Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

Okay I need to calm down. Elections make me anxious (dressing and feeding myself daily also make me anxious, but still) and I’ve spent the week in a palpable state of panic that IT’S ALL SLIPPING AWAY omfg.

The “Obama as celebrity” meme is working!

Hillary might shank Barack in Denver! Or the altitude has he considered the altitude what if he faints during the speech Maureen Dowd did say he looks thin!

What if swing voters in Montana respond better to McCain on his response to the RUSSO-GEORGIAN WAR than to Obama! And when did all those former Soviet republics become their own country anyway has anyone been to Georgia? It’s capital is Tbilisi what does that even mean?

For me the panic is probably at defcon-6 out of 10; Stirling (my Pinko co-conspirator) has actually morphed into Keith Olbermann, temples pulsing and stomping around the apartment naming his infant daughter the worst person in the world for her occasionaly loose stools. We take this shit very seriously.

But through the panic I still found a few signs of hope and some interesting themes emerging:

* The Obama campaign is doing something very smart. In addition to their national ad buys, they are running local ads in swing states focused on issues specific to those states. They have an ad up in Ohio going after McCain for his role in the loss of thousands of DHL jobs; they have an ad up in Nevada taking on McCain for his hypocrisy over the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, which is a huge deal there. It’s genius. I imagine we’ll see more of this in the weeks to come, since I gave them so much money the campaign has the resources to do big national ad buys and bore down into specifics.

I’ve always marveled at the idea that any of the general, broad-stroke nationwide political ads could have any impact on a real voter. For all the time I spend watching MSNBC and reading national political blogs, millions of American’s still get the bulk of their campaign news from the local paper, the local news, or an ad that runs during some rerun of Seinfeld. It’s extremely smart of the campaign to put some meat on the bone (shhh) for voters who are still trying to figure out who Obama is and what he stands for. It also lets him stay positive in the big-run national ads and keep the negative ads out of the chattering class limelight, which is smart politics.

* That said, the ad he has running during the Olympics is fascinating. When I worked on a then-nascent campaign to encourage development of “green collar jobs” in America, there was a study by a respected DC pollster arguing that the most effective frame for any candidate to talk about both the environment and the economy is to link them together, and to speak about both issues in terms of solutions and America’s “can do spirit.” The new ad, titled “hands” does just that. Unfortunately it also brings to mind that Jewel song and the time at Trannyshack in San Francisco that I saw someone fisted live onstage to the tune of “these hands are small I know” but that is a whole different blog post.

Also, and totally unrelated to the election: 

* Does Huffington Post really need and entire section for the John Edwards story under the blaring header ”Some news is so big it needs it’s own page?” Katha Pollitt had this take on the story, wondering if Edwards has killed once and for all the “electable white guy” brand. It’s worth a read.

* Did you see this shit?  David Byrne is designing crazy bike racks and they’re putting them all over the city? I love it.

Also tomorrow is Sunday which means our weekly gay marry it … or abort it? roundup of the week that was. Any nominees?

About The Author - Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.