Hi y’all, e.politics is back on the case after a long summer weekend full of exciting adventures and interesting moral lapses — hope you didn’t miss us too much. Let’s catch up real quick with what’s been going on while I’ve been running amok:
- Apparently, some kind of Republican event happened over the weekend in Iowa and Mitt Romney won. Alas, Internet darling Ron Paul got roughly 10% of the Ames straw poll vote, not enough to say that the online excitement about his candidacy translated into offline votes. TechPrez has an Ames wrap-up, if you’re not already over-saturated with news from the Heartland.
- The Republican YouTube debate is back on, apparently in part due to work by the folks at SaveTheDebate.com (among them frequent e.politics linkees Patrick Ruffini and David All). Next on the agenda: getting quality videos into the queue, including an effort to film “normal” Americans asking questions as opposed to hardcore YouTubers.
- More of Romney and Guiliani’s words are coming back to haunt them online (those meddling kids and their video cameras…oh wait, these were official media appearances).
- Leaving the tedium of The Eternal Campaign for the turmoil of The Middle Kingdom, last week activists used a cell phone camera and Skype to post video online of a massive Free Tibet banner being unrolled on the Great Wall of China. Also, hackers cracked open the official United Nations site and created some new policy positions for Ban Ki-Moon — not quite John McCain opining in favor of gay marriage, “particularly marriage between two passionate females,” but good fun nonetheless.
- And, if you haven’t picked up a recent copy of The Atlantic, you’re missing out. Besides a terrific (prescient?) pre-resignation story about Karl Rove’s failure to create a Republican ruling coalition, treat yourself to Matthew Scully’s evisceration of his much-celebrated fellow Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson. It’s not only an excellent example of a hatchet-job article, it’s also a fascinating look at HOW political speeches get written — absolutely engrossing for anyone who loves writing.
- Finally, check out the debate that unfolded right here on e.pol yesterday over the “Gays for Giuliani” video — a couple of readers had some sincere and serious objections to it, which provided the opportunity for a quite pleasant airing of views. An example of how blogs really can foster conversation.
– cpd