appears that, you know, he goes to Iraq to pad the resum