Welcome.

Something happened last night during the election coverage. I felt something powerful and moving that I’ve never felt before. Watching President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, I was overcome by something that I still can’t describe. Was it inspiration? Was it overwhelming hope, or a new found sense of pride about being American that I’ve never felt before? I don’t know.

Last night, for the first time in my life I felt ready to follow someone. Last night I wondered if this is what it felt like for Americans when Kennedy was President. It was the first time I’ve felt proud of who we are in the world. Last night I finally thought, this is the America that everyone across the world has hoped for and I get to be a part of making it true.

This is bigger than me, and I am moved by that. This no longer feels like the America of excess and waste, or arrogance and ego - the selfish America of consumerism and greed. Today, even if just for a moment - I feel that America can actually stand for something, and I want to hold onto this feeling as long as I can.

By Monday, Fox News will be nit picking his choices and the pundits will start their blathering on, but for now I feel very in touch with what our founding fathers intended for this country is designing our democracy because America just staged a coup and threw out the old government. I just watched revolution, in a way that only America can stage it. No sit ins, no hippies, no one chained to a tree - Americans finally figured out that we had the power all along, and we used it to take back the country from our own cynicism and selfishness, and rip our hope out of the hands of a corrupt government.

I don’t necessarily know yet what it is that means so much, but for the first time I feel a sense of duty to help - maybe because for the first time in my life I’ve been asked to.

Barack Obama has given me an amazing thing today.

This next 4 years….this is going to be exciting.

In case you listen to Fox news and think, man, they have some legitimate points. Remember…

Seriously though, I’ve been watching and reading the feedback from Clinton supporters since she lost the nomination to Barack Obama and I’m confounded. First, other than her team, the only Clinton supporters that seem to be stepping forward are women - which is fine - but I bring this up to say that my observations are potentially skewed by their single gender. What I am referring to is how Clinton supporters are behaving as though the nomination was stolen from her because she is a woman.

A little history. I openly spoke of my confidence and excitement about Hillary’s eventual nomination after Kerry’s loss to Bush. I knew it was a matter of time, and I thought it would be exciting. She’s a passionate, driven, strong woman and there is no reason to think she wouldn’t be a good first woman President. Having Bill available would be interesting, because it brings some good and bad experience to her potential presidency. I was enthralled, and confident we would see her nomination and eventual win. I believe I even bet a friend she would win.

So now, with the amazing Obama machine having defeated her and DNC in full swing - Clinton is having her last moment in the Presidential race and her supporters won’t let go. To them, this doesn’t seem to be about moving away from a terrible George Bush presidency and a never ending war on “terror,” it’s about gender, the very thing she was trying to prove could be overcome.

Let’s play this out using a different example. Barack Obama is black, and you can’t avoid noticing the tremendous message about race in his winning the nomination. The news media are quick to trot out Jesse Jackson as the black spokesperson to talk about it, but what I don’t hear people on the street talking about is his “blackness.” In fact, the only people that seem to talk about it are Jesse Jackson and television pundits. So if he loses in November, I will hear people talk about failures in the campaign to better silence the Clintons, attack McCain on possible military scenarios that AREN’T Iraq, and his inability to reach the working class. What I don’t expect to hear is a big hubub about race, because thus far - he hasn’t made much of an issue out of it. A fact I admire. He hasn’t avoided the topic, but he also hasn’t beat the drum either.

Which brings me to Hillary, whose campaign seemed to find ways to make gender an issue. So why would anyone who has an opportunity to prove that race, or gender, are no longer a concern for the highest ranking position in our nation - allow that to be the issue people get stuck talking about. Doesn’t that kind of argument tear down Hillary’s point that a woman was ready to be President of the United States? Her supporters are missing the point. No one said to Hillary, it’s time to step down - we’re not ready for a woman. The voters said, sorry Mrs. Clinton - we’re not ready for you. Senator Clinton and Senator Obama were fighting for the same things during the campaign. So why would her supporters feel that the best way to honor her is NOT to vote for the candidate who seems to have the same desires for the country?

I hope Clinton works hard to help her supporters see that women didn’t lose anything, that Democrats haven’t lost anything (yet,) and that what she desires most is for our country to succeed. And to tell women to stop crying about how this was a setback for women, but realize that the fact that she was the inevitable next President 3 years ago proves that gender wasn’t the issue. Females - You aren’t losing the right to vote, you aren’t being demoted at work because Hillary lost, and this doesn’t indicate some grand conspiracy to “keep you down.”

To be clear, I still like Hillary and would have happily voted for her over McCain.

Social media is a massive, exciting, and confusing juggernaut for brands and consumers. It’s become aggrandized by periodicals, marketers, and “experts” that now find every opportunity to prove that social media is going to make everyone rich. Some of that is legitimate. Facebook and Myspace have amassed an enormous constituency and become the defacto portal for Generation Y and Millenials. Advertisers are clamoring to catch it on it’s way up, unlike what happened with search marketing, and are praying that social media will fill the gap that’s been lost on television and radio advertising. What does this all mean? It means that social media is itself a big contest to see which site will be the Google of Web 2.0.

And I think Twitter will win.

Why? Facebook is somewhat closed, Myspace is cluttered with ads, and Twitter is neither. Twitter offers two benefits better than the other two.

1. Twitter offers consumers the opportunity to participate and have a voice, much like blogging, but with a smaller barrier to entry.
2. Twitter provides companies a way to interact with consumers in a direct and real way.

Other social sites do this today, but none have amassed the user base and following of Twitter which leads me to another reason why Twitter will win big. Despite it’s problems, Twitter continues to grow without enjoying the publicity of Facebook or Myspace. Microblogging seems to be a waste of time at first, but somehow Twitter hooks you, and instead of a waste of time it becomes more about simplicity. Twitter is simple. It’s simple to understand, to use, to network within, to embed in your blog, to drop into Facebook. Twitter was the first real non-business thing I did with my Blackberry that made me feel like the Blackberry was more than a business tool. Twitterific is the first application I downloaded from the App Store for my iPhone. I don’t think Twitter is going to solve climate change, but it may have an impact on the election. Barack Obama is on Twitter, and I have to think it was part of the reason he reignited a generation of voters who were tired of not being heard. Because fundamentally, Twitter is about being heard.

Sure, you can pass this off as someone in love with the platform and blind to it’s flaws. But on the contrary, the flaws somehow have reinforced for me the power of Twitter. When Twitter goes down I check back on Jaiku and Plurk, and in minutes or hours, I’m back where all the other folks are. This is usually the point in this discussion where someone mentions FriendFeed and I gag. There are a small number of people who will ever really need FriendFeed, and they would all be better served by encouraging casual social network users and consumers everywhere to get on Twitter. FriendFeed does for bloggers and social media gurus what Facebook does for everyone else, and if they think for 5 minutes about more than their own “socialebrity” status they will realize that the long term success of social media depends on mass adoption.

Which leads to my last point about why Twitter should, and will eventually win the social media sweepstakes. It’s truly based around the idea of the “brand” - a concept that is intrinsic to American culture and consumer behavior. Twitter empowers brands in a way that was taken away by search engines, where anyone with an SEO playbook could rule. Twitter allows consumers to discuss, in an empowered way, and does not let companies hide behind a shiny website or an SEO strategy. There are no snake oil landing pages on Twitter (although there are plenty of snake oil salesman.) What does BMW get right, besides making cars - branding. The same can be said about Apple, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, Adidas, Honda, Toyota, Timbuktu, Marvel Comics, Samsung, Sony….

Twitter allows companies to put the art and science back into marketing, but this time by including the consumer. That’s the untapped magic here. Build your brand strategy WITH the consumer, not FOR them. Companies say, “We want this type of consumer so go do lots of research about how to win them.” With Twitter, you simply say “What do you want from us?” And then listen.

When search engines empowered the consumer, companies fought the movement and refused to let go of control over the flow of information. That didn’t work. The accepted definition of “interactive marketing” is basically “build a website people enjoy visiting,” instead of one where they actually interact. The social web changed this and became about REAL interaction, between people, and that’s why Twitter gets me excited about web marketing, and that’s why I’m betting on it to succeed. Because of all the social media sites or social networks, Twitter seems to encourage interaction in a way that companies can participate in.

If you haven’t already, track me down on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/originalanalog let me hear your thoughts below.

I should start by saying I haven’t every bought an American car. I’m not exactly proud of that, but my Nissan 300z was amazing, I really enjoyed my Toyota Supra (how could I not,) and then I went all responsible with a BMW sedan. I’ve enjoyed my cars, but I’ve always had a desire to support American brands and put money back in the American economy. So, when Chevy announced the Volt - I was proud and excited. Chevy had finally realized that they should stop cranking out tired old conservative designs. They realized it was important to stop competing with Ford for lamest body shapes on the road, and were going to learn from the Saturn convertible they launched (it’s quite pretty.)

The Volt was it - a green machine cranked out by an American auto manufacturer that looked freaking COOL. Well, the production model has had some pre-release photos leaked and I’m afraid they are going to confirm my fears - that American auto makers are just plain stupid. I’ve walked the halls of some US design schools - there is plenty of creative design talent. I see cars like the Prius somehow put an attractive, and VERY UNIQUE spin car design. Every year or so another interesting shape rolls off the line from Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Mini, Audi, and others. And the best looking Chevy is the Malibu? Come on! The Pontiac line was getting some life in it, but since the Solstice (same car as the Saturn) it seems to have gone cold in GM land.

So what is the problem? Does GM think playing it safe means cranking out lame cars for retirees is the way to salvation? Do they think their brand is safe and they can’t experiment? For god’s sake - it’s a freaking electric car! The prototype was AWESOME - let it live.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope the teaser photos are misleading and GM is going to surprise us with the Volt it designed and showed the world. I will buy one. But if they roll another lame duck off the line, they may sell a few cars - but it will likely signal that the brand has no balls and never will. Dear General Motors, this is your chance to win back the Gen X’rs and build your brand back for Gen Y and the Millennial generation. The Volt can do it, but you have to go big or Toyota and Honda will be the next generation of American car companies (and in case you haven’t noticed, they are Japanese.)