March, 2007 Archive

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Live from IPDI

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 15th, 2007 3:29 pm

It’s been a whirlwind week here at PatrickRuffini.com, what with trips to SXSWi and now back in D.C. for IPDI’s annual Politics Online Conference.

I sat on a panel this morning with Chuck Todd (moderator), Joe Trippi, Jerome Armstrong, Townhall.com general manager, ex-Ruffini boss, Tom DeLay guest blogger, and all around great guy Chuck DeFeo.

Bloggers blogging: Jeff Jarvis (PrezVid and BuzzMachine), David All, Mike Turk, and Josue Sierra, who posts this video:

Tagged: announcements ipdi

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Live from SXSWi

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 11th, 2007 9:33 am

I’m making a quick trip down to Austin for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where I’ll be speaking on a Tuesday panel on “Net Politics: The Internet Can Make You President.”

I’ll be providing live coverage from the scene on Overclocked, my tech blog. If anyone else will be attending SXSW and wants to meet up, please drop me a line.

Tagged: announcements sxsw2007

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The Information Hunter-Gatherers

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 10th, 2007 4:01 pm

My Townhall column for the week is up. Here I look at the exploding impact of new media and how it’s slowly but surely sinking traditional media.

Tagged: media

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Nevada Dems Wuss Out…

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 9th, 2007 9:49 pm

…and the Spite Your Face Caucus is born.

The Nevada Democratic Party debate will no longer be sponsored by Fox News, after nutroots pressure culminated in John Edwards and then Bill Richardson pulling out of the debate.

I know I’m not supposed to admit this, but “fair and balanced” aside I do think Fox News leans right, as CNN leans left. Let’s just be honest about it and adopt the brutally honest British model of press partisanship.

My next point to the Dems is this: So what? The New Hampshire Republican Party accepted CNN as the co-sponsor of their April debate — despite the network’s controversial airing of terrorist propaganda videos. As far as I know, no conservative has demanded Republican candidates withdraw from the CNN debate.

If conservatives don’t mind a largely liberal viewership for their debate, why should the opposite be true? Who knows, we might actually convert some of them. Liberals apparently have no similar interest in even talking to conservative red state voters. (And a larger group of them to boot, thanks to Fox News’ dominance in the ratings.)

Will that be their downfall in 2008?

Tagged: debate democrats fox news nevada

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The First Big Video Mashup of ‘08

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 7th, 2007 4:10 pm

A random Obama supporter scores a direct hit with this:

Very true, but ultimately a bit off key. What’s Apple, like, 5% to 10% of the market?

Tagged: barack obama hillary clinton online politics video

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Where to Get Your ‘08 Fix

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 7th, 2007 4:04 pm

As the blog guy for one of the campaigns, where do I get my ‘08 fix everyday? The truth is that I have around 100 RSS feeds going in my reader at any one time, but the best ones are from emerging blogs that I guarantee you will be in the thousands of visits by the time Iowa and New Hampshire roll around.

Here’s my list of the best ‘08 blogs you’ve never heard of.

The granddaddy of them all has to be Race42008, an active group blog with talented contributors supporting each of the Big Three. Seldom does a major ‘08 development go uncovered.

The Eye also has good insider insight, though it’s updated less frequently. GOP Progress covers these things pretty well from a moderate perspective. At the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got the Brody File on CBN.

At the state level, Iowa leads the way with Caucus Cooler and Krusty Konservative. South Carolina has the Daily Chaser. In the critical GigaTuesday state of California, CRP vice chairman Jon Fleischman’s Flash Report does a great job of carpet-bombing Left coast liberalism.

Tagged: blogosphere

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Bloggers and the Movement

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 4th, 2007 10:25 pm

The top three in the CPAC straw poll: Romney, Giuliani, Gingrich. On the important “combo” question it was Giuliani, Romney, Gingrich.

Here’s the Pajamas Media straw poll for the last week: Giuliani, Gingrich, Romney. And the latest GOP Bloggers poll: the same.

Each of these polls has the same top three.

I don’t know if this will predict where the broader GOP primary electorate goes, but it’s a good commentary on how thoroughly integrated the blogosphere has become in the conservative movement. Conservative blog readers aren’t their own standalone constituency; they’re a proxy for the movement. The lineup in the blogosphere probably isn’t too far off from the organic votes cast at CPAC.

It’s no surprise then that CPAC made room on its program this year for a Blogger of the Year award, won by N.Z. Bear who stands at the nexus of commentary and actually getting it done.

Tagged: bloggers conservative cpac

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John Edwards’ Do-Over

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 3rd, 2007 11:47 pm

Did someone on the Edwards campaign staff read my post criticizing their Web site?

Or did they just read the TechPresident write-up?

I kid. Whether they listened to me or to their users (most likely), most of my substantive criticisms of their site design have been addressed in this site refresh, including the text-heaviness of their home page.

The top story area is now a prominent image with three image-heavy features below. (Ann Coulter is so one of them right now.) They’ve greatly economized on the word count, opting for the truism that a picture says a thousand words [and a video says a million -ed.]. Their dark background color has been lightened, making the site feel less heavy overall.

I have mixed feelings on how the images zoom in and out in the top story area; feels too MySpacey. They also made a mistake by de-emphasizing their action item area by making it white. Yes, stories and videos are the draw, but action and involvement are the reason campaign sites exist!

Tagged: john edwards online politics

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CPAC Straw Poll: The Results

by Patrick Ruffini :: March 3rd, 2007 4:54 pm

Romney wins narrowly while Rudy Giuliani (a client) finishes a strong second:

Romney 21%
Giuliani 17%
Brownback 15%
Gingrich 14%
McCain 12%

The combined first- and second-place questions are a win for Rudy:

Giuliani 34%
Gingrich 30%
Romney 30%

That’s not too shabby. Romney’s people spent thousands of dollars getting their folks to CPAC. It seemed like every other person in line for Romney’s speech yesterday had an official Mitt t-shirt on — and he certainly was being attacked as though he was the man to beat. Even so, Rudy manages to pull off a near-win by just showing up and has the most first and second place votes.

The question of whether conservatives can support Rudy Giuliani was answered pretty decisively this week.

Tagged: cpac mitt romney polls rudy giuliani

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