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Posts published in “Day: July 12, 2008”

Dancer’s feature

There's an agreeable enough idea in this, and you could imagine other candidates doing something similar. Up to a point.

Rick Dancer, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, is a former Eugene television news anchor. Makes some sense, then, that he'd be running out some video and shape it around the look and feel of a light TV news spot. He's posted one such on his site, about his participation in a parade at Hillsboro, his home town.

It's agreeable enough and you can see some of the professional skill in it. Dancer comes off as a pleasant personality. The downside is that it is almost entirely content-free: The closest Dancer comes to anything having to do with the office he's running for is explaining to a child at the parade what it is a secretary of state does. (There's more video on the web site, similarly well-produced but limited in content.)

Can he use video for something other than a light featureish approach - to dig into substance? (Why do the links between Dancer and TV news seem so strong here . . .)

[Hat tip to the Eugene Register-Guard's Capitol Notebook.]

The fires are coming

They've been mostly at a distance, though Northern Californians would have a few words about just how fierce this fire season has been already - and we're not quite to the middle of July yet.

large fires

July 12 NIFC map

That bunch in northern California is remarkable - it's as though they're all being held back by the Siskiyou Pass. But Washington state, in its north central region, was hit hard this week. More will be a matter of time. With the arrival of summer in the last few weeks, and the seeming (abrupt) end of rain, the area is drying out.

Taking care has become a critical thing. And will be for the rest of the season.