Obama's Ebenezer Church Speech

I mentioned this in the earlier links, but Sen. Obama's speech in Atlanta is generating a tremendous amount of YouTube traffic (386,000 hits as of Tuesday night). The Nation has a rundown on traffic about the speech. This is one of the first full-length speeches to be given in the YouTube era that is gaining significance as a stand-alone piece of campaign rhetoric. Check it out when you have a chance. Regardless of your political views - you don't often hear a update of America's political heritage with this degree of coherence.

Thanks and some recent links

Thanks to everyone who has taken the leap in the first few days. Special thanks to Richmond Communication Professor Paul Achter for his 'Its the economy' post from Friday.

I will be going over the technological medium again in class tomorrow. I would like to work with everyone to get you up and posting in week 2 of the course.

In the interim, here are some quick reads and links to keep you current on the communicative nature of the campaign:

• Peter Applebome of the New York Times asks "Is Eloquence Overrated?" and gets some interesting perspectives from prominent Communication scholars.
  
• Barack Obama made a push for 'unity' to take its place alongside 'change' as a crucial campaign theme. His speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA is an interesting effort to shift the recent campaign conversation among the Democrats. Watch the speech via c-span (using media player or read it at his website.
• Some of you noted this theme already (nice job djc), but how do delegate counts 'matter' alongside 'winning a primary or caucus?' CNN tries to make sense of Clinton's 'win' in Nevada and it opens the door to Gretchen's question of a brokered convention. As we learn how this new primary season works it will be interesting if the attention given to these primaries doesn't provide as much closure as folks anticipated. This is certainly apparent in Romney's delegate-heavy strategy.
• Still lots of divergent trends on the GOP side. Giuliani continues to struggle in the polls, despite some new ads that have caused a stir. When Chuck Norris is getting a good deal of coverage, it may be a sign that there is a long way to go before picking a nominee.
• Finally, be sure to take a quick look at the reaction from tonight's Democratic debate in South Carolina.

See you tomorrow.