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Posts published in “Day: June 7, 2006”

Starrett and the rest of the party

June 7, 2006

We knew that Mary Starrett, candidate for governor of Oregon and nominee of the state Constitution Party, had extensive experience in Oregon television and radio (17 years on air at KATU-TV). We didn't know, that notwithstanding, how skillful a public speaker she is - as good as any candidate for major office in the Northwest this year.

Mary StarrettYou can see the evidence in her annoucement speech, posted on line - her presentation is crisp, poised, briskly on track yet just loose enough to come across as human. The outlines of her message are still coming together, but already cohering well.

Initial estimates in the punditry have suggested her receiving a likely vote in the 1-2% range. We think such estimates should be revised upward, considerably; and if so, that would put her to the point that she could certainly constitute a big obstacle for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton.

We don't yet know how she'll do at meet and greet, at campaign strategy, at fundraising (though she could be a great one), at organization or at other important candidate skills. But she starts out as a political consultant's ideal.

Or would be, under other circumstances. (more…)

Whole lotta Powerpoint

June 7, 2006

Can't remember the book in which it appeared, but an author writing about the officers of the modern U.S. military, noting their love of crisp presentations, once remarked that it's hard now to imagine the American military functioning if there were no Powerpoint.

It's much the same in many other places. Go to a budget meeting, or a planning and zoning meeting, or almost any kind of meeting of a jurisdiction of medium or larger size, and you'll probably be sitting through a Powerpoint presentation before long. (In case you just crawled out of a cave: Powerpoint is a Microsoft Corporation software that makes easy the production of a slide show presentation with text, graphs and images.)

There's a curious subtlety involved. These Powerpoint presentations to commissioners, councils, legislative panels and others are almost always staff presentations. In many of these cases, staff is making a recommendation, which may not be unanimous and might be opposed from one or more angles in the public. But those public angles usually come across as more amateur and less thought-through, because they usually lack the slick multimedia presentation.

Enter Frosty Hardison of Federal Way. Some time ago he started showing up at city hall, prepared to present to the council, and submitted Powerpoint files he wanted shown. And they were shown.

The Federal Way council considered the question of citizen Powerpointing at its Tuesday meeting, and decided with some limitations to allow it. (Reasonable: Scanning for viruses and relevance to the matter at hand.) Council member Jim Ferrell suggested, “We need to send a message to the community that we value their input. This is about freedom of speech.”

It may be, at least, about ensuring that the public's speech is absorbed the same way everyone else's is.