October 02, 2003
On the Campaign Trail
It's been a pretty intense and wild September.
On Thursday, September 11 - exactly two years from that day - I got a phone call from an old friend and employer, Josh Lerner, who I knew was involved in the Draft Clark movement. He told me that Clark was on the verge of announcing his candidacy and wanted to know if I was interested in being involved.
I told Josh the same thing I told him a few weeks earlier when he tried to convince me that Clark was worth paying attention to: "He's not even running yet. How can I commit to anything knowing that he's not even a declared candidate yet?"
Six days later, Clark announced in Little Rock and the following weekend I was in a car with two other people on a road trip to Little Rock. I've been here ever since, living out of a suitcase and wearing the same four shirts and pair of jeans for what feels like months.
Today, I was offered a formal position as the "blog strategy guy" (official title pending) for the Clark campaign. I haven't accepted it yet but I'm pretty sure that I will. Working on the Clark campaign is a chance of a lifetime and I'd be pretty crazy to turn the offer down. How many times in your life to have a chance to change the way political campaigns work? How often do you have a chance to change the world?
On Monday, we launched the official Clark blog, which has already gained a large readership of Clark supporters. Some of the comments people leave are the most moving and powerful things I have ever read. Nothing makes you believe in something more than watching thousands of people rally behind a single cause or campaign.
Two days ago, Joshua Marshall interviewed General Clark and posted on his blog one of the best interviews I have ever read. The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Clark is the man who will be our next president. He has what it takes to win the primaries and to go on and win the election. Of this I am convinced.
On Saturday I will be at BloggerCon to participate in a panel about blogs in politics, and to talk about how the Clark campaign is using blogs and web technology. We've got some exciting things lined up, some of which I will outline during the session and some of which I cannot yet talk about.
What I do know is that we've got a very strong web team in place. And we will do some amazing stuff. It's an exciting time, an exciting place, and only the future knows how we will fare.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at October 2, 2003 06:28 PMI have to admit I'm dissapointed by the official Clark blog, for the simple reason that it doesn't have any entries written by the man himself. I've long been a fan of the UK politician Tom Watson for his blog www.tom-watson.co.uk where he is not afraid to air his own views in a personal manner.
At any rate, I wish you the best of luck with the new venture. It sounds like one heck of an opportunity!
Posted by: Simon Willison at October 2, 2003 08:06 PM
Hey Simon,
The General will be posting on the Official Blog. You have to be patient and realize that his campaign schedule is very tight, which gives him very little free time. He has verbally committed to posting on the blog but we can only expect this to be once a week or so.
I'm currently working closely with the Scheduling Team to make this happen.
Thanks,
Posted by: Cam at October 2, 2003 09:01 PM
Congratulations Cam. You're a man with a mission and a man on the move. Hope it all goes exceptionally well for you. Savour every moment. Hope you have a good time at BloggerCon.
Posted by: Morrie at October 3, 2003 03:45 AM
Congrats, Cam. What a fantastic opportunity. Not sure this will be possible, but I'd love to hear interesting updates of day to day campaign activities -- or at least how things go for you. Have fun!
Posted by: Scott M. at October 3, 2003 01:19 PM
Amazing where life takes you. The Clark campaign is probably the only Democratic candidate who can outright win in 2004. The other candidates can merely hope that the implosion of the Bush administration will continue through next year.
Posted by: Mike at October 3, 2003 01:21 PM
Is this "leak" part of the blog strategy?
Posted by: Mark at October 3, 2003 06:00 PM
Is this "leak" part of the blog strategy?
Posted by: Mark at October 3, 2003 06:00 PM
Congratulations, Cam! What an exciting and interesting time you have ahead of you -- I wish you all the best.
[And it's got to be better a better job than the guy who has to run the blog for the candidate who has to apologize for womanizing and making glowing remarks about Hitler ;) ]
Posted by: filmgoerjuan at October 3, 2003 10:46 PM
I am so proud of you, Cam; please keep some kind of journal of daily activities, even if you don't have time to post them on the web......
General Clark presented himself recently (much later than most candidates) and has rocketed forward. I am proud that you have something to do with this effort.
Let us know if the draplins can help out in MI....
Posted by: momma d. at October 4, 2003 12:03 PM
Hey, I can send you some Microsoft shirts, if you want. Since joining Microsoft I've gotten an overabundance of shirts for various things.
Posted by: Robert Scoble at October 4, 2003 05:03 PM
Cam,
On a personal level I'm excited that you get to combine two of your passions, blogging and politics into one paying gig. Not many of us find a way to make things like that happen.
But on a political level I have to say I'm surprised by your backing of Clark Cam. Personally, the fact that he voted for Nixon, Bush I and Regan twice is enough to make me dismiss his claim to be a Democrat. But what has me more concerned is that when I did some homework on Clark, I was interested to see just how pro-war he has appeared in past interviews. It's hard for me to see a man who's made his living planning and executing military operations as being anti-war. Maybe he was against the Bush strategy in Iraq, but this man is clearly not anti-war.
Just my 2 cents...
Posted by: Lawrence at October 4, 2003 08:23 PM
What an interesting concept.
I agree with comments above regarding 'The General' posting himself. A great way to break down traditional barriers between a pollie and the public.
Being an Aussie... I'm just trying to imagine some of our own politicians running a personal // politcal blog - that's a scary proposition!
From an outsiders perspective, I find it strange that a Democratic candidate likes to be referrd to as 'The General'.
Posted by: Benvolio at October 6, 2003 01:33 AM
What of the stories that the Clark campaign is asking that some supporters' blogs be shut down? And that some of them have done so? Misinterpretation? Hot air? Fact?
Posted by: Grant Barrett at October 6, 2003 10:51 AM
Grant, the sites that were asked to be closed were the ones that contained copyrighted materials. This was mainly the DigitalClark site that offered copyrighted digital video and audio clips.
The draftclark.com site is another whole story in itself that I cannot talk about but can definitely say that thte press does not have the whole story and is playing it pretty negatively.
Posted by: Cam at October 10, 2003 01:43 AM
Yeah! I'd love him to write his blog himself, like the other do. It's much more intresting
Posted by: Timothy at October 10, 2003 03:55 AM
Hey man, let him do by his own. He knows better how he should to behave
Posted by: Nick at October 10, 2003 03:56 AM
Since Clark is running for the Democratic nomination for POTUS, perhaps you can suggest that he register as a Democrat?
Posted by: Witold at October 10, 2003 02:13 PM
Hi Cam. Clark's blog is great, but I just thought of something else that would be interesting... back when Bush Jr. (aka, "Shrub") ran for the POTUS, Alexandra Pelosi (daughter of Minority Whip, Nancy Pelosi) filmed Bush's day-to-day campaign trail process and packaged it into a documentary called "Journeys with George" (http://www.journeyswithgeorge.com/). Instead of filming it, I think a blog about what it's like to be on Wesley Clark's campaign team (from a first-person pov) and give insight into what the General is really like (not as a potential president, but as a person) would be an interesting read... definitely something I would read every day.
What do you or others think?
Posted by: Rich Manalang at October 10, 2003 04:58 PM
Witold, only 4.4% of all people in Arkansas are registered to a political party. It is not a requirement to vote here and is not emphasized.
The fact that Clark was not registered as a Democrat is a non-issue and as soon as it was pointed out by the press, the paperwork was filed. Not because it was required but because it's what the public wanted.
In Arkansas (and many other states) it's normal to not be registered under a politicla party.
Posted by: Cam at October 11, 2003 11:25 PM
Wow, that will be really interesting once he starts to post. I'll keep it bookmarked.
Posted by: Jeff Thomas at October 18, 2003 05:09 AM
