March 23, 2005
Podcasting Politician Breakout
I’ve received a lot of email today on John Edwards' first Podcast. Yes, it looks like he is the first national politician to do one of these, unless you count Donnie Folwer’s DNC bid, which didn’t have an RSS feed.
I’m not a proponent of long podcasts, but Edwards’ is over 20 minutes. However, everyone I have talked to loved it. I listened to it, and it is does go by quickly, maybe because of how genuine it comes across.
Podcast Here. Press Release Here.
I would suggest you listen to it, no matter what side of the fence your on, for no other reason than because it’s well done. I’m also suggesting that Republicans do more of this.
In fact one of the folks at PoliticsOnline hopes to lobby the White House in order to get them podcasting the President’s weekly radio address. How incredible would that be?
And since we are on the subject of podcasting politicians. There’s a California candidate you should know about because of his pioneering podcasting and other online invoations.
Meet Scott Chacon. He’s running for Congress in California's 11th district, and his campaign is different.
Here’s a few of the online innovations he’s implementing, besides podcasting and blogging. (from an email)
1) Micro-Goals and Reports
- I am accepting contributions of $100 max, and not for a general fund, but towards what I call Micro-Goals; small goals of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars that a handful of donations could cover. When they get fulfilled, I send a customized report of the results of that goal to the donors and post it on the website. So you not only get to see how your money is spent, you get recognized for the contribution.
2) Instant and Total Disclosure
- I will be putting all of my donations and expenditures online in real time - as they are received or spent on a daily basis. You will be able to see them on a webpage including amount, donor or payee, notes and micro-goal spent for or donated to.
- I will also be putting all of my campaign related meetings online as they happen, including who I met with, what we discussed and audio or video as enclosures if available.
- both of these will be web pages as well as RSS feeds.
3) Open Schedule
- I don't know if you saw this on the site, but I have an open schedule - anyone in the district can schedule me to be anywhere, first come, first serve. It is like "Campaign Manager for a Day", but all the time.
That's only the campaign website - I'm also working on backend tools for mailings, precinct captains coordination, and voter tracking.
Posted by Buzz Webster at March 23, 2005 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Comments
I agree that more Republicans should podcast. I do, at the Rip & Read Blogger Podcast, and there are a few others as well. The PoliticalFan, and BeliefSeekingUnderstanding come to mind. There is much more on the left, with Air America podcasting, and now Newsweek. Radio Derb is by National Review's John Derbyshire, but his is not really a podcast, since you can't subscribe and have to go to his site to see if a new one is available.
Then, there's TwoRights.com, which is traditional talk radio format. Pick up a microphone and join us!
Posted by: Charlie Quidnunc at March 23, 2005 08:28 PM
Charlie - I agree there are slim pickin's, but I think it will increase as the medium proves it's viability. I'll take a look at sites you mentioned.
Posted by: Buzz at March 24, 2005 08:24 AM
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