2011 Social Media Timeline

Nutty Korea joins Social Media fever to step up propaganda offensive

Nutty North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive nations, is now twittering.

Less than one month after the communist state started broadcasting propaganda clips on YouTube, North Korea opened an account on Thursday with Twitter Inc., the U.S. provider of a highly popular microblogging service.

The opening, announced Saturday on North Korea's official Web site Uriminzokkiri, comes as Pyongyang steps up its propaganda offensive to deny allegations that its Navy torpedoed a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors.

The North's twitter account, which opened under the name @uriminzok, or "our nation" in Korean, contained nine messages as of Sunday morning. Most of them had links to statements or interviews that denounce South Korea and the United States.

Twitter allows users to send texts up to 140 characters long, known as "tweets." Subscribers, or "followers," can choose to receive feeds via mobile phones or personal computers. 225 people were following @uriminzok as of Sunday morning.

Last month, North Korea registered an account with YouTube, uploading clips that praise its leader Kim Jong-il and defend itself against accusations that it attacked the Cheonan warship.

Background: Nutty North Korea silent on fate of South Korean fishing boat crew

Observers have taken note of North Korea's expanded use of the Internet for its propaganda offensive. In June, a North Korean woman believed to be an agent uploaded a clip praising the communist country on YouTube, drawing media attention here and abroad.

North Korea is also believed to be operating a unit dedicated to hacking foreign websites, including those of the United States and South Korea. Early this year, South Korea set up a cyber defense command to deal with such threats from the North.

The Unreported War - Cyber War

Twitter's Entire Archive Headed to the Library of Congress

The U.S. Library of Congress announced this morning via its official Twitter account that it will be acquiring the entire archive of Twitter messages back through March 2006. In addition to a massive printed collection, the Library already has an extensive collection of other digital assets. The Library of Congress is the biggest library in the world.

The Library does extensive work with data format standards, the semantic Web and other platforms for outside analysis. The addition of Twitter into the organization's offerings could foster an enormous amount of academic research. From a new kind of historical record to an unprecedented opportunity for discovering patterns of social interaction, this is big.

For now there are more questions than answers with regards to this Library of Congress Twitter news.

Will the archive include friend/follower connection data? Will it be usable for commercial purposes?

Will there be a Web interface for searching it, and will that change the face of Twitter search for good?

Is there any way that the much larger archive of Facebook data could be submitted to the same body for analysis of the same kind?

Norman Meet Up - MeetUp: The personal touch

Great Job @cassiegage



















February 21, 2010
MeetUp: The personal touch

By Aaron Wright
The Norman Transcript

Norman — There’s a group of Norman residents on a mission to unite the Internet users of the town.

“The concept comes from ‘Tweet-ups,’” said Cassie Gage, a member of the five-person committee working getting those meeting Norman people via social media to meet face-to-face. She explained that “Tweet-ups” are a popular phenomenon in larger cities where people on Twitter get together regularly to share actual person-to-person contact.

“I mean, I follow people I’ve never met,” said Gage.

She said the Norman committee wants to use the same focus, just not as heavy on the social media aspect. Even those who aren’t using Twitter, Facebook or MySpace are invited to attend. In fact, the committee will be available to explain the concept of social media to people interesting in getting on board at the meeting.

“It’s just a big networking event,” she said.

The Norman MeetUp, as the committee has started calling the event, is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. March 11 at Iron Starr Urban Barbeque on campus corner.

“We wanted to have it at a place that encompasses social media,” said Gage.

This meet-and-greet event will include a raffle for items donated from local businesses. The money will be donated to Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Norman. There also will be a cash bar and the group hopes there will be catering, said Gage, who added that they are working on getting food donated.

The group is in its beginning stages, Gage said, and budget issues are a limiting factor right now. However, the number one goal for the group is just getting their name and event to the public ears and eyes. Norman MeetUp’s Web site is www.normanmeetup.com, and Norman MeetUp is already on Twitter and Facebook.

“What we want to do is build some excitement in people in this community,” said Gage, speaking of the future of the group. “The general interest will regulate what we’re able to do.”

Gage said she would like to see Norman eventually have three or four of these events a year.

To be a part of the committee organizing the event, Gage suggests people get in touch with her via Facebook or Twitter.

Aaron Wright 366-3533 pop@normantranscript.com

'TWEET THIS! TWITTER FOR BUSINESS' party tonight

My OKIE Twitter buddy
Jessica (@blogging4jobs)
has a book coming out!

Tweet This Launch Party

Thursday, February 4th at Sapphire Bar in Bricktown (Oklahoma City)

6:30-8:00 PM

Fabulous fun & PRIZES
with live streaming from the event!

Drink special, free appetizers, and book signing.

Media & pre-party festivities start a half hour before the event

Calling it a 'Social Media Mullet'. Business in the front and party in the back. More than a tongue-in-cheek reference to a 1980s hair style, the phrase is now serious strategic advice professionals can follow to improve the way they connect with others online.

According to Jessica Miller-Merrell, a nationally recognized recruitment expert and author of Tweet This!

Twitter for Business, encourages professionals to follow what she refers to in her new book as the Social Media Mullet Rule when using Twitter for branding.

“Basically, following the mullet golden rule means keeping most of your tweets professional and related to your business, roughly 70 percent,” Jessica said. “The remaining 30 percent should be personal, allowing the reader to see your true, authentic self.”

Tweet This! is Jessica’s first book. The self-published, 128-page Twitter tome was created as an easy-to-read resource intended for busy entrepreneurs, small business owners and nonprofit organizations.

“Busy people will appreciate the way it’s structured, short and to the point,” she said. “Anyone, regardless of their level of Internet savvy, should be able to pick up this book and immediately get started building their Twitter profile, based on solid business principles.

Oklahoma Twitter experts will enjoy seeing their success stories included among national case studies that show the incredible influence social media can have on the bottom line.”

According to Jessica, Tweet This! is currently the only book available that provides a daily 30-minute Twitter time management system. Worksheets are also included in the appendix that guides readers through the process of creating a Twitter marketing plan.

ODOT pay $7,500 and still do not know what a Twitter is

Hat Tip to OFRGnews

After ODOT pay Saxum PR (Renzi Stone) $7,500 + to teach them how to use twitter, We as Oklahoma taxpayer get this...

Twitter, Facebook users show solidarity with QassamCount

See my Blog Post 'Israel armed with New Media savvy' for more background...

Twitter, Facebook users show
solidarity with QassamCount

By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN,
JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN CHICAGO

As soon as Operation Cast Lead began to take shape just over a week ago, Dan Peguine started the program QassamCount, a system that updates users' statuses on Facebook with the number of Kassams that hit Israel.

Within the first three days, 10,000 people had donated their statuses to the cause.

Peguine first started a program counting Kassams about a week before the operation in Gaza began. He used Twitter, which sends users' statuses to all their "followers," to help people understand how often rockets hit the South.

"When you live in Tel Aviv and you read at the end of the day, '20 Kassams hit Sderot, Ashkelon,' you do not really understand what it means to live through this," Peguine told The Jerusalem Post. "So by having a feed that pops up every time a Kassam hits, I thought it would be a good way to convey this."

After recognizing the quick success of the Twitter program, to which 600 followers had subscribed in three days, Peguine decided to apply the same form to a larger social network. He partnered with Arik Fraimovich and set up the application on Facebook.

"I think that the Internet is a medium that needs to be used to reach audiences that are not usually aware of the situation in Israel," Peguine said.

"We hope to bring to the world's attention the fact that Hamas fires rockets at Israel daily," he said.

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) is another group that has been active in fighting anti-Semitism and terrorism throughout the Internet.

"When it comes to bias against Israel, it's very easy for our enemies to be on the constant attack," said David, the spokesman for the JIDF, who asked that his last name not be published. He said he had received death threats since beginning his activities.

The JIDF formed in response to the second intifada in 2000 and functioned on a grassroots level, mainly through e-mail campaigns. The group then began operating on various Web sites to spread news about Israel and Jewish issues.

The IDF itself has also begun an Internet effort, making use of YouTube and a blog to post official army videos and information about the situation in Gaza. The site on YouTube had nearly 11,500 subscribers as of Sunday, and its videos had been viewed over 750,000 time.

"Throughout the years, we have tried to help shape public opinion with our own brand of Israel advocacy on-line, and it's very refreshing to see Israel taking an active on-line role," David said. "The videos on YouTube showing secondary explosions have had a major impact, as do the videos and photos of all the humanitarian effort."

Israel and the Jewish People have always faced bias in the media, he said, adding that anti-Semitism and a false perception of Israel as an aggressor have played a role.

Israel armed with New Media savvy

The thermal imaging footage shot from an Israeli drone hovering over Gaza shows eight Palestinian militants loading rockets on to a lorry.

Within seconds, the drone’s sights are locked on to the vehicle and it and the ghostlike figures nearby are incinerated in a missile blast.

The clip was one of several dramatic scenes uploaded to the site by the Israeli army last week, the first time a national army has created its own YouTube channel.

Israel is waged 'Operation Cast Lead' on several fronts, including unprecedented use of New Media.

Israeli officials said they are satisfied that Israel is winning sympathetic media coverage that has provided its military with the breathing space it needs to continue the strikes against Gaza.

“Israel has no small measure of understanding and support and even approval from many countries,” Dan Gillerman, a former ambassador to the United Nations, said last week. “Unless something very dramatic happens, such as a blundered hit that kills large numbers of civilians, then we will have enough time to do what we need to do.”

Led by Yarden Vatikai, a former official with the defence ministry and the Jewish Agency, the directorate decided to replace the traditional wartime press conferences with a wide range of initiatives using new media.

“In terms of communicating our message, new media is the future,” said Avi Benayahu, the chief spokesman for the Israeli army, who has organised a series of workshops for his staff over the past six months.

“Explaining your actions is a kind of ammunition in this sort of war.”

The YouTube channel, established the day after the first air strikes, is currently the most popular on the site. The dozen's videos relating to the current operation have recorded hundreds of thousands of hits.

Israel has turned to other New Media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter @IsraelConsulate / Twitter @IDFspokesperson, blogs and chat rooms, often relying on former army personnel and public relations consultants, to advance its case.

In addition, reporters and diplomats have been blitzed with text messages offering interviews, briefings and tours of Israeli communities in the Negev close to the Gaza border. Other initiatives are likely to be unveiled if and when a ground invasion is launched.

“We have photographers embedded in all the units preparing to enter Gaza and we already have incredible footage that we are planning to release [if] we go in,” Dinor Shavit, commander of the Israeli army’s filming unit, told The Jerusalem Post newspaper.

Opposition politicians, including the Likud party head, Benjamin Netanyahu, have set aside their campaigns for the parliamentary election next month and been recruited to the public relations offensive.

Officials believe coverage of Israel’s actions in Gaza have benefited as a consequence. According to a survey by the foreign ministry of the international broadcast media, Israeli spokespeople have been given three times as much airtime as Palestinian representatives.

Daniel Seaman, the head of the government press office, “We know that Hamas is in complete control of the news and that reports from Gaza are carried out under duress. Foreign media in Gaza will become fig leaves for the news, and will give credibility to the reporting.”

State and USAID spend borrowed money from China to make “green improvements” to Chinese cities

Hat Tip to my U.S. Senator (Dr.) Tom Coburn from twitter

The U.S. State Department and USAID increased the national debt, much of which is owned by China, for deficit spending to finance "green and efficient buildings" in Chinese cities.

This increase to the national debt, now nearing $11 trillion, is for unproven remedies to curb an unproven problem, man-made "global warming." The combined value of the awards is $2.97 million.

The Drudge Report Meets Twitter: The #TCOT Report

Hat Tip to my Twitter Buddy emzanotti

The Drudge Report Meets Twitter:
The #TCOT Report

Citizen told to stop using Twitter to update on Bombay attacks

News on the Bombay attacks is breaking fast on Twitter with hundreds of people using the site to update others with first-hand accounts of the carnage.

The website has a stream of comments on the attacks which is being updated by the second, often by eye-witnesses and people in the city. Although the chatter cannot be verified immediately and often reflects the chaos on the streets, it is becoming the fastest source of information for those seeking unfiltered news from the scene.

Murad Ahmed, Technology Reporter

In the past hour, people using Twitter reported that bombings and attacks were continuing, but none of these could be confirmed. Others gave details on different locations in which hostages were being held.


And this morning, Twitter users said that Indian authorities was asking users to stop updating the site for security reasons:

One person wrote: “Police reckon tweeters giving away strategic info to terrorists via Twitter”.

Many pointed to reports that that the situation had led to clashes between Indian forces and militants in the disputed border region of Kashmir. Some messages gave the names of suspected terrorists. None of the information could be confirmed at this stage.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service, where people can send short messages of up to 140 characters to friends using text messages or over the internet.

Others have used the site to post contact details of relevant emergency services for those caught up in the attack. There were appeals for Twitter users to post “I’m fine” messages so it could be relayed onto family and friends.

Many sent messages of support to the Indian authorities and Bombay’s citizens.

One user said: “please give all respect and due to all those cops and army people who are risking their lives 4 us”. Other Bombay residents showed anger that the situation was continuing: “sadly NO ONE seems to be in charge. what are they all WAITING for 18 hours later ?”

tOOw: Israeli PM Candidate Plans to Use Twitter for Direct Communication With Voters

Israeli Candidate
Borrows a (Web) Page
From Obama
By ETHAN BRONNER and NOAM COHEN

JERUSALEM — Click on the Russian-language version of the campaign Web site of Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative Likud leader running for prime minister of Israel, and up pops a picture of him with Barack Obama. On the Hebrew version, Mr. Obama is not pictured. But he is, in fact, everywhere.

The colors, the fonts, the icons for donating and volunteering, the use of videos, and the social networking Facebook-type options — including Twitter, which hardly exists in Israel — all reflect a conscious effort by the Netanyahu campaign to learn from the Obama success.

The campaign Web site of Benjamin Netanyahu, right, looks a lot like Barack Obama's, and it's no coincidence.

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” noted Ron Dermer, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s top campaign advisers. “We’re all in the same business, so we took a close look at a guy who has been the most successful and tried to learn from him. And while we will not use the word ‘change’ in the same way in our campaign, we believe Netanyahu is the real candidate of change for Israel.”

Those who created the Obama Web site, including Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital, say the Netanyahu site is closer to Mr. Obama’s than any others they have seen.

“Nothing has been so direct as the Netanyahu Web site, though we have seen others with shades of it,” he said. When a campaign is successful, he added, “people are going to knock things off, both in terms of functionality and aesthetic.”

Web sites aside, for liberals in both countries, the idea of Mr. Netanyahu as the Obama candidate of Israel seems mystifying. Of the three main contenders for prime minister in February’s election, including Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Ehud Barak of Labor, Mr. Netanyahu is the most hawkish and the least interested in the focus on dialogue with adversaries that Mr. Obama made a centerpiece of his foreign policy platform. Mr. Netanyahu has said he would shut down the current negotiations with the Palestinian leadership.

But it is precisely the break with the current policy that Mr. Netanyahu, known by his nickname, Bibi, believes will help him win. The most recent polls show him slightly ahead of his rivals.

Sani Sanilevich, who is managing Mr. Netanyahu’s Internet campaign, said the Web was one of the biggest focuses of the campaign, and with good reason.

“The main advantage of the Internet is the ability to communicate with citizens and people directly,” he said. “You can actually hear them and get them involved in this campaign. The whole idea is, together we can succeed.”

The phrase “Together we can succeed” is the campaign slogan on the Netanyahu site, and it echoes, to some extent, Mr. Obama’s “Yes we can.” Mr. Sanilevich said the Netanyahu campaign plans to make use of Twitter, the mass text-messaging service that sends out short “tweets.”

“There are a couple thousand in Israel on Twitter,” he said. “We have lots of people using the Web sites registered as volunteers, and I am sure we will be able to use Twitter, which is an amazing tool. I have it on my phone, and I go around with Bibi and everywhere we go he gives me things to say on Twitter.”

Netanyahu aides say direct communication with voters is important for many reasons; one of them is their belief that Israel’s mainstream news outlets are not sympathetic to the candidate, and he needs to go around them.

The campaign said that like the Obama operation, it would bombard its supporters with messages for volunteering and donating and set up a site where supporters could communicate with one another without the campaign’s direct involvement.

At least before Mr. Obama’s victory last week, Mr. Netanyahu might have been expected to have a stronger political rapport with Senator John McCain. The Republican positioned himself as the more reliable friend of Israel. His campaign portrayed Mr. Obama as an uncritical friend of a prominent Palestinian critic of Israeli policies in the West Bank, and accused him of associating with a terrorist.

But Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a close Netanyahu adviser, said the Likud leader liked and respected Mr. Obama, so it was not strange that he had taken a page from the president-elect. Mr. Gold said the two meetings they had held so far, in Washington in 2007 and in Jerusalem last summer, had gone well.

“I was at both meetings, and it was clear that the two leaders established a very good chemistry very quickly,” he said. “We are convinced that the Obama administration will be open to hearing new ideas from Israel on how to make progress in the region.”

Mr. Netanyahu is positioning himself as the candidate of new ideas both for Israel itself and for peace with the Palestinians.

The ideas revolve around economic opportunities, aides say, cutting red tape to improve the Palestinian economy; building peace from the ground up, not the top down; and improving life in Israel with a bold domestic agenda involving improved education, economic growth and personal security against increased crime.

The aides are convinced that negotiations with Palestinian leaders will lead nowhere and that the best steps Israel can take, as it waits for Palestinian attitudes to change, involve building the Palestinian economy. Ms. Livni has vowed to continue the talks with the Palestinians, which she is helping to lead.

Mr. Netanyahu’s aides add that just as the Obama campaign linked Mr. McCain to President Bush, they plan to label Ms. Livni as a continuation of the status quo and Mr. Netanyahu as the candidate of change.

“Yes he can,” one aide said, with a touch of self-parody. “He believes he is the guy who can do it.”

Hoo-ah: U.S. Army MI: Terrorist Twitter attacks?

A draft US Army intelligence report has identified the popular micro-blogging service Twitter, Global Positioning System maps and voice-changing software as potential terrorist tools.

The report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), examines a number of mobile and web technologies and their potential uses by militants.

The posting of the report on the FAS site was reported Friday by Wired magazine contributing editor Noah Shachtman on his national security blog "Danger Room" at wired.com.

The report is not based on clandestine reporting but drawn from open source intelligence known as OSINT.

A chapter on "Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter" notes that Twitter members sent out messages, known as "Tweets," reporting the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements.

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.

Hacktivists refers to politically motivated computer hackers.

"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said.

"Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance," it said. "This could theoretically be combined with targeting."

The report outlined scenarios in which militants could make use of Twitter, combined with such programs as Google Maps or cell phone pictures or video, to carry out an ambush or detonate explosives.

"Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool," it said. "However, it is unclear whether that same theoretical tool would be available to terrorists in other countries and to what extent."

Besides Twitter, the report examined the potential use by militants of Global Positioning Systems and other technologies.

"GPS cell phone service could be used by our adversaries for travel plans, surveillance and targeting," it said, noting that just such uses have been discussed in pro-Al-Qaeda forums along with the use of voice-changing software.

"Terrorists may or may not be using voice-changing software but it should be of open source interest that online terrorist and/or terrorist enthusiasts are discussing it," the report said.

Oct 7 2008 #debateok08 Debate Twitter Stream

This a story about the Oct 7 2008 Presidential Debate on Twitter in the #debateok08 Stream.

www.therighttweets.com/

McCain Throws Aide Under the Bus for Twittering YouTube Link

Soren Dayton was a Twitter friend (Soren has deleted his Twitter account) and STILL is a Facebook friend ! And I am a member on the "Support Soren Dayton!" facebook group !

McCain Throws Aide Under the Bus for Twittering YouTube Link

Posted by: Matt Lewis

Today, John McCain suspended an aide -- Soren Dayton -- for distributing this controversial YouTube video about Barack Obama and Rev. Wright. As campaigns spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker told Jonathan Martin, Dayton was "reprimanded by campaign leadership."

I defended John McCain when he distanced himself from that radio show host in Ohio who repeatedly invoked Obama's middle name. To me, the radio host was making a tawdry attack, meant to imply Obama was Muslim. And McCain was doing the right thing by not engaging in that sort of campaign.

But this situation is a bit different.

In reading his Twitter message (shown above), Dayton merely wrote: "Good video on Obama and Wright," and included the link. That's it. And for that, he was suspended.

Here's why I think this move might have been politically unwise. Suspending Dayton for passing this video on implies by extension that the message of this video was in some way incorrect, or, at least, not respectable. But, as I've written in the past, it is entirely legitimate to question Obama's affiliation with Rev. Wright -- as well as to highlight Obama's evolving positions.

From Geraldine Ferraro to Samantha Power, this has been the year for apologies and terminations. My question is whether John McCain is willing to throw everyone under the bus the minute they do something that might be embarrassing to him.

Perhaps I'm naive, but I've been told that campaigns actually attack their opponents from time to time. It is unclear precisely what Dayton's job for McCain was (a source tells Jonathan Martin that Dayton was doing "low-level political work for [deputy political director] John Yob."

Dayton was a fairly prominent blogger, and one would suppose he was doing more than simply "low-level" work. Perhaps he wasn't -- or perhaps this is an example of a McCain aide taking another shot at a guy who is already down.

Still, reprimanding him may cause future McCain operatives to think twice before doing their job. Is McCain recommending a sort of "limited war" in which the enemy can shoot at us, but we can't shoot back?

Standing on principle is a good value, but so is supporting your subordinates and so is loyalty. It takes political courage to stand up for your team -- even if it may cost you politically. Is McCain too concerned about wanting to come across as a nice guy?

Hazelbaker emailed me the following statement (which is the same thing she sent Martin):

We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy. He has been reprimanded by campaign leadership and suspended from the campaign.

Though they have been clear on the type of campaign they want to run, it is still unclear if, or when, Dayton will be reinstated.

Of course, it is not unheard of for campaigns to engage in a bit of deception involving the leaking of negative information. For example, it is entirely possible that Dayton distributed it under the direction of a campaign superior. It is possible Dayton believed the campaign would have wanted this out there -- but that not telling them would give them plausible deniably.

It is also entirely possible that he has agreed to be the "fall guy" in an effort to save Senator McCain face. In fact, it is likely this little controversy will result in more people viewing this video -- which would obviously be a net-plus for McCain (who gets to remain above the fray).

But -- because this particular video added little to the narrative -- it is more likely that Dayton merely passed this link on, not knowing it would be a big deal -- and that the McCain campaign has chosen to punish him for this. What Dayton is really guilty of is failing to follow the maxim that you should never interfere when the enemy is in the process of committing suicide.

If McCain has any cause to be angry, it's not that Dayton made an ethical lapse -- it's that he made a political one.

Dayton distributed the video via Twitter. The default setting on Twitter allows anyone to "follow" a Twitterer. In other words, it would have been easy for anybody who wanted to catch Dayton (or any other operative, for that matter) in a gaffe, to sign up to receive his messages.

Most folks who use Twitter, do so in a very casual and personal manner. One source who follows Dayton told me that Dayton most likely didn't think he was Twittering in an "official" capacity. Still, anything you write can and will be used against you.

Dayton has since deleted his Twitter account.

Did the 'So call Power's' in the McCain camp goof up ?

Soren Dayton was a Twitter friend (Soren has deleted his Twitter account) and STILL is a Facebook friend ! And I am a member on the "Support Soren Dayton!" facebook group !

Defending Soren Dayton
Posted by: Patrick Ruffini

Earlier today, Soren Dayton, a friend and frequent collaborator in the blogosphere, was suspended from the McCain campaign for making a note of this video in his Twitter account.

To see Video, click here

A few notes here. I use Twitter a lot. And I'm "looser" on Twitter than I would be on my blog. My Twitter account has been updated 2,863 times since last June, while I've only penned no more than a couple hundred mostly long-form blog entries. My Twitter posts contain a lot of rough thoughts that are then refined into blog posts. So, there's a greater volume of chatter, and the sense that the tool operates more like a secure backchannel than a public blog.

Of course, this is really an illusion. Everything you say on Twitter is publicly accessible, unless you choose to protect your updates for friends only. If you can screencap it, folks in Peoria on the other side of the Fox News filter won't care if it was Twittered or blogged. This is a stark reminder that anything that you write on a social media site, now matter how "protected" is ultimately just as accessible as anything you put out in any other medium. (It didn't take long for people to sniff out "Kristen's" Facebook profile.)

I'm not going to argue that Soren was right in posting the link. But I do agree with Matt Lewis that there was some overreaction here. If they go further with this civility routine, they risk alienating conservatives in talk radio and the blogosphere who are doing the necessary work of defining Obama and rendering him just as radioactive with the base as Hillary.

A month ago, McCain-Obama looked like a bad matchup for us: a Republican nominee who didn't do much to galvanize the base against a Democrat who didn't either.

The New York Times kerfuffle and now the Wright story is slowly changing that. With an assist from Hillary Clinton's overtures to the right-wing of the Democratic Party, Obama is now a more polarizing figure in key swing states than she is. It is now clear that conservative media will do to Obama what they did to Kerry, Gore, and Clinton. This can be an unalloyed boon to the McCain campaign, as it pretty much takes care of his conservative problem and frees him to go after swing voters.

This is not about "Barack Hussein Obama" or Muslim smear emails, which need to be repudiated. It is about a Presidential candidate's literary muse going all Susan Sontag on us on the Sunday after 9/11. It is connecting the dots on the post-patriotic milieu that surrounds Obama seemingly everywhere he goes. These are legitimate issues for public discussion, if not by McCain himself, then certainly by talk radio and the blogs. If McCain doesn't want to be part of that, that's understandable. But he should get out of the way and let talk radio do its thing.

In many ways, the Bush campaign had the right approach with the Swift Boat Veterans. Any functionary or board member who had been connected in any way with the Swift Vets resigned from the campaign. The campaign told them -- and, crucially, any 527 -- to take down their ads. They repeated that they respected Kerry's service -- without turning into a mouthpiece for the Kerry Vietnam narrative.

But nothing was done to single out or disrespect John O'Neill and the other veterans who had earned their right to speak. The tone was firm but respectful.

With this campaign, there has been a tendency to do the necessary distancing, but with sharper words and a sense that freelancers are thrown willfully under the bus. First, Bill Cunningham, who was an important part of Ohio GOTV in the '04 election. Now this.

It is pretty well understood by most serious people that the Rev. Wright is not a racial/foreigner/Muslim issue, nor was it an unprovoked attack on Obama on these grounds, not in the way Ferraro was, or the Somali email that Clinton's staff circulated without reprimand (which was 10x worse than this, btw), or Bill Clinton's South Carolina comments.

I'm not suggesting the McCain campaign traffic in it directly. Politically, they probably had to do what they did today. Most people in this business understand that moves like are a game -- a show -- that the campaigns put on for the media, that won't swing a single vote at the end of the day -- but that if handled poorly, could cascade into a larger issue. See: Clinton, Bill -- South Carolina.

But what I am suggesting is that McCain in the future calibrate his response to different situations, and recognize the value in drawing certain personal contrasts with Obama. Voters are motivated less and less by issues, and more by personalities and narratives. So, a key McCain strategic goal is to turn the Obama persona in against itself, so that the rock star/Messiah/hopeandchange routine turns into a liability in dead-serious times when people are worried about losing their jobs and/or getting killed.

The challenge in modern Presidential campaign is not simply to paint your opponent as wrong on the issues, and to prevail in a civil debate. It is to render the opponent unacceptable to 48% of the electorate, and merely less preferable to 3%. Despite McCain's troubles with the base, conservative media (and Hillary) are doing the heavy lifting on the unacceptable part. McCain should get out of the way, and jump in ONLY when someone crosses a racial and/or religious line.