Author: The Caped Composer

A Brief Introduction To . . . Me!

Hello to all my fellow denizens of the Swing State Project!  I’m Ari, better known as the Caped Composer.  For the record, I really am a composer (and a female one at that!  How many female composers do you know?  For that matter, how many female Ari’s do you know?  I’m a double rarity!)  Regarding the “caped” part of my name, I’ve only worn a cape once in my life, when some friends dared me to wear one to a college football game.  That incident gave rise to the nickname.

I am not trained in political science– my degrees are both in music, as a matter of fact.  During my adolescence, I had no inclination toward political activism at all.  That all changed with the election of 2000, the first presidential election in which I was old enough to vote.  The debacle in my native South Florida splashed cold water on me, so to speak, and I have grown increasingly active in left-leaning politics ever since.

In 2004, I was living in Chicago (I went to graduate school there,) and I am proud to say that I spent election day in Wisconsin, getting out the vote for Kerry in the crucial suburban districts outside Milwaukee.  Many other Chicagoans also participated in this manner, and I believe that it was our efforts that gave Kerry the razor-thin victory over Bush in Wisconsin.

Since that time, I moved to New York, but have kept my fingers on the pulse of congressional and senate races across the country.  2006 was an invigorating and ultimately rewarding time; I spent a great number of hours calling voters in swing districts all over the place!  

My greatest hope for 2008 is that we can significantly increase our majority in the senate, and, furthermore, elect genuine progressives to both houses of congress.  Donna Edwards’ victory over Al Wynn earlier this week was, I hope, a sign of good things to come.

So, with that . . . I conclude my introduction.  I can’t wait to blog about more and more congressional races!

MN-Sen: Franken is AHEAD!

Hold onto your furry winter hats, folks; a poll conducted by the University of Minnesota shows comedian-turned-Democratic-activist Al Franken edging out the incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman, 43% to 40%.  Granted, that is still within the margin of error . . . but it is the first time Franken has led.  It goes to show that the comedian is no joke, and that we just might be able to take back the seat that belonged to the late, great Paul Wellstone.  

The PDF of the poll is available at Minnesota Public Radio’s homepage:  http://minnesota.publicradio.org/

VA-11: Tom Davis Retiring!!!!

Looks like more good news is coming our way as Virginia continues on its blue-trending trajectory– Rep. Tom Davis, a somewhat moderate Republican who was at one point considering running for senate, is retiring from his district.  For the record, he has already declared that he will not run for senate, either.  

Northern Virginia is a growing Democratic region.  This seat should definitely be at the top of everyone’s list as a potential pickup.  So, the question remains . . . who are the top-tier contenders who could bring this seat into our column?

Down-Ballot Pain

Hillary Clinton has pulled far, far ahead of Barack Obama in New Hampshire.  And that’s bad news for us as Democrats.  Why?  Well, think of it this way:

In order to win Congressional and Senate races in the more “purple” states, we need someone at the top of the ticket whose presence energizes in a positive way.  In 2004, down-ballot Dems had to run away from John Kerry, who was a liability.  Hillary is hated throughout middle America, and will not be able to appear with candidates at fundraisers or any other event.  If Hillary gets the nomination, she might squeak by with the presidency, but we will lose many, many races down-ballot.  Somebody stop her . . . please!!!!!!!!!

Presidential ’08– On Image and the Democratic Party

In the wake of Al Gore’s victory (okay, technically it was Davis Guggenheim’s victory, but you get the idea) at the Oscars, I anticipated a wave of positive press about Gore’s efforts to raise awareness of global warming.  What I didn’t anticipate were the numerous comments from the press . . . about Gore’s appearance, specifically, his weight. 

The conventional wisdom seems to be that Gore cannot run for national office until he drops some pounds, as he did in 2000.  In addition to being shocked that this topic would even come up in the wake of the seriousness of _An Inconvenient Truth_, I was also struck by how those critics (and Democratic consultants, including, not surprisingly, Donna Brazile,) don’t have a clue as to how people respond to image in politics.

Let’s assume Gore jumps into the race (as I certainly hope he will.) If I were advising him (not that he needs to get into the habit of listening to advisers, as that’s a big part of what did him in in ’00,) I would tell him not to lose too much weight. Right now, Gore looks avuncular. And, for a Democratic presidential candidate, avuncular is a GOOD THING!!!! Remember how the Rove smear machine was able to portray Kerry and Edwards as effeminate sissies (all those stupid jokes about them being gay because they hugged so much) partially because of their physical presentations? Kerry was slim, overly well-groomed, and was caught on film windsurfing. (The fact that he was from the state that had just legalized gay marriage, and that the Democratic National Convention was held there, to boot, certainly didn’t help matters as far as this image was concerned.) The meme of Edwards-the-prettyboy is still alive and well today– major political web sites and news programs have made reference to the very popular YouTube video that shows Edwards scrutinizing over his hair before going on TV (and whoever posted it on YouTube accompanied it with the theme music “I Feel Pretty.”) An overly-attractive, too-well-groomed candidate reinforces the right wing smear machine’s portrayal of Democrats as weak, effeminate sissies.

As a counter-example, take a look at the 2006 senate race in Montana. The Repubs ran an ad called “The Brokebank Democrats,” simultaneously trotting out the meme of Dems as tax-raisers AND making reference to the film _Brokeback Mountain_, thereby effectively designating the Democrats as being “gay.” Had our candidate been an elegant-looking, wispy intellectual, the smear might’ve stuck. But one look at flat-topped, big-bellied Jon Tester, and the tired old trick of the Republicans melted away. Nobody could accuse a guy who looked like Tester of effeminacy or wimpiness!

Now, I know that a senate race in one state is not the same as a national election, and that a guy who looked as rough-hewn as Tester couldn’t appear on a national ticket. But I hope that Gore maintains something of his avuncular image, rather than slimming back down into prep-school-prettyboy territory. A slight girth, combined with his older-looking visage, will shield him from being the easy target of the same old right-wing stupidity.