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In just 30 short hours, I’ll be on my first vacation in three years.

Jess’ parents have been kind enough to invite me on their family vacation.  We’re going to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where there’s plenty of beach and town squares.  Really, I just need the beach.

I’ll be posting on my “Life” blog throughout the trip, so be sure to look out for all of that.  I haven’t decided whether I’m going to blog about social media and politics while I’m away — I think the amount of time I’d have to do that would be great, but a vacation is a vacation, right?  I shouldn’t be thinking about that stuff, should I?

One thing I’ve already learned while prepping for this vacation: I guess I’m a little rusty on this “vacation” thing.

Oh, and also, swim suits are really cheap when you buy them 3 weeks before Labor Day

The Obama campaign has unveiled a new ad that hammers McCain on the economy and Iraq, linking the two of them together and mentioning the $79 Billion surplus the Iraqi government currently has.

I’m pretty happy with it, especially because I’ve blogged about this idea in the past.

My take from a week ago:

The campaign seems to be arguing that because the surge has worked, our national foreign policy over the last 7 years — which McCain actively promoted and endorsed again and again on television — has been, in his own words “worth it.”

So why not ask the American people if the surge has made the Iraq War worth it?  The lives, the dangerous world we now live in — and especially the economic costs.  Run an ad on the latest news that the Iraqi government will have a $79 Billion surplus and yet we’re funding the reconstruction — but yet, McCain says the war has been “worth it” for the American taxpayers.  How out of touch is that?

Here’s the new ad, that does a good job of introducing this narrative:

It looks like the McCain camp is solidly convinced that the “Obama = Celeb” meme seems to be working.

They’ve released their third — yes, THIRD — ad on this subject:

Yes, it’s easy to hit McCain for not being “the original maverick,” but for being “the original celebrity.”  Check out his IMDB profile, for instance.  Look at that, he was on “24,” and was even in The Wedding Crashers.  How nice of him.

But how’s this answer?  With a framing like this, we’d stay “positive,” but also go for the jugular:

“There’s nothing wrong with capturing America’s imagination. John McCain seems to be forgetting why Americans are hoping for something new.  He doesn’t give Americans enough credit — he takes us for fools, and thinks we’re supporting for Obama because he’s a ‘celebrity.’  The simple truth is it’s John McCain and George Bush’s policies that are causing Americans to dream for something better.  And now he has the audacity to blame us for wanting more?  He’s telling us not to be dreamers. He’s telling us ‘No We Can’t.’  It’s the ultimate pessimism.  That’s not the American spirit, and that’s not what we stand for.”

Clearly this stuff is riling me up, as you can see by the last three posts, all on this subject.

I’ve hesitated to call John McCain out on his age, because I don’t like to be age-ist.  I never like to say that a person can’t do something.  But after some recent evidence, I’m beginning to think that there’s certainly something to be said about higher cognitive functioning and what happens to the human brain after we reach our mid-70’s.

We know that Reagan wasn’t “all there” when he was serving as president while at the same age.  I wonder the same about McCain, and really, anyone who’d be serving at his age — and I’m not the only one.

Then I watched this video a few minutes ago.  It’s a collection of McCain’s strangest and weirdest senior moments…and there seem to be plenty of them:

Kind of scary. Seems to diminish any argument about superior judgment, no?

I’ll give you the truth — over the last few days, I’ve become slightly anxious about the presidential race.  I’d say that I think the “Obama = Celebrity”/”Obama = Messiah?” attacks are troubling to me.  They’re the kind of personal attacks that build a narrative that sticks.  They’re emotive enough to elicit responses — it’s got powerful imagery (you can just picture it), and it’s new enough (fresh arguments tend to permeate the most due to a psychological principle called sensory adaption.  It’s like when you’re in a smelly room long enough.  Eventually, you just don’t smell it any more).

And what’s most troubling is that we, as Democrats, don’t realize that always use nuance and logic to argue against it.  Sure, it might win the argument — maybe — but it doesn’t even matter.  It’s repeated too much.

Think about situations like the Obama “keep your tires tire inflated” suggestion.  Of course, it’s true..making sure your tires are inflated would save energy.  McCain’s charge that it’s Obama’s entire energy plan, and his campaign’s handing out tire gauges is of course an oversimplification.  But you need to explain nuance to dismiss it.  Meanwhile, it’s worked to build McCain’s narrative about Obama — that he’s out of touch with everyday Americans.  And while it comes from the guy who says he hasn’t pumped gas in a while and “(doesn’t) see how it matters” that he doesn’t know the price of gas (his defense was that he has Secret Service protection and it had been a while, but in reality, he had only been under protection for a mere two months before that point) somehow it’s Obama that’s “out of touch.”

It then becomes, like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, legend.  And as the quote goes, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. (By the way, I did a paper, back in the day, on Swift Vets.  It covers a lot of these psychological principles, and has an interview with its creator about the concept and design of the campaign, so please feel free to take a look.)

So, how does Obama attack McCain?

Up until now, the Democrats have been working to pair McCain with President Bush.  And of course, that makes sense.  That’s a logical argument, and can totally be made — in a video I’m posting below, McCain himself says he at that point had voted with Bush 90% of the time (and it’s more like 95% of the time now, according to an independent source).  Not to mention such line items as giant and unnecessary man-bear hugs and rounds and rounds of talk show promotion of nearly all of the Bush Administration’s Iraq strategy.

But the truth is that the Democrats were going to pair any Republican nominee with Bush.  Thus, it’s just not personal enough.  It’s not unique…and it’s just not as down deep into the psychology of the candidate for it to really resonate.

Most of America still seems to think that McCain’s the “maverick,” so it’d make sense to bring that down — after all, that does go with the Rovian strategy to pull the carpet from underneath a candidate by attacking their core strength — and the Obama campaign has already started to do that with this video, called “Original”:

But I think this again misses the point.  There’s one key argument that remains for McCain even if you tear that down.  “Okay, so he’s not the maverick he says he is,” it might go. “So, he’s a regular politician.  But he’s still a politician that I can trust in these strange times.”

So, I started pondering a bit — is the “maverick” label really what has made McCain successful in this election?  I’d argue no — because McCain was the maverick when he was down in the polls a year ago and was branded “washed up.”  It was, actually, his gamble on the “surge” that brought him back to life.  And he’s still talking about it, because he plays it up as a strength. So far, the success of the “surge” has worked as a benefit for McCain.

But I thought about it for a second.  The campaign seems to be arguing that because the surge has worked, our national foreign policy over the last 7 years — which McCain actively promoted and endorsed again and again on television — has been, in his own words “worth it.”

So why not ask the American people if the surge has made the Iraq War worth it?  The lives, the dangerous world we now live in — and especially the economic costs.  Run an ad on the latest news that the Iraqi government will have a $79 Billion surplus and yet we’re funding the reconstruction — but yet, McCain says the war has been “worth it” for the American taxpayers.  How out of touch is that?

The “surge” is the biggest empty suit that exists.  And it’s the entire foundation of McCain’s campaign — all arguments about his superior judgment point towards it, in fact.  Without the surge, McCain would’ve been nowhere in the Republican primary, and I wonder where he’d be without it in the general election.

Well, I’m really, really doing it — the site is now being cleaned up significantly.  As always, I’m playing around with the graphics, this time on the right side.  Ideally, the graphics’ fonts will match the style, and I’ll actually have illustrations for each area.

To clear up everything — this is final resolution — I’ve made The Beta Stage is alive and well.  It’s been absorbed into this domain, and the old “thebetastage.com” will now redirect here for the time being.  All old links will work perfectly, though, and will remain in play.  I’ll be importing all of the old posts onto the new domain, too, so that old posts will show up on this site’s archives, too.  Eventually, TheBetaStage.com may show new posts, too — I have to see how confusing all of this is before I make the change.

I also want to separate out the political from The Beta Stage.  That’s now its own self-contained blog, called “Stage Left.”  This will be where all of my “politics and new media” posts will go.  I think there’s an interest for some people in purely social media, and they might be turned off by the politics, so I’m going to cater to both tastes.  If there is any cross-posting, it will be done very sparingly, so don’t worry too much about repeat posts with this solution.

I’m also keeping up with the personal posts.

RSS feeds to come soon.  By the way, if you’re subscribed to the old Beta Stage RSS feed, don’t worry, you don’t need to change a thing.  II’ve already taken care of the changes and your feed will stay with “The Beta Stage.”

• Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner
  The best fundraising page I’ve ever seen. Warning: you have to be fairly nerdy to get this one! Very “outisde the box,” and it worked!
  (tags: fundraising, politics, creative, outside the box)

So, it looks like the summer meme has finally hit me.

What’s a meme?  That’s a good question. My own, personal working definition is that it’s a concept, theme or idea that is exchanged and passed on.  In this case, this meme is about “summer things you like to do.”

Thanks to both Larissa and David for “tagging” me on this!

Here are my answers:

4 things you like about summer:

1. Summer Yankees baseball — gotta love the boys of summer
2. Sitting on my balcony and playing guitar
3. Listening to “summer music,” which generally consists of Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Neil Young, Santana, and roots rock
4. The beach (I’m from Jersey, so I’ve gotta go “down the shore,” even if it’s technically north these days).

4 of your favorite vacation destinations:

1. Bermuda (pink sand!)
2. Western Caribbean
3. Ocean City, NJ
4. Bermuda (I really, really like Bermuda)

4 of your favorite summer foods:

1. Ice Cream (Breyers is the preferred brand)
2. Burgers
3. Half and Half/Arnold Palmer (the lemonade/iced tea combo)
4. Cold sesame noodles

4 concerts not to miss:

1. Tom Petty (although I missed that)
2. Dave Matthews Band
3. Neil Young
4. Any of the Marley children

4 things to avoid during the summer:

1. Sunburn (although it always happens)
2. Mosquitoes
3. Long lines at amusement parks
4. Jellyfish

It seems like this meme made its way around a few times, so I’m not sure who’s left to pass it on to.  I’d love to hear from my very close friends and family — who do not have blogs themselves — so let’s try something else, shall we?

Mom, Jess, and any more of my reader friends — why don’t you add your own responses right here in the comments section of this blog post?

Last night, I sold my iPhone on eBay.

Why?  Because the new 3G iPhone comes out on Friday.

Not that it’s got features that are much different than my current one.  Really, it’s just 3G (which is actually great for me and I’ll love this), has GPS and has a bigger hard drive if you choose the top model.

I did it, mainly, because an eBay search showed me that original iPhones, as of yesterday, were still going for $350+.  Now, the new iPhones will cost $200 and $300 for the lower and top models.

So what did I do?  I put mine up, and lo and behold, someone actually bought it for $345.

Free iPhone upgrade, here I come.