Hillary Clinton and Twitter

According to the NY Times yesterday, the State Department asked Twitter not to perform their regularly scheduled maintenance Tuesday night in order to keep the site up for tweets from Iranian protestors. (It would have been nice if the story had included the fact that there were lots and lots of voices on Twitter asking the company to do the same thing.)

That’s HIllary’s State Department doing that and she has been out front recently talking about the impact that social media can have on diplomatic relations.

She also has a Twitter account of all things Hillary here.

But, then, yesterday, she says during a press conference, “I wouldn’t know a Twitter from a tweeter, but apparently, it is very important.”

Now, I love Hillary, really I do. I was an ardent supporter of hers during the primary campaign last year and think she will make a great president. But, this is a perfect example of the way that too many Boomers treat social media. It’s something other people, generally young people, do that isn’t infused in the way that they work.Knowing that Twitter is important, reading reports that Iranians are using it to share their stories this week isn’t enough. Hillary has to try it out. I’m not suggesting that she has to be a devoted tweeter, but she has to kick the tires and give it a whirl around the block to really see what the fuss is all about.

There is an opportunity here.  There are Boomers and even reluctant Gen Xers in your organizations who are either resisting the social media resolution mightly or hoping that it’s something other people do. This isn’t a sustainable way to work; social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental way of reorganizing your work and your relationships with the rest of the world. My suggestion is setting up reverse mentoring brown bag lunches where the Millennials can walk them through some of the tools and let them test drive them. Think of opportunities for your Luddites to be guest bloggers and tweeters. Get them using the tools and they’ll see for themselves how powerful they are.

And while Hillary is recuperating (I had the same thing happen a few years ago – ouch!), I’m happy to have lunch at her house in Chappaqua and tweet together with her!

Hillary’s Night

It was finally Hillary’s night, but it was only Tuesday not the Thursday slot she expected.  She was the salutatorian not the valedictorian.

After suffering through a long line of incredibly boring speakers, HIllary electrified the hall tonight.  Convention goers waited through hours of yada yada by a string of largely little known elected officials.  Listening to the incredibly dull Mark Warner who was the keynote speaker.  He followed Obama as the Tuesday night keynoter in the same way that some guy followed John Elway as quarterback of the Broncos.

I wasn’t sure how the dullness was playing out at home, so I called my sister and she confirmed that it was just as dull at home as it was in the hall.

Maybe it’s purposeful on the part of the DNC to make the good speakers that much more exciting to listen to in comparison to the dullards – or maybe it’s reflective of just how hard it is to be a good speechmaker.  Or maybe I’m just overthinking the whole thing!

But at last, Hillary takes the stage in her peach pantsuit.  It was fascinating to watch an army of fluorescent-vested volunteers passing out Unity handsigns to all of the delegates on the floor.  The precise choreography between Hillary’s speech, the raised lights for celebrations and substitutions of the signs went flawlessly.  Hillary didn’t have to have great oratory, she could have just stood at the podium and her legion of delegates and fans would have cheered themselves hoarse.  Of course, she gave an articulate and rousing speech that was electrifying to hear in person.

And now the DNC is clearly done highlighting women.  How do I know?  Well, of the 25 speakers who will talk in prime time for the next two days only two are women.  Sure hope those 23 are a lot more exciting than the slew  of them who spoke tonight!

A Quiz

What do you get when you combine a bad economy and new ethics rules? A lot of stand up parties with no food!  The economy has put a damper on what used to be free flowing fetes, and the new ethics rules prohibits outside groups from paying for sit down meals with delegates.  Emily’s List “Gala” just wrapped up and can only be defined as a gala event if you find it great fun to stand for 2 hours with two thousand women standing cheek to, well, cheek. Great line up of speakers, but, honestly if you are asking all of these undernourished women to stand for so long, couldn’t they have asked the speakers to cut their talks down a bit. Ellen Malcolm, founder of Emily’s List went on a bit, Nancy Pelosi, looking a bit worn down, went on and on — and then on a bit more. There was thunderous applause for Hillary followed a few speakers later by Michelle Obama. Michelle was also looking a little bit tired, a little bit more down-to-earth and human than her otherwordly performance last night. In particular, I loved her flat ballerina slippers (my convention obsession with women’s shoes continues!) That’s a woman who understands comfort like me, I’m going to try to find a picture of them online somewhere.

It’s suffrage day today, the 88th anniversary of the passage of women’s right to vote. Pelosi did make a beautiful historic reference when she said that the last Democratic convention in Denver was 100 years ago and five delegates were women. This theme will presumably be carried forward tonight when Hillary speaks.

NARAL’S Insult to Women

The emails started to fly around yesterday in the late afternoon with the urgent subject line, “NARAL ENDORSES OBAMA!” In pained tones the senders, my circle of Hillary supporters, expressed their shock that one of the preeminent pro-choice organizations, one that they have supported in good times and bad, had double-crossed them in the eleventh hour of the presidential campaign.

I live in Westchester County, NY, this is Hillary country. I am an ardent Hillary supporter but nothing like many of my Hillary friends here who are often fifteen, twenty, thirty or more years older. They built the feminist movement in this country, and they fought for my right to choose, or what’s left of it, today. Hillary’s campaign is as much about them as it is about her, and today NARAL betrayed them as much as they did her.

One of the most frustrating and shocking aspects of the reporting of Hillary’s campaign has been the cynical reporting of what Hillary means to her supporters. How is it possible that she raised so much money from small donors when she asked in March and April? The answer is simple, because they believe in her and in her campaign! In begrudging fairness to the media, Hillary’s own campaign didn’t seem to understand or appreciate the depth of these feelings either until it was too late. But the depth of pride and ownership that women across demographics feel for Hillary are very real. And now, here were my Hillary friends, with tens of their friends copied, surging into my inbox with their messages:

“Disgraceful!” Barbara

I want to crawl up in the fetal position but instead I have to go report as chair of the League of Women Voters Nominating Committee. I just tried calling NARAL and the office is closed.” Alisa

“I will never give another penny or any support or advocacy to or for the organization.” Hannah

In her announcement on Huffington Post yesterday, the president of NARAL, Nancy Keenan, wrote that the decision to announce their endorsement while the primary competition between two pro-choice candidates is ongoing is because, “for the sake of the reproductive-rights movement, we need to put any perceived differences behind us, and get to work putting Sen. Obama in the White House.”
Really, the entire future of the pro-choice movement rests on spitting in the eye of the strongest woman candidate in the history of the country, rather than waiting three more weeks to put whatever organizational muscle it has left after today to work for Obama, that this sliver of times will make the difference between winning and losing in November? It is unimaginable that the NAACP would have pulled the rug out from under it’s own constituency like this if the roles had been reversed. African American supporters of the NAACP have waited a lifetime for a presidential nominee who looks like them – and so have women.

Many last century membership organizations are in a panic as they watch their donor bases age and flail around trying to attract young people with newer causes to support. NARAL may be feeling this heat as well. I would be happy to tell you about far more graceful ways to enter the Connected Age than scorning your core constituency.

I am old enough to know that your fight is important but young enough not to have laid the cornerstone of organizations like yours – but I promise you that just as you’re not there for me today, I won’t be there for you tomorrow. My friends Hannah and Alisa and Barbara, their sisters, girlfriends, mothers, daughters and cousins have volunteered, donated money, made calls, marched, worn buttons, buttonholed their friends and family, fought valiantly against the relentless attacks of the far right, and are the constant stalwarts of every woman’s right to choose, and they deserve so much more respect than this.