Three Very Different Worlds: Nepal, Obama, Startup

Race, Class

They are for real. But then you are not exactly trying to get along with everybody. You are going to get close to a select few, by definition.

And then there is 2.0 group dynamics to do with a startup. The workspace is fundamentally altered. And so offline socializing is guided by chemistry as it should.

Digital Democrat

Don't sit on any committee. Don't take any official title. Show up for events. Capture some on camera. Get to know people. Help boost morale. But primarily just look at the big picture for the overall campaign.

The word blogger does not describe me. The term digital democrat does. You still have to know what you are talking about. But a blog can travel across space and time. You get transported. It is like you get to sit on many committees at once.

Ultimately it is not about the digital tools. It is about the candidate. It is about the message. It is about the campaign.

I am here just to experience the event attitude I have had with the political organizations in the city. Finally in Obama 08 I found the operation I had been looking for. My specialty is presidential level politics.

The idea has been to suggest grand strategy.

But even Obama 08 has been a vehicle to hone further the progressive agenda, the progressive message.

Three Very Different Worlds

1. Nepal.
2. Obama 2008.
3. Tech startup.
   

The group dynamics involved with each is so different. Can get your head spinning as you move from one to the next. But you are who you are. If someone can relate to only a small part of you, that is a limited relationship.

Caputo

It amazes me that now when I am no longer tense about Obama 08 like I was until February 5, Caputo has taken some of that place. And this worries me. Is this obsession unhealthy?

Maybe she is like me, she will never run for anything, but will always be just so obsessed by politics, friendship prized by top office holders. Of all the people I got to know making the rounds in the city since I moved in, she stands out. She is an extraordinary political talent.

She got offended I googled her up once. Whereas in the Silicon Valley, that is the culture. You google people up.

If nothing else, I'd love to have her on my corporate executive committee. But that can't happen this year. This year goes to my team in Mumbai.

Meeting for the first time was magic. But then the few times she has acted personal after that, she has always made it a point to make sure she is not the one who signs you into an event. Because if she does, then she acts "professional." Having never held a corporate job, I don't get it. For me it is like, of course you are not obliged, you don't owe me anything, let alone a feeling, but it is not possible for you to like me today, and not have liked me yesterday, or to not like me tomorrow. How do you feel about me? And whose responsibility is it to share that feeling?

For me that song and dance between the professional hat and the personal hat feels like an unwelcome rollercoaster ride. It is not about feelings. It is about a conversation about the external reality.

Feelings grow over time. Love grows. Hillary wrote an article as First Lady saying "we love each other more now than when we started."

At some level I have rebelled.

For her it probably is like, if this guy likes me, why did he not take the hint? And if he did not, then he is not into me, and so he should not bother.

That is where you enter the eery zone, you feel discomfort. And you seek a resolution. You are like, I want out. You never were in.

The One

If you ever liked me, if you like me today, what if I am The One? Will you still insist on the professional song and dance?

I wish we would have our first ever conversation. I think that would make all the clouds go away.

The soldiers of social segregation seek roles. That complicates things a little.

In The News

Clinton turns her attention to Texas, other key primaries Los Angeles Times Wisconsin, the scene of next Tuesday's battle. ..... Hawaii, Obama's native state, will also choose its favorite next Tuesday. .... Television cameras also caught Obama joking with Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, on the Senate floor during a national security vote.
Clinton, Obama Already Targeting March 4 The Associated Press she could well have suffered 10 straight defeats by the time Democrats begin voting March 4 in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont — the biggest single day left on the Democratic nominating calendar. ...... 370 delegates are allocated March 4. .... Texas where Hispanics could supply up to half the Democratic votes. ..... El Paso, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and McAllen, all predominantly Latino cities where her husband, the former president, is so popular his portrait hangs in many Mexican restaurants.
Obama-Clinton fight brewing for Texas Latinos Baltimore Sun
Obama Courts Hispanics In Texas CBS News
Obama to Latinos: I'm talking to you Boston Globe
Fixing error gives Obama sweep of all state's counties Seattle Times
Republicans Root for Obama Yahoo! News
Can Obama Keep the Momentum? TIME she has raised more than $10 million online since Super Tuesday, she still leads in most national polls and is making a big push to be competitive in Virginia ....... increasingly they are viewed as must-wins, her last chance at the nomination .... Obama would "evaporate relatively quickly once he faced the Republicans." ..... If he overwhelmingly wins the so-called Potomac Primaries, where 237 delegates are at stake, he could start to break away from Clinton, especially since he's also favored in the next two states due to vote on February 19, his native Hawaii and Wisconsin ........ Obama leads Clinton 1,004 to 925 ...... The Maryland and Virginia contests, which are open to all voters, could also have general election implications, testing Obama's appeal to Independent and Republican voters.
Clinton, Obama: Why Not Both? the visionary and the technician, the candidate who could inspire the masses and the candidate who could get under the sink and fix the plumbing. ...... 62% of Democrats want Clinton to put Obama on the ticket; 51% want Obama to return the favor if he is the nominee. ........ Terry McAuliffe said on the morning of Super Tuesday that Obama has generated so much excitement, he would have to be considered for the party's vice-presidential nomination ....... An Obama adviser put it this way: "One could argue that the Senator should not even agree to discuss an offer of the vice presidency until Senator Clinton agrees to bar her husband from the West Wing for the duration of the first term. And then once she agrees to that, he should turn it down." ....... the Clintons intend to work as a team if Hillary is elected. "I'll be there, talking her through everything," Bill said in Napa Valley, Calif., last month, "like she did with me." One unaligned party wise man said, "Obama may look at the Clintons, at both of them—at that whole thing they have—and say, 'Jeez, that's just way too [messed] up to be a part of. That's just no place I want to be.'" ........ (56%) of Obama supporters favor choosing someone else. ..... there are those in Clintonland who think Obama has wronged her over the course of the campaign simply because he took her on. ....... John Kennedy tapped Lyndon Johnson in 1960, though the two men were like oil and water. Ronald Reagan named George H.W. Bush in 1980, though they never became very close. Walter Mondale gave a man he resented, Gary Hart, a good look in 1984, before choosing Geraldine Ferraro. And John Kerry recruited his former rival John Edwards in 2004, though the hard feelings on both sides never went away. Whoever wins these primaries may have no choice but to offer it to the also-ran.
Obama's Extraordinary Wave Fails to Sink Extraordinary Foe Wall Street Journal A few Democratic strategists, and some Republicans, think he is almost there now. ..... "I think he's just about put it away," said Joe Trippi .... "He doesn't have it yet. But all the momentum, all the victories are on his side." Sen. Clinton, he added, has "got to do something, and replacing Patti isn't enough." ...... "The Obama wave is unlike anything I have seen during my career. It would have totally swamped any traditional candidate" ...... "Apparently they have an 11-month calendar over there that's missing the month of February," Obama strategist David Axelrod ...... "If they lose Texas, it's bad," Mr. Trippi said. ...... the two would continue battling for delegates "on through the spring and likely to Denver."

Obama to Republicans: “Let ‘em bring it on.” FOXNews he is sounding like a more confident candidate. ..... he has begun to set his sights less on Hillary Clinton while focusing more on John McCain.

Obama Looks To Ride Wave Of Momentum CBS News, USA talk that the New York senator's campaign bid was falling on tough times ...... Obama has 1,139 delegates while Clinton has 1,132. .... her campaign predicted that while Obama may take the spoils in February, March would be her month.

Odds on Obama win rise sharply Financial Times, UK both Intrade and the Iowa Electronic Market - the two most closely watched political futures sites - give Mr Obama overwhelming odds of taking the nomination. ...... IEM gives him a 69 per cent chance against just 28 per cent for Mrs Clinton. ..... "If there was one piece of information I would look at for an election it would be Intrade rather than the opinion polls," said Jason Furman, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Obama surge stuns Democrats Scotsman super delegates reconsider pledges as polls predict newcomer most likely to beat McCain ..... This weekend she became the first so-called super delegate of the Democratic Party to swap sides, announcing that she had switched from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. ....... Obama is winning in the ballot box, but Mrs Clinton has a nearly two-to-one superiority in super delegates ..... "The super delegates were supposed to represent the institutional interest of the larger party, as opposed to the crazies in the street" ...... 213 super delegates are for Mrs Clinton and 139 for Mr Obama. ..... Obama has won more states, has more regular delegates and 200,000 more voters ..... Obama has now warned super delegates to consider carefully how to vote. "My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged (regular] delegates from the most voters in the country, that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters" ........ Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Convention, last week urged both Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama to come to an "arrangement" before the convention to decide who will be nominated. .... "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party," said Donna Brazile, one super delegate. ..... more supers will follow Ms Samuels in switching sides. ...... "Super delegates want to win," Mr Noble said. "Virtually every poll shows Obama six, seven, eight points ahead of McCain. There is a pretty powerful argument that Mrs Clinton is on the wrong side of history, and these politicians (the super delegates] understand that."