Obama campaign launches mobile, screws it up

I yarped for months that political campaigns weren’t launching mobile. There’s this massive youth generation that’s setting records for political and community activity, the mobile phone is one of their favorite things in the world, and all these politicians and their high-priced communications groups were doing … nada. I’ve talked to some of them, too.

  • “We’re working on it.”
  • “Yeah, thanks, I’ll pass your name on.”
  • “Sounds great – here’s a list of 30 people you might try.”
  • “Ummm, I have no idea who would be in charge of that.”

Well, finally this week the Obama campaign launched a mobile marketing campaign. Continue reading

Progressive capitalism: Tocqueville, RJ Reynolds, and taking back our American birthright

This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back. – Bono

Business ethics have been much on my mind of late. Gavin (Whythawk) has pounded Scholars & Rogues (a politics and culture blog I contribute to) with a steady stream of posts that come from some really different angles. The S&R crew is largely American and progressive, but he’s African and Libertarian. Unlike many Libs I know, though, he’s not a creature of pure theory – he gets his hands dirty trying to drive investment at the bottom of the food chain in a place where the bottom is about as low as it gets on Spaceship Earth.

The result, for me at least, is that I find myself thinking about how years of fat cat scandal and abuse here in America has worked to make “capitalism” a dirty word among folks to left of center. Continue reading