Simple is the Reason of My Heart

An Afternoon with Scott Goodstein in Ad-Tech Singapore 2009

The online machinery behind Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign was a successful case study in the integration of internet technologies with political campaigns, particularly in the role of fundraising, organizing supporters and vote canvassing. Scott Goodstein, the External Online Director in Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign, is currently in Singapore and has deliver a keynote address in the Ad-Tech Singapore 2009 conference. Together with a group of social media practitioners from all walks of life, the organizers of the event arranged a special interview with Scott this afternoon. We have a discussion about the lessons learnt in deploying the internet technologies to the Obama Campaign and here is a summary on the points of discussion that ensued:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

During the US 2008 Presidential Elections, during a press conference, Senator Barack Obama (now President of the United States) offered his answer to a question from the press on how he would select his cabinet through quoting this book "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, an acclaimed historian. If you have watched "Meet the Press" in the days of Tim Russert, she was often invited as a political pundit to comment and reflect on how lessons from past presidents can be applied to look at the presidential elections or politics of today. The summary of the book narrates how the US President, Abraham Lincoln (famous for the abolition of slavery and winning the civil war) had managed to rope in his rivals (who ran against him in the 1860 election) in his Cabinet from 1861 to 1865. The most notable of his rivals who served him as  Cabinet members are: Edward Bates (Attorney General), Salmon Chase (Treasury), and William H. Seward (State). The book revolves around how Lincoln manage to reconcile people of conflicting egos and personalities (with their political factions) to resolve the greatest crisis which faced US at that point of time.

Things to watch out for in Singapore 2009

Finally, the year 2008 is coming to an end. Over this turbulent year, we witness many events that come and go in no order: (i) the death of JB Jeyaretnam, (ii) the minibonds saga that extend to the town council investments, (iii) the recommendations from AIMS report with collective feedback from bloggers (check out Journalism.sg's review of media events in 2008) (iv) the evolution of healthcare policies (check out this report from The Void Deck), (v) the first F1 night race in Singapore, (vii) rising costs of living in Singapore with respect to transport and fee hikes from electricity bills to domestic consumption and (vi) the global financial crisis that will take us into an unknown and uncertain times of recession within the next 15 months. In my own preference of not looking back this turbulent year, here are the things to watch out for in the year 2009. 

The Myth of The Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan

Three months back during a chat with Loy, my colleague from Singapore Angle and we chatted about the state of politics in a few places from US, UK to Singapore. I offered my viewpoint about politicians in general that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions, i.e. most politicians started off with a noble vision and ended up in the wrong road no matter how successful they are. Loy's first instinct to my remark is that the words summarizes Hayek's book pretty well. Of course, the honest truth is that I have not read Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom". Instead of talking about Hayek's book, I will talk about the second book that Loy recommended to me and the book entitled "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies choose Bad Policies" is by Bryan Caplan. Caplan is currently an associate professor in economics from George Mason University, and he also co-blogs with Arnold Kling in EconLog. While I will defer the insights of this book about Singaporean voters to another article sometime for Singapore Angle, I can't resist to write a short review about this interesting book (because it gave an insight  about Singaporean voters which I have not seen argued anywhere else) why the argument of rational ignorance fails in contemporary politics in US.

Final Thoughts Before the End of US Presidential Elections 2008

Since 2006, I have followed this election from Singapore, chasing the news every morning from RealClearPolitics, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, and the US mainstream press. Even by the sheer magnitude of the amount of money that was poured into this race, it is a historical one. Finally, tomorrow morning in Singapore time, a winner will emerge to take the White House. It can be the first African American President or the oldest President to take the throne. Of course, with the current faltering economy, as I made a prediction during an American friend's wedding that Obama will win if the election is about the economy. With the global financial crisis unleashed by the sub-prime mortgage crisis since early 2007, it is not hard to imagine. However, I don't think that Obama will win it by a big landslide, given the tussle of the battleground states. Here are some of my closing thoughts on this election before it ends.

The Economics about Banning Political Films

I have been thinking about the political films discussion that took place during the Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform. Two of my colleagues, Alex Au aka Yawning Bread and Gerald Giam have voiced their opinions about section 35 in the Films Act and their reaction to the comments made by Mr Cheong Yip Seng, the Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMES). Alex Au is worried that AIMES may be trying hard to justify why section 35 should stay after hearing Mr Cheong's point about the high impact factor that a political film can sway how people think after his visit to a conference in Canada. To reinforce his point, Mr Cheong also cited that Japan and Korea were the other two countries that banned political films. On the other hand, Gerald took a different position by arguing that the political films act benefit PAP more than the other opposition parties. In this post, I adopt the relationship between the demand & supply with the impact of a political film to explain why banning section 35 is a worse option for the PAP to stay in power.

Remembering Tim Russert, Anchor of "Meet the Press"

I woke up this morning and read this piece of shocking news. For a moment of time, my heart just sank. Tim Russert (photo left, credited to NY Times), NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press” (my favourite political interview show in US) died yesterday. I have followed the show since the video podcast was made public and often looked forward to the next episode. A few things in "Meet the Press" that made me loved Tim Russert and how he made political discourse a civil and rational one. The first is how he interviewed his guests who are powerful figures in US politics or elsewhere. His style of questioning them in a firm and coupled with an apparent contradiction made by the guest has been effective. On top of that, he delivered in a moderate tone of civility. Second, his analysis of the political landscape in US is accurate and just last week, he presented all the scenarios on how both McCain and Obama can land down to 269-269 votes from all the electoral colleges in the US presidential elections. I often liked his use of history to assess the politicians of today, particularly, the recent discussion with the US Presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin author of "Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln " on how Obama will follow the example of Lincoln to bring his rivals to his cabinet should he elected President. My condolences are with the Russert family, and it is like losing an old friend when I heard the news. Tim Russert's style in political interviews has touched someone as far as I do in Singapore, who yearned that someday we can have this type of political discourse in the far far future.

My thoughts on "A More Perfect Union" by Barack Obama

For those who have read about race issues in the US, this speech entitled "A More Perfect Union" by Barack Obama is touted to be the most important one since Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream". After listening to this honest and bold speech about a sensitive issue (which is an out of bounds marker in Singapore) at the wake of 3am in Singapore, it rendered me sleepless and wrought with a heavy heart, perhaps pondering over my own future in career (that the possibility of moving to foreign shores in search of a better future) and thinking about a few issues in Singapore, particularly this incident about a mainland Chinese student seeking help.

On Gender and Minority in Singapore Politics

Lately, there is a lot of talk from our mainstream media journalists about women and minority candidates in Singapore politics (see this related article in the Online Citizen). Of course, it is partly inspired by the US Presidential elections, where the Democratic party is now having two prominent and interesting candidates running for the nomination. With luck, we might be seeing the first woman US President (Hillary Clinton) or the first black US President (Barack Obama). The problem is that both candidates are now locked in a battle characterized by two issues which are giving their campaigns a lot of problems. Those two issues are racism and sexism. Of course, both candidates have to settle on a truce such that things would not go out of hand between their supporters. Honestly, as a Singaporean, I don't have a problem that our Prime Minister or senior cabinet appointments to be filled by a woman or a minority candidate. However, we should not put ourselves into the situation of rational discrimination. It is important that these candidates are there because of meritocracy, i.e., they are competent to take up the top job regardless of their background. The best way to think about this whole issue comes from Colin Powell when interviewed by CBS: "He is putting himself forward not as a black man but as an American man who wants to be president of the United States of America ... We should see Barack as a candidate for president who happens to be black, and not a black candidate for president." Hence my answer to the situation is that "the candidate is putting him/herself forward not as a minority/woman candidate but a Singaporean cabinet/prime minister who happens to be a minority/woman."

New Hampshire Surprise: Comeback Kids Rocks!

The results for the first primary in the US Presidential Elections are out. John McCain has managed to fend off Romney's negative ads and emerged the winner of the "Live free and Die" state. It is a miracle comeback for the 70 year old senator, but something more cataclysmic has also happened. Hillary Clinton beat Obama for the New Hampshire primary, and like Obama, she made history to be the first female candidate to win the first primary of the US presidential elections. Beating the  odds of a double digit lead claimed by the pundits, pollsters and media, she has managed to stop the Obama wave from going. So how did that happen? It will be of great interest to examine how Hillary Clinton has become the 2nd comeback kid since Bill Clinton did that in 1992. (Picture from Associated Press)