Homo Viator

The race is on and I am getting ready for one of my media-favorite times. Eleanor Roosevelt said that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people. I would agree with that to some extent, unless of course one's discussion of people centers around these peoples' ideas. I guess this is what analyzing and presenting presidential candidates is all about. The coming elections are quite special and unique in many aspects. First of all, this will be the first presidential race since 1928 in which no incumbent President or Vice President will run. Thank god Dick has better things to do than donating his money to media outlets in a wasteful attempt to run himself.

Second, this race has seen the earliest and most numerous amount of applicants entering the battle. These days almost everyone thinks he is capable of becoming the president of the United States. I guess you cant blame them, having seen who inhabited the White House for the last 7 years. Patricia Marx of Time wrote an ironic piece on these early contenders, arguing that everyone joined in so early because of their fear of leading. No one wanted to be the last follower, which could be construed as leading.

And last but definitely not least, this race will be different to all others because it will be the first one where candidates will truly make use of the internet. Although some will make this to their advantage, everyone needs to be fearful not to land a Howard Dean style faux pas on Youtube. The internet is merciless and every small mistake will be exploited by bloggers and video sites. Time argues that the margin for rhetorical errors is quite small in this campaign and that because of that the campaign may suffer from less creativity in talking-and thinking. I guess that a blogger can well do with some entertaining missteps, but let´s hope the latter will not occur.

I started a new category for this race and will concentrate on how the internet will shape or misshape a candidate's campaign. Let´s start with our model examples. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both announced their candidacy online. I must say that Obama has not only disappointed me with his populist position on Iraq, but also with this weak presentation video.

Barack Obama's Presidential Announcement



Hillary Clinton's Presidential Announcement



So Hillary, are you just starting a conversation with America? (First sentence) Mmmh, I would have hoped for a more international approach. Heard you want to chat!? My msn name: nwoischnik@hotmail.com. But Hillary, I do not want to chat with an adviser of yours, hope i will really be talking to YOU.