This diary is inspired by a Front Page Diary by Kos yesterday:"Get off my lawn!". In that diary, Kos skewered Stuart Rothenberg for this quote:
Nobody should be surprised by the overreaction to the Hillary Clinton/Apple pseudo TV spot posted on YouTube. Reporters (and political consultants) simply love anything new and creative, even if its political impact is non-existent.
The ad, fashioned after an Apple ad from 1984, got tons of airtime earlier this week as the cable networks and talking heads buzzed about how creative it was, how technology is changing politics and what it all means for the future.
Here’s a news flash: the "ad" will have no political impact. Entertaining: Absolutely. Creative? Certainly. An interesting example of modern technology? Sure. But the ad won’t change any votes, and it is unlikely to create or re-make impressions of Senators Clinton or Barack Obama.
Well, guess what? I've been waffling over a local vote here in Philadelphia, and it was a YouTube video that made up my mind.
See the video below the fold...
There is a City Council race here between incumbent Frank DiCicco and challenger Vern Anastasio, both Democrats.
Now I shamefully admit I'd not been paying close enough attention to local government. I'd had a vaguely negative feeling about DiCicco, though never really knew why exactly. I knew he was a protege of corrupt power broker Vince Fumo, and I had a sense that he favored pro-business interests more than I would like, but I also had a sense that he was on my preferred side on a number of issues. Most importantly, in the current battle over plans to pluck down two mega-casinos at the edge of large residential communities here, he seems to have fought against them. (Non-Philly residents can let their eyes glaze over regarding these local details...just imagine your own local politics and substitute them.)
On the other hand, I had a vaguely good impression of Vern Anastasio. He'd tried to challenge DiCicco in the last City Council election, but had been barred from the ballot on some technicalities. That too gave me a bad impression of DiCicco--I felt he had won via technicalities rather than on his own merits.
But I had not yet really done my homework, reading up on the two candidates, comparing their positions, making an effort to attend their campaign events. But then yesterday, I watched this YouTube video:
OK. It's a minor point, sure. We had an ice storm here in Philly, and two days later DiCicco had failed to have the sidewalks cleared in front of his campaign headquarters. Anastasio takes some people to chip, shovel and salt the sidewalk. (Funniest moment comes at 57 second mark, when a DiCicco staffer pokes her head out the door and asks "Vern, what are you doing?!" and then offers to pay him five bucks.)
But it was just enough to push me into action. Hell, DiCicco couldn't even be bothered to clear his sidewalks, then what sort of service would he offer his constituents? And Anastasio, well, it showed a lively mind to come up with that campaign stunt, and a sense of humor too. So I started readng up on the two candidates, and Vern Anastasio has my vote. Probably a donation and some campaign help too!
So...memo to Stuart Rothenberg: Time to retire. Politics has passed you by.
By the way, for anyone interested, this link sums up my feelings toward Frank DiCicco: not completely bad, but weak in some important issues, and I think Anastasio can do better.