Thus Far

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Richard Mondello
5 minutes ago
in New Media, New Politics? and Tufts
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This is a repost of my forth blog post for the New Media, New Politics? class I’m taking this semester at Tufts.

Remember, the class requires posts that essentially discuss other blogs’ actions and reactions in the political arena, which is why I link to many different sites and write in an unorthodox format. Nonetheless, I feel the content is useful.

…

This class at Tufts isn’t my first venture into blogging. In fact, it’s not the first time I’ve written online about politics. It is, however, the first time I fully understand how the technological innovations of new media are having a real political impact.

I started blogging in July of 2007, as per recommendation of a friend. It was a chance for me to learn about the technical components of an interactive website, improve my writing style, and establish a healthy “Google rank“. In these aims, I’ve been measurably successful, and I have no regrets about starting my blog sixteen months ago. I recommend the venture to anyone.

As the sole author of a personal blog, my experience tracking the posts on a slew of left-of-center blogs is eye-opening. To me, a blog was an online mechanism and outlet for distributing thoughts. What hadn’t dawned on me, or what I failed to fully understand, was the power of the medium. On the partisan blogs I’ve been keeping current with, readers aren’t limited to just reading posts. They could be voices, sources of donations, or foot soldiers.

For instance, in the last month, I’ve watched Daily Kos divide its attention between reporting on the ever-changing Presidential race and the vital-but-forgotten downstream races. The staff of Daily Kos have made it clear that they believe the downstream races are just as or more important than the Presidential race. Everyday, a slew of posts are dedicated to reporting on the poll numbers from these state and local elections and what readers can do to help the Democratic candidates, from volunteering to donating. The sum of money they’ve raised for these downstream races in their initiative, Orange to Blue, is impressive. Regardless of where one stands on the website as a whole, they’re likely executing wisdom in focusing their attention in a relatively neglected sector.

The Presidential election of 2004, when I was a mere freshman in high school, is the earliest I remember paying attention to and understanding politics. Through rural New York public school indoctrination, coupled with my own observations about the media, I came to my own “media is the forth branch of government” conclusion. Although I’ve appreciated the notion that the spread of the information exerts an unbalanced influence on public opinion, studying the relationship between blogs and mainstream media sources has affirmed my view. In fact, I think it has unlocked a new level of understanding for me.

It’s been fascinating watching stories and memes jump from partisan blogs to the established sources. Not long ago in real-time, but ages ago in blog-time, left-of-center blogs were calling the McCain campaign out on its barrage of untrue television advertisements. Days later, when the pressure to report on the untruths was insurmountable, the New York Times ran a piece on it, resulting in the McCain campaign’s “war on the media”.

The journey, thus far, has been both fascinating and fun. As we near closer to November 4, it’s bound to get even more interesting.

Pushing Forward

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Richard Mondello
1 day, 23 hours ago
in Resolution Experiment and Ricky
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Time is flying here at Tufts. In fact, it’s already the first day of October!

I know I’ve picked up a few readers since my last Resolution Experiment post, so I’ll explain the game I started playing on January 1, 2008. It’s easiest for me to quote myself from nine months ago.

A year is a long time. It’s around three hundred sixty-five days on our Gregorian calendar. By my unscientific estimate, most people forget their new year’s resolution a few months into the new year. Wouldn’t that time be better spent spacing out several small-scale resolutions - temporary efforts that add up to much more than the sum of their parts?

I think so. At least, it’s worth a shot.

I’ve had some successes and yes, some failures with this experiment. Here’s the way I look at it: with this experiment, this harmless effort, I’ve done more good for myself than if I hadn’t started it.

September was my month of adjusting to college life, which I think I’ve done a great job at. I made a conscious effort to be as sociable as possible, and I’m happy to say I now have an awesome group of friends. I plan to take it up a notch in October, however. I’ve decided to alter my diet somewhat and try an experiment that I never would have seen myself doing nine months ago.

I’m going to make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of meat that I eat on a daily basis.

To you, that might not sound like much. You’re right, it isn’t for lots of people. For me, however, it’s a paradigm shift. I come from a household where some type of meat is the cornerstone of most meals. Challenging that assumption, which I’m able to do with the ridiculously large selection of food at Tufts, opens doors.

Yes, I realize that this monthly resolution may sound exceedingly lame to you, but we all have our personal shortcomings and goals. For this reason, I call on you to try something new this month. Volunteer your time, go on a diet, make an effort to get organized, read more, start an exercise routine, or try anything to be an even better person than you already are.

And please, let me know how it goes.

Contempt & Gambling

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Richard Mondello
3 days, 11 hours ago
in Tufts
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This is a repost of my third blog post for the New Media, New Politics? class I’m taking this semester at Tufts.

Remember, the class requires posts that essentially discuss other blogs’ actions and reactions in the political arena, which is why I link to many different sites and write in an unorthodox format. Nonetheless, I feel the content is useful.

…

Yesterday’s word of the day on the left-of-center blogs, and even in many mainstream media outlets, was “contempt“. Before diving into this latest theme of the race to the White House, it’s proper to talk about Friday night’s debate in general. If you missed the 90-minutes of debate, Talking Points Memo edited an eleven minute highlight reel for your convince.

Watching the debate with about fifty other Tufts students Friday evening, I eagerly awaited a game-changer - a move made by either debater that would dominate the discourse and shift the poll numbers in any direction. Right now, those numbers are somewhat in favor of Senator Obama. Alas, no moment of this type happened. I witnessed two candidates, well-versed in the economy and foreign affairs, give the basic talking points I’ve known for months. I left the debate watch party I attended certain that most media outlets would declare this debate a tie.

Apparently, I was wrong. Although the left-of-center and right-of-center blogs, for the most part, called their candidate the “winner”, the left had some backup. Ezra Klein writes:

The first poll I saw tonight was CBS’s analysis of 500 undecided voters. In that poll, 40 percent gave the debate to Obama, 22 percent gave the debate to McCain. Then Frank Luntz’s focus group gave it to Obama. Then the GQR focus group gave it to Obama. Then CNN’s poll gave it to Obama. I haven’t seen any poll or focus group that scored it for McCain. So Obama won.

Besides not noticing that Senator Obama was the debate’s winner, I also missed the story that dominated the left-of-center blogs yesterday. Seeing as though I have my doubts, I’ll let Steve Benen of Political Animal explain.

As Josh Marshall noted, “McCain’s unwillingness to make eye contact with Obama through the debate seems to be getting picked up by a lot of observers.” It does, indeed. The specific and unusual rules of last night’s debate were intended to generate more interaction between the two candidates. Jim Lehrer seemed intent, at least early on, to get the two to engage each other directly. Obama mostly spoke to the camera last night, but he didn’t hesitate to speak directly to McCain.McCain, on the other hand, went out of his way, it seemed, to not even look in Obama’s direction. Chris Matthews described this as a sign of “contempt,” which struck me as the right description.

The shouts of contempt reverberated throughout the echo chamber of the liberal blogosphere. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, Ezra Klein, SusanG of Daily Kos, and Steve Benson of Political Animal all ran at least one piece on this interesting notion. Although I don’t necessarily “buy it”, tomorrow’s poll numbers may shed some light on the credibility of this “contempt” theme.

As if the themes of contemptuousness or losing yesterday’s debate weren’t bad enough for the McCain Campaign, the New York Times is breaking what may be a huge story this week: McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry. This story and its related developments will likely be the fuel for the left-of-center blogs for a few hours into this morning.

Forget Obama and McCain, This is Huge

Published
by
Richard Mondello
1 week, 2 days ago
in New Media, New Politics?, Politics and Tufts
. 1 Comment

This is a repost of my second blog post for the New Media, New Politics? class I’m taking this semester at Tufts. I voice concerns in this post that should be keeping Americans awake at night.

Remember, the class requires posts that essentially discuss other blogs’ actions and reactions in the political arena, which is why I link to many different sites and write in an unorthodox format. Nonetheless, I feel the content is useful.

…

In recent weeks, the left-of-center blogs’ primary focus was to progress their political agenda by helping elect candidates who support their values. It’s easy to forget that they’re still able to write dozens of posts a day during non-election season. The last few days have been a partial taste of that phenomena, grouped around the looming bailout of US financial firms on their last legs.

Regardless of where one stands on the Bush administration’s proposed measures, most can agree that they’re unprecedented. Headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, now a household name, the Bush administration is proposing a bailout in the amount of $700 billion. This sum may or may not faze you, but it certainly has some left-of-center bloggers up in arms.

The Democracy Now! blog, a popular liberal blog based on the prominent liberal radio program of the same name, quoted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders yesterday:

For years now, they’ve told us that we can’t afford — that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.

After coming across that quote on the Democracy Now! blog, I was surprised when it wasn’t reposted on one of our canon left-of-center blogs. Who better to advocate the ideology and goals of the left-of-center blogs than the first self-described socialist to be elected to the U.S. Senate?

Even considering spiking oil prices, the McCain campaign’s lies and Mr. Obama’s access to the media, the Bush Administration’s proposal is the most urgent news story of the week. If you’re not yet convinced, the devil is in the details.

At least one left-of-center blogger flushed out these details today. Ezra Klein writes a detailed post on the “five worst problems with the bailout bill“. Although his criticisms are too detailed to properly quote here, Mr. Klein’s focus is the bill’s implementation. The attacks range from the economic principles the bill evokes to mend the crisis, to its giving Mr. Paulson “almost unlimited power with virtually no oversight” on his journey.

After taking a few minutes to read Mr. Klein’s post, you may still wonder why I claim this issue supersedes anything else involved in the Presidential election this week. Simply put, the economic effects of this proposed legislation will be felt for decades, and like many other legacies of the Bush Administration, it is precedent-setting. It fundamentally changes the power of the Treasury Secretary, a position appointed by the President. Even if we could assume 100% trust in Mr. Paulson, no one can predict the potential ethics violations and financial exploits of future Presidential appointees.

It’s safe to assume that the bailout will dominate press coverage for several days. It remains to be seen to what extent Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain will get in on the hoopla for political gain.

Returning to my sense of urgency, I hope that either or both candidates use their political clout to derail the fast-track this proposed legislation is on right now. If this legislation passes “as is”, we may be left wondering what happened to the principle of checks and balances that our founding fathers held so dear.

Life Near Boston

Published
by
Richard Mondello
1 week, 3 days ago
in Boston and Tufts
. 2 Comments

Yesterday, I went to a Barack Obama rally at Boston University. It was a blast-and-a-half. Among the really cool speakers were former-Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry and governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. I’d never seen either of them in person before. The former was, as to be expected, hilarious; the latter was a fascinating and captivating speaker who instantly won me over.

After the rally, I grabbed a burger with my good friend Matt, now a student at BU, and explored Boston for a little bit. Although I’ve been at Tufts for about a month now, I haven’t spent a lot of time in the city next door. Yesterday, I changed that.

I had a blast! The energy general ambiance was awesome and I saw all sorts of great stuff.

My tweets and photos from the day are below. Enjoy!

Public Facebook Photo Album

Tweets:

At BU hanging with my high school friend Matt. It’s great to see a familiar face.

Oh my God. So I’m wandering around Boston with Matt, right, and we randomly come across the Apple Store. Whoa dude, whoa.

At a random burger king getting water. We’re not lost, we just don’t know where we are.

I am here. http://twitpic.com/cgc0

Standing next to child wearing McCain hat on the T.

Exploring Davis Square.

New Media, New Politics?

Published
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Richard Mondello
1 week, 5 days ago
in New Media, New Politics?, Politics and Tufts
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About a week ago, I wrote:

Speaking of classes, I’m taking six this semester (calculus, physics, engineering graphics, philosophy, computer science, and an unorthodox politics class). As time goes on, I’ll give some more details.

My favorite class this semester, by far, is a course I’m taking called New Media, New Politics?

The premise of the class is to monitor prominent online blogs’ coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and write blog posts tracking changes, themes, or interesting elements of those blogs’ coverage. Needless to say, add politics and social media together and I’m captivated.

I fully encourage you to subscribe to the class blog. You may learn something. So far, I’ve written one post, but I’ll be writing many more in the weeks ahead, especially as we get closer and closer to the election.