Drop It Like It's Hot

As candidates continue to drop out of the presidential race, I have to appreciate the strategy of the graceful “bow out.” Amidst claims of “taking one for the party,” let’s look at the reality: dropping out of the race at this stage is essentially putting in a bid for a V.P. spot.

Both Edwards and Romney are positioning themselves as the “go to” guys. Edwards is likely in a better position to be a viable running mate, as either Clinton or Obama would pick him up. Romney, on the other hand, dropped out when it was still a four-man race in the eyes of many Republicans and Libertarians. Voter results may not be indicative of this sentiment, but each candidate, namely Huckabee and Paul, have their cadre of followers who are not ready to give up, evidenced by Huckabee’s Super Tuesday wins and Paul’s fundraising success.

Before you “drop it like it’s hot,” remembers donkeys and elephants are different animals.

The Importance of Being Honest

Rarely will this student of life and politics go on a moral diatribe. I am not in a station to do so. Yet, I was struck by the comment of one of my colleagues yesterday, a comment so self-important and audacious that it forced me to comment.

There is an importance to being honest with oneself. One thing I can criticize the peers in my generation for, and myself often times, is a a sense of entitlement and self-importance.

The gist of the comment was "We're kind of a big deal." That line is funny when it is said in a comedy movie, true if it coming from someone in the position to say so, and absolutely ridiculous coming out of the mouth of who it did.

What I urge to all of us in this age group is to try to be self-reflective. Not in a meditative sense, but to be active evaluators of our successes and failures. At this age, more often than not, we are liable for failures since we still do not know any better.

In the sphere of assessment tools, whether it be international or corporate, there is this concept of "Lessons Learned." Lessons Learned are meant to take a hard look at what was done, comment on its merits and failures, and discuss what should be the strategy moving forward.

It seems as though we have been taught to see our failures, but not to truly discuss what those failures were and how we can learn from them in the future.

Or maybe it just takes falling face forward for some people to realize this is the more prudent way to go through life.

And for my moment of using a cliche, pride before the fall, right?

The Pizza Hut-ization of Youth Electoral Politics

Recently, political “hub” Pizza Hut released an ad on YouTube encouraging youth to vote in the upcoming election. With the tagline, “It’s your choice. Please vote,” Pizza Hut likely feels it has done its civic duty to encourage the lazy, sofa-lounging, pizza-eating members of the Millennial Generation to get up off the couch and go vote.

This is the Pizza Hut-ization of youth voter politics. The message: You are incapable of even listening to a normal election ad telling you to go vote.

Let’s give Pizza Hut a little credit and assume for the sake of argument that its portrayal is accurate. If this is the case, then youth, after viewing the commercial, will likely just call their local Pizza Hut or place an order for a pie online. If youth really are this stupid and lazy, it will not cause them to go vote.

Yet, if we take a second view of the Millennial Generation, as a generation with many questions and a critical eye, they will react to the commercial as I did, wondering whose idea that commercial was and why they were ever put in charge of developing a piece to target youth voters. Slapping something on YouTube does not give you instant “street cred.” (Caveat Emptor Corporate America)

This is but one example of the “dumbing” down of the American polis. Have we lost so much so much faith in young America that we have resorted to such amateur methods to reach out to a group that by other measures, education, technology, and networking, is an advanced generation.

What would help is if Pizza Hut would instead of creating ads for their pizza, donate pizza to all the young poll workers, precinct walkers, campaign staffers, and youth voter groups around the country, comprised of driven and capable members of the Millennial Generation. I may be at the tail end of this Generation and often wonder “why” at some of things they do, but even I will give them a little credit.

Even more dangerous is the prospect that this is just one example of the wave of corporate-sponsored political ads to come. It somehow cheapens the electoral process when marketers invade the political market using the same tactics they use to sell pizza to sell politics.

The ironic part of this ad to me is the fact that in college, I constantly had debates within student government with my colleagues about giving out pizza to get students to participate in campus politics. If I had known that five years later this would become a national trend, perhaps it would have been prudent to pitch this tactic.

Damn pizza.

Life Under the Big Top

In my daily peruse of Real Clear Politics, I came upon this:

"Only Hillary Can Reunite the Republican Party"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/gop_candidates_fail_to_unite_t.html

The focus of this article was the current division in the GOP, but the biting last three sentences read:

"Both Sen. McCain and Gov. Romney are too flawed to reunite and reinvigorate a dispirited Republican party. There is only one candidate who can do that. And she might lose to Barack Obama."

This is life under the big top. As a Democrat, my party never seems to experience this, but it is evidence of the "big tent" theory which leads to GOP organization and GOP wins.

The GOP has become masterful at getting its members to "take one for the team." So on the issues, a member of the GOP may say to themselves, "Well, I only agree on 4 of 6 issues with a particular candidate, but I will go with the flow."

Democrats do not like the "flow." It is the issues that too often divide us because we cannot see the value in a common cause.

Like this election, for example. If we just want a "D" win as a party, then we ought to act like it, and put up a candidate who will not cause mass mobilization by the other party. So, thinking strategically, who has the best chances of beating the GOP #1 OR, alternatively, who will not cause a rally cry to be raised throughout the GOP to defeat our candidate.

I am afraid of the angry mob, especially after the last eight years. It might be time for the Democrats to spend some time under the big top, at least until November 5, 2008.

Net-worked Neutrality

Yesterday, a handful of students, including myself, hosted the inaugural Symposium for the USF School of Law's Intellectual Property Law Bulletin, The Toll Roads? The Legal and Political Debate over Net Neutrality.

It was not until the end of the day that someone stopped me for a substantive question (not a "Where is the bathroom?" or "I need....") about the issue that was the topic of discussion.

I was finally asked what side of this important debate I was on.

I will be honest: I lean to the CopyLeft. And when I think about why I do, I remember that my main concern, starting with Eldred v. Ashcroft, is the fact that "information" is getting locked up for longer than need be (or profit motive really even warrants. I still urge the Supremes and Congress to really peruse the Economists' Brief submitted in that case.)

So, where does this leave me in the prospective world of information access online, specifically the free flow of all information.

Once again, perhaps NetLeft?

I do not know.

What I do know is that I had hoped that by bringing together a group of brilliant minds, with such diverse backgrounds, that the 19 of them, 20 including CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong, could provide a communicative framework that would round out the issue for the average law student.

My colleagues at school were still left lost in the midst of technical jargon, the work of econometrics and equations, and rhetoric.

Did I fail?

No. Not in the sense that I know where I need to intercede myself in this debate.

It needs a communicator. The lack of traction in Congress, the lack of public adhesion, and the lack of common knowledge will continue to hurt this and other uber-technical issues.

Some say its premise is simple....but I still do not see the "stickiness." (Thanks, Gladwell.)

Well, let's cross our fingers and hope the good people at USC pay for me to figure this out over the next three years.

But I truly thank my fellow students who helped me yesterday. Out of the many people I go to school with, they allow me to leave SF knowing 4 other capable, intelligent, and passionate people who care about this and other IP issues.

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Hey UC Irvine!

I cannot believe that UC Irvine would do this. Namely, why does the UC keep appointing inept and gutless administrators who make decisions that tarnish the reputation of the university and hurt the committed and talented faculty and students who are affiliated with it?


http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2007/09/new-uc-irvine-l.html

Hey Drake, check out Chemerinsky's Con Law book!