Summation

Is Bill Clinton a Good Politician?

Is he? So many people say Bill Clinton is the greatest modern politician. Really?? Great politicians win. Their team wins more than loses. Great politicians have coattails. Great politicians win their ideas and increase their party's spoils.

When Clinton assumed the presidency in 1993 the Democrats controlled the executive branch, the senate, the house, the majority of the governorships, the majority of the state legislatures, and a majority of all elected officials nationwide.

When Clinton left office in 2001 the democrats had lost control of everything. They lost the presidency, the senate, the house, a majority of the governorships, a majority of the state legislatures, and a majority of all elected officials nationwide. In fact, Clinton presided over a dominant resurgence of the Republican Party (which is now in its tenth year).

Turns out Clinton wasn't such a good politician after all. Based on his win-loss record, he's the worst thing that happened to the Democratic Party since the Civil War.

Book: The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

Review of The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-Of-Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen

like many books before this, Rosen writes on how to understand the power of world-of-mouth marketing. the book is a good overviewer but worth skipping if you have read a few of these types of books.

the boof was given to me by Mel Ochoa, one of my former coworkers at BridgePath.

Sonia Says... Arrison Blog is Live

Sonia Arrison launched her blog this month

Sonia is one of the most taltented writers of the convergence between policy and technology

The Tech Lobby, Calling Again -- New York Times

In today's New York Times, Gary Rivlin writes a piece on "The Tech Lobby, Calling Again"

interesting article about the evolving clout of Silicon Valley. Worth reading. Good article. Quotes me in the very last paragraph.

What would happen if Roe v Wade got overturned?

thoughts on abortion...

What would happen if Roe v Wade got overturned?

Everyone always carps constantly on Roe v Wade ... let's imagine for a moment that Roe was overturned by the Supreme Court ... what would actually happen????

Here's what would happen ...

All of a sudden, abortion would be illegal in roughly 25 states (there is some debate about which states have actually have abortion laws on the books as many states have contradictory laws because Roe v Wade basically declares that all states have to at least allow abortions to adults). These states cover about 1/3 of the country’s population.

So if Roe got overturned … all of a sudden … about a 1/3 of the nation’s population will not have ready access to abortion. Many women wanting an abortion may have to drive many hours to get to a state that will allow one. Many will be severely inconvenienced. Many, no doubt, may choose to have the baby which might go unwanted. And many will suffer serious health risks when they turn to alternative measures like back-alley doctors or black-market abortion drugs.

But how long will this go on for?

We often forget that there will be immediate political ramifications from Roe v Wade being overturned.

This country is overwhelmingly pro-choice. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1987 41% of the country favored making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion and 51% opposed – a ten point margin. Today (a February 2004 Pew poll), just 36% support more abortion restrictions and 58% oppose more restrictions – a 22 point margin!

So not only is the country strongly pro-choice – the trend is that we are becoming even more pro-choice. And the Hispanic myth of social conservatism does not hold in this case – they have a whopping 24-point margin opposing more restrictions to abortion.

If Roe v Wade got overturned, here is what I think will happen:

First ... Democrats would immediately take over Congress (both the House and the Senate) in the next congressional election ... it would be like 1994 for the Democrats ...

Also ... Democrats would substantially change many of the state-houses (a majority a which are now controlled by Republicans) in their favor ...

And then ... the new Congress's first order of business would be to pass a federal law ensuring that abortion is legal everywhere in the United States ... with a Democratic sweep, abortion will become more prevalent and even easier to get.

So ... if you are pro-choice, what are the actual consequences of Roe being overturned?

- for a very brief time (less than three years), a small number of states representing an even small percentage of the U.S. population would be pro-life.

- after that brief time, the law of the land would be legal access to abortions.

The new Congress would resemble America and remain committed to legalized abortions (and even in today's congress, a majority of its members are pro-choice).

Now granted this ... if you are pro-choice, what is the big deal about Roe? very few committed Republicans (even those that are adamantly pro-life) actually want Roe to be overturned. it would be a real disaster for the Grand Ole Party.

So the real paradox is this:

If you are pro-life: You don’t want Roe overturned because it will likely lead to even more liberalized abortions across the country.

If you are pro-choice: You actually want Roe overturned. Your short term loss will yield a very long term gain.

Does Silicon Valley support Bush or Gore?

Sonia Arrison, Director of the Center for Technology Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, writes another interesting article in Tech Central Station: The Valley Edge. She even manages to quote me ...

New California news site: BattleCry

Mike Forbes debuts his new California News site at BattleCry

Big Time and Little Time

There is a difference between big time and little time. A big little difference.

Big time is what happened last year … or ten years ago … or two hundred years ago. Understanding big time means you have a really good comprehension of dates relative to one another. You know the year that a song came out because you reference it to a year of your life. You know exactly how long you spent in your last four jobs. And you remember the start dates of each job. That’s big time.

Big time is understanding your life events and the world events in sequence.

Some people are really good at understanding big time, some are not. Some of the smartest people I know can’t grasp big time.

Little time is something entirely different. Little time means you’re never late, because you can factor in all the tiny commute steps. Like the understanding that if you have to be somewhere at 3:30 you need to leave by 3:05 – because though the drive will only take 15 minutes max, it usually takes 5 minutes to find parking and another five minutes to get out your door and say goodbye to the dog.

That’s little time.

Comprehension of little time means understanding how long things actually take. Do you know exactly how long that check-out line was? Do you know how long it will take you to get through airport security? Do you really know the difference between 5 minutes and 15 minutes? That’s little time.

People who are very logistically oriented understand little time. Military soldiers always understand little time. So do football players.

My experience is that there is no parallel between people who understand big time or little time. Because you understand one does not make you any more likely to understand the other.

I am always puzzled by those that do not appreciate big time and little time. And it is so easy to learn….

Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Amazon.com: Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

You hear a lot about these so called savior books. Books that "change paradigms" or "thought lead." I never think much about these books ... but Good to Great is the real deal.

This book on tape was given to me by Diana Westnedge -- it made getting into the car so much more enticing. The cogent overview and the chock-full of examples and data was very informative. I was hooked.

The mission was to find companies that for 15 years had an average stock performance that lagged the market and then, after a transition, had at least 15 years of beating the market by at least 3 times. In the United States, there are only 11 companies that fit this criteria. Good to Great details the similarities between these 11 companies and gives an overview of how these transitions happened from a "good" company to a "great" company.

Summation: this book is certainly worth a read (or a listen to)...

Books: From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters

Amazon.com: Books: From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters by Don Novello

This is the third Lazlo letters -- which has been going on for well over 30 years. Novello (better known as Father Guido Sarducci) is absolutely hilarious. This book was given to me by my college friend Mark Schlosberg ... who is the person that introduced me to Lazlo ten years ago.

If you are looking for a good laugh and a light read, I highly suggest this book. Stand up! Hilarious ...