Scripting News

Initial thoughts on the Palin nomination

1. It certainly was creative and thought-stimulating.

2. However... it shows McCain thought he was losing to Obama and needed to do something bold that would stir things up. And he certainly did that.

3. However... no matter how well they vetted her, even if nothing terrible shows up, she has no experience in the world, and virtually no experience in the United States. What does she know about American cities? Our industries and businesses? Economic issues? Balance of trade? The military? Katrina? He picked her because she was the governor from the state that was furthest away from Washington. Point made. But despite what the Republicans say about her qualifications, she has no grounding to run this country. Might as well pick someone from another country.

4. They say she's as qualified as Obama, but that's wrong. They should get to know Obama's background and how intelligent and studious and thoughtful he is. Read his books. He's incredibly well educated, and I'm sorry running a successful campaign for the Democratic nomination for President is much more experience than being the governor of a very small state with no budget problems (they have a built-in surplus because of tax revenue from their natural resources and a very small population to spread it out over -- Alaska is a very strange state, unlike any of the other 49).

Update: Read this Huffpost piece for a deeper look at #4.

5. The decision certainly was creative, but it won't age well. It will look like a desperate dumb move a couple of weeks from now. As stupid as trying to take and control Iraq without enough troops, without a plan for the occupation. It's the Republican approach to problems, shoot from the hip without thinking things through. The invasion of Iraq was certainly a "wow" event -- like the choice of Palin -- but it didn't age well. This is another of those.

6. They can't get Hillary voters with this VP candidate -- Hillary is a progressive, and even most Republican women are pro-choice. Americans are pro-choice. A woman candidate who is pro-life, no matter how attractive, doesn't have much appeal in this country, another tone-deaf decision by McCain, the kind of decision you don't want a President making. Sure Hillary got some votes from Republicans who crossed over during the primaries, because the Republican primary was decided early, and Rush Limbaugh urged them to interfere. But those people were always going to vote for McCain. This decision shows total disrespect for the American electorate as if they only vote based on symbolism.

7. Net-net -- it's a PR stunt designed to draw attention from the press away from Obama. It will do that, but not for very long. Obama is a fantastic organizer. They will get the votes, and gimmicks won't convince very many people to vote Republican even if it does fuel punditry and political blogging. But even the pundits will decide at some point, finally, that this country needs leadership more than gimmicks. She's not a serious candidate for vice-president. Choosing a president is a serious thing. That's the only point the Democrats have to make to dispose of this.

30.08.2008 00:58:22 - Scripting News

Who will be the Republican VP nominee?

Lots of speculation in the political blogosphere about the Republican VP. Supposedly McC has already made his choice, to be announced tomorrow morning. Who do you think he chose and why? Who would be good for Democrats.. Bad?

I think Romney would be his most powerful choice, I hope he chooses Lieberman -- I think he'd be the easiest to run against. I don't see too many Republicans going for him, and no one wants a traitor a heartbeat from the Presidency esp when the Presidential candidate is 72 and a cancer survivor.

That's what I think, what do you think??

PS: Lieberman ran for the Democratic presidential nomination just 4 years ago.

Update: The AP all-but says McC has chosen Pawlenty.

29.08.2008 00:33:40 - Scripting News

Inside Mile High Stadium

I just got settled in at the blogger's booth in the press section at Mile High Stadium.

The line was unbelievably long, but eventually it moved very quickly. Getting 80K people in through security in a couple of hours is a huge job. Eventually I got pushed ahead because of my media credential. I'm uploading some pictures and movies that tell the story.

Video: Hot people waiting in line.

The famous stage with the doric columns.

I took a lot more pictures and movies, as I write this it's too late to try to list them all. The series starts here, in Flickr. Hope you enjoy them!

Tomorrow morning early my roadtrip home begins, so posting will be light at least until tomorrow evening, perhaps not until I get back to California. I want to get home in time to watch the Republican convention on TV, if they don't postpone it because of Gustav. (BTW, I tried to get credentials for their convention, but was turned down.)

28.08.2008 23:34:37 - Scripting News

The Asus works

I brought both my trusty but big 17-inch MacBook Pro and the tiny Asus Eee PC. I was hoping the Asus would be up to being my sole reporting notebook, that I wouldn't have to lug both computers with me from event to event.

I was concerned that the keyboard would prove too small for writing, and that the Windows-based tools would prove too unfamiliar, but I'm happy to report that the Asus performed like a champ. The MacBook stayed at home during the DNC, and my load was light, with just the tiny Asus, which got a lot of attention, people wanted to know about the tiny computer, and were amazed that it cost just $600.

The Sprint EVDO and Siera wireless modem also worked flawlessly everywhere in Denver, in the Pepsi Center, backstage, in Starbucks (where I'm writing this now).

Further, the keyboard works, even though I have huge hands and fat fingers. You can learn how to touch type on this keyboard, as I write this I'm loooking out the window at the traffic on 16th St, and only had to look at the key board to ffind the numeric keys. Otherwise, I l4eft the errors in so you could see how accurate you can be with this keyboard.

The machine does go to sleep for a few seconds while I'm typing from time to time, very annoying. I hope to get to the bottom of why it's doing this and stop it.

The only thing I wish it had was more space on disk. I got the model with a solid state disk, I guess it's Flash memory? It's split into two virtual drives, about 10GB total. Not enough storage. I supplemented it with a 16GB SD card, but that's a bit of a PITA because that's how I get pictures off my camera, so I'm always swapping the SDs out. Pretty sure I'm going to lose one eventually.

One thing I haven't figured out is what Paint program to use for cropping and resizing graphics. That's why you don't see pictures in the margins of my writing this week. I have very modest needs. I used to use Adobe ImageReady but I don't know how to install it on this computer becausee it doesn't have a CD drive. If anyone can recommend a lightweight and easy, but good picture editing program for Windows, it would be much appreciated.

But net-net I'm happy, my back is happy. It's been hot here in Denver this week and being able to move around without the MacBook has been a pleasure. Oddly, I don't mind using XP at all and I go back and forth between it and the Mac without problem, so far.

28.08.2008 18:56:29 - Scripting News

Bill Clinton got it back

First a disclaimer, I didn't like Bill Clinton as President. But over time my feelings toward him mellowed, and I gave him full credit for inspiring the Democrats to give Rove & Co hell in the 2006 election, winning back control of Congress. No doubt Bill Clinton knows how to get people to work for him, he was good enough to get elected President twice, and over the years his skill has matured. But I didn't expect the tour de force I saw last night. It was the best political speech I've ever seen, he hit all the points, his gestures, his timing, his facial expressions were artfully perfect. There was something for everyone, and despite what the Republicans are saying, he charmed everyone in the hall, and probably most of the people watching on TV. If you didn't see the speech, you owe it to yourself to seek it out on the Democrats website. In the realm of politics this was a Sistine Chapel, a Mona Lisa, a Statue of Liberty.

There were so many good lines, but the one that made me laugh the loudest was when the crowd quieted down afterr chanting Yes We Can, Yes We Can, Clinton paused and began his next paragraph as if it all had been scripted (maybe it was) Yes He Can, and then talked about Obama and what a great President he will be. Everyone was happy to hear him praise the younger Future President, such graciousness begets much love in return, the way he did it, it sort of chokes you up. (Makes you wonder what the convention would have been like if Hillary had won.)

So Bill Clinton now occupies a position that no one else has occupied in the age of television and the Internet, the powerfully charming super-statesman, two-term ex-president, still young, unlike Reagan, with many years to go before retiring. A far cry from the lout who campaigned so aggressively and unfairly, and reminded us that lurking inside that statesman's body is a child who, when he loses control, can be very dangerous to himself and the rest of us.

Update: The Clinton speech is on Youtube via CSPAN.

28.08.2008 18:46:49 - Scripting News

The community system for DEMO

When I was in Boulder on Sunday, David Cohen and Brad Feld, the organizers of TechStars, kindly set up four meetings for me with Boulder startups they thought I'd find interesting. It was great fun! Bright motivated people with big ideas, the discussions were interesting and I learned a lot.

One of the companies is EventVue, who, like a company I invested in last year, is doing software to manage online communities around physical world conferences. Their customers are the conferences themselves. EventVue helps participants find each other, and gives them tools to describe and share their experinces at the conference.

This week they're announcing that they have a customer that you'd think they'd pay for the priviledge of serving, the DEMOfall conference in San Diego, Sept 7-9. But to my surprise, they're being paid for providing the service. It should prrovide some very valuable exposure to this Colorado-based startup.

The DEMO announcement is online now, as is a site Scripting News readers can explore to get an idea of how the service works.

I hope to write up the other companies as they have stories to tell.

I should meet with random startups more often -- I get ideas and get my enthusiasm for tech entrepreneurship is renewed.

28.08.2008 12:04:52 - Scripting News

Arrest Bush

27.08.2008 16:48:26 - Scripting News

MP3s of DNC speeches?

David Morrison, via email: "I've been reading your site for a few years now, and couldn't think of anyone else to ask this question to. Are there any feeds or releases of the Democratic Convention speeches in just audio format. I'm traveling out of country, can't sit and watch on a computer, and don't have the bandwith to download video. Been searching for a few days, and can't seem to find anything. Seems amazing that this 'high tech' campaign doesn't have this easily availible."

27.08.2008 06:39:18 - Scripting News

Anti-abortion protest at DNC

As we were going into the DNC this afternoon our path was blocked by a crowd of police, press and a handful of protestors and priests.

#1: Roe v Wade survivor.

#2: Protestors.

#3: Arrests.

26.08.2008 22:53:46 - Scripting News

This is a HAPPY convention

Just got a comment from Mark Dzmura saying that Fox and CNN are reporting that there is racial discord at the DNC, and I want to say that's absolutely not true. It's bright and sunny and hot in Denver and eveyrone here, including the Hillary people, blacks and whites and every other color, are happy and looking forward to the campaign and election. Lots of smiles, high fives and good nature. It's a much more positive feel than 2004. Glad there are bloggers here to help set the record straight. I'll be uploading some pics soon to illustrate.

26.08.2008 20:31:43 - Scripting News