Talking Shop: My Appearance on Wilshire & Washington’s BlogTalkRadio Show

Shameless self-promotion alert!!!

Tonight I bellied up to the pundit bar and appeared as a guest on the BlogTalkRadio edition of the excellent blog Wilshire & Washington.

Maegan Carberry, who I met on the Obama campaign invited suckered me into a rough Q&A by herself and Variety Editor-At-Large Ted Johnson.

I don’t know who keeps telling people that I know what I’m talking about (It’s me.), but I can’t say I dislike the attention.

For a refresher course on my past punditry, take a look at the clips below from my appearances on KNBC Los Angeles’ NewsConference…




Joe Trippi is Out of Ideas. Supporters to Make John Edwards Next Ad!

Enter your :30 second spot between December 28th and January 16th - just in time for the Nevada Caucuses!

More details are available at JohnEdwards.com.

No word if the winner gets the customary cut of the media buy.

Edwards Sending Resources to New Hampshire. What does it all mean?

With theories abounding that former North Carolina Senator John Edwards is quietly winning Iowa, his campaign released this video yesterday telling people to get their asses to New Hampshire.

Even the candidate himself hit the streets in the Granite State:

Just a week from the Caucus and the Edwards team is turning attention to state number two…are they confident of a win, or worried about a defeat?

Another Good Supporter Action Video from Edwards

The Edwards team dropped another nice video showing supporters in action today.

Big Opening Week: Edwards Works for Box Office Gold in Iowa Caucus

Don’t expect to see this before Sweeney Todd when you go catch it this weekend!

John Edwards campaign put out a “Trailer” today for the Iowa Caucus. It’s meant to draw attention to the Edwards Campaign Caucus Command Center.

I like the piece a lot - especially because it draws on the talents of one of their supporters who does voice work for “real” movie trailers.

The one thing I’m torn on is whether or not Edwards should be the “star.” If I were to go a slightly different direction with the story it’d be about the people rising up against powerful corporate interests, with Edwards leading the way. The American People would be the star.

Nonetheless, it’s another nice creative piece from the Edwards camp.

Obama and Edwards - Winning Them Over

A pair of videos this morning show Barack Obama and John Edwards drawing support from two unexpected sources.

Edwards continues the story of the two phonebanking stories he posted yesterday:

Can you believe it? A Republican supporting Edwards. How’s that for electability in the General?

Obama’s supporter comes from perhaps an even more surprising place, and potentially a more helpful one in the Democratic primaries:

Yup. She was a Clinton supporter. Now she’s with Barack. So, aside from losing their New Hampshire Chairman (who was also a National Co-Chair), who engaged in some pretty nasty dirty tricks; now Hillary’s campaign is losing boots on the ground, as well.

***UPDATE***

The Obama video above, featuring the Clinton precinct captain has been picked up by Drudge. Watch its traffic…

Presidential Debates and the Special Olympics…

…What are places where everyone is the winner, Alex?

Wait! Before you think Edwards ran away with the debate, here’s a clip saying how great Obama was:

And since everyone was the winner yesterday, here’s a clip that the Clinton campaign has put out:

So, in three clips from three campaigns - all culled from the same news segment - we have three winners. Rashomon, anyone?

BONUS!!! Here’s a clip from Fox News where Edwards is the winner!

Since he has clips from two networks, does that make Edwards the real winner here?

John Edwards’ Campaign (and Parents) Reaching Out And Touching Republicans

Today, John Edwards released a trio of videos featuring voter contact work in New Hampshire.

The second video sticks to the same formula. A phonebanker tells their story of talking with a Republican. It’s a positive reaction, resulting in good feelings for the volunteer.

Both of the clips are pulling triple duty. They hit some policy points: Iraq and Good Government. They hit some messaging: that Edwards is more electable in the general (as evidenced by these New Hampshire Republicans who are open to him). They create an opportunity for action, and one which will leave you feeling so good you’ll want to tell your own story of how well it went.

In fact, it’s such a good experience that even Edwards’ folks get in on the action…

Not content to trade her recipes for campaign contributions, Edwards mom brings along dad (the one whose job at the mill we’ve heard so much about) for a day of campaign work. I wonder if Hillary Clinton had her mom working the phones in the videos I posted earlier…

Shooting Your Ads on the Road - Edwards “Together” Ad

One advantage to having cameras on the road is an abundance of footage. With cost barriers to high image quality cameras evaporating, you can roll Hi-Def tape day after day after day and - provided your cameraperson has a good eye - have what you need for better commercials, when the time comes to go up on television.

I ran into Edwards’ videographer - Peter - at the debate in Vegas. We’d met here and there before, going back to the winter DNC meeting in Washington almost a year ago. One thing we chatted about was how his footage was providing a great deal of the material in Senator Edwards ads. Armed with a Sony HDV camera (I think he uses the HVR-Z1U), Pete’s strong lens work holds up to broadcast specs and provides Joe Trippi and company with an endless stream of footage for their ads.

The key point here is not the abundance of footage, though. It’s the realityof the footage. Watching this Edwards ad, it’s clear that it’s not a setup. This is a real campaign event. The crowd is a real crowd. What Edwards is saying is the same thing he’d say in a meeting hall or living room.

Most ads that feature the candidate speaking to a group of folks are completely forced. There is nothing real about them. A good videographer on the road, with a high-quality camera, gives you all the tape you’ll need to convey the authenticity of your candidate and campaign.

Edwards Hammers Away at Clinton (and in New Orleans)

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards launched his campaign from the 9th Ward of New Orleans. From time to time over the course of the campaign he has returned there to work in the community with supporters from One Corps - the citizen activism off-shoot of his campaign. While the Clinton campaign was offering debate watching parties with Bill, and the Obama team had “Dinner With Barack,” Edwards gave away the chance to join him in working up a sweat rebuilding homes in New Orleans.

Edwards has shown that he knows his way around a hammer. Perhaps that is why he received the endorsement of the Carpenters union, eh?

But, in the days and weeks that have now passed since the Democratic Debate in Philadelphia, Edwards has been doing other hammering as well - with rival Hillary Clinton held with tongs against the anvil.

Entitled “The Politics of Parsing,” the video above is one of the most effective web videos of the campaign to date. While I evangelize day in, day out about using video to let voters get to know your candidate; there is also necessity the use it to help them get to know your opponent. Edwards campaign put this video out on the heels of the well-covered brouhaha near the end of the Philly debate. It makes their case with sound and titles and visually reinforces the point.

Feeling that they’d scored a hit, the campaign followed up with a flashback to the YearlyKos event a while back. On the 2008 candidate panel, Clinton raised a few electronic eyebrows among the Kossacs by stating - in no uncertain terms - that she would continue to take contributions from lobbyists, because they “represent real people.” That was a line perfectly teed up for both the populist Edwards and the reformer Obama.

After their initial hit on Clinton’s “positions” on the issue of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, and the follow up with her clear defense of Washington lobbyists, Edwards campaign closed the circle with a video news clipping of Edwards concisely answering the question Clinton danced around.

This series of clips - which were woven into a fundraising push - demonstrate the power of narrative continuity across multiple pieces. While each stood up well as episodic clips, the story they told as a thought-out series was even stronger. And notice none of them included the candidate giving the stump speech for the umpteenth time!

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