VasGk | Κοινωνικό Νερό

The Republicans Abroad in Greece, invited the Democrats Abroad , Hard Rock Cafe provided the venue … and it was ON. The debate was played again and the crowd cheered for the President to be. United States Ambassador to Greece, Daniel V. Speckhard was there as well. I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere, it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new people interested in the U.S. Elections. Debate wise, I want to say that the first debate didn’t really lived up to hype. Both candidates were well prepared, in a controlled setting. My opinion: No one won the 1st debate, Obama didn’t make the difference, McCain needed to do better. Looking forward to the town hall type debate. Thank you to Katerina and Ioanna for the coffee and brownies!

As a citizen and a voter, the sites of most candidates feel the same. Now every politician or public life wannabe, running for office, has a template website, all done by some young aspiring political team and/or campaign media advisor. It doesn’t have the sparkle no more. Take any reasonable website of a candidate running for U.S. Congress or Senate, political candidates and parties in Europe or local government elections. They are the same! (ok, if you exclude the name of the candidate and some coloring). Now, any respectable campaign has: a newsletter, an RSS feed, a Blog, a podcast a page on facebook... twitter, youtube, myspace, flickr, digg, stumble upon, linked in, you name it its there. All the sites have a contribute button, a volunteer button, host an event, join the newsletter, get involved, watch the webTV, see the calendar, the issues, the media … Although I am not trying to argue that all these tools are not important in a campaign. They have become Stereotypical and Must...

On the subject of flip flops I came across http://www.obamaflipflops.org/ . I would have expected to see merchandising like this from the official McCain campaign; but hey, I'm sure that they will end up as a great memorabilia campaign item at eBay. Both candidates are rather busy of late, my take is that Obama needs to get back on message, energize people and focus on policy - themes that have brought him so far. P.S. Hope to Blog more often during the last days of the election.

Just take a look at the last 8 YouTube videos from the 2 campaigns... see anything interesting? McCain's videos (by far) are the most popular... Now, why is that, well first of all the McCain campaign has uploaded videos creating TV buzz (most interesting the Celeb & The One video), second, all of the McCain videos are fun, specific, and single issued, Thirdly, the Obama campaign continues to work very hard to create viral videos with Barack backstage, and with the campaign eating at a diner. Now is the time to attack! YouTube can be fun and creative, but, most importantly, it can carry your message. The McCain videos do just that, they carry the message, that it why the are popular.

The Republican attack machine at it again. I must say I have really enjoyed the exchanges of negative ads between the two campaigns. One distinct difference though, and one that you wouldn’t expect, the ads from the McCain campaign are better! exposing Obama in attacking his strong points (fame, popularity, celebrity status). The McCain campaign compared Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears , in response the Obama campaign compared McCain to President George W. Bush . The McCain campaign attacked Obama’s values, the Obama campaign attacked the President. A daring move from the McCain camp, that worked! Now everyone is talking how the elections would be a referendum on Obama, and if he is fit to become President, while McCain is ready to be President!

Χάρηκα πολύ να δω την κριτική του βιβλίου μου ¨Το λεξικό του Ρουσφετιού και της Κομπίνας¨ στο newsletter του Κέντρου Μεταφραστικών Σπουδών . Ναι, καλά διαβάσατε! Βρέθηκε ένας άνθρωπος με χιούμορ (προφανώς) και απόλυτη συναίσθηση της ελληνικής πραγματικότητας, ο οποίος θέλησε να συντάξει ένα λεξικό με την «ορολογία» αυτών των δύο παγιωμένων και… καταξιωμένων προσεγγίσεων. Όπως διαβάζουμε σε συνέντευξή του στην Ελευθεροτυπία , ο Βασίλης Γκινόπουλος, μετά από πολυετείς σπουδές πολιτικού μάρκετινγκ στην Αγγλία, αποφάσισε να επιστρέψει στην Ελλάδα για να εργαστεί. Αποτέλεσμα της ταλαιπωρίας και της απογοήτευσής του από τη διαδικασία αναζήτησης εργασίας ήταν η συλλογή 270 λέξεων και εκφράσεων που περιγράφουν ανθρώπους (π.χ. «μανδαρίνοι», «τσιράκι», «τσάτσος»), ενέργειες (π.χ. «ταΐζω», «διπλάρωμα»), καταστάσεις (π.χ. «κύκλωμα», «τρύπωμα») και γενικά κάθε έννοια που χαρακτηρίζει την παθογένεια ορισμένων ελληνικών πρακτικών. Διαβάζοντάς το, δεν μπορέσαμε παρά να σκεφτούμε πόσο χρήσιμο είναι α...

Barack Obama launched  www.fightthesmears.com , a new webpage that: Informs the people about the rumors smearing Obama  Stating the truth around the issues, with video and links to support the argument Exposing the people that are behind the unjust attacks (with links to their sites and mainstream media reports) Urging people to report smears to the campaign and email them to watchdog@barackobama.com  It is a move that has got mainstream media publicity and a great tool to defend against Internet rumors becoming campaign issues.