Wesley Donehue | Politics. The Internets. Caffeine.

Ben Folds and Chat Roulette

I just saw Ben Folds live last week and I can tell you that he really is this bad ass. Make sure to check out Merton's video too.

Decisions Are Progress

"The problem comes when you postpone decisions in the hope that a perfect answer will come to you later. It won't. You're as likely to make a great call today as you are tomorrow." - Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

PNN Happy Hour Episode 4: Buy A Shredder

Trying something a little different here. Role over the little dots in the scroll bar for segment titles and to skip ahead. Thanks for watching! A big thank you to our special guests: Will Folks: fitsnews.com Corey Hutchins: free-times.com Dr. Scott Huffmon: faculty.winthrop.edu/huffmons And a huge thank you to Wild Hare Sports Cafe in Columbia, SC for hosting us. Visit them at wildharesportscafe.com. Join us live every Thursday at 6:00pm at politicalnettv.com

Why won’t Democrat Rob Miller tell voters his stance on the Democrats’ Health Care Takeover policy?

Call the Democrat candidate at his campaign office and ask him what his position is. The number is 843-379-3680. Rob Miller wanted to be a member of Congress two years ago, but has refused to give his position on the health bill when asked by reporters on multiple occasions recently. (The Island Packet, The Hill Newspaper) Nancy Pelosi and her gang of liberals have vowed to pass the health care takeover as early as this weekend. This is one of the biggest bills ever to come through the halls of Congress and voters have a right to know Miller's position. Rob Miller’s campaign has been heavily financed by extreme groups like MoveOn.org. Rob Miller is on record taking a radical position supporting taxpayer funding of abortions in any health bill. (The Palmetto Scoop). All signs point to Miller siding with a government takeover of health care, but he’s afraid to tell voters his real position. Call Democrat Rob Miller and demand that he give voters an answer, is it yes or no to a government takeover of health care? Democrat Rob Miller's number is 843-379-3680. Be polite, but get an answer.

PNN’s Happy Hour: Episode 3

PNN's Happy Hour with Phil Bailey and Wesley Donehue was sponsored this week by Tallon Darby and the SC Chamber of Commerce. A big thank you to our special guests: John O'Connor: twitter.com/johnroconnor Gina Smith: twitter.com/ginansmith And a huge thank you to Wild Hare Sports Cafe in Columbia, SC for hosting us. Visit them at wildharesportscafe.com. Join us live every Thursday at 6:00pm at politicalnettv.com

Grab Our Introduction To Social Media

www.wesleydonehue.com/socialmedia A big thank you to Jason Zacher for writing this with me.

The Arrogance of Claire McCaskill

I don't know U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill from Adam. She could be the sweetest, most caring person in the world. I don't know much about her, but when I look at her Twitter page, arrogance is the first thing I think of. My friend and political strategist Warren Tompkins has been writing a lot about the arrogance of the liberal elite, and I see no better example than Claire McCaskill's web strategy. According to TweetCongress, she's the second-most followed member of Congress on Twitter, although Sen. Jim DeMint is quickly gaining on her. Despite having 36,691 followers as of the morning of March 8, McCaskill is only following one person. That screams arrogance. It’s as if she’s saying, “It's all about ME. I don’t care about you.” Twitter is a tool for two-way communications. It's where elected officials can feel the pulse of the electorate. Yet McCaskill uses it to tell her followers about University of Missouri basketball and plans for breakfast. As I’ve said many times, the Internet is an important tool for campaigns and elected officials to do what they want to do. From the website, to Facebook, to Twitter and email, there are endless ways to connect with voters and keep people informed. But it’s more than just letting people know what you’re doing. It’s about hearing what’s on other people’s minds too. A politico who is not following people is like that jerk at a party who has to be the center of attention, who only talks about his/her self, and who could give a damn about other people. Yes, this is a representative democracy. People are elected to cast votes because nationwide direct democracy isn’t an effective form of government. However, because someone is elected to lead, that doesn’t mean they can stop listening to people. While McCaskill may well be browsing papers from across Missouri and brought concerns from home received by her staffers, her Twitter account is like an alarm going off. Having a 36,000-to-one followers-to-following ratio says that she might be just a little out of touch with involved voters in the Show-Me State.

Proud To Stand With Jim DeMint

I couldn't have been more proud to sit in the back of the room and watch Jim DeMint during his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee. This was a quite Congressman I met in 2003 -- hired as the fourth staffer on his primary campaign -- who has become a national rock star. He's done good work, but what's amazing is that he's become this rock star for a very simple reason: He tells the truth and sticks to his beliefs. It's both exciting and sad to see. It's exciting to see someone like Senator DeMint become so popular, but it’s sad that he's become popular for something as simple as sticking to our party’s principles. That goes to show how far our party and our nation have gotten off track. While our party needs people to reach across the aisle to form compromises, it must have a large contingent of people to drive it to the right. If all we have are moderates who compromise, our nation will surely go to the left. By recruiting and standing beside leaders like Marco Rubio and Chuck DeVore, Jim DeMint forces our party to the right, which forces the moderates to compromise far less of our conservative values. We need to compromise to move our nation forward, but we don't need to sell the entire farm. Senator DeMint is one of the only people in Washington reminding us of that. Here’s where the rubber meets the road – you need both moderates and conservatives to get proper legislation passed while in the majority and put the breaks on Democrats’ free-spending ways while in the minority.

Download Our Introduction to Internet Politics for Republicans

You probably know by now that I head up communications and political strategy for the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus. My counterpart in the State House is bright communications strategist Jason Zacher. To say we have a large majority of members who are gun shy when it comes to social media is a MASSIVE understatement. Together Jason and I developed a 10 page white paper to introduce South Carolina's Republican legislators to social media. This is the first of many, which will dive in deeper to explain each social network, its value to candidates and elected officials, and how to use it effectively and strategically. Here is one section of our paper titled "You Can No Longer Afford To Ignore Social Media." We invite you to fill in the form at the bottom of this sample and a link to the whole white paper will be emailed directly to you with with in minute.

The Benefits of Social Media in Politics

Social Media tools are all about connecting and organizing. In the not too recent past, reaching voters centered on newspaper advertising, 30-second radio spots, direct mail, community events and going door-to-door by relying on instantly out-of-date voter files. Actively recruiting volunteers, soliciting donations and securing support went the same way. Social media isn’t going to replace these tactics, which all remain an important part of campaign strategy. But having Facebook and Twitter profiles, and a Facebook fan site, you reach out and remain in touch with supporters and average voters who are interested in the election or current policy. You and/or a member of staff can list events where the candidate or official will be, organize fundraising drives and keep followers apprised of campaign goings-on, policy stances and current legislation. People who have decided to keep up with you will see the updates in a regular feed.

Twitter Isn’t A Toy

Cross-posted at TechRepublican.com. This week, the former speechwriter for former Gov. Jim Hodges – and current associate with Qorvis Communications -- Wyeth Ruthven, came up with an analysis of Twitter use in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial campaigns, as well as the special election for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

No matter your political stripe, it’s possible to take some lessons from what he put together. One main takeaway is to look at everything Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds did, and do the opposite.

According to the analysis, the Deeds campaign had three separate Twitter accounts – one for the candidate (@CreighDeeds), one for attacks on Republican nominee Bob McDonnell and connections with rural voters (@DeedsCountry) and one attacking McDonnell’s thesis and controversy surrounding it (@BobsThesis). Needless to say, doing a three-pronged Twitter strategy is not a good idea.

Ruthven makes the point: “Campaigns should resist the temptation to create a new Twitter account for each issue or micro-campaign that they are running. Multiple accounts breed message dilution. Staff should limit their own tweeting on campaign topics. Recurring issues and themes can be highlighted by creating appropriate hashtags on a unified Twitter feed.”

And while it’s great to hear that Deeds is such a big fan of groups like the Drive-By Truckers and The Band, having your candidate for governor tweet about how he’s listening to the bands while on the road, as opposed to thoughts on topical issues, is not a good idea, either. According to the study, over a three-month period, Deeds tweeted about music 39 times, and talked about his transportation plan – a major issue in Virginia -- once.

As I’ve said before, the Internet is a tool of a wider effort. Scott Brown’s campaign in Massachusetts seemed to understand this. There was a period between the end of the primaries and when the general election campaign began in earnest. Shortly after the primaries, the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, went dark on ads and on Twitter. Brown did not. While continuing his free and paid media blitz, his campaign also kept it up on Twitter. In the first month of the general election campaign, he out-tweeted Coakley by about two-to-one.

It’s worth pointing out here that Brown had 15,827 followers, as opposed to Coakley’s 4,361. He also happened to tweet more unique news, “calls to action,” and “self-promotion.” Again, here’s why Twitter can be an effective tool. A “call to action,” as defined in the analysis, consists of requests for donations, volunteers, voter registration and get-out-the-vote. A campaign isn’t meant to be on Twitter to be your pal, it is supposed to be organizing to win. Brown did that.

If you want your tactics on the Internet to be effective, don’t play around with Twitter like it’s a toy. Sure, it might be fun to think that a few people would like to see the personal side of your candidate, but that isn’t going to convince them to help you stuff envelopes, knock on doors, write letters to the editor or contribute.