politics: January 2008 Archives

Just a quick note to mention that I'll be on the RJ McKay Show in Philadelphia tonight around 9pm. Tune into WPHT (1210 AM talk radio) to hear you favorite political pundit (ie, me) pontificate about the Iowa Caucuses, the New Hampshire Primary, and what it all means for the candidates.

A friend and I decided to do top 3 picks and see who comes closer. I'm gonna put them here for the sake of keeping things out in the open. Me: 1) Edwards 2) Clinton 3) Obama Him: 1) Obama 2) Edwards 3) Clinton Can't wait to see who got closer... Update: Looks like I'm the big loser here!

This evening I rolled out a new design for Keystone Politics. I never seem to be satisfied with the design, but this represents an improvement over the past color scheme and a professionalized look for the site. I'll roll out specific new features over the next few days. Here are a few notes on key areas where I'm either testing a new feature or looking for ideas.

• Subscriptions: For the past few years, I've focused on RSS subscriptions. With this design, I'm testing whether we'll see a better response rate from a daily headlines e-mail. Knowing the political audience, I think it will be a hit.
• Discussions: One of the biggest challenges on Keystone Politics is convincing our readers to participate in discussions on the site. I don't think we made a big improvement in this area, but I'm going to be actively seeking out ideas.
• Revenue Opportunities: I finally caved and installed a leaderboard advertisement banner at the top of the page. I've resisted it for four years, but increased server costs mean that we've got to bring in more money.
• Cleaner Sidebar: We fit a lot of information into our sidebars; I think this look is cleaner than the last one.

Overall I'm happy with the new design, but I'll be watching our analytics and metrics packages carefully over the next few days and weeks and making changes based on those measurements.

It's coming down the the wire in Iowa and some candidates are airing their closing arguments during tonight's 6 o'clock news. The ads are really representative of the differences in the style and intentions of the candidates. I hate talking about the mechanics of campaigning, because we should be focusing on the message. So listen to the message. Here's Hillary: I can't find an embedding link for Obama's but it's on his homepage here. And then there's my boy, John Edwards. He doesn't even appear in this commercial, but it was more powerful to me than the other two combined. Message: Hillary - "Let's be friends." Obama - "I like the sound of my own voice." Edwards - "I'm so money, I don't even need to appear in my own commercial."

I have very little to add to the hub-bub about Iowa except to echo Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson. It's gonna be an exciting few weeks, starting with Thursday.

Sometimes I just fucking love politics. The race in Iowa is such that nobody, and I mean nobody, can predict who is going to emerge victorious on January 3 — in either party’s caucuses. We’re looking at a dead heat among Clinton, Obama, and Edwards on the Democratic side and a dogfight between Huckabee and Romney in the Republican race. Polling over the holidays — when families are traveling — is a joke. So the instruments we pajama pundits usually use to gauge momentum are clouded by statistical burps that show Hillary up ten points in one poll or and down two in another.