The POV

Work has begun on issue 4 of the POV Magazine.

Lots of work and not very much time to do it.

Sounds like magazine publishing season!

McKinnon on McCain

Mark McKinnon, a Republican strategist and communications manager to George W. Bush's '04 campaign, was interviewed on All Things Considered today (listen HERE). McKinnon is a senior advisor to John McCain's campaign now, and he summed up the Senator's campaign more accurately than anyone in the mainstream media:

"We believed people still liked and admired John McCain, they just thought he was no longer a viable candidate. The whole strategy was literally as simple as just saying, 'stay in the game,' and by that time people will have looked at the other candidates and realize that John McCain is really the best suited to be President, and say 'look at this, he's still here, surprise!' We thought it could break late and fast to John McCain and move wholesale, and that's what happened."


Last summer, the time period during which McCain was essentially counted out of the race and decided to stick around and stay on message, Governor Mitt Romney changed message and went (very) negative. McCain's has been a smart, positive, and productive campaign, and any Democrat should be worried about running against him.


On that note, I wanted to publish a portion of the interview the POV Magazine (of which I am the editor) conducted with Mark McKinnon just a few months ago. If McKinnon's right, John McCain's general election campaign will have the upper hand on a number of issues, but he also notes a number of strengths of an Obama campaign.

Enjoy:

Does 9/11 still work as a campaign issue, or is it getting stale?

I think it’s still relevant. In 2004 we actually were highly sensitive about 9/11. We talked a lot about whether we could even talk about it at all. But what we discovered was that voters really wanted us to talk about it. It’s the seminal event of our lifetimes. It’s something we all collectively went through and were scarred by. It’s a moment when our lives changed and our politics changed, our foreign policy changed. It is still, and I think will continue to be, an important reference point for political campaigns and political discussion.

Presidential campaigns are starting earlier than ever before, and candidates have long been advertising. How does this accelerated schedule strike you?

It seems strange to me. I know of very few instances where early advertising spending was a great return on investment. The important thing is to be there when voters are paying attention. Voters are interested in this election but they’re not that engaged yet. The problem is that because it’s so early, voters are going to get worn out pretty quickly. They are just going to tune this out until December.

What impact do you think YouTube and other non-traditional media will have on the campaign?

It’ll have a huge impact. We’re already calling it the YouTube election. Lots of things are happening. The role of the conventional 30-second broadcast TV ad is diminishing significantly. What it really means is that campaigns are losing control. The control of the messages is being completely democratized. We now have thousands of pajama producers out there creating ads and some of them are pretty good. Some of them are very good. The Obama ad about Clinton (using the Apple “1984” ad) was fabulous. It’s one of the better political ads I’ve ever seen. Technology is revolutionizing how we’re campaigning.

Right now and for the first time in a long time, Democrats are out-raising Republicans. Is this significant?

The party out of power always has more fundraising energy. When we were raising money for Bush in 1999 and Bill Clinton was in office, People were throwing money at us. People have been in the desert a long time and want water.

Generally speaking, what goes into a successful media campaign?

It’s the same as always. You have to use all the available tools to articulate and communicate a clear and compelling rationale for your candidacy. That’s how you win elections. It’s important to get the message right and to communicate it through the tools you have including broadcast media, YouTube, and everything else that’s out there.

Is Iraq going dominate the ’08 campaign or might another issue emerge?

It’s hard to imagine that Iraq won’t be the predominant issue. That’s not to say that other issue won’t emerge. Iraq will definitely be hanging over the election, although I suspect other issues will come forward that will be important. McCain is talking about the environment, so you have Republicans going green. It’s a testament to how powerful that issue is.

You said that George Bush attracted you in 1999 because he was for things rather than against things. In 2004, you made the anti-John Kerry windsurfing ads. How do you mix positive and negative messages in a campaign?

There’s a lot of mythology about negative advertising first of all. The reality is that voters want you to make the choice clear, and candidates should make it clear. They should not be shy about making a clear distinction between their record and vision and their opponents’ record and vision. I also think you can’t get elected president of the United States without having a vision for the future.

What’s kind of interesting, and we’ll see how it plays out, is that Obama’s language is similar to Bush’s in 1999. He’s saying the same things about the kind of campaign he intends to run. We kept that positive tone right up until New Hampshire when we got our asses kicked. Suddenly we realized that we had to fight for it. It’s hard to get through these contests without putting on the brass knuckles at some point. It’ll be a challenge for Obama…a real balancing act. It’s hard to pull off.

(all photos: © 2008 by Luke N. Vargas. All Rights Reserved.)

POV III

Issue 3.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

John Edwards
Mark McKinnon
The 2008 Primary Season
Dennis Kucinich in Boston
A Dictator for Iraq?
Al Gore and the Nobel Prize
The WGA Strike
Behind the Target Label

We've got you covered.

Enjoy.

Here We Come

This event only happens three times a year, so it's rather a big deal.

The Fall '07 Issue of the POV Magazine -- the high school political magazine -- will be released this coming Wednesday.

Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Politics....student-style.


www.bbnpov.com will have you covered for a nice little digital download when the time comes.

Closing In

The The POV Magazine's quest for obtaining an interview with Senator Chris Dodd for the upcoming Fall '07 issue may be coming to a successful conclusion this weekend.

During the Senator's campaign swing through the Granite State this coming Friday and Saturday, there's a legitimate chance Dodd's New Hampshire campaign will be able to squeeze in a few minutes for the Senator to answer a handful of questions regarding the issues that matter most to young people in America.


The POV Magazine is run entirely by students, and it's only fitting that Senator Dodd be the subject of one of our main interviews--Dodd's greatest strengths as a Presidential candidate lie in his pioneering national service proposal, his progressive proposals for energy and the environment (including being the only candidate to support a corporate carbon tax), and his unprecedented defense of the Constitution and the rule of law. All of these issues are vitally important to my generation and young people around the world.

So...why do I care so much that this magazine gets its interview? It could be that I currently serve as the editor of The POV Magazine and that I'd be making the trip up to New Hampshire for the interview this weekend.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for Saturday!



(photo credit: © 2007 by Luke N. Vargas. All Rights Reserved.)

Rudy v. Ron

The following is the editorial that I co-wrote and was published in the BB&N POV, the high school political magazine that I helped to create and for which I serve as the editor-in-chief. To download the BB&N POV navigate over to www.bbnpov.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. And I would ask the Congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that.”

That is the angry retort that 2008 Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani threw at fellow candidate Ron Paul. Texas Congressman Paul stated bluntly in the Republicans’ South Carolina debate that he believes American foreign policy in the Middle East has fostered much of the hatred for America from Middle Eastern extremists which has led to tragedies such as 9/11; much more so than their possible abhorrence of American liberties and way of life.

We feel that Mr. Paul is correct. Although Mr. Giuliani, in his forced show of disgust, commented that he had never heard this explanation for Muslim aggression, this theory is not new. The basis of Mr. Paul’s argument is the theory of “blowback.” Roland S. Martin, in a CNN editorial on this subject, defines “blowback” as someone’s action coming back to afflict them. In essence, it makes perfect sense. Imagine living in Iraq during the Gulf War and watching as your country was partially destroyed by the United States. Regardless of whether or not the attacks were justified, you would still feel a level of animosity for the power that had assaulted your country. As the United States attempts to establish bases and ministries, and to interfere in Middle Eastern politics and policies, without regard for the outrage of the citizens of these nations, we do little but breed aggression. The United States has always defended, and must continue to defend our own interests in the world, but we must also be mindful of how we go about achieving our goals. In this age of warfare, diplomacy and the tools that go along with it must not be abandoned.

In 1974 when President Nixon traveled to the Middle East for a seven-day tour, he was welcomed with cheers from the citizens, lauding Nixon and his administration. America has changed little from the time of Nixon in regard to what America stands for, so the argument that the terrorists hate America for our liberal ideals is foolish. If this were the real reason for terrorist hostility, then why aren’t targeting free constitutional governments that are not directly allied with America?

Mr. Giuliani should also rethink his careless use of the events of 9/11 as a way to gain support or, in the case of last week’s debate, applause. It is utterly detestable that Mr. Giuliani quickly dismisses Mr. Paul’s reasonable views by using the misery of 9/11, while pushing himself to be seen as the winner of the debate. It shows the true naiveté of the American people when they blindly give applause to someone who is, in reality, doing little but capitalizing on his presence during that catastrophe, not defending its sanctity.

The theory of blowback, if properly considered and examined, may be an important way of beginning to end the promotion of anti-American sentiment in those Middle Eastern countries where our policies have the greatest impact. Mr. Paul was quite right when he asked how we would feel if our own country were overrun by a foreign power; how our citizens would feel; and whether those feelings might, in some respects, parallel those of the terrorists who now wish to harm us.

The BB&N POV: The Massachusetts Student Perspective

This month, a magazine that I co-founded at my high school, published its first issue. The POV is a publication created by, designed by, and written by high school students.

Our first issue includes a revealing interview with Massachusetts Congressman Mike Capuano and Libertarian political pundit Larry Elder.

We're working on the second issue now, which is slated for publication in May, but the first issue is still hot off the press and downloadable at the link below!

http://www.mediafire.com/?eyniknztyy4'

Enjoy!