Txt with Obama

Yesterday it was brought to my attention not all of my friends who support Obama have signed up for his text messaging list. Subscribers receive short messages roughly once a week or less, related to major announcements in the campaign, primaries, and media appearances. You can sign up online, or by texting GO to OBAMA (62262). I first subscribed after seeing it advertised at his College Park rally earlier this year. The campaign website also offers a variety of ringtones, wallpapers, and suggests high-volume users should follow him on Twitter.

> Obama Mobile

The Candidates on the Issues

All the major presidential candidate websites are generally similar in their structure. All three feature an “issues” tab, with pages on a variety of issues. These sometime link to other materials, such as lengthier plans in PDF format or other materials, but I thought the choice of issues and length might tell us something about what each candidate’s campaign think is important. At the very least, it might speak to the interest groups they’re cultivating and their general philosophy about how much information they should provide before requiring visitors to click more. Of course, what candidates say about their priorities, and what they actually do in office can be quite different for a variety of reasons.

Here’s the three way comparison (larger):

And just Obama and McCain (larger):

Obama’s top three are technology, urban policy, and family, and McCain’s are economy, national security, and veterans, and Hillary Clinton’s are innovation, veterans, and schools.

I noticed both Democrats have long pages on technology and innovation issues, a topic McCain omits entirely.

Barack Obama is also unique in organizing a variety of urban-related policy proposals and positions under the umbrella topic of Urban Policy, something that was added to the website since I scrutinized it last. As the first bullet to his plan he proposes creating a White House Office on Urban Policy to “develop a strategy for metropolitan America” and coordinate federal urban programs, reporting directly to the president.

Update: On the suggestion of Andrew Gelman, here’s a different version ranked by the difference in words between Obama and McCain.

Another just by Obama topics:

Obama: Congestion Pricing ‘Thoughtful’ and ‘Innovative’

In an exclusive interview with a New York television station, Senator Barack Obama described congestion pricing as a thoughtful and innovative approach to the problem of congestion. In the interview he described it as a way to reduce congestion, reduce pollution, and invest in infrastructure and mass transit. With an April 7th deadline approaching, New York City appears poised to approve a historic congestion pricing plan. (See Streetsblog for exhaustive congestion pricing coverage.)

> WNYC: “Obama Urges Oversite of Financial Markets, Supports Congestion Pricing“

Bill Clinton’s Four Questions and Barack Obama

I attended Campus Progress’s National Student Conference in 2005, where I heard Bill Clinton give a keynote address on the topic of how progressives can win again. Whatever you think of Clinton, you must concede his knack for electoral victory. The conference took place at a depressing time for many Democrats – Senator John Kerry had just lost the presidential election the previous year and the party seemed weak. Clinton gave a thoughtful, almost philosophical speech, strangely relevant to the party today. (A video and transcript of the speech is available.)
Read the rest of this entry »

Reforming the Presidential Primary System

The recent turmoil in the nation’s presidential primary system has renewed interest in possible reforms to the system. While Iowa and New Hampshire’s early primaries may allow lesser-known candidates a chance to build momentum and encourage small-scale retail politics, many have questioned why these two states should enjoy such influence on our national political system. Furthermore, the jockeying for primary dates among states this year has shown the fundamental instability of the current system.

A variety of new plans have been discussed, but one proposed by my girlfriend’s boss, Congressman Sander Levin of Michigan, seems the best considered so far. Here’s a quick review of the proposals.

A National Primary would put all primaries and caucuses on one day. This would eliminate any benefits of having a staggered primary system. The Delaware Plan would divided the states into four groups according to size, and set the four primary dates according to state size. The National Association of Secretaries of States have proposed a National Rotating Regional Primary System. Their plan would retain Iowa and New Hampshire as the first primaries, and then divide the other states into four regions, and each region would take turns sharing the first primary during each presidential election.

The American Plan, or Graduated Random Presidential Primary System, would create a 20-week primary schedule ending in June. The primary season would be divided into 10 two week periods. Only the smallest states would be eligible to vote during the first two week period, with the larger states being forced to wait until later in the schedule. In order to prevent locking the biggest states into the last primary periods, some adjustments have been made towards the end of the schedule. Here is a list of the total number of electoral votes each state could have to qualify for each two week primary period: 8, 16, 24, 56, 32, 64, 40, 72, 48, 80. Within this somewhat complex set of restrictions, states would be randomly assigned to windows to hold their primaries. Advocates like the plan’s ability to push the entire process closer to the nominating conventions, preserve retail politics in small states, and allowing weaker candidates build momentum in small states. The drawbacks are the plan’s complexity and lack of specificity regarding precise dates, perhaps opening up the possibility of jockeying within windows or primaries on unusual days of the week.

Lastly we come to the Interregional Primary Plan suggested by legislation introduced by Congressman Sander Levin and Senator Bill Nelson. Under their plan, the country is divided into six regions. Six primary dates between March and June would be set. On each date, one state or group of smaller states from each region would have their primary. After each election the states which enjoyed the first primary date would move to the sixth position, meaning every state would rotate through the important first primary date. The plan regulates the length and tempo of the primary system, and unlike the Secretaries of States’ plan prevent regional bias in any one election. Unlike the current system, large states would have the opportunity to have the first primary position, but the total number of primaries on that first date would be limited. Critics have also pointed out the plan would require travel between states, but this seems a modest price to pay for regional representation between states. Here’s what the schedule might look like under the Levin/Nelson plan:

Although each plan has advantages and drawbacks, it seems some type of reform is necessary. A proposal that would push the primaries closer to the conventions and give larger and more diverse states a larger voice could improve upon today’s unstable system.

> FairVote Presidential Elections Reform Information
> Wikipedia: U.S. Presidential Primary
> Levin/Nelson Interregional Primary Reform Plan

Michigan Campus Activism Guide Published

Although it has been a while since I’ve written about the University of Michigan, I thought I would note the publication of a book by my friend and U-M senior Mollie Bates. An Art and Design senior, in collaboration with the progressive paper the Michigan Independent, Mollie has designed and produced an 80-page, full color book on progressive campus activism at the university titled The Michigan Independent’s Guide to Campus Activism. The book features detailed descriptions of activism from 2003 to 2007 (Students Supporting Affirmative Action, The College Democrats, Voice Your Vote and The Coke Coalition), historical information dating back to the 1960s, and a how-to guide for future activists. I had the opportunity to peruse a copy this summer and was duly impressed. You can get a copy of the book by getting in touch with Mollie at mollie.bates at gmail.com. She informs me it will eventually be available for purchase online, and I will update this post when that happens.

> Preview the book on Mollie’s online portfolio

Almost everyone has had a printer at one time or the other. This is the age of lexmark printers. Throw away the old ones, and get new printer accessories and start printing right away.

Rethinking College Park: An Update

Things have been kind of quiet around here lately for a couple reasons: I just successfully wrapped up my first semester of graduate school, and because most of my blogging energy has been dedicated to Rethink College Park, a new community website I am involved in.

Readers of this website may be familiar with the general concept of the site I described in May, or perhaps may have seen the announcement I posted after we launched last summer. However, I have said little about it since then.

In short, things are going very well. We summarized some of our accomplishments in December: we have averaged over 100 visitors a day (In a city of 25,000), published 95 posts and over 200 comments. Our posts have included everything from thoughtful essays on urban design, obscure documents we dredged up about controversial projects, and examinations of a secretive University-led development project. Most recently, we have posted detailed candidate surveys for an upcoming special election to fill two vacancies on the city council.

Furthermore, we have begun to build the infrastructure to make the effort sustainable in the long term. We have identified as a major goal for next semester as recruiting more writers and leaders for the organization. Although it is difficult to measure of the impact of the site, it’s clear that at the very least we are succeeding to create an open forum for the entire community — our first and primary goal.

To top it off, I just found out today we are the top hit if you google “I want to run for city council.” Either we’re doing something right, or there is a sore lack of this type of information on the web!