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I generally take the last week in August off because it's almost always the second slowest week in national politics (after only the week between Christmas and New Year's Day- and with the early caucuses this year, that week won't be so slow either). But with the Republicans around to entertain us, the last week wasn't so slow. Since I've been gone:
-Alberto Gonzales finally resigned
-Larry Craig resigned after his public restroom escapades were revealed
-The overwhelmingly negative GAO report on Iraq came out
-John Warner decided to retire
-Tony Snow also decided to take off
That's a pretty big week for an October of an election year, let alone the last week in August. And all of it bad news for the Republicans. I guess I should go on vacation more often.
It's always fascinating to be back home in the Midwest when big national news is going on, because that part of the country is the ultimate in low information news, and it's fascinating to see what sinks in and how people back home react to it. The Lincoln Journal-Star and Omaha World-Herald are both terrible papers, and the local TV news is pretty awful as well. High-speed internet is available in Lincoln, but not at all on the family farm, or small towns surrounding it, and people don't tend to check it much for news. People sometimes watch CNN or Fox News to get national news, but as we know, that's not exactly informative coverage.
So which of these big stories got noticed? John Warner got a small page three story, but was hardly noticed or talked about except among my total political junkie friends. Gonzalez resigning was noticed, and people mentioned it, mostly being relieved. The GAO report got a tiny ripple, but people are so used to bad news about Iraq that it didn't receive any comment at all. But the Larry Craig story was very, very big. That combination of scandal, sex and hypocrisy, with a dash of politics mixed in, was irresistible, and everybody and their mother (mine included) talked about it a lot. Good old-fashioned family fun.
The monumental challenges of building a national progressive majority really settle in after weeks like this at home, with a lot of important stories happening but not much notice of the ones that don't involve playing footsie in public restrooms. Having a national broadband policy like the one Matt Stoller and Dick Durbin have been working on in the Legislation 2.0 project would certainly help, but it's going to take a lot more organizing, both in terms of our political organizing and communicating, and in terms of building new strategies for media.
I'd love to know what ideas the OpenLeft.com community has in terms of getting a consistent message out in smaller states and in rural communities.
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