Draft Mellencamp for Senate: Outside vibe in politics
source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/04/senator.mellencamp.facebook/index.html
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(In the interest of Full disclosure this article does feature an interview from me. It isn't often that someone on the U.S. politics group here at Current finds themselves in the news and that was the strange case for me today on CNN. )
To hear leaders of the "Draft John Mellencamp for Senate!" Facebook group tell it, this is a story about "insider" politicians, "street-level voters" and whether a likeable rock star with strong grass-roots appeal will run for the U.S. Senate.
The "movement," as the group calls it, was born less than three weeks ago with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's stunning announcement he would not not run for re-election. The next morning, Gabrial Canada, 21, was at home watching cable news reports about a Facebook page aimed at bringing Mellencamp, 58, into the race.
"After I saw that I went right to the Facebook group," Canada said Wednesday from his home in Indianapolis. "By then it had only been a matter of hours and it had already gotten a thousand members. It was incredibly exciting to see that catching hold." He contacted the group's founder and from then on he was hooked. So far, the group has garnered more than 7,000 members in 16 days.
"There's all this faux populism out there -- people who get paid millions of dollars to generate campaigns that look like they're supporting the people," said Canada, a self-described community ambassador for a local PBS TV station. "When you have the prospect of somebody as genuine as Mellencamp campaigning as someone people can relate to, it's unique, it's something you can't replace."
To hear leaders of the "Draft John Mellencamp for Senate!" Facebook group tell it, this is a story about "insider" politicians, "street-level voters" and whether a likeable rock star with strong grass-roots appeal will run for the U.S. Senate.
The "movement," as the group calls it, was born less than three weeks ago with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's stunning announcement he would not not run for re-election. The next morning, Gabrial Canada, 21, was at home watching cable news reports about a Facebook page aimed at bringing Mellencamp, 58, into the race.
"After I saw that I went right to the Facebook group," Canada said Wednesday from his home in Indianapolis. "By then it had only been a matter of hours and it had already gotten a thousand members. It was incredibly exciting to see that catching hold." He contacted the group's founder and from then on he was hooked. So far, the group has garnered more than 7,000 members in 16 days.
"There's all this faux populism out there -- people who get paid millions of dollars to generate campaigns that look like they're supporting the people," said Canada, a self-described community ambassador for a local PBS TV station. "When you have the prospect of somebody as genuine as Mellencamp campaigning as someone people can relate to, it's unique, it's something you can't replace."
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unimatrix0
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Draft Mellencamp for Senate!
Yes we can!
Make it so. Good job ocanada, keep up the great work.
- 2 years ago
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unimatrix0
