There's no doubt that politicians burn most brightly in the rarified air of the conventions, but major media figures--and their ubiquitous brands--certainly run a close second. In many cases, they are also more recognizable, which makes it harder for them to throw a hissy fit. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it was an irate Joe Scarborough I observed the other day, walking rapidly across the broiling tarmac at the edge of the Pepsi Center and cursing the fact that the heavily armed security detail wouldn't let him exit through a forbidden gate. And even the littler fish make a strong impression. At the Ship Tavern, a power-lunching epicenter at the Brown Palace Hotel, you see face after face, all of them hovering just on the edge of recognition. You know these people. You have conversations with them--one-way conversations, unless you're yelling at the screen. They are the household gods of our media-saturated culture, and they exert a peculiar effect on the people surrounding them.


Take Chris Matthews, the blunt, fair-haired boy of MSNBC. He and his handlers have set up an open-air broadcast stage across from Denver's Union Station. And for whatever reason, zealots respond to him like the Pied Piper of Chevy Chase. I don't mean zealots of any particular stripe: if you feel a passionate commitment to almost any cause, it seems, you will gravitate to the area in front of the MSNBC stage. When I stopped by there yesterday on the way to the Pepsi Center, one guy with a handmade sign was denouncing the Democrats for their pro-babysitting stance (not a fan of subsidized daycare, I guess). Another waved his Labor for Obama sign back and forth with metronomic regularity. Behind me, the formidable ladies from CODEPINK set up shop and began singing "Down by the Riverside." Down in front, a large contingent of 9/11 Truth types were demanding that Matthews hold his guest's feet to the fire--whoever the guest happened to be. You couldn't hear the broadcast, although it was being piped over the public-address system. And anyway, the actual conversation was irrelevant. It was just something about Matthews: the crowd wanted him to exercise those famous predictive skills, which have twice won him the Washington Post's Crystal Ball award, or to grope Ellen DeGeneres again on national television.


In the video below, you can get at least an atmospheric taste of the MSNBC carnival. Just for the record, the 9/11 Truth platoon is shouting "Do Your Job!" For at least two minutes it sounded like "New York Times!"--an unlikely endorsement of the so-called paper of record. Not visible onscreen is a large detachment of police, decked out in riot gear and supplied with plenty of blue plastic wrist restraints. I assume these friendship bracelets were earmarked for the 9/11 posse, should matters get out of hand, but who knows? Under Matthews' spell, even the CODEPINK ladies might start behaving badly.

The last time the Democrats gathered for their quadrennial powwow, John Kerry urged his colleagues to go easy on the sitting president. Bush bashing was discouraged, in hopes of winning over moderate and independent voters. John Edwards pleaded with Americans to "reject the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past," and pointedly declined to serve as junior hatchet man. (And how did that strategy pay off? Well, not so good.) Cut to 2008. With George W. Bush about to exit the Oval Office, there's not much point in treating him as a presidential piñata--although tarring John McCain with Bush's bad juju is seen as a must. Yet the current POTUS has hardly gotten off scot-free in Denver. The Bush Legacy Bus, a museum-on-wheels documenting the president's abundant sins against history, has been parked conspicuously around town. (AOL News Blogger Caleb Howe didn't think much of the bus, calling it a "giant, rolling, multimedia hate-fest.") And over at the Colorado Convention Center, one plucky entrepreneur has launched the Great Marble Round-Up, which aims to restore some, uh, lost property to the president. To learn more, check out the video below.

I met Maine delegate, Jill Duson, on one the shuttle bus going back to the Pepsi Center from the Colorado Convention Center. While we rode, she told me about Maine's and her hopes for an Obama presidency...

It is a staple of our national mythology that the GOP is the military party. Democrats know how to split hairs, and Republicans know how to shoot--right? For many years, there was at least a shred of truth to this assumption. In a recent AFP article, Lawrence Korb, director of military strategy for the Center for American Progress, noted the decades-old trend: "Ever since the end of the war in Vietnam and the creation of the volunteer military back in 1973, the military has tended more and more to vote for the Republicans." But in the same article, Korb pointed out that the tide was beginning to turn. In fact, he argued that the two candidates would probably split the military vote this year. And less than two weeks ago, a study by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics indicated that among deployed U.S. troops, Barack Obama has been receiving six times as much money in donations as John McCain. If further proof is needed, just take a look at the video below, in which five veterans talk to Propeller about their supprt for Obama. The distinguished group includes John Medve, a retired Amry lieutenant colonel; Steve Robinson, a retired NCO with twenty years of Army service; Major General Paul Eaton (ret.); Phil Carter, an Iraq war vet and Obama staffer; and Richard Smith, who served in Afghanistan.

In the Noh theater of American politics, the party convention may be the most ritualized element of them all. It has been decades since rival contenders actually went toe-to-toe in front of the party faithful. The gladiatorial vibe is gone. In its place, we have an increasingly slick sequence of speeches, musical interludes, and Horatio-Alger-flavored videos (although Ted Kennedy's, filmed by no less than Ken Burns, had to detour around the usual rags-to-riches theme, which even George H.W. Bush mined back in 1988). Still, convention fever can be strangely contagious. One wonders if this year will be different--more spontaneous, more meaningful, more real. (Even more fun would be welcome.) For an answer, we turned to Victor Navasky, Publisher Emeritus of The Nation and a confessed "convention junkie" who has attended every Democratic wingding since 1956. (You can check out his Nation convention blog here.)

On the opening day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took time out of her busy schedule to attend an event called "Unconventional Women," to talk with a ballroom-full of young women about leadership and making it all work as a wife and mother in the face of continued stereotypes and unrealistic expectations.

The idea that we still have to talk about this stuff may be annoying, but the point about inequality is, unfortunately, one we need to keep making. And having examples like the Speaker of the House and her family anecdotes can do a lot to help inspire. Still, amid the charismatic Speaker's jovial comments about finally having time to wash her face once her children were grown, was a caution about the challenges of running for office: "You'd better love it," she said.

Earlier today I spoke with Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist, and President of Bennett College for Women, after her participation at the DNC on a panel sponsored by the AFL-CIO entitled: "All Boats Rising: Transforming the American Economy."

So, I'm the weepy, sappy one here at Propeller - almost never met an ideal I didn't like, and I cry if you blow on me - so you can imagine how swept away I was last night by Michelle Obama's speech.

Maybe it's that hers and Barack's story feels so close to my own family's: young Americans struggling to raise their children well. My mother was a Latin American immigrant and, in Michelle's speech, I heard a lot of what she would have liked to hear - messages about equality, humility, and... for goodness sake... love. This was what really got me. The love. For the first time in my life I saw someone in a political environment not sounding like they were made of wood, or mechanically spouting an agenda. What I heard in Michelle Obama's speech was Michelle Obama: person, woman, American, wife, mother. And in all of those identities is where I think we'll find... First Lady.

It seems fairly clear that Barack Obama's lead in the polls has eroded over the past few weeks. Whether this signals a seismic shift in his support or an electorate smack in the middle of the dog days remains to be seen. Meanwhile, voters should keep in mind that polling data can be massaged in any number of directions. A perfect example: in a front-page story this morning, USA Today noted that the presumptive candidate still has a long way to go when it comes to wooing Hillary Clinton fans. According to the story (and the headline), less than half of Clinton's "restless" flock is willing to throw its support solidly behind Obama. But when you read the second paragraph, it turns out that an additional 23 percent "say they support him but may change their minds before the election." Now, it is the inalienable right of every American to make a fickle choice in the voting booth. But if you add that 23 percent to the 47 percent who have already switched their loyalty to Obama, you get a very respectable 70 percent of Hillary voters who are at least inclined to pull the lever for the Illinois senator. That suggests a different (and less panic-inducing) story, especially since Clinton is expected to release her delegates at a reception-cum-pep-rally on Wednesday night. But perhaps that made for a less zippy headline.

The DNC has just released its seating plan for the fifty state delegations. To judge from the mandala-like diagram below, the biggest electoral prizes--California, New York, Texas, and so forth--have been assigned high-rise locations. The smaller delegations are grouped right on the convention floor, facing a salmon-colored asterisk that is presumably the podium. Now, there does seem to be an awful lot of empty seats. Some of those blank spots are club-level suites, which will be expensively refitted as studio spaces for the television networks, and many others will be occupied by the swarm of media types. And the rest? Well, there is another invasion afoot in Denver--an influx of prostitutes, who supposedly turn out in droves for the party animals on both sides of the aisle--and perhaps a few will slip in below the radar.

Surely at least a few of the passengers on the Sunday morning flight from LaGuardia to Denver had no connection to the impending coronation of Barack Obama. But the murmur in the boarding area was of little else. As we marched up the jetway--the kind with a surprising number of kinks and curves--the people behind me were speculating about how quickly Hillary Clinton would release her delegates to her former rival. And once we were aboard, even the stewardess seemed to concede that the flight was essentially one big tour bus: "Please, the faster you stow your bags in the overhead compartment, the faster we'll get to the Democratic Convention in Denver."

Of course, the convention proper has yet to begin. But the Democrats did kick things off early this afternoon, with an elaborate interfaith forum at the Colorado Convention Center. To strike a properly ecumenical note, the DNCC invited a wide range of participants, including Bishop Charles E. Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Dr. Ingrid Mattson of the Islamic Society of North America, social activist Sister Helen Prejean, and Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb of the Orthodox Union. The Propeller team arrived in Denver too late to attend the forum. But we did speak to some of the audience members as they slowly vacated the auditorium. Most seemed inspired by the proceedings. Jeff Fallis, a delegate from Macon, Georgia, was encouraged by the note of conciliation, as you can see in the video below:

But another audience member, George Zinn, sounded a little more dubious, especially when it came to Sister Prejean's contributions. Speaking as a Republican, he urged Barack Obama to put even more distance between himself and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. He also expressed some discomfort with the prospect of a Mormon in the White House (should Mitt Romney get the nod from John McCain), and generally wondered whether religion hadn't become too intrusive a presence in American politics:

Margie Perez had only been living in New Orleans for a couple of years when Katrina wiped out her home. When she came back, Habitat for Humanity was building her a new one in what was being called "Musicians' Village." The Village is the brainchild of Harry Connick, Jr and Branford Marsalis and was developed as a way to lure musicians back to the struggling city.

In February 2007 Propeller (then, Netscape) went to visit and film Margie in her new home. Since our video (below) launched, Margie has been written up in the New York Times, and, most recently, been asked to speak in support of Senator Barack Obama Monday night, August 25, in Denver at the Democratic National Convention.

Propeller will be spending time with Margie in the hours before her podium appearance, so be sure to check our Group page for live streaming video of the DNC behind the scenes!

Alexia


Netscape's New Orleans Voices: Margie Perez from Tom Drapeau on Vimeo.

For more information on The Tipitina's Foundation profiled in the New York Times article, check out the Netscape video.

BARACK TO THE FUTURE

Due to frantic preparations for the DNC, we'll be delivering an abbreviated WIR this time around. Of course we urge all interested members to keep an eye on the twin pillars of our coverage: the relevant portion of the Propeller Blog and the Propeller at the DNC Group page. In both of these locations, you will find video and blog posts throughout the next week. (And again, we encourage you to sign up for our dedicated DNC Twitter feed, which will enable two-way communication between our team on the floor and the Propeller community. Please do participate--we want to hear from you.) Meanwhile: virtually all of the most popular posts from last week involved the two candidates. "The Obama Muslim Myth" scored the highest in both categories, with 155 votes and 571 comments, along with racking up 38,259 page views. For jovial, the persistent rumor of Obama's Islamic faith was "a hateful and malicious attack on the young senator from Illinois." Another member, protoham, was willing to cynically exploit the Muslim myth, even though he had plenty of other epithets on hand: he called the candidate "a 100 percent left-wing, tax-raising, socialist nut." But slate came up with an eminently sensible answer: "Both sides use slander to attempt to win, but is it the right thing to do? I'll vote for the man I feel is the best I have to vote for. Whichever one wins by the will of the people will be my president. I will most likely not be very pleased with either, and I promise to speak against the things the winner does wrong and give him credit for the things he does right." A related story, "Barack Obama fails to shine alongside John McCain," expressed some doubts about the candidate's performance at Rick Warren's Saddleback Form, and rang up 84 votes and 474 comments. Addressing Obama's own characterization of his teenage toking as a "moral failure," memestryker said: "Bush used cocaine, Clinton smoked pot. Who cares what they did as kids? Personally, I wouldn't want a president who had been a teetotaler his/her entire life." Dottie654 seconded that emotion: "If every one of us who experimented with drugs in the 60s and 70s was put in jail, there would have been no room for the real criminals. Do you honestly think Bill and Hillary didn't pass the joint around?" Added Georgia50: "I think Obama acquitted himself well under the circumstances. He was honest and candid, and that's going to matter to a number of Christians." Other relevant stories included "Barack Obama chooses Kathleen Sebelius for Vice President," with 114 votes and 421 comments, and the strictly factual "Is Obama The Antichrist?" Racking up 65 votes and 332 comments, the latter story generated some fairly blunt responses. "No, he isn't," said david_nwpa. Another member, HMMace, gave the idea a little more credibility: "Obama is the Antichrist, and his birth certificate is forged." Replied sabretooth: "Judge not lest ye be judged.... See ya in hell, my friend." But uc2it, with a theology degree under his belt, had an even more vehement response: "First of all, I don't believe in the Antichrist.... After going through a century with Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and maybe a dozen other despicable players, I find it disingenuous to even have an asinine article like this." (On a lighter note, chuck-the-canuck chimed in with: "I have it on good authority that he is actually the tooth fairy." I'll check under my pillow come Election Day.)

BIG MAC

On the other side of the aisle, John McCain was also the focus of numerous top stories. "McCain: 'Today We're All Georgians'" earned 67 votes and 290 comments. DropkickaLib thought the story was a cause for celebration: "Whooooa! A Propeller top story that doesn't contain some form of Bush- or Republican-bashing in the title!" (Replied UnusualSuspect: "No one's stopping Republicans or conservatives from posting articles. It appears the people who come to Propeller tend to be more moderate to left-of-center, that's all.") Glee also thought highly of McCain's comments about the rumble in the North Caucasus: "And the libs are still thinking dialog will solve every problem. Take a good look at Georgia and let's run over there and chat with Putin." Natureboy begged to differ with the Republican candidate's declaration of solidarity: "Georgia initiated this conflict by a military assault on Russian peacekeepers and by bombing the capital of South Ossetia. They bought the ticket and now they're taking the ride." Replied Coatl: "The real victims here are both Ossetian and Georgian civilians who have been killed by both armies." There was also "McCain protests NBC coverage," with 67 votes and 270 comments. BB64 argued that the whole "cone of silence" dispute was a smokescreen whipped up by Obama's faltering campaign: "This whole rumor was started by Obama operatives when their guy didn't do well. They needed spin to attack McCain with a story. They feel their guy needs to hit a home run every time." Not so, insisted silvera: "Just because McCain is an ex-POW and professes to be a Christian does not mean that he can't be a lying, deceitful weasel." (But come on, say what you really think.) As for joeeddie, he declared McCain the winner, but hardly rated the victory a TKO: "Obama did just OK and McCain did better than OK, not great. I give Obama credit for accepting the invitation. It took a lot of what Jesse Jackson wanted to remove from Obama for him to enter that forum." There was also "McCain's 'Cross in the Dirt' story stolen from Solzhenitsyn," with 105 votes and 173 comments. For bigurn, the charges of plagiarism leveled at the candidate were obvious poppycock: "What are the odds that two people in the same century drew a cross in the ground? Gosh, hundreds of millions of Christians. Millions of interactions with other cultures." And flyonthewallz also came to McCain's defense: "I have no doubt that the man's faith and stubbornness were part of the structure that allowed him to survive his ordeal. Even if the 'cross in the sand' is only a parable, I am not going to knock it."

AND DON'T OVERLOOK....

Despite the abundance of political hand-to-hand, there were some lighter moments as well during the last week. "Russia Evil After All," rang up 109 votes and 81 comments. Said BronxBomber: "Hey, leave the commies alone! I happen to like borscht and caviar with my beer!" Happy31 also expressed some reservations about beating up on the Russkies: "An embargo on strippers and fur hats would be a bad thing." And in a week with more aggravated tears than laughter, there was also "Johnson & Johnson Introduces 'Nothing But Tears' Shampoo To Toughen Up Newborns." The Onion article rang up 85 votes and 49 comments, including this riff from Charlson: "Mail in five lids from the shampoos and you can get a porcupine quill teething toy in the color of your choice: bloody red, hold-your-breath blue and not-my-child pink." But then the conversation took a detour, to Propeller's anti-LOL spam robot. "LOL is not spam," said dandt1612, having just gotten a comment removed. "It's all in how you LOL," explained ind06. "Did you LOL in a derisive way, or in a happy hearty way, as I am LOLing now?" But apparently the prudish robot has been up to some other tricks. "The other day I blew kisses to bluetexasvalley in the threads," said BronxBomber, "and they deleted it! " We'll do anything to preserve our PG-13 rating, folks.

In our continuing quest to better the quality of content on the Propeller home page, we are experimenting with a new twist to the ranking algorithm. A member can only have one story post on the home page at any given time. This we hope will promote some more diversity on the home page and give more members a shot at the gold (obligatory Beijing reference).

We couldn't run Propeller without the community, though, so we'd like to know what you think. Good idea? Bad idea? Must have been the mascot's idea? You tell us.

Happy Propelling,
Tom