Whitman Ads
I did not start watching the Brown-Whitman debate until just as the first question was asked, thanks to a phone call from Will. The debate was covered only by channels 2 (KTVU) and 3 (KCRA). Will watched the debate on KTVU and tells me that in the half-hour before the debate there were at least six Meg Whitman ads compared to only one (or maybe two) for Brown. This is what we’ve come to expect, of course. In fact, Robert Creamer discusses this as one of Four More Reasons Why Democrats Will Retain Control of House and Senate. He points out that this advertising advantage will decrease as we get closer to the election because campaigns with limited financial resources save their money for use at the end of a campaign. Certainly this has been Brown’s strategy from the beginning.
Compassion on Campus
From the New York Times: “It started with a Twitter message on Sept. 19: ‘Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.'” And then he and “Molly” streamed this personal moment on the Internet. Three days later the roommate, Tyler Clementi killed himself—doing exactly what he said on his last Facebook entry, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” Tyler’s roommate has been charged with four counts of invasion of privacy; Molly two. In Molly’s defense, she claims she did not know they were streaming it on the Internet—still bad, but not as bad as the Tyler’s roommate who definitely did (and tried to do it a second time).
Leave it to Paul
Tony Curtis dies and I have to hear about it from Paul Krugman!