[This is also being posted at Hammock Inc.’s Custom Media Craft weblog.]

It’s been a while since I’ve made an “audio post” to a blog (I’m more “video” these days). However, some recent blog posts and Twitter comments by online political strategy consultant (and analyst) Patrick Ruffini inspired me to dust-off the Skype account and Audio Hijack software and give him a call. Ruffini works with GOP candidates, but in this interview we talk about his indepth tracking of the online campaigns of all the candidates in both parties. While the 16 minute audio focuses heavily on the historical significance of the online fundraising by the Obama campaign (see this article in the Washington Post), I also asked Patrick to discuss his thoughts on the current role of blogs in presidential news coverage (vs. 2004) — and, more recently, Twitter.

Download MP3

I’m pleased to note that the really smart guy in this interview at WSJ.com is my friend and Congressman, Jim Cooper. I wish the WSJ.com did a better job at time-stamping their video as I don’t know when they posted this interview regarding the potential next steps that should (or should not) take place with regards to a “housing bailout.”

And speaking of smart politicians from Tennessee, the state’s governor, Phil Bredesen, is omnipresent in the national media these days for his suggestion that the Democratic Party hold a mini-primary/caucus/convention for Super Delegates in June. Sidenote: Both Cooper and Bredesen are Super Delegates. Cooper is an Obama supporter and Bredesen has not committed to a candidate yet.

I grew up in Alabama but have lived in Tennessee for the past 30 years. If you’ve never lived in both Alabama and Tennessee, you may wonder how the states are different. Earlier today, when I surfed to the joint-news-website of the Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Mobile Press-Register, AL.com, to look for some analysis of the historic primary election yesterday, I was greeted by this front page.

At first, I thought I must have landed on the sports page, but no, that’s the front page of the entire news website. Tornados in northern Alabama and Alabama voters nominating an African-American for President get below-the-fold treatment compared to the real story of the day: NCAA National Football Signing Day.

Last night in his post-election speech, Mike Huckabee (who, if you live in Alabama and may have missed it due to coverage of signing day, won the state’s Republican presidential primary) spent two or three minutes running through SEC football references. If you thought he won Alabama because he’s an evangelical Southern Baptist, well, think again. He won because he is an evangelical SEC football fan.

In Alabama, where I grew up, the most dominant religion is football. More important than who people select to be President of the United States is what college a high school football standout has selected. More important than the wind speed of killer tornados is the 40-yard sprint speed of a promising wide receiver.

The difference in Alabama and Tennessee? In Tennessee, we’re fundamentalist football fans, but perhaps not quite as evangelical.

(Note: The three newspapers are owned by Advanced Media, owner of CondeNast and American Business Journals. In other words, they know their audience.)

I’ll be adding to this post throughout the day as I run across posts and articles that I think helped me understand exactly what happened yesterday:

Slate.com: Did Obama or Clinton win Super Tuesday? by John Dickerson. Quote: “In a political year during which the conventional wisdom has taken beating after beating, perhaps no assumption has been made more obsolete than the idea that the front-loaded primary system would foist an early winner on the American people.”

The New Republic: Who Won Super Tuesday? by John Judis. Quote: “Hillary Clinton won the big states she had to win, and arrested Barack Obama’s momentum, but she is going to have problems with white male voters. Obama is having trouble with white working-class voters and Latinos.”

Huffington Post: Analysis: Clinton and Obama Start Anew. Quote: “The grand spectacle of Super Tuesday’s coast-to-coast nominating contests marked a turning point in the Democratic presidential contest from euphoric election night victories to painstaking delegate counting.”

CampaignDairies.com: Mark your calendars: The Dem race has no end in sight. Quote: “As of yesterday, there was an end in sight; now, no one knows how long this could last and if there are plausible scenarios in which the nomination is settled prior to the convention.

Politico.com: Five reasons Hillary should be worried, by Jim VandelHei and Mike Allen. Quote - “It figures to be another month before Clinton hits a stretch of states — places like Ohio and Pennsylvania — where she will be strongly favored to win. So it couldn’t be any clearer as to why the supposedly inevitable candidacy is anything but — even when she’s supposedly winning..”

On the Hammock website, we typically promote our services that help association and corporate clients better tell their stories. Today, we’re using it to encourage you to tell yours. Vote!

Later: One of the coolest Google Maps mashups ever: This “Twittervision” map providing an animated view of Twitter users talking about (tweeting) today’s elections.

Technorati Tags: supertuesday

[Note: This post is an observation and opinion piece about political advertising and is not any sort of endorsement. Disclosure: I have not stated anywhere publicly who I will vote (actually, “voted” as I did so early) for in the Tuesday presidential primary in Tennessee. And while I voted for a candidate, I have not made any contributions to any campaign and will remain undecided about November until the parties have selected their candidates. Note: See update at the end of this post.]

When I was a kid in the 1960s, every candidate for office had a campaign jingle. JFK’s campaign had one and, well, while it was a little before my time, perhaps the most famous early TV political campaign jingle was the one called, I Like Ike. Like commercial jingles for consumer products, the campaign jingle has been replaced with theme songs borrowed from pop or country repertoires of “classic hits.” But every campaign still has a song. And music is a part of every campaign stop of every candidate.

It’s rare, however, to witness the birth of a new genre of presidential political campaign advertising music. (And by “advertising,” I’m not referring to the narrow interpretation of advertising that would limit it to :30 or :60 second spots.) But that’s what we’re getting this weekend. With this video below, I think we’re witnessing a new genre of campaign song: One that blends the passion and striped down message and cadance of sixties protest-movement grassroots folk songs with “cause-jingles” of the 70’s (”Look for the Union Label”) and the slickly-produced commercial anthems that accompanied such 1980s events as “Live-aid.”

The result is this anthem which is perhaps some of the most brilliant use of music in a presidential campaign I’ve ever heard or seen (see embedded video.)

I can understand why a Clinton-supporter like my friend, Jeff Jarvis would want to dismiss this video as “only (underscoring) the notion that Obama’s campaign is the most rhetorical of the bunch: speeches and slogans so neat they can fit in 4/4 time.” That’s the equivalent of when your parents told you that rock music would turn your brain into mush. To me, it only underscores how remarkably rare it is to witness a break-through idea in the use of new media in politics. This is not “user-generated” or “amateur” media — the people who conceived, created, produced and appear on it are all pros at the top of their game. However, I predict that within the next 24 hours, you’ll see the beginnings of a flood of mashup versions in which college students and singer-songwriters and others will produce their own versions. And that’s when we’ll start to understand what this music is really about.

Another “break-through” aspect of this music video must also be its financing. While the producers claim not to know whether or not the Obama campaign even knows about it, the value it brings to the campaign will sky-rocket. It’s a little like the off-books value of “an endorsement,” except in this case, the endorsement is in the form of something that has the value of those Mastercard ads: Priceless.

More about the video: ABC News: Stars Come Out for Obama Music Video.

Update: I have seen some blog posts saying the ad is from Moveon.org. The video does not have any information on it regarding that organization as a source — which it must disclose. Obviously, the financing of the production — if by Moveon.org — would be covered under the laws pertaining to 527 Groups. I’ve looked on the Moveon.org site and they, indeed, have endorsed Obama and are promoting the video — but there’s nothing there about them creating the video. While I’m no fan of Moveon.org, I still think this ad is amazing — sorta like when I enjoy an Oliver Stone movie.

Update II: S-town Mike (thanks) provided in a comment below, an e-mail from Moveon.org that promotes the video, but indicates it was neither funded or produced by the organization. Rather it echos what the ABC News piece above reports: it was conceived and produced will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and film director Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan.

Update III: When I said, “within the next 24 hours, you’ll see the beginnings of a flood of mashup versions in which college students and singer-songwriters and others will produce their own versions. And that’s when we’ll start to understand what this music is really about,” this is what I meant. I’m sure we’ll see it done a lot better — and a lot worse. And after seeing this, I can also predict it will be subject to some really hilarious parodies, as well.

Technorati Tags: music, obama, politics, video

Never has there a been a week like the week we’re entering — a perfect storm in which three or more well-formed fronts of hot-air will be colliding for a solid 7-9 day period. In the coming days, hundreds of hours of airtime and millions of inches of editorial space and terrabytes of server storage will be devoted to filling the black hole known as “the week leading up to…” of 2008.

Normally, this is merely “the week leading up to the Super Bowl” with its non-stop carpet-bomb coverage of a four-hour sporting event (actually, a three-hour sporting event with a really long half-time) that will not be played until next Sunday afternoon. Despite that reality of quantum physics, the pre-game show has already begun.

It would be bad enough if there was just a football game that needed to be talked about for the next 24/7, but alas, that four-hour slot has also become the marketing event of the year, so we’ll also be subjected to a week-long barrage of paint-by-number stories about Super Bowl ads (how many animal spots? can GoDaddy get some more spots banned? how much does a second of Super Bowl time cost?).

But wait, there’s more this year. This is also “the week leading up to….” Super Tuesday, or, please god don’t make me say it, Super-duper Tuesday. A week from Tuesday, when about half the country’s states will hold their presidential primaries and neither party has a clear front-runner. This is unchartered territory, as there’s never been a primary day with so much to talk about — and so many people desperate to do the talking. All week long, every American who’s ever voted will be able to appear on MSNBC, Fox or CNN or Politico.com or the Huffington Post discussing their theory on why Bill Clinton is spreading the rumor in Birmingham that, if elected, Barack plans to make people there start calling their state, Alaobama.

Oh yeah, and another thing: We’ve still got a volatile market that needs an endless parade of analysts and economists who can point out how on one hand the economy is not really that bad off while on the other, we should all be dusting off that dried food we stocked up in 1999.

This is a week pundits and talking-heads live for.

This is a week during which I read a novel.

Later: David Carr on how Fox plans to mashup coverage of the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday.

While I hate to admit that I’m actively trying to avoid all news related to the campaign for President of the United States of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, my oblivion made it extremely entertaining when I checked in over the weekend to discover that Hope, Ark., is a real town and not just a fictionalized Mayberry created by director Jeffrey Tuchman for that documentary at the 1992 Democratic Party Convention. If Hope native Mike Huckabee actually does become President one day, I recommend the military treat Hope like Area 51 — there’s got to be aliens landing there. Mike Huckabee? I thought Ron Paul was supposed to be the Howard Dean of 2008 — when did Huckabee get that role? Like I said, I’ve been actively avoiding the polling-horse-race aspects of the New-Hampshire/Iowa/South Carolina Presidential campaign so I totally missed that Chuck Norris is “willing” Huckabee to be President. Speaking of Übermensch (the German word for “Chuck Norris”), I’m predicting the ad embedded at the right will help spike up the polling numbers of the Nietzsche campaign, despite their unfortunate early choice of “God is Dead” as a slogan.