Fresh Politics, New Media

There was a fun article in this Sunday's NYT  about Steve Berke a comedian running in the Miami Beach mayoral race.  Berke, age 30, is a Yale graduate who decided to run for office. His campaign has attracted serious attention even though he is less than serious himself and it's possible that he could do quite well against his main opponent, incumbent Mayor Matti Herrera Bower, the first Hispanic American female mayor of the city. At age 72, Bower insists this is the last time she'll be running for mayor. The issue is whether Berke (advised by Republican consultant Roger Stone) will actually prevent Bower from serving that last term. The NYT described Berke as A Jon Stewart era candidate: Call it a Jon Stewart-generation campaign by a candidate weaned on “The Daily Show” and hoping to use raw humor to reach new, disenfranchised voters through social media. On his campaign fliers, Mr. Berke poses with a fluffy housecat borrowed from a friend “because I don’t ...

For many who live on the East Coast, the quickest way to reach friends and family after the 5.9 earthquake was to send a text message. It seems that prominent politicians around the world are experts in the language of SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. (Anthony Weiner notwithstanding of course). The Huffington Post has a great series of entertaining photos of politicians using smart phones, tablets, and yes even feature phones to text. Check out the full series here . My personal favorites: Doesn't Hillary look kind of angry? I really wonder what Howard Dean is looking at in this picture.