One more, then I promise I'll shut up.

[captainsblog]

I'm not going to embed the Vote Different parody of the 1984 Apple ad. It's all over the internet and I'm sure it's on your friendspage someplace.  Rather, this rant derives from some of the analysis of and spin about the kind of new-century political advertising which it represents- anonymous, uncontrollable by authorities and campaigns, and damned cost effective.

No problem here with any of that.  But when this piece got to quoting some Madison Avenue type about how effective this form of media could be, my already-touchy circulatory system took a definite turn for the worse:

Evan Tracey, chief operating officer at TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a company that tracks political advertising, said a television ad watched by 500,000 viewers could be worth up to $1 million. "It depends on whether it's 500,000 in New York or the same number of people in Paducah."

But, he added: "The disclaimer is that it's 500,000 people on YouTube, which means that they are generally young and they're not all in Iowa or New Hampshire, which is what matters."

The FUCK?!?

Look. It's bad enough this presidential campaign had already begun, for all practical purposes, before the previous federal election had even been contested, and is now faster and furiouser than it's ever been at this stage, more than nine months before the first real primary vote gets cast in it. And it's bad, too, that we're faced with all kinds of states- including mine- all engaging in a scatter-step mess of queue-jumping to compress the primary season so it'll essentially be over by this time next year, with the general election still eight months away.

But why, for the love of Radar O'Reilly, do we still have to treat the tiny quantity and unrepresentative quality of Iowans and New Hampshites as being ::finger-quotes with both middle fingers:: what matters, when the only redeeming benefit in these other developments is their potential for minimizing the influence of those two states?

::Sigh:: Is it too late to get in on that Canadian citizenship test?

Comments

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

A bunch of states are moving their primaries up to February just for that reason. It's insanity. Before you know it, the campaigning will start for the next election before the votes have even been counted for this one.

It really worries me because it's going to burn out the voters fast and early, so that by the time next November rolls around, no one is going to care anymore. As if our turnout rates aren't low enough.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I've NEVER understood why I should give a rat's ass what NH and Iowat think.