Oliver Willis

Some notes on the last day of the 2007 Take Back America conference.

- Bill Scher has the details of the booing Sen. Hillary Clinton recieved during her speech. Yes, she was booed (somewhat deservedly) but it wasn’t for the reason the right is pushing. They are, as usual, making things up.

- In defense of the MSM: At the panel on the media’s “fair and balanced” habit, Richard Wolffe of Newsweek begged for mercy by noting that his publication did in fact produce a cover article skeptical of Colin Powell’s U.N. presentation in 2003. David Shuster lamely tried to explain away the rantings of his boss Chris Matthews, who was noted for recently rhapsodizing about the musk of Hollywood actor turned presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

- Related to those panels, the folks at Take Back America would be well regarded if they gave up on the idea of introductory speeches for their panels. You’re just giving people a license to drone on and on. Just tell the audience who they are and get to questions.

- Jesse Jackson spoke at the closing lunch and sort of flopped. Everybody knows Rev. Jackson’s reputation as an orator but he just sort of rambled on about unity and rainbows. He did loudly rhyme though, which was what everyone was waiting for anyway.

- Howard Dean put a capper on the whole deal, and though he may be the chairman of the Democratic party most of the bad vibes from the cowardly manner in which the House and Senate caved into the administration did not affect Dean. He’s still very much the “man on the inside” for progressives, and he knows it.

- Quite a few bloggers on “Blogger Boulevard” flatly turned down video interviews with The Politico, mostly in response to their propensity to flog Republican memes and talking points. They did, however, run the straw poll in which Obama was the winner to no real surprise. Al Gore, however, as a write-in candidate won 8% which was just a notch below Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.

It’s as if the crowd is saying “Run, Goracle, Run”.

(Crossposted at HuffPo)

Especially in primary season, a gathering like Take Back America is all about being wooed. Conference attendees want the presidential candidates to suck up to them, to woo them, to seduce them into the voting booth by whispering sweet nothings about universal health care, ending global warming, and especially ending the war in Iraq. Tuesday was wooing day at TBA 2007.

Compared to Monday’s relatively low-key affair, Tuesday had electricity. Yes, the media had arrived. There was Fox News’ Carl Cameron, sashaying through the hallways looking for another liberal to mock on his “news” channel, while CNN’s Candy Crowley parachuted in and after a briefing from her producer began interviewing folks on Blogger Boulevard about this whole crazy blogging thing all the kids are doing on their internet computers. I caught one of her cameramen shooting some b-roll of people blogging, which is to say the oldest cable news network in the country was recording video of a guy typing on his computer and calling it news. Such is the universe we now inhabit. Ben Smith of The Politico even was cordial with one of those intemperate types who have called him and his organization horrible shills, the intemperate one in this instance being me. Oh, and Al Sharpton was there broadcasting in media row. I can confirm that from close inspection his hair really does look as awesome as it does on tv.

The first candidate to speak was Mike Gravel, and while I think it it would have been awesome to have him do a live performance piece riffing on his nutty YouTube videos by staring silently out into the audience, he chose not to. I did learn that the person that introduced him, Ralph Nader, was booed. But shouldn’t Ralph Nader always be followed by a Greek chorus of folks booing him? Somebody get the Draft Gore people working on that.

I only caught a snippet of Bill Richardson’s speech, but while he somewhat justifiably went after Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama for not being bold enough in the Senate, it’s hard to see him as more than a really quite well positioned vice-presidential candidate.

Lunchtime brought about the main event. The card was back to back speeches by Barack Obama and John Edwards. Outside of a debate format, you don’t really see the candidates toe-to-toe like this much. I would have to credit Sen. Edwards with a valiant effort, and I would almost like to give him brownie points for having to listen to questions posed to him by the 9/11 Truthers who were posing as members of the media (don’t those guys think that it’s a little silly to think that the same administration that couldn’t competently fire an attorney somehow faked the biggest terror attack in U.S. history?). But, I would have to give Sen. Obama the TKO. Edwards listed some great policy ideas and connected them expertly to each other, but for all its substance it lacked fire. In contrast, Sen. Obama, perhaps because he was in front of a more “red meat” crowd dispensed with a lot of the more conciliatory talk that might serve one well in a general election, in favor of a more partisan contrast between the clear failures of the Republican-led government and the functioning government offered by a Democrat like him. Judging by the audience reaction, how engaged they were, Obama was a clear winner.

That’s all well and good, but you can hear the rumbling off in the distance. It’s a juggernaut of untold proportions rising up over the horizon. Wednesday will be Hillary’s day.

(cross posted at HuffPo)

Things went well, my line about killing the right… well, it killed. But then again this was about the best audience for a line like that. As I write this CNN’s Candy Crowley is across from me interviewing bloggers. I think she’s as vapid in person as on the teevee.

There are two Americas. The America that gets tote bags at Take Back America 2007, and the America that doesn’t. I am in the America that got a fancy tote bag, and that my friends is the highlight of this greatest of liberal confabs.

Honestly, it’s a really nice tote bag. The kind of bag you would get as a reward for donating to NPR or PBS. The issue is, from here inside Blogger Boulevard (which has been shunted off to the side but still up front enough to have random nice people tell me they enjoy my work), not everyone got these tote bags. We’re supposed to be all about equity here on the left, but clearly a two-tiered system has been implemented.

On to the games.

The main hub of activity at TBA is the exhibition lounge, where various groups shopped their wares, varying from The American Prospect, The Nation and organizations like The Blue Fund who seek to invest in progressive-friendly organizations that — wait for it — actually make money. Then there are your pro-impeachment folks who don’t want to hear anything about practicality as well as people lobbying for marijuna legalization. Oh, and a guy dressed like Ben Franklin was walking around, being as Ben Franklin as possible. I am a little skeptical of some of the layout, as some organizations like Democracy Corps were positioned one level deep - no word if this is payback at James Carville for vouching for Scooter Libby. If anything, they’ve got free fast wifi and comfy chairs, and its well air conditioned. From this enclave, we plot the revolution.

The two panels I attended were kind of underwhelming, and I don’t say that to be mean but to be honest. Although I’m sure the panel I’m speaking on tomorrow will rock more than a world or two. At the “Conservative Failure” panel, it started out with a bang showcasing Max Blumenthal’s excellent short film from CPAC but sadly slid downhill quickly after. The stage was monopolized by Connie Rice (cousin to Condi Rice) who spoke extemporaneously about… well, I’m not sure what. She certainly had the conference staff up in arms, speaking way over her alloted time about Life, The Universe, And Everything. People are too polite at these events to tell someone to shut up, but no matter how worthy the cause you’re advocating happens to be I don’t think it excuses just random rambling about what happens to poke into your head.

The other panel, The New Progressive Majority, was less traumatic. Wunderkind pollster Stan Greenberg treated us to a bunch of slides telling us how awesome progressives are, how well the Democrats did, though he did end on a slide with a chart explaining just how much disdain Americans have for both parties. The Democrats are only slightly less hated, on balance. I also discussed with Page Gardner of Women’s Voices, Women Vote why her organization seemed so focused on increasing turnout among single women exclusively. She essentially said that the cost to get out the vote with progressive-leaning single women was less than converting a conservative-leaning married woman who was already prone to vote in the first place. That answer kind of troubled me, because I think it cedes too much ground and makes the voting population into a bunch of micro-targets. There should be focus on the entire voting bloc and not just segments that already lean our way. That’s how you get yourself one of those majority deals.

More to come…

(cross-posted at HuffPo)

Just a reminder that I’ll be on “Blogger Boulevard” (God, I hope there aren’t any traffic accidents or else I’ll have to take the Spammy Subway or the Noob Turnpike) at Take Back America 2007 on Monday to Wednesday. I’ll also be on a panel talking about how blogs can cure cancer, heal the sick and make the blind see.

Also, I’m tentatively also supposed to be “covering” the whole deal for The Huffington Post. No idea if I’ll actually report stuff or just make it up like I usually do. I’m kidding. Maybe.

So say hello if you see me.

If it’s anything like the last one of these I went to, it’ll be an opportunity for me to once again feel like the most conservative person in an entire convention center. I’m serious.

I will fit in a little bit more than I used to because I have a Macbook now instead of a Dell. But it has football wallpaper on it, so it’s still ODub Compliant.