In a move that stunned the ten existing Democratic campaigns, Oliver Willis announced his candidacy for the presidency today. "We've got several senators, a governor, and a four-star general. So I figured the party needs someone with the experience for the job. That man is me.", Willis said at his campaign kickoff, Oliverpalooza, held in the middle of the Boston Commons.
His campaign already has a chief blogger, too:
Neither Flip Nor FlopPosted by Willis4America Chief Blogger Ezekiel Fenderester Jones [EFJ for short]
After seeing some of the flip-flops that Wesley Clark is doing, I'm even more sure of my support of The Dub for president. He hasn't wavered one day in his opposition to the war, but even more importantly as he says in his stump speech "Doctor Phil having a diet plan is just wrong! The man is loud, he's chunky, and he's the completely wrong person to sell a weight loss program to America...."
Looking ahead, here's my prediction:
Posted by Mike at September 20, 2003 04:19 PM | TrackBack
From an interview with CNN's Judy Woodruff.Date: July 31, 2004.
JW: So Oliver, tonight is a big night for you. Your acceptance speech right there in your home town of Boston. Welcome to the program.
OW: I'm glad to be here.
JW: So tell me, what do you think was the key to obtaining your party's nomination?
OW: I'm still somewhat suprised that most of the delegates were willing to overlook the fact that the Constitution specifically prohibits me from being President. I'm 26 years old. It says right there in Article Two, Section One, you have to be thirty-five years old to take office.
JW: What do you think contributed the most to your success?
OW: I still remember the September afternoon that Ezekiel Fenderester Jones walked into my living room. He said, "Hi, I heard about your candidacy and drove twenty miles to meet you." I told him: "You're hired. I can't pay you. But you're hired." The rest is history.
JW: Ezekiel, or Zeke, as his online fans affectionately call him, has obtained quite a cult following. In one recent post, at 3AM, he referred to one of your opponents, Richard Gephardt, as what was the term?
OW: I probably shouldn't repeat that on the air.
JW: Regardless, the next day Gephardt was forced to drop out of the race. Does this show the true power of a netroots organization?
OW: Yeah, Zeke is something else, but I think the key was our use and promotion of meetup.com, which allowed Dub for President supporters to actually contact one another. Talk about a revolutionary idea. For most of the other candidates, you could have twenty supporters in the same neighborhood, but they all think they're the only one in town. They have no way to find out otherwise. As a result, they have no grassroots organization, and our organization gets all the media attention, instead. Pretty soon, these isolated supporters for other candidates start to wonder why they are the only one supporting what's his face, and they jump on the Dub for President band wagon, too. You can't ignore the importance of media hype.
JW: Fascinating. Speaking of Zeke, tell me about his latest zany fundraising technique.
OW: Well, as most of you probably know by now, Zeke is a huge She-ra and Masters of the Universe fan. As a result, someone posted to the blog a simple suggestion: Why don't you get people to watch She-ra and Masters, then donate $20 everytime they say "By the power of gray skull." We put a graphic on the site, showing the amount that had been contributed, and got people to send chain emails asking their friends to join the fun. People started putting the graphic on their own blogs, and we even started selling "By the power of gray skull T-Shirts" online. Before long, we had ten million dollars. I still can't believe it.
JW: Indeed. I guess I ought to ask your thoughts on the Constitutional Amendment effort that is currently under way, in an attempt to ensure that if you win you will actually be able to take office?
OW: I've got high hopes for the Amendment. We're using the same argument George Bush used to get a dozen states to move out their filing deadlines so he could have a NYC convention the week before September 11th. The latest in American history. They're the same words Bush used to get that last Amendment so Arnold Schwarzenegger could be his Vice Presidential candidate, too, despite the fact that he was born in Austria. "It would be incredibly unfair, and un-American, to keep our party's nominee off of the ballot for purely legalistic reasons."
JW: Well, good luck to you Oliver. We'll be watching you tonight.
OW: Thanks, Judy. Honestly, I'm not too stressed about the speech. The hardest part will be deciding who to take with me, Beyonce or Britney. They almost broke out in a catfight at my apartment the other day. I encouraged it, but they decided to let me choose. I'd still rather take both. What can you do?
JW: For CNN's Inside Politics, this is Judy Woodruff reporting. Good night.