Mark Warner Bribed Me, and All I Got Was This Laundry Bag
I went to the Warner Party atop the Stratosphere telling people this: "Mark Warner is trying to bribe us and to that I say, keep trying Mark, try harder!" No one was going to get me to not go to that party and I'm glad I went. They poured me a 12 oz Scotch for God's sake.
Unfortunately it worked against them because after that Scotch I couldn't remember what I had been bribed to do. However, I will say this, I forgot to take a laundry bag to Las Vegas and the next day Marc Warner gave my travel companion a laundry bag shaped like a t-shirt with his face and the US flag on it, which I appreciate. I couldn't take it myself because I was sleeping off that Scotch and subsequent MLW beer in the Circus Circus tower.
Thank you Mark Warner, Maryscott O'Connor and Adam Crocker.
released from MLW
Such parties do not curry favor... they are like a party thrown by a business, like Microsoft, and if you ever throw those type of parties, I promise you will be shocked how thankful people are not.
It's exposure, like an ad, yes, I know what Mark Warner is about now, he got his name out there, and that's all Mark Warner needed. It was a good idea. Not only do I not begrudge him that, I thank him for the party, and I do appreciate that he acknowledges the net as an important media, however far he goes now in his campaign, that validation of the blogs can only be enhanced.
Not that we needed it, but it shows some sense, I think, however he's come to the idea (jerome). He didn't want better blog coverage from the hundreds at his party, that's not the kind of odds he's playing. Just by branding himself so noticeably, he bought an advert by throwing a party at our trade show, and that is, after all, what these sorts of thing sell to interested companies (or candidates in our case). We get a free party in the meanwhile, something to talk about --- because it was fun.
The people you might have to worry about are the big boys of blogging, that's different. Parties for people voting on legislation you'll make and lose money on... that is different.
We might as well encourage them to do throw these bigger public parties which have the advantage of happening in the open, and having less commitment associated with them. We might as well realize they pay their $100,000 to create buzz, it's money with which they would otherwise buy a full page ad in the New York Times. We don't have to feel bought off. But remember, it's cool to bite the hand that feeds you, and it's best to be circumspect in politics.
I'm glad there was talk about it and against it, about what it means, and I hope every time there is such a party there is such feedback, it's too easy to just eat and look out from the tower 1000 feet above the city way below and think it's good to be up there and away. It's easy to want to just "stay away" metaphorically.
But the elitism, the selling out, the feeling of access, that's not about being at the top of that tower, that's about if you never come down. Do you live away up there in that tower? When you get face time with political celebrity, that's fine, unless it takes up all YOUR face time so that you leave the world that motivated you, so you leave the people that also need your contact. Do you go there and stop talking to the people you "represent"? Have you left the culture you aimed to promote and support? If not, then all is well, and we can all still work for a healthy nation, together.