It's not every day someone you know becomes a front page national news story, even in the Blogland.
By now, far more people know the name of my friend Wesley Donehue than they did yesterday. Especially outside of South Carolina. All thanks to a parody website that he was involved with.
I've gotten to know him well over the years ... a couple of times, we butted heads on opposing campaigns, but I grew to respect the guy. I'm sure I was the last person he expected to see at his mother's funeral, but when you come to respect a person, even when you don't always agree with them, you do what has to be done.
On that day, there wasn't anywhere else I needed to be more than right there to let him know he had my prayers and my support. Today is another one of those occasions, and again, I'm standing beside the guy.
Having done my fair share of parody and satire here in the Blogland, I know all too well that one man's joke is another's "vicious, misleading attack". A lot of political satire has at least some basis in fact and reality, and that's what I saw on the site for what little time it was up there.
I could understand the position of the Thompson campaign, but just as well I could understand how he thought he was trying to make a point, and have some fun too. Come on, guys, this site was too over the top for anyone but a total moron to take as a primary source of information ... right?
My first rule of politics is simple: "If it ain't fun, I'm going home." In this, he abided by this essential rule wonderfully.
As to his being considered amatuerish in what he did, I can assure you that as easily as this website was traced, and as skilled as he and his partners are, if they'd wanted to hide the website, it could have been done easily. I remember when I did the EvacuateHodges.com website. It took a couple of weeks before they tracked it back to its original owner. One of those sites was one that took a piece out of Wesley's tail when we were supporting opposing candidates, but he got over it. It took him a couple of weeks to figure out it was me, and I had to help him figure out it was me.
The bottom line was this: if he was trying to hide who was behind the site, he could never have been found. He knows how to do it, and if he didn't, he could have asked me.
So this evening, I ask all of you to stop taking this stuff so seriously and give the guy a break. Even if the other side didn't get the joke, he trying to have a little fun ... and I'm sure before it's over, some of the Thompson people, probably without authorization, are going to have a little fun with Romney and/or other candidates.
Big deal. Those who work on campaigns often rely on these kind of stunts as a sort-of coping mechanism to relieve the boredom and the long hours that come with working in that field. I've been there, so I know what it's like. Some of the people I've played prank/counter-prank with have become good friends. Mr. Donehue is one of them.
It's going to be a long few months, so there's no point getting all bent out of shape about something so small and trival in the grand scheme of things. Let's back off the guy, refocus ourselves on the issues (and the next prank), get out there and get to work for the candidates of our choice (if we have one ... I still don't).