Craziness from the Democratic National Committee

I just got an email from the Democratic National Committee that reads like this:

"Bush Hits the Panic Button

"President Bush and the Republicans have gone into full-scale panic mode. They're already moving down in the polls, and with the selection of John Edwards as the next Vice President, John Kerry's campaign has been imbued with a fresh jolt of energy that spells doom for Bush's reelection hopes.

"George W. Bush himself has responded to Edwards joining the ticket by going to his home state of North Carolina to personally initiate the campaign of personal attacks against the next Vice President of the United States. That's the level they've already sunk to -- it took just one day after Edwards joined the ticket for Bush to go from zero to negative.

"But what else should we expect? Bush can't run on his record, and he's got no vision for the future. That's why he has done nothing but run a relentlessly negative campaign against John Kerry. And now he's got his sight on John Edwards.

The email goes on to solicit my financial support (which I will give).

But, if this note represents the actual thinking of the DNC, I am very worried. First of all, it's arrogant. Edwards may be a good campaigner, but, he is in fact less experienced than the folks running the Halliburton administration. Why should they be in "full scale panic mode" about him?

Second, it sounds like the DNC folks are underestimating their opponents again.

DNC, you're making a lot of mistakes!
--Kerry's still got all the charisma of a fence-post, even though he surely has all the media coaching money can buy. Why isn't he getting better at TV and sound-bites?

--Kerry reached out and grabbed the third rail of politics (abortion and morality). The sound bites made it sound like he was willing to compromise his personal principles to get elected. Why did he have to say this? If he did have to take on this issue why didn't he make his point more clearly?

--The Democratic Party is holding the convention in Boston. It's just navel-gazing narcissism to hold the convention in Boston. It should be someplace like Oklahoma City, Denver, Dallas, even Charlotte NC. Don't get me wrong, I like living in Mass. But, the way we do things here in Mass. is likely to make the rest of the USA think we're a little bit nutty. We have to win this election: why put the microscope on our eccentricities? Why not place the convention in a city where things will seem a little more main stream?

We have to win this one. Quit screwing up!

Too bad Kerry didn't pick Bill Richardson

Can Kerry win? I'm afraid the Democratic Party is spending all our energy preaching to the choir.
Look at the choice of Edwards for Veep. Sure, he talks well. Sure, he's the best campaigner since
Bill Clinton.

But, does he reach out beyond the rich-middleaged-white-guy demographic?

OK, maybe he does, but he has to reach out.

Bill Richardson, sitting governor of New Mexico, ex-UN-Ambassador, ex-cabinet secretary, now he doesn't have to "reach out" to a new demographic base, because he's part of that base.

He grew up in Mexico City. He's from the southwest. He has experience in a tough job (UN) that will be critical in sorting out the Iraq situation.

I think it's a shame Kerry didn't pick him. Edwards is OK, but Richardson would have been great.


Analysis: Is Bill Richardson a Good Fit for John Kerry? - Insight on the News - Politics

Most interesting movie in a long time... Russian Ark

There's an amazing movie out called Russian Ark. It was shot in one day, actually in one shot, on the 23rd of December 2001, at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

See http://www.russianark.spb.ru/eng/ for more information. It's a totally amazing history of Russia; an unbelievable mixture of cinema verite and highly produced, planned, and executed theatre.

There's an amazing scene in a ballroom in the Hermitage, with hundreds of people in period costumes and the State Hermitage Orchestra playing. Apparently the scene depicted in the movie was the first time anyone had danced in that room since the Bolsheviks came to power.

It's one shot, 96 minutes or so. I gather the movie crew had to invent a luggable RAID array and a luggable battery pack to capture the DV for this single shot movie.

Netflix has it for rent. Blockbuster, naah.

another new blog

So, I've been on the net for a long time but never written a blog before.

I had lunch with a friend today. He's looking at a layoff soon. He asked me about what it takes to start a high tech company, and I suggested he read "High Stakes, No Prisoners : A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars" by Charles H. Ferguson for an account of what not to do. Some of the people depicted (poorly) in that book are decent people (Ferguson's opinion notwithstanding). It is possible to do OK starting a VC-funded business.

But I'm not interested in doing all that high-tech startup stuff again. It's fun to spend investor money, but you have to remember it's a juice loan.

Digital, Apollo, PictureTel, Vivo Software, a consulting gig at Individual, Rational, Adero, Dotclick, SavaJe, enough! I like IVCCO.COM ... a good business, decent software, profitable (if slightly some years) from the day the doors opened, customers who care enough to re-order when the products are good and complain when they're bad.