Romney's 47% Video and the Power of New New Media

As the video clip of Mitt Romney's "47%" remark does increasing damage to his campaign - latest polls show him trailing by 10% in Ohio, and by almost as big margins in other swing states -  we have another example of the power of new new media in politics.

The video was not taken by a professional news crew or camera.  Rather, as Ben Smith points out in BuzzFeed, "Its emergence offers a glimpse at the workings of the contemporary media: Chaotically driven by an anonymous leaker; empowered by ubiquitous recording devices."

Like the George Allen "macaca" video of 2006, the Romney video may well be his undoing in 2012.  In both cases, traditional media played a crucial role in fanning the flames of the story.  But the story itself was captured by a recording device which epitomizes a world in which every consumer has become a potential producer - every attendee at a rally, everyone in every audience, can be a reporter through which audio and video clips of the event can be seen by everyone else in the world, first via posting to YouTube, then via ripple dissemination through mass media.   Multiple copies of the Romney video have been viewed more than four million times on YouTube, and millions more times on cable and network television.

It's hard to say who was more clueless - Allen or Romney - in the ways of new new media.  Allen's error was made in 2006, when YouTube was just a year old and the iPhone still a year away.  But he should have known that, even with the media of his time, anything said at a public, outdoor rally could be captured for later national listening and viewing.   Romney must have been aware of what happened to Allen - though, with Romney, you never really know - and was likely lulled into thinking he could say whatever he needed to please his rich Republican funders, without fear of it being made public, because the venue itself was so private.  But not private enough.  Nothing is reliably private in our age of smart phones and YouTube.  Romney should have known that even the ritziest private venue was vulnerable to social media.

Politics continue to be shaped and driven by new new media - not just by their savvy use by campaigns, but, even more profoundly, by the ignorance of campaigns of what new new media can do.

Doo Wop Forever

Not the most important topic in the world,  but I couldn't help shaking my head and laughing about this article in yesterday's New York Times -  "A Doo-Wop Shop Prepares to Close, Signaling the End of a Fading Genre" - not only needlessly apocalyptic about this music, but illogical and ignorant.

Illogical, because to support the point that devotees of the doo-wop sound are "old or dying," the article cites Christine Vitale, a fan in her 40s who broadcasts a doo wop show on WFDU-FM Radio (I used to have a radio show, "Seminar on the Air," on WFDU when I taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the late 1970s).   Willie Winfield, the 89-year old lead singer of the Harptones ("Sunday Kind of Love," the first song I sang with my group, The Transits, in the early 1960s - hey, we were a little retro), is quoted as saying, “Just like rock ’n’ roll is here to stay, doo-wop will be here forever," but is dismissed as an "optimist".

The facts are that Mr. Winfield is right to be optimistic.   I just searched on "doo wop" on YouTube, and got "about 34,000 results".  Not quite dying, not by a long shot.  If Peter Applebome, author of the article, had been paying any attention to what's been going on in our popular culture, he'd know that YouTube bestows immortality to all music upon it, making it easily available to anyone of any age.   (See my 2009 book, New New Media, for more.)

Applebome distinguishes doo wop from jazz, which did indeed manage to survive the fabulous onslaught of rock 'n' roll.   Jazz of course did this, handsomely, in a age before YouTube.  There's no doubt that doo wop will not take the same path to survival.  But here's betting that those 34,000 YouTube doo-wop results will only expand in the years to come.

In the meantime, though I haven't had a chance to put this up yet on YouTube, here's a reel-to-reel tape recording of The Transits singing "I Only Want You" in Paul Gorman's basement (he sang bass, I sang first tenor) in the Bronx in 1963 ....

I Only Want You (sung by The Transits) by Paul Levinson

First Presidential Twitter press conference

Just watched the first Presidential Twitter press conference - mostly on MSNBC, which stopped its live coverage about 10 minutes before the press conference was over.  I saw the rest on the more reliable Twitter site.

Like all firsts - such as the first YouTube Presidential debate, back in the 2008 campaign - the Twitter event was as much show as substance.   But there were some good questions and answers, and I think the event was therefore worthwhile.

Herewith a few helpful, friendly criticisms:

• The "curation" or screening of questions gets in the way of the democratizing point of this kind of event.  Obviously, no President or any one person could answer or even read the multitude of Tweets.   My suggestion is randomly select the Tweets that the President will see and respond to.
• Along these same lines, the inclusion of Tweets from House Speaker Boehner and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof only get in the way of a Twitter press conference being a real expression of the people.  Neither Boehner nor Kristof need Twitter to get their ideas in front of President Obama.  Most other Americans do.
• Obama needs to work on his pronunciation.  The funniest part of the press conference was when he pronounced a Tweeter named "Schnapps" or "Shnapps" as "Shnepps" (apparently Obama has never had a schnapps?  Oy!)

But, all in all, a good first effort the President and the Twitter sector of new new media.  I hope we'll see more.  And this will be the first lesson in my "Politics and New Media" graduate class which I begin teaching at Fordham University tonight.

 

Treme 1.5: Delicious!

Great music and scrumptious food are the fixings of Treme - and New Orleans.   Usually the music is so fabulous that it outshines the food.   The music was tasty, indeed, in Treme 1.5, but in this episode I give the edge to the food.

My favorite scene takes place in Janette's restaurant.   Tom Colicchio and three other world class chefs (Eric Ripert, David Chang, and Wylie Dufresne) walk in - you've seen Tom on Bravo's Top Chefs.   Janette and Jacques whip up a "low ball" dinner - Janette astutely realizes that there's no point in her trying to out-New York these New York titans.  I'd already eaten dinner, but if it were possible, I'd have taken a little of what Janette served up, right through the television screen.

Janette runs over to Davis in the Second Line parade the next day, bursting to tell him about what happened in her restaurant.   But Davis typically is so involved in his own streams of thought that he barely hears her.   Janette walks away, disappointed.  It's a sad statement of the nature of their relationship.

Meanwhile, in the best music of the episode, Davis sings and records a scathing song about George W. Bush - "Shame, Shame, Shame" - with an all-star New Orleans band.    But Davis is later punched in the jaw - he wrongly thinks he can say "nigger" in the same way a black man can - and he ends up about as embittered as we've seen him, in his room.

Albert's angry, too, about the projects still not opened, and providing homes to returning New Orleanians.   He barely controls himself when a conversation with a political guy in the street promises little more than the apathy de jour.   Albert's anger is one of the best elements of the series.

Creighton's anger is burning, too.   He puts up another YouTube video -  lambasting Bush for not coming through with his promises - and gets accolades not only from people on the street, but author Ray Blount.   But there's a big cloud on the horizon, as Creighton gets word that his agent is coming down from New York to see him.  He's sure the purpose of the visit is to take back the advance he received for his novel, which is now going on six years overdue.   But, optimist that I am, I'm thinking Creighton's agent is coming to New Orleans to ask him to write a book about what he's been saying on YouTube.

There are already some happier developments in town.  Antoine gets a visit from a wealthy Japanese fan, who buys him a new trombone and gives him a wad of cash.   This enables him to buy back his lost trombone, which Toni brings to some head cop played by David Morse, in hopes of getting some justice for Antoine.  No such luck - justice is still in short supply in New Orleans.

But the food and the music have never been better!

See also Treme! ... Treme 1.2: "If you ain't been to heaven" ... Treme 1.3: Fine Sweet and Sour ... Treme 1.4: New Orleans, New York, Nashville

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The Plot to Save Socrates





"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Treme 1.3: Fine Sweet and Sour

A mixed bag for Antoine tonight on Treme 1.3.  Starts out good, with sex with a woman from the club where he plays trombone, followed with sex with his woman at home.   But it ends with vicious cops kicking his trombone and beating him bloody.   Toni explains in another context that cops are on edge in post-Katrina New Orleans, but the truth is this happens all too often in cities around America, which haven't been flooded by a hurricane.

One restraint on police brutality, which I talk about in New New Media, is the ubiquity of camera phone videos and their easy upload to YouTube.   Whether criminal or out-of-control cop, it's getting increasingly harder to break the law in private.   I didn't see any cameras around when Antoine was beaten, but it was good to see Creighton watching a video his daughter made in Baton Rouge put on YouTube.   It's the end of 2006 - YouTube is bursting on to the scene.  (I put my first videos up there in July 2006.)

Sonny and Annie have a strong sweet-and-sour story tonight, too.  It's Annie's birthday.  Sonny gets money to buy her a fine bottle of wine to celebrate.   But real-life New Orleans pianist Tim McDermott swoops in to get Annie to play her violin at an upscale gig with him.   Sonny's welcome to tag along as a guest - keyboard, after all, is "already covered" - and Sonny's left drinking the wine at a table by himself.

Antoine also sings a great song, out in the street, with Sonny and Annie playing, right before his run-in with the cops.   Sounded to me like Wendell Pierce was singing, and it sure was good.   Throw in a little Dr. John music - on record and in a recording session in New York - and Davis and Janette taking each other's clothes off again, and you have a third straight fine episode of Treme.

See also Treme! ... Treme 1.2: "If you ain't been to heaven"


5-min podcast review of Treme

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

S

Taliban YouTube Channel: New Entry in the Dark Side of New New Media

This is the third post in my continuing series, What's Newer Than New New Media, published in different blogs, which examines developments in the world of blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc - what I call "new new media" - since the publication of New New Media in September 2009.

Fareed Zakaria had a short, instructive, piece on his GPS CNN show today – October 18, 2009 (see video below) – about the new Taliban YouTube station, Istqlalmedia. This brings home a crucial point I make in “The Dark Side of New New Media” (chapter 13, appropriately enough, of New New Media, published in September): the same access to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook which allows protesters to get out word about government abuse and crackdowns – as with the protesters in Iran this past June – can also be used by terrorists to plan attacks, and by terrorist groups to ply propaganda.

The general principle here is that all technologies are like knives – they can be used to cut food, in the hands of good people, and used to cut people, in the hands of the bad. Actually, in the hands of a surgeon, a knife that cuts is a good thing. But a pillow, presumably innocent, can be used to suffocate someone. And a gun, often used for bad purposes, can be a valuable weapon against crime, or just to hunt food. The ultimate value or danger of any technology, in other words, depends upon how we humans use it.

New new media are no different. Terrorists may have coordinated their attacks via texting in the attack on Mumbai last year. The U.S. Army warned about the use of Twitter by terrorists in a report at the end of last year.

Zakaria raised another significant point – a prime irony – about the Taliban YouTube station. They are group at war with the modern age, using one of the most salient media of the modern age on behalf of their battle. This is an hypocrisy which critics of technology, criminal and civilized, have long been subject to. Jacques Ellul wrote a now classic book, Propaganda, in which he argued that all media – including products of the printing press – were intrinsically, inevitably, and always vehicles of propaganda. So why we should pay any attention to Ellul’s inevitably propagandistic book?

But we do, and the Taliban YouTube station will likely get lots of views. In the end, the best we can do is use the advantages of new new media to call these hypocrisies out.




See also:

What's Newer Than New New Media, Post 1, about Amazon, 1984, and the Kindle

What's Newer Than New New Media, Post 2, FTC Wrong to Fine Deceitful Bloggers

New New Media vs. the Mullahs in Iran

Bob Brill on KNX Radio out of Los Angeles called me this morning for my thoughts about the banning of international media in Iran. Here is an expanded version of the gist of what I told him in our interview:

The banned media are traditional, old-time broadcast and print media. They are still an important source of information in our world, and their muzzling by the mullahs in Iran is nothing to cheer about, but this action will do little to stop the flow of news out of Iran.

And this is because we now live in the age of YouTube and Twitter - or, what I call the new new media. Unlike CNN and The New York Times on the Web, these newer media allow anyone and everyone to become a reporter, and are impossible to totally shut down or even effectively control.

New media have always been a thorn in the side of totalitarian governments. The White Rose used photocopying to alert Germans to the lies of the Third Reich, and samizdat video undermined the Soviet Union from the inside out in the 1980s. Word got out on the early Internet about Tiananmen Square in 1989, and though the Chinese government in the end crushed that democratic uprising, the people of Iran today have a lot more new media at their disposal. Hundreds of YouTube videos are coming out of Iran and Twitter has been buzzing with at least that many Tweets per hour about the crackdown on democracy in that country.

But are all of these self-produced reports, sent to the world without editors or vetting, truthful? Of course not. But the same open process that brings this information also makes identification of false reports and unsubstantiated rumors easy.

The Iranian government can do what it can to shut down sites and block Internet access in Iran. But the capacity of most cell phones to record and upload videos, and just about any cell phone to Tweet, makes this a brand new ballgame for democracy.

The point of a gun is still hard to disobey or work around, but the informational means to do so have never been more accessible and powerful.

Thoughts about Susan Boyle

The extraordinary success of Susan Boyle shows two things, seemingly contradictory, but in the end very gratifying about human nature.

People were surprised that someone who looks like Susan Boyle could have such a beautiful voice. This shows the initial shallowness that just about every one of us suffers from in one way or another: we tend to discount people who are not physically attractive. In that sense, we are no older, emotionally, than when we were nine or ten years old.

But the speed with which everyone recognized the beautiful talent of Susan Boyle shows that we also have more depth than meets the eye: we are excited, thrilled, to see that physical beauty is indeed only skin deep, and that you can't judge a book by its cover. What starts out as curiosity, driving more than 30 million people to YouTube, at this count, quickly transforms into a satisfaction, a deep delight, that someone so unexpectedly can have such a wonderful, joyous voice. We are pleased to our core to find that there are far more important things than what we look like, and that in fact visual image can be totally irrelevant to some of the best things in life. We feel good about discovering that, because deep down we already knew it.

Susan Boyle's success speaks to the deepest and best parts of our human natures. It also speaks to the continually growing power of social media and the Internet. There was once was a time, not that long ago, when a extraordinary event such as Susan Boyle's performance would be difficult or impossible to see and hear, if you didn't catch it the first time around on television. Nowadays, far more people are seeing the event on YouTube than saw it in the first place.

Susan Boyle will likely win the talent contest, but even if she doesn't she'll sell millions of records and have a spectacular career, and all of us will have won as well. She looks like the Statue of Liberty on that stage, a figure from another century, and has a voice for the ages that frees something very real and ever resident in the human spirit.

Obama and FDR : Not Just New New Deal, New New Media

As many of you know, I'm finishing my New New Media book, due at my publisher, Allyn & Bacon, in January. I thought you might enjoy a little preview - something I just wrote this morning...

The November 24, 2008 cover of Time Magazine depicting Barack Obama as the new FDR – the President-elect in specs, gray suit and hat, sitting in car, cigarette jutting optimistically upward – has the caption, "The New New Deal".

The comparison, of course, is to FDR and Obama both first taking office in the throes of financial crises and catastrophe, and to Obama’s plans for public work projects, to help Americans get back to work, just as FDR did in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But the announcement - a day after the Time Magazine cover became public on November 13, 2008 – that Obama’s radio address on November 15, 2008 would also be made available on YouTube, showed that Obama would be the new FDR not only in New Deal economic, but in the employment of new new media to communicate to the American people.

Roosevelt’s "fireside chats" - 30 of them from 1933-1944 - had used the new medium of his day, radio, to communicate directly to the American people, as no President had ever done before. Roosevelt and his advisers understood how to employ the advantages of new radio, which allowed anyone talking through it, including the President, to sound and seem as if he was talking directly to Americans, in their living rooms, bedrooms, of whatever room their radio happened to be situated in their homes. The effect was powerful, unprecedented, profound. My parents, who grew up in the Great Depression, often told me how they felt Roosevelt was almost a kind of father or parent – which makes sense, for whose voice would otherwise be talking to you in the inner sanctums of your home. When World War II came, my parents felt comforted by Roosevelt’s voice. They felt that as long as FDR was talking to them and all Americans, the country would be ok. (See my 1997 The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution for more on radio and FDR.)

Americans stopped listening to radio that way in the 1950s, when television became the predominant political broadcast medium, and radio became a vehicle of rock ‘n’ roll. By 1960, people who saw the Kennedy-Nixon debates on television thought Kennedy won, in contrast to those who heard the debates on radio and gave the victory to Nixon – unfortunately for Nixon, some 90% of Americans had televisions in their homes by 1960. And in the election of 2008 and its aftermath, YouTube began to replace television as the predominant political audio-visual medium.

Obama’s YouTube addresses take advantage of all the characteristics of this new new medium, just as FDR’s fireside chats did with radio in the 1930s and 40s. In place of the voice in the home, the fatherly reassurance, that radio conveyed for FDR, Obama on YouTube suits the world of 2008, in which people want to be in touch with their President, or at least hear and see him, at times of their rather than his choosing. Like a President on radio, a President on YouTube is still conveying reassurance – but it’s a reassurance for people on the move, accustomed to being in the driver’s seat about when and how they receive their information, including Presidential addresses. In the fast-changing 21st century, the biggest reassurance about information is knowing that it's there.

For example, if you'd like to listen to Obama's first YouTube address as President-elect on November 15, 2008, you can do that right here ...



See also Obama's Speeches and FDR's Fireside Chats

Paul McCartney Singing All Things Must Pass

Another YouTube gem - Paul McCartney singing George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" at the Concert for George held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 29, 2002 one year after George's death...

My favorite line was always "daylight is good at arriving at the right time" ... not only good things, but bad things, don't last forever...

But there's a lot good in this song, and McCartney's performance. Look at the look McCartney gives Harrison's son, Dhani, at close to the end of the performance, followed by the look McCartney gives Eric Clapton.

All things must pass ... but perhaps not if they've been put up on the eternal golden playlist of YouTube....

Obama's Acceptance of Nomination in Stadium Resonates with Democracy

Good for Barack Obama for deciding to accept the Democratic Party nomination for President this August in a huge outdoor football stadium in Denver.

Stadiums are usually thought of nowadays as platforms for sports and celebrity concerts. But they have a history that hearkens back to the very roots of democracy.

In ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy as far as we know, the ideal size for a democratic state was thought to be the number of citizens who could sit in a public arena or stadium and debate the issues.

Ancient Athens put Socrates to death - they had no First Amendment back then - but not every aspect of our democratic system is better than theirs. In place of the direct democracy of Athens, we elect representatives who debate and vote on our behalves. Rather than seeing our speakers in person, we see them on television, where members of the press - another kind of representative - ask them questions for us.

YouTube has taken some of the press out of this process, and put videos in our own hands (or, at least, laptops and cell phones), but we still do not get to see candidates, or each other, in person, as we all pursue the democratic process.

Obama's decision to move his acceptance speech from inside the convention to Invesco Field at Mile High, in Denver, is a powerful and important symbolic move. Like JFK, who also accepted his party's nomination in 1960 in the big outdoor Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Obama's nomination in Denver will be a crucial step in moving our democracy a good mile higher in responsiveness to the people than it is today.

Arianna Huffington Interviewed on Mark Molaro's Alcove

Excellent 20-minute interview of Arianna Huffington by Mark Molaro on his Internet Alcove show. (I consider Mark Molaro the Charlie Rose of the Internet.)

Huffington correctly attributes Barack Obama's success to his campaign's mastery of the Internet - or, what I call "new new media," and discussed with Mark on The Alcove last November.

The Huffington Post is one of the primary heralds of new new media journalism and commentary, and this interview provides an important audio-visual document by its Editor-in-Chief. The interview is of course available on YouTube, which is part of this revolution, too.

My favorite line in the interview (one of many): the mainstream media, in ineffectively covering the build-up to the Iraq War (its failure to report that there were no weapons of mass destruction), became, in Huffington's words, "stenographers to power".

Roy Orbison's Guitar

Know what I’m talking about?

The Traveling Wilburys were – in my opinion, and that of many critics and fans – the best rock supergroup to ever have existed. Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Rob Orbison recorded under that name from 1988-1990. Their best-known songs – and justifiably so – were “Handle with Care” and “End of the Line”.

Roy Orbison died at the age of 52 in December, 1988. When the time came to record a video of that song, the Wilburys put Orbison’s rocking guitar in a rocking rocking chair in the part of the song, starting at 1 minute 44 seconds, where Orbison carried the lead. You can also see the rocking guitar at the very end of “End of Line”.

You can read all about that on the Wikipedia entry on The Traveling Wilburys.

You can see the video, and this moving tribute to Orbison, any time you like on YouTube – in your home, office, or, if you have mobile device such an iPhone that connects to YouTube, from any place you like.

Here it is, right here:


That’s what I’m talking about when I say YouTube is increasingly making every part of our popular culture ever recorded in any form available to anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world.

YouTube, in other words, has robbed death of some of its meaning – at least insofar as it pertains to popular culture. And that’s pretty far, indeed. The end of line for audio-visual popular culture is immortality on YouTube. Roy Orbison and his ever-rocking guitar proves it.

Obama and the Demented "Uncle"

Barack Obama said on MSNBC's Countdown tonight that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. - pastor of Obama's Church, and a longtime religious mentor - was akin to an "uncle," a member of the family, who says something that "you really disagree with"...

Here's some of what this "uncle" has said ... September 11 was "chickens coming home to roost" for America ... "God damn America" ... and, about the Clintons, "Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty." (You can see it all on YouTube videos.)

Obama has said he deplores those statements. He says he was not present at the sermons in which they were made. Wright, as of this evening, no longer has any connection to Obama's campaign.

Where does that leave us?

1. Obama and Wright are not the same person. Nor did Obama ever endorse any of Wright's statements. And Wright's statements never went out under Obama's name (as racist statements did under Ron Paul's).

2. But the fact that this raving hater was Obama's mentor for so long remains a concern. Obama's denunciation of Wright's statements is welcome, but it does not explain or excuse their long spiritual relationship.

Human beings are flawed - including those who run for President. No President or candidate for President has ever been perfect. Obama's gifts are no less inspirational today than they were last week.

But Barack Obama has taken a hit from the vicious, intolerant statements of his pastor. He will have to work that much harder to prove he is the best person for President.

The Impact of Saturday Night Live on Last Night's Election Results

I'm quoted twice in this savvy Hollywood Reporter article by Paul Gough, which just went live - along with CNN political analyst Bill Schneider and John Edwards campaign manager Joe Trippi.

Hillary's Tears

The above video shows Hillary Clinton near tears, talking today about her campaign in New Hampshire.

More than a few people have been snickering about this. In the comments attached to the above YouTube video, some graceless person said Hillary's tears are crocodile.

You know what? It must be exhausting beyond comprehension to put yourself out there and run for President.

And I want a President who is a human being, not a robot. Tears are human. There's nothing wrong in the slightest for either a woman or a man to cry. In fact, there's usually a lot right with it.

So, although I plan on voting for Barack Obama in the New York primary, I'm glad to see that Hillary Clinton is in this race, and fighting with all of her heart.

And for those of her enemies who take some solace or pleasure in Hillary's tears, because they're glad to see what they think is her weakness? Well, you people are not only not fit to be President, you're barely fit to be human.

NBC's Journeyman in Second Life: Media Within Media Within Media...

And here I am, plugging NBC's Journeyman, in Adele Ward's Meet the Author interview with me...

Or, more precisely, it's my avatar plugging Journeyman, on Adele Ward's Meet the Author show in Second Life, as broadcast on the web via SLCN.tv ...

You gotta love this: a shout-out for a network television series, via webcast of an interview in a virtual world...

A good example of an observation I first made in Digital McLuhan. The distinction we often make between medium (say, television) and content (Journeyman) is too simple. What we really have are media within media within media, almost ad infinitum ...

Also a good example of how Second Life is increasingly spilling over and into real life - as I pointed out in my Second Life Meets Real Life piece on Internet Evolution a few weeks ago.

So, when you look at the above ad, you're seeing the medium of this blog, which contains the medium of a YouTube video, which contains my plug for Journeyman, which is itself a clip from SLCN.tv's webcast of my (avatar's) interview by Adele Ward('s avatar) in Second Life ...

Little boxes ... no, that's Weeds ... though weeds, viral marketing, and media within media all partake of a kind of dandelion spore dissemination...

Obama Girl's Dancing with Obama

The latest from Obama Girl ... based on the clip of Obama, I'm not sure he has much of a future (as a dancer), but, then again, JFK let Jackie do all the twistin' on the dance floor....

See also Obama Girl Applauded in My Class at Fordham and The Barely Political Revolution ...

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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!

Republican YouTube/CNN Debate in Florida

I didn't find tonight's Republican YouTube/CNN debate as refreshing and provocative as the first YouTube debate among the Democratic contenders for President a few months ago. Possibly the YouTube bloom is off the rose. More likely the questions weren't as humorous or provocative tonight as those received via YouTube for the Democrats.

Otherwise, it was a good, punchy debate which showed most of the candidates off to their best advantage. McCain, in particular, was more eloquent and forceful than usual in his support of the war and his denunciation of torture. Romney was on the receiving end of McCain's torture lecture - Romney falling back on his all-too-typical letting the experts decide - but Ron Paul had a fine moment in his cogent explanation, back to McCain, on the difference between being an isolationist and a non-interventionist (Ron Paul is the latter). And Ron Paul also spoke truth about why violence has decreased in southern Iraq - that has happened because the British have left.

But Romney was excellent in knocking down Giuliani's attack on Romney's alleged employment of illegal aliens - Romney reasonably replied that he contracted with a company to work on his home, he did not directly hire illegal aliens.

I should note here, however, that although I admired Romney's rhetoric in this exchange - a rarity - I think most of the Republicans and many of the Democrats are making too big a deal about illegal aliens (which, not that terminology matters all that much, but I can't help thinking of people from outer space whenever I hear that phrase). One of America's greatest strengths has always been its openness to people from other countries and cultures.

Huckabee was probably the best on stage about this issue, refusing to back down from his funding of education for children of illegal immigrants.

Giuliani, other the exchange with Romney on the employment of illegal immigrants, was pretty much on top of his game, and Fred Thompson was a little more animated than usual tonight, too.

So where do we stand: Huckabee is personable and gaining in the polls and could conceivably pull an upset in Iowa. Even if he comes close, he could be a good running mate for Giuliani. I'd say it's too late for McCain and Thompson, whatever they do or say from now on. Romney is still Giuliani's major competition.

And Ron Paul still has by far the best positions. He alone among the Republican candidates continues to speak to truth to authority about war. We'll soon find out how many votes this translates into in the primaries.

Paul Levinson Interviewed about Old and New Media by Mark Molaro on The Alcove

Mark Molaro - the Charlie Rose of the Internet - interviewed me a few weeks ago about the state and future of old and new media, and what I call "new new media" - not just the web, but YouTube, blogging, podcasting and their impact on our lives and uses in education. Twenty-five minutes of civilized conversation, in which I talk about everything from Bill O'Reilly telling me to "shut up" on his radio show earlier this month (not civilized, but one of my proudest moments) to Rich Sommer coming over to this blog last month and correcting a small error I made when posting about Mad Men (an example of the self-correcting powers of the Web - Rich plays Harry Crane on Mad Men).

Mark Molaro's interviews on "The Alcove" are the best I've seen on the Web - the interview immediately preceding mine was of Peter, Paul, and Mary's Peter Yarrow - and I'm happy to be among them...

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Books discussed in the interview...



Mark Molaro has a group on Facebook well worth joining.

Thanks to Emon Hassan for putting Mark in touch with me.

Listen also to my interview of Rich Sommer on Light On Light Through