Perhaps you've noticed that I haven't posted anything in the past couple of days. That is mostly due to working on UVA election stuff, which is coming up next week. Yesterday I had to sit through a ton of interviews with people who wanted the UDems endorsement. That took literally the entire day. Today I spent over four hours working on www.VoteNoah.com. So much for the whole school work and getting a job things. Ian was saying that I should charge $10 per hour for the website. That would put me at about $100 roughly, but I'm not stingy enough to do it.

Since that is all I've been doing for the past couple of days, I thought I'd pick apart our campaign message and show you how we're basically stealing from real politicians' campaigns. First, take a look at the logo and slogan we're using:

The backdrop is your general emotion evoking set of imagery that is specific to the location that you are trying to represent. Gray Davis had this on his Anti-Recall site, for example:

It's very California-centric. Ours is very UVA-centric. The presidential candidates all have patriotic types of imagery in their backdrops, flags and such. Moving on the our slogan, "Working Hard. Making a Difference." This was a complete ripoff from Tim Johnson, one of South Dakota's US Senators. Here is his logo:

I'm sure he won't be mad about us borrowing it, though, since Noah, the candidate, and the top three campaign staffers for Noah, which includes me, all campaigned for Johnson in November of 2002. He won his seat by a mere 524 votes. Besides that ripoff, we took the star concept from Wes Clark. Here is the logo that Wes Clark campaigned on before he dropped out:

Unlike Clark, Noah is not actually a General in the military or even enlisted, so the stars have no real significance for us. I think we used five because it fit well with his name. Call us uncreative, but it's a lot better than any other logos or slogans I've ever seen in a student election.

Posted by at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I finally got my absentee ballot in the mail for the CA March 2nd primary election. You can see that from yesterday's story, obviously. Another part of the ballot that I was grappling with (see yesterday's post) was who to vote for in the presidential primary. My support pattern for the candidates went something like this:

Late '02 - Mid Mar '03: Kerry
Late Apr '03 - Mid Jan '04: Dean
Mid Jan '04 - Late Jan '04: Undecided
Late Jan '04 - Feb 11, '04: Clark
Feb 11, '04 - Feb 18, '04: Undecided

Then yesterday, the 18th, I was faced with who to cast my vote for. I definitely didn't want to vote for Kerry, despite having met the guy.

This brought it down to Sharpton or Edwards. Kucinich never rubbed me the right way, despite his liberal appeal. Anyhow, I was kind of leaning for Sharpton because he is out there saying what needs to be said and he was the only candidate to come out to UVA. That day was a blast. Plus he uses a Mac.

However, when I had to fill my ballot in, I ended up going with John Edwards. Here is why:

• Most importantly, I think the best reason for doing this is to keep the primary election going for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. It's best to keep it going because the Democrats are getting literally tens of millions of dollars each week in free media from it. If the race were to end now we'd be at the mercy of George Bush and his $100 million war chest. Let's keep it going just so that we can offset that advantage a bit.
• John Kerry hasn't yet been tested. Let Edwards and him go at it and we'll see how long Kerry stays popular.
• Edwards, like Kerry, can beat Bush. Polls came out today with both of them leading Bush. I personally think Edwards is much more electable than Kerry.
• Edwards is the son of a mill worker. Of all the people in the Democratic field, Edwards and Clark were the only serious contenders from modest means. I want to see the son (or daugher!) of a relatively low income family beat out the silver spoon clenching Democratic candidates and then go on to beat the son of a President.

Posted by at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Because I have nothing better to do...

I couldn't find out what the Kerry font was. More faux presidential candidate logos when I get bored...

Posted by at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I've got this project that I have to do for my History of UVA class. I have to go read all of these surveys from people that lived on the Lawn. I'm concentrating my surveying on the 1950s and 1960s so that I can write a paper on racial integration. Here are some of the funny quotes that the Southern "gentlemen" wrote on their response forms:

William O'Malley, 1951 Graduate:

"I voted for Strom Thurman for President in the first election in which I voted. I have always been anti-liberal, anti-welfare, anti-do gooder."

Robert D. Alberecht, 1953 Graduate:

"[The classroom was] formal, respectable, interesting. No class distinction -- everyone fit in. Wonderful days that liberalism killed."

"[I disliked] nothing. I loved all my years at UVA when it was a school for conservative, Caucasian, Christian males."

"[I wasn't concerned with any issues.] 45 Years ago students were students, not activists. If more kids were students many of our problems would be ELIMINATED."

Unknown:

"I did not understand the United Nations, nor do I understand it today. My concern would be to transfer the whole operation to Greenland -- in tents."

FOR LINDSAY: Philip M. Chen, 1968 Graduate:

"I arrived at the University after attending an urban college for two and one half years. The contrast was amazing. The experience of learning at George Washington University could be likened to that of a factory. The teachers were indifferent about the quality of education; their concern was one of getting through the material. Students at GW reciprocated with a studied indifference to learning and doing what was necessary to get through."

Posted by at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)