Salon has a terrific in-depth interview up with Markos, in which he engages in some free-wheeling discussion about Sarah Palin, the emerging liberal infrastructure, the presidential election and, of course, the lessons in his new book, Taking On the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era.
Some tidbits:
On Sarah Palin:
But it's mind-boggling to me. In the middle of Labor Day weekend, I had the highest traffic day of my existence. This is higher traffic than the 2004 federal election. Higher traffic than the 2006 general election. Usually on long weekends, people disappear. They hang out with family and friends. No one wanted to do anything but [talk about] Sarah Palin.
Now, I don't think she's turning out the way they expected it; they expected people to be excited that there was a woman on a ticket and all that. Now people are thinking this was a gimmick and instead of putting country first, he went for someone who would actually knock Obama off the news cycle. So she was a news cycle pick. It bought them a day or two. But now that people are really starting to look into who she is, there are a lot of unpalatable things about her and her record, and I think it's turning into a nightmare pick for them. Will she stay on the ticket? The Christian right loves her. They've decided she is practically the second coming.
On parties appealing to their base this election:
We're in an election where the number of Republicans is shrinking, the number of Democrats is growing and they cannot win on the base strategy alone. We can. For the first time, we can win on the base strategy. We're not running that, but we could. They're running a base strategy when Republicans are becoming an extinct species.
On McCain's chances:
As much as the press has talked about the tightening national numbers, the state-by-state looks bad for McCain. And the underlying dynamic, the anger of the electorate against the Republicans and the incumbents who have dragged this nation to where it is today, is palpable.
On reinventing the street protest for the 21st century, one of the focuses of Taking on the System:
The issue isn't street protests equals bad. The problem is when the street protest is the activism. As in, the only component. At this point, all effective street activism has a very strong message component where you build up the protests, where you use other media, whether its blogs or text messaging or ethnic media in the case of the immigration protests to sort of build a narrative, and have a single, unified, clear and direct message that can break through the media clutter. So in the immigration protests, you didn't have people running around with "Legalize Hemp" and "U.S. out of Palestine" and all that usual crap that muddles up your typical protest to the point where you don't even know what people are protesting because of the cacophony of noise.
On the political long haul:
Systemic change is a long-term process with lots of setbacks. I have a whole chapter on how you have to take baby steps. ...Unless you have an outright revolution, which doesn't happen nowadays, any kind of real systemic change is a long-term process and the people who understand that and work with that are the ones who I think have been really successful. Just like the conservative movement. For them, it was a 30-year process to take control of the government. And had they not been so corrupt and incompetent in running the government, you know, we'd still be playing catch-up.
But what you really want to click over to Salon for is the answer to their final question:
You are known for your predictions. Do you think Obama will win, and what do you think of the Democrats' chances in the congressional elections this fall?
You could also get the answer this evening if you're in NYC area, where Markos is doing a book-signing and a follow-up meet and greet:
Brooklyn:
7 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
106 Court St (between Schermerhorn and State Sts)
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Subway: A, C, F to Jay St–Borough Hall; M, R to Court St; 2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall
Manhattan
7 p.m. (arriving around 9:30 p.m.)
The Tank
87 Lafayette Street at the corner of White Street
Subway: A, C, E, J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, Z, or 6 to Canal Street