Their time to change

Not surprisingly Labour delegates have voted overwhelmingly in favour for the implementation of the 21st Century Commission Report this afternoon, a move party members feel places them on the ‘cusp of greatness’. 

During the debate there were 14 members speaking against the commission and 13 proposing it. That more people would take to the stage to oppose was not lost on some party members, specifically those in opposition. 

The mood from both sides was that this was a deciding moment in the creation of  a Labour party that could feasibly offer decisive alternative leadership after the next election. Speakers against the commission were keen to stress that their opposition to Eamon Gilmore’s proposals was not an opposition to Gilmore himself.

Joe Higgins vs The World

Yellow Roman Candles contributor JP O’Malley recently met with former Dublin West TD Joe Higgins to discuss Irish politics post-Lisbon and, hopefully, pre-the entry of Higgins onto the European political stage.

Re: What we can learn from the Obama machine

Keith @ Granite Shavings offers a useful Irish perspective on the inner workings of the Obama campaign. He spent two weeks working for the campaign in Virginia.

To my surprise, he says the data collection operation by canvassers cannot be done in Ireland:

Working on the Data Team in the Alexandria Field Office, I got to see just what they had on file for volunteers and voters.  And it was a hell of a lot.  Looking back through old callsheets and canvass packs when we were tidying up the office this week, it was clear that a lot of time and effort was expended earlier in the campaign getting that data in place.  What that meant was that efforts in the final weeks could be focussed very tightly on getting out the voters likely to support Obama, or likely to be winnable.  Rather than trying to call to every house, only confirmed Obama supporters or those who had given an indication (through demographics, registration or otherwise) that they were possible supporters were contacted.  Data is probably the least transferable of their powers to Europe/Ireland.  Data Protection laws limit the amount of information you can collect, and, almost as importantly, how it can be shared between organisational units.

The full post is worth reading for the lessons it offers to party organisers here.

Warp One engage!

I’m with some smelly (I joke!) Greens in Dolphin’s Barn. Needless to say they’re happy with how the presidential contest is going. The house and senate contests remain to be seen.

At this stage, an Obama victory looks almost certain. But CNN plumbs new debts for TV news gimmickry: a reporter in 3D hologram form, a la Star Trek. I shit you not. No doubt the science of this extraordinary development in news journalism will be revealed tomorrow. Until then:

UPDATE: Here’s the science bit. The crucial points:

• 35 HD cameras pointed at the correspondent Jessica Yellin in a ring (like The Matrix)
• 20 computers crunching the data to make it usable
• Wolf Blitzer gets to grips with the technology:

It’s still Jessica Yellin and you look like Jessica Yellin and we know you are Jessica Yellin… I think a lot of people are nervous out there. All right, Jessica. You were a terrific hologram.

Poised

The mood on the internet – it seems like a strange thing to talk about – has been building and building these past 24 hours towards what you might call a plateau of giddiness. I wasn’t on Facebook or any other social networking site in 2004, but I don’t remember the same feeling of anticipation as America went to the polls.

This time round, many people’s statuses on Facebook – OK, Irish people’s – contain references to Obama’s fortunes. “Sarah is very excited about Tuesday (and Wednesday),” and “its gotta be OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA!!!!! Liberte et democratie!!” Others are more cautious: “Claire is nervous about the election,” and “John really hopes that America doesn’t make the same mistake again”.

With the events of 2004 fresh in my mind, I’m inclined to be cautious. I still think Obama will win but I’m going to adhere to all the hoary superstitions and touch wood between now and when the polls close.

Of all the statuses, “Kevin is poised” seems the most apt. We’re all poised on this side of the Atlantic. Poised for the result that most of us want. Yet poised for more of the surprises that the last two US presidential elections threw up.

Another instinct I feel is to tell everyone to calm it down. It’s very easy to get caught up in the notion that Obama is “the One”. We’re like moths being drawn  to a flame and we might very well get burned come January. The economy and the situations on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan might see a Democratic president make decisions that repulse us and we need to keep that in mind.

But still, I am surprised to see seasoned commentators – men and women with leather faces who’ve seen it all before – get so excited about today’s outcome. Perhaps Time’s Joe Klein best sums up their feelings:

Some politicians simply are larger than life. Their stories are the stuff of high drama. Over the past few days, I’ve been hearing about the high emotions out in the field, as volunteers flood Obama offices to help canvass–and, in some places, find they have to wait on line for a spot on a phone bank. It is almost banal at this point to say that this has been the most remarkable election I’ve ever seen. It’s been a privilege to be a small part of it, to have had a ringside seat. And now, there is a sense that tomorrow will be the sort of day none of us ever forgets, one way or another–a day of reckoning, in the purest sense, when we will suddenly see ourselves and our country differently, for good or ill.

“For good or ill” – maybe a bit black and white for my tastes but, ultimately, most of us share those sentiments.

What we can learn from the Obama machine

I splashed out this week and bought the Economist (€5.20, comrades!). An article on Obama’s ground operation had this to say:

Some of Mr Obama’s volunteers sign up the old-fashioned way, in person. Others volunteer online. In their local corner of the Obama website, they can meet other Obamaphiles and arrange to knock on specific doors in their neighbourhood. They can download information about who lives in each house, which party they belong to and what they told the last phone canvasser. They can update this information each time they meet a voter. They can also spend hours on the website chatting with like-minded people, watching the candidate’s speeches and uploading their own Barack-related videos.