Posted by Jed Lewison on Sat Nov 8, 2008 at 5:57 PM Pacific

Notes From San Diego

I arrived in San Diego yesterday evening around 7:30PM (a trip delayed somewhat by a missed exit off the 215 around Riverside).

I'm staying at a friend's house, and I've barely followed anything going on in the political world at all, other than listening to the radio on the drive drown.

The first thing that occurs to me is how much I needed to take a break, even if only for a short period of time. (I return to Vegas on Monday, and will be back up to full speed by the evening.)

So it was great spending time just relaxing. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner last night, and today took a walk around the Hillcrest neighborhood with my friend's dogs. (She's got two of them, they are gorgeous, and have a great temperament.)

We saw a "No on 8" parade/protest; it's really terrible that bigotry still finds a way to express itself through government power.

After the walk, we went to Balboa Park, where we strolled around. Highlights included a stop in the botanical gardens there, which included a very cool "touch and sniff" display where you rub your fingertips on plant leaves and whiff away. My favorites were the apple and basil plants. We also went to the Museum of Natural History which had an incredible exhibit on water usage.

Now I'm in my friend's backyard, writing this post on my laptop. Tomorrow we're going to do some more stuff around San Diego, and then meet up with Barath Raghavan, who has worked with me on a number of projects, including the Republican Ship Jumpers thing.

I mentioned that on the drive down I listened to a fair bit of talk radio. It was quite amazing how much rightwing talk there is. I put the radio on scan, and invariably found another wingnut talker within a couple of minutes. I only ran across one left of center show.

I don't know all the talkers, but I recognized Lars Larson (sp?), Lou Dobbs, and Andrew Breitbart (Matt Drudge's colleague).

They were all unhinged, but in different ways. Lou Dobbs claimed that he and Paul Krugman agree on everything on economics, which struck me as laughable. Just part of his "independent" schtick to cover up his wingnuttiness.

I couldn't keep everything straight with who said what on the other talk shows, but the common theme was trying to figure out why the Republicans lost the election so badly, and what they could do to fix it. One of the proposals was they should focus on getting candidate's who look good on television. They defended this proposition by using the example of Sarah Palin. Um, if the GOP wants to replicate Palin in 2012, go right ahead.

Another guy (I think it was Larson) said that Obama couldn't complete a sentence without a teleprompter. I'm thinking: fine, go ahead paint an easily disprovable portrait of Obama. I mean, it won't take long for people to realize that claim is wrong. If they are going to make stuff up, they might as well stick with things that are harder to prove one way or the other.

I think it was Breitbart who was rambling on about how Hollywood people were like SS officers from Hitler's Germany, and argued that they had "made" Obama's candidacy, and that they needed to be defeated.

The other details are escaping me now, but it was really mostly a load deranged nonsense.

The thing I was left wondering is the extent to which people get their news from these nutjobs. If it's a substantial number, I think it might help explain why so many people end up voting Republican where in years past (1932), they did not.

Anyway, I realize that isn't a fully developed thought, but one of the things that I'm really interested in exploring more is the conservative media apparatus, and how it shapes the views of a segment of American voters, almost to the extent where on a political level, they inhabitate a different reality than a majority of the country.

My gut is that breaking the grip that the conservative media holds on these people is going to be a key part of expanding the progressive coalition.

Again, don't take these as fully formed thoughts or as an argument. They are just things that I'm mulling over and are worth discussing in the coming weeks and months.

Notes From San Diego

I arrived in San Diego yesterday evening around 7:30PM (a trip delayed somewhat by a missed exit off the 215 around Riverside).

I'm staying at a friend's house, and I've barely followed anything going on in the political world at all, other than listening to the radio on the drive drown.

The first thing that occurs to me is how much I needed to take a break, even if only for a short period of time. (I return to Vegas on Monday, and will be back up to full speed by the evening.)

So it was great spending time just relaxing. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner last night, and today took a walk around the Hillcrest neighborhood with my friend's dogs. (She's got two of them, they are gorgeous, and have a great temperament.)

We saw a "No on 8" parade/protest; it's really terrible that bigotry still finds a way to express itself through government power.

After the walk, we went to Balboa Park, where we strolled around. Highlights included a stop in the botanical gardens there, which included a very cool "touch and sniff" display where you rub your fingertips on plant leaves and whiff away. My favorites were the apple and basil plants. We also went to the Museum of Natural History which had an incredible exhibit on water usage.

Now I'm in my friend's backyard, writing this post on my laptop. Tomorrow we're going to do some more stuff around San Diego, and then meet up with Barath Raghavan, who has worked with me on a number of projects, including the Republican Ship Jumpers thing.

I mentioned that on the drive down I listened to a fair bit of talk radio. It was quite amazing how much rightwing talk there is. I put the radio on scan, and invariably found another wingnut talker within a couple of minutes. I only ran across one left of center show.

I don't know all the talkers, but I recognized Lars Larson (sp?), Lou Dobbs, and Andrew Breitbart (Matt Drudge's colleague).

They were all unhinged, but in different ways. Lou Dobbs claimed that he and Paul Krugman agree on everything on economics, which struck me as laughable. Just part of his "independent" schtick to cover up his wingnuttiness.

I couldn't keep everything straight with who said what on the other talk shows, but the common theme was trying to figure out why the Republicans lost the election so badly, and what they could do to fix it. One of the proposals was they should focus on getting candidate's who look good on television. They defended this proposition by using the example of Sarah Palin. Um, if the GOP wants to replicate Palin in 2012, go right ahead.

Another guy (I think it was Larson) said that Obama couldn't complete a sentence without a teleprompter. I'm thinking: fine, go ahead paint an easily disprovable portrait of Obama. I mean, it won't take long for people to realize that claim is wrong. If they are going to make stuff up, they might as well stick with things that are harder to prove one way or the other.

I think it was Breitbart who was rambling on about how Hollywood people were like SS officers from Hitler's Germany, and argued that they had "made" Obama's candidacy, and that they needed to be defeated.

The other details are escaping me now, but it was really mostly a load deranged nonsense.

The thing I was left wondering is the extent to which people get their news from these nutjobs. If it's a substantial number, I think it might help explain why so many people end up voting Republican where in years past (1932), they did not.

Anyway, I realize that isn't a fully developed thought, but one of the things that I'm really interested in exploring more is the conservative media apparatus, and how it shapes the views of a segment of American voters, almost to the extent where on a political level, they inhabitate a different reality than a majority of the country.

My gut is that breaking the grip that the conservative media holds on these people is going to be a key part of expanding the progressive coalition.

Again, don't take these as fully formed thoughts or as an argument. They are just things that I'm mulling over and are worth discussing in the coming weeks and months.

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