Showing posts with label political communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political communication. Show all posts

More Twitter parodies entering SC-1 race

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A relatively new form of political satire is the use of Twitter via parody accounts. In the special election to fill the First Congressional District seat, it's a form of political discourse that's becoming quite popular - and seems to be catching on like wildfire.

Yesterday, the Blogland reported that two more parodies had entered the race. Today, we learned that three more parody accounts appeared: @curtisballsac, @roscoepnash and @teddystrustfund.

The ever-growing satirical field now includes:


… and @dogcampbell, who is not a parody of any candidate, but is having fun in the race seeking the Twitter vote nonetheless.

If you have any to add to the list, drop an email to earl@earlcapps.org.

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More Twitter parodies in SC-1 race

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A while back, the Blogland discussed some of the parody Twitter accounts who are adding their own twists to the barrage of messaging produced by the sixteen Republican candidates in the race to replace Tim Scott in the First Congressional Distrct.
Just as people kept pouring into an already-full field of candidates, at least two more parody accounts have entered the race in the First: @chumpslimehouse and @harrygroomssc.

Those of you who enjoy political satire and tidbits of opposition research being wedged into the sometimes-comedic and often-critical tweets, here’s the updated roster of the known parody accounts in the race:
… and of course, special mention goes to @dogcampbell, who is not a parody of any candidate, but has a ruff approach to running for the seat.

If you have any to add to the list, drop an email to earl@earlcapps.org.

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First District parody candidates on Twitter

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The race to fill the First Congressional District seat is underway. Without a minute to spare, pranksters have taken the race to Twitter with parody Twitter accounts. While we've seen this taking place in some South Carolina races, the speed and number of parody accounts is greater than before.

So far, the Blogland has identified four Twitter parody accounts running wild (look at some of the comments and you'll see what we mean):




As the race develops, we're sure there will be more. Stay tuned.

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Guest op-ed: Pereira - "Are local debates useful?"

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This guest op-ed was submitted by Lisa Pereira, a Blogland reader who lives in Goose Creek. A former journalist and paramedic who ran for State House Seat 102, she is currently active in Lowcountry GOP circles. You can air your views by emailing your op-ed to earl@earlcapps.org. 

Election season is winding down and candidates are wrapping up their campaigns and taking stock of what they have done and where they stand. This offers us a chance to reflect upon candidate debates and their role in the process of winning elections.

Debates have always been tricky things. One person entering the debate always has more to lose than the other person. Between the debates, meet and greets, fundraisers, and voter phone calls candidates have to make hard choices of the best use of their limited time. I question the value of debates both in terms of getting out the candidates message or in swaying undecided voters in local campaigns and have to wonder if perhaps the time to stop attending debates has come.

Too often debates either have too many candidates to thoughtfully delve into the issues (this year’s 14 candidate school board debates in Charleston County), have little turnout by truly undecided voters or they are carefully chosen venues put on by supposedlyneutral parties (The League of Women Voters) that turn out not to be. In some instances are little more than a vehicle for fringe candidates (yes, even within the Republican party) to call out other candidates like some sort of school yard bully fight.

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Haley attacks part of double-standard on attacks and threats by the Left

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As first reported in the Columbia Free Times, outgoing South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna Dewitt (who is just one typo away from being known as the "ALF Lady"), decided to have a little fun at a retirement party being thrown in her honor by taking two whacks at a pinata with Governor Nikki Haley's face on it.

This isn't the only recent sting made against her by Democrats, but like the other incident, we think the adverse reaction by some is much ado about nothing. But we're betting if it the face was Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Jim Clyburn, there'd be howls of outrage over the matter.


We have no problem with the one-liners and mock attacks that are clearly not intended in malice as free speech ain't always pretty, but usually it's harmless. We just have a problem when they're part of a double-standard where what is considered free speech by those on the political Left is considered hate speech when coming from the political Right.

Here's the video of Dewitt:

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The Tribes of Palmetto State GOP Politics

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While I've tended to play free-agent, I've worked with all three of them over the years and (usually) enjoyed doing so.

For years, if you wanted to run for office in this GOP-dominated state, you had to visit one of the three chiefs — Richard Quinn, Rod Shealy or Warren Tompkins — whose Midlands-based political tribes regularly warred against each other, running competing Republican candidates. But just as the 2010 election saw a host of new faces — four new congressmen plus a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer — it also saw the rise of the next crop of GOP political consultants who are challenging the dominance of the onetime “Big 3.”

The tribal nature of S.C. Republican politics still exists, and it probably always will.

But the tribes are evolving.

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Stephen Colbert performing in Charleston on Friday.

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Stephen Colbert will be coming to Charleston this Friday and is bound to light some rhetorical fireworks just in time for the Fourth of July weekend.

He'll be doing a benefit for the MUSC endowed chair named after his father, who was a VP at MUSC. While we don't always agree with his views, there's no mistake that he's one of those who've done the most to popularize political satire with the general public.

The event will consist of Colbert doing an interview with Jon Alter of MSNBC, followed by questions from the audience.

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Book to chronicle the Alvin Greene story

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In the movie "Con Air", there's a scene where Nicholas Cage looks at the car being towed through the sky by the plane he's a passenger on and remarks: "on any other day, that might seem strange."

Likewise, the story of a book about a major party Senate candidate with no job, pending sex charges and a lack of ability to communicate would seem nothing more than a work of fiction cooked up by a writer hoping for a movie deal. However Alvin Greene made the surreal real and a book project is underway to chronicle the strange-but-true story of his Senate candidacy:
Current and former Columbia Free Times writers are teaming up to produce a black-and-white graphic novel on the bizarre rise and fall of South Carolina's Alvin Greene.

"What happened in the summer of 2010 was the strangest American political story in modern times," says Free Times staff writer Corey Hutchins, who gained national attention by exposing Greene. "It's no wonder that it came out of South Carolina, the state that James Petigru famously called 'too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum' more than 100 years ago."

Hutchins is teaming up with former Free Times staff writer David Axe and artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner to serialize the comic online beginning in early 2012, following with a print edition in the spring.

They're also soliciting financial support for this project. Read more about it ...

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Laurin Manning's back on the web

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Laurin Manning, one of the pioneers of political blogging in South Carolina, has returned to the web with her new blogging venture: www.scsoapbox.com

Laurin's as sharp as they get with new media. Last year was much rougher than she deserved, so we're hoping this website starts off a big 2011 for her.

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CofC's 2010 gubernatoral campaign strategy forum

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Being an adjunct professor in the College of Charleston's Department of Communication, I decided to do lunch sitting in on their latest event in their ongoing Bully Pulpit series. Today's event discussed the good, bad and otherwise of the 2010 South Carolina gubernatorial campaign.

Moderated by Robert Behre of the Charleston Post and Courier, the panelists were Trav Robertson, campaign manager for Democrat Vince Sheheen, Tim Pearson, campaign manager for Republican Nikki Haley, Democratic political advisor Phil Noble and former Sanford staffer Chris Allen.

Credit for the event is also due to Dr. Bethany Goodier, the Chair of the Department.

The freewheeling event covered a lot of ground, as is often the case at Bully Pulpit events. Those who subscribe to the Blogland's Twitter feed got a 44 installment play-by-play of highlights from the event.

Those of you who didn't, but want to see what was said just need to click on the "Read More" link to see who said what:

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Pub Politics: Live on Wednesday with Senator Mike Rose

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This week's episode of Pub Politics will be featuring Dorchester County State Senator Mike Rose discussing what is coming up in the State Senate this year.

They'll be broadcasting it live via the Internet beginning at 6pm - www.pubpoliticslive.com - or you can catch the show in person if you're in the Midlands:

The Tin Roof
1022 Senate Street, Columbia

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Republicans sweep the South, top to bottom

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In January, when Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe is sworn in, he'll be the only one of his kind doing so: of all the statewide officials taking the oath of office in those nine states, he'll be the only Democrat. From Texas to South Carolina, the GOP won all the others.

Of the eighteen legislative chambers in those states, only two will be led by Democrats. On election night, Republicans seized control of four and cut the Democratic majorites in the Arkansas House and Senate by over half, while gaining control of dozens of legislative seats in the others, including over twenty House seats in Texas.

Writing in Real Clear Politics, Ben Evans argues that the "white Southern Democrat — endangered since the 1960s civil rights era — is sliding nearer to extinction."

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Building a Majority

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Interesting reading in the Wall Street Journal about how the House GOP leadership built the supporting apparatus that played a key role in this week's landslide House takeover:


House Republicans put themselves in position to ride that wave, casting themselves at every turn as the alternative to Obama policies, and maneuvering to reap the benefits of the tea-party anger that soon began spreading.

Many Republicans doubted the approach would work. But by early this year it had created a sense that a House takeover was possible. That in turn triggered a torrent of contributions to the party and to independent conservative groups that bought ads on behalf of Republicans, helping create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Check it out.

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RINO-bashing website pimping Democrats?

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Will Folks, the editor and publisher of FITSNews.com, is fond of proclaiming that he's waging a one-blogger war against those he judges to be a "RINO" via his website.

But we've talked with more than a few people who've insisted that Will does his blogging for hire, pointing out that his site has given favorable coverage to liberal Democratic candidates and taken shots at Republican candidates in general election contests, as well as noting his lack of disclosure about just what he does for a living.

So we decided to check it out. Since we read FITS regularly (but never with kids around due to some of the content), it was easy to check into these claims.

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Alvin Greene is the "Ultimate Warrior" ... ?

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First Alvin Greene proposed action figures to help create jobs, and now he's in a comic book.


But please, we think we've seen enough of Greene offering to take off his clothes.

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Our readers' take on John Spratt via editorial cartoons

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A noted effect of blogs is to serve as an alternative outlet for news and views which, for a number of reasons, don't get exposure via traditional news media outlets.

Increasingly, Blogland readers send us news tips, reports, forward emails from discussions and send content to us, in hopes of getting it out to a wider audience. When the submissions are thoughtful, tasteful, creative, and in line with the views of this blogsite, we're more than happy to share them with our readers.

We received these cartoons from Jamie Walton, a retired US Army Lt. Colonel living in Rock Hill, who wanted to share them with our readers, and appreciate him sending them in. Any of our readers who have photos, news tips and even op-eds they'd like to share are welcome to send them our way. The email and mailing address is posted, so send 'em in.

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Reapportionment to boost GOP congressional prospects (and check out the cool game)

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Redistricting projections indicate a bright future for the Republican Party.

GOP-leaning states such as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Utah are poised to reap the benefits of a population shift and gain a House seat each after the 2010 census, according to a new report from Election Data Services (EDS). Republican-friendly Texas could gain as many as four seats.

Meanwhile, Democratic-leaning states such as Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey are poised to lose one congressional seat apiece, if the projections hold true, while New York and Ohio could lose two seats each.

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Debate? What debate?

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The only thing worse than doing nothing is to do something, and screw it up. That would describe lame duck Congressman John Spratt's handling of the recent "debate", a closed-door event where he refused to participate unless no audio or video recording was allowed.

Technology being what it is these days, the SC5 Code Red folks got the whole event on video. While John Spratt thinks what he says and does is none of your business, we believe you're entitled to the truth, so go watch the video.

Special thanks to the Chester County Republican Party for making this cartoon available.

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How stupid can you get?

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It pays to know about who is working against you, but it's sometimes you should do your homework on your own supporters and facts before you put them in the public spotlight.

The Democratic candidate went on the attack in the New Mexico Governor's race, featuring a teacher who praised the candidate's record. It turned out the teacher might've had another reason for being in the ad: the Republican in the race was the prosecutor who put her husband behind bars for 23 years for kidnapping.

Not surprisingly, Susana Martinez, the GOP candidate went after the ad, framing it as part of an ongoing effort by her opponent to deceive voters.  While Martinze was pulling ahead in the polling before, we suspect she'll make even more progress with this rebuttal ad that went on the air:



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S.C. Issues Survey, Part Two: Response from Rep. Phillip Lowe

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Following yesterday's Blogland article reporting on the survey sent out by Florence State Rep. Phillip Lowe and Beaufort State Rep. Shannon Erickson, Rep. Lowe shared with us the tabluated results of the surveys which were returned from registered voter households across his State House district, which includes parts of Florence and Sumter Counties.

We want to thank Lowe, who we've featured in the Blogland, for sharing these findings with us. According to his constituents, law enforcement, immigration, cutting government back to its core functions and setting higher standards for those on public assistance were among the top priorities among his constituents:

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