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Archives for October 2010

The Youth Vote Remains Essential for Midterms

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The midterms are winding down–complete with a Rally to Restore Fear/Sanity in 24 hours–but at least one constant remains: the youth vote.

If not proved by the insane turnout at the Daily Show’s taping on Wednesday at the Harman Center in DC, maybe the Beltway Gang’s other favorite staple can prove it: polls! Over at DCI, Dan Meyers contemplates a recent Rock The Vote poll:

Let’s look at previous midterm elections and voters that were 18-24 years old.  In 1998 turnout among them was 18.5%.  In 2002 it dropped to about 17.2%.  And in 2006 it rose to 19.9% — up almost 3% points.  Participation is higher, as it is in most segments, in presidential election years.  In 2000, 36.1% turned out.  2004 came in at 41.9% and most recently, in 2008, a spike to 44.3%.  2008 was the highest turnout among 18-24 year old voters since 1972 – the Nixon landslide – with turnout at 48.3%.

This year’s estimate: 77 percent. Meyers goes on to couple this with emerging media trends in social networking and communities developed through meet-up culture, which encourages people to not simply say they’ll vote but make sure they will. The social check-in app Foursquare has created a new badge–“I Voted”–for election day so users can show off via Twitter or Facebook that they’ve checked into an election location and voted.

If the “youth vote” remains on a steady rise, then it almost becomes proof positive that voters will keep it up as they enter their next polling place demographics of “home owner,” “married” and “employed.”

When Obama Met Stewart

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Despite explaining health care reform, the economy and even a ceremonial mug presentation, the takeaway from President Obama on The Daily Show? Dude.

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TYO hosts "A Night for Tomorrow's Youth" at Cafe Milano

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The day after Julia Roberts dined at Cafe Milano, its front facade was covered with the emblem of Tomorrow’s Youth Organization (TYO).  Terry McAuliffe and Hanri Masri greeted guests and shared their mission of TYO that works in disadvantaged areas of the Middle East, enabling children, youth and parents.  Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, Christine Delargy of CBS and Fishbowl DC’s Matt Dornic were all in attendance.

Guests sampled calamari, buffalo ravioli and mushroom risotto while a DJ played music to the chic crowd.  Surprise guest was Representative Jim Moran.

McAuliffe introduced this powerful video about some of the problems faced in the Middle East and the hope that TYO has brought to the community.

Sherlockian's Graham Moore On Sherlock

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Graham Moore at the White House with actress Rita Wilson and mother, FLOTUS COS Susan Sher, at the screening of HBO’s The Pacific.

Susan Sher’s son, Graham Moore, makes his HuffPost debut!

Graham Moore, is a first time novelist, but to Washingtonian he is the younger son of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff, Susan Sher.
Moore’s first  novel, The Sherlockian, will be published in December by 12 Books, home of the great Christophers — Hitchens and Buckley.

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Re-Introducing The National Journal

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Let’s forget the Midterm and focus on the more important news: National Journal’s relaunched itself today. The gist of Atlantic Media’s relaunch? Unified newsrooms!

Yes, NJ has combined CongressDaily and The Hotline into itself to form another political media hydra to wage war (and share links with) Politico, CQ-Roll Call and The Hill. But there’s also focus on original video content, faster web production and the new new cover story interview with President Obama 2.0.

The full release is after the jump.

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Jon Meacham Joins Random House

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Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham

The collective shout of joy from political reporters around the Beltway is well deserved: Jon Meacham’s an editor once again.

The ex-Newsweek editor joins Random House as Executive Vice President and Executive Editor according to a press release published today via the AP. Mike Allen fleshed it out a bit more in his Playbook citing the new role will start in 2011. More important?

Washington now has a powerful new friend in New York publishing. Meacham will have a big checkbook and a huge appetite for great political books, but with high standard (will only take on three or so books a year, which means lots of retail attention to the authors he chooses to work with). A longtime observer of the New York/Washington literary world, when he heard the announcement: “Meacham just became arguably the most influential nonfiction editor in American letters.”

Meacham’s own catalog at Random House includes American Lion on the life of President Andrew Jackson, which also took the Pulitzer Prize.

Kurtz Says Goodbye, Then Says Hello

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Yesterday marked the end of Howard Kurtz’ tenure at the Washington Post and his The Daily Beast debut.

At the end of his final Media Notes, Kurtz writes, “I confess that I enjoyed David Carr’s New York Times line about my job switch prompting the most gasps since Dylan went electric in 1965. But that ain’t me, babe. While I would not have made such a leap even two years ago, it is an evolutionary move, not a revolutionary one, as we all grasp for ways to sustain and reinvent journalism.”
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President Obama to Appear on Mythbusters

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It’s science fair day at the White House! President Obama will host winners from categories ranging from technology to engineering and math.  Discovery’s Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman will be in attendance as President Obama announces his participation in the December 8 episode, Archimedes Solar Ray where he will challenge the ancient myth: Did Greek scientist and polymath Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun?

Stay tuned to WHC Insider for the LIVE White House feed of the President’s remarks at 12 Noon ET.

Obama Stays on [Adjective] at Town Hall

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The ins and outs of President Obama’s televised town hall meeting are as confusing as the impatience in the crowd. Sponsored by Georgetown University and filmed at the BET Studios in Washington, DC, this Conversation with the President kept the same on-edge tone that his previous town hall last month on the economy.

The New York Times cites Obama as being on the “defensive” while essentially bullet pointing the major questions of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal, the economy and immigration. The town hall began on the nature of health care and leapt from point to point as the crowd gathered seemed almost giddy with demanding impossibly fast responses to issues spanning the last decade.

Politico runs the age card with their coverage citing poll numbers:

Just 44 percent of college students approve of the job Obama is doing, while 27 percent disapprove of his job performance, according to a new Associated Press-mtvU poll – down from a 60 percent approval rating in May 2009.
This is also days after the Times Magazine’s massive “The Education of President Obama” profile. The buried lede and overarching concept? “While proud of his record, Obama has already begun thinking about what went wrong — and what he needs to do to change course for the next two years.”
If there was a real tone to the town hall, it’d be this: during a mid-term election when news outlets compare the 2008 numbers of a presidential candidate to gubernatorial, congressional and senatorial candidates as a symbol of “declining popularity” and “proof that Obama is in trouble,” it becomes a question if there’s really anything going on at all?