A VC - Latest Comments in Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

fredwilson — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:16:01 -0000

Yeah you

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Ari — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:24:52 -0000

Great summary of the situation. Especially re: McCain. Unless Edwards is the Democratic candidate there's no way I'll vote Republican, but nevertheless I feel better about our country if McCain is the nominee.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Steve Kane — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:07:00 -0000

who? me?

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

jeffleo — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:35:19 -0000

Isn't everyone a little bit nostagic? Of course people affiliate the good feelings they had about Bill with Hillary. But aren't they doing the same thing on the other side of the aisle when they rally for John McCain? Of those that favor McCain, isn't it likely that they yearn for McCain circa 1999 before Bush trashed McCain's candidacy with the illigitimate child rumor among others? This is not to take away from Hillary Clinton or John McCain. But you gotta admit that we all hope that some of the goodness from the past resurfaces int he present.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Gerald Buckley — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:21:59 -0000

It's anyone's race to win or lose at this point. Lookit, Bloomberg gets in on the action at the seventh hour and the whole thing changes. Likewise, some skeleton comes traipsing out of the closet and there's that "likability" monster chopping the legs out from under a potentially GREAT president. Would almost be fun to have a regular old someone sit on the sidelines waiting for all the highly polished credentials to fall by the wayside or bow out and then sweep the race. How I'd love to see a regular Joe/Jane to run the country at least once in my lifetime.

Please, keep the political aspect to the blogging... too few bloggers are willing to discuss it openly.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Ada — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:55:47 -0000

This is really some very interesting reading. My two cents, I think Hilary is a very cunning and strategic woman and as long as she is fighting for a good cause I think she's definitely someone who would get the job done! I am not convinced that she revealed her "true self" in New Hampshire, she revealed a component of her personality that helped persuade people. That said she has the balls to deal with anything if you ask me, and I respect that. On a negative side to the Hilary argument, its clear she has wanted this her whole career, which to me is not the right candidate for the position.

While Barack doesn't have the great experience for the job, it seems like the country has found him and been inspired by him and for all of you who are launching companies, you all know that timing and popular opinion is really what makes things happen. (Particularly with regard to the speed of his rise.) I think its cool to see a phenomenon that is distinct to this time in history and I think that is distinctly important. I think Hilary is definitely paving the way for a woman president, but not sure it will be her, think it will be someone like Barack who people just really want to see empowered.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Aruni — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:04:25 -0000

I truly hope a Democrat gets the White House and I'm with you...it's down to Barack or Hillary. I actually think more Repubs would vote for her if she wasn't married to Bill and didn't have that morally iffy situation behind her. There are many women Repubs holding office already. McCain would be a reasonable alternative if the Repubs take advantage of any Dem screw ups.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

hockeydino — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:50:43 -0000

Imagine if AVC guy sypported someone on principle like Ron Paul instead of a front runner who stands for polling. Ahhh...then maybe he wouldn't say that he can't win the nomination.

A blogger reader can only dream.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

andrew — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:02:48 -0000

if she wins i bet her running mate will be Bill. Two for one and a killer combo. This is the year for change.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

MMG — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:27:38 -0000

For a non-journalist, you write a heck of an clear-minded analysis, Fred. That said, I think the big losers in the campaign so far aren't the feckless Republicans; it's the media. Already they have made a huge error in declaring the death of the Clinton campaign, jumping on the post-Iowa "bounce" that showed Obama up by 13 points at one stage, according to "their' polls. The post-NH coverage of Hillary's win was equally mindless. And I'm not sure how CNN could believe referring to their pundits as "the best political team on television" is effective branding.

I'm not sure if it's because of an abbreviated primary season but so far I have been amazed at how trivial the pundits have been in their analyses. Maybe the well-worn notion of "change" should apply to the media as well!

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

MichaelCullina — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:36:13 -0000

Fred, you are the Obama of VCs: inspiring in your decency and humanity. Thank you for your great blog.

Sorry for the over-effusiveness, but there you have it.

Founder, Philly Fred Wilson Fan Club

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

DavidAlport — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:50:51 -0000

I support your political punditry on your blog. My one suggestion: Try to use the word "Democratic" when describing the party. Our nation's "lamest president ever" makes a specific point of misusing the phrase, because calling it the "Democrat Party" implies that its members are less democratic than if he used the proper phrase. Here's a little bit of discourse on the subject. http://nstockdale.blogspot.com/2005/01/democrat...

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Hiren Patel — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:47:27 -0000

As a 23 year old Democrat and as a College grad. who dived into startups in NY and now in Cali. without a technical degree, connections, the "experience," I see Obama mirroring what I've gone through. When you want to do big things, you have to dream big, you have to be a little irrational but still drive forward with what you believe in. I really didn't know what to do after college but I knew whatever I set my mind to, I'd be able to get there by dreaming big. I picked tech startups as something to try out for 3 years even though I knew most people don't hire business grads without experience (they want cs majors from Stanford or people with experience). I dug into the NY tech scene and got my first test of startups and later on made the move to Cali without a job and very little savings (I had enough to survive out there for 2-3 months) and here I am 10 months later with a job as a marketing/project manager for a young startup for the past 6 months.

What I am trying to say is from my perspective, experience isn't that big of a deal to me vs. seeing if a person has a strong internal drive. I see that in different ways between Obama and Hillary.

Hillary has been working and building up to this moment for years and dreams to make big things happen once she gets to the top. While Obama is fresh to the scene and is dreaming big right now. Whether he can actually achieve what he is doing is all up to his drive in my opinion. They will both make good presidents, but I think Obama might be willing to push us like no other candidate could.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:26:02 -0000

Nobody is stupid when it comes to what you believe

Fred

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:23:02 -0000

I wish you could select the categories of interest and create your own version of the blog

I do have tech only feed and music only feed

But not tech and politics less music

Fred

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

jeremy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:13:17 -0000

I saw Lou Dobbs last night talking about how he doesn't like how "likabiity" s such an important factor for people, but I disagree with him. And I think you do as well.

I'm not a Democrat, but I differentiate people people whose opinions with whom I disagree (like yours) and people I don't respect on the other side.

I watched Obama's and Clinton's speeches last night.

To me, Obama is authentic. Clinton is not. I think she's contrived. I don't want either of them to win, but if Obama did, I could say, "I don't like his politics, but I like the man"...and that's the basis for consensus and collaboration. I have a hard time w/Hillary on that.

I love when you blog on politics because you are open to the debate and it's (for the most part ;-), not about attacking the other side for being "stupid."

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

ErikSchwartz — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:08:36 -0000

Two last things, I think there was a large anti Romney vote amongst MA expats (which is much of southern NH). That probably made some independents pull GOP ballots

Hillary is only "experienced" compared to Obama. The GOP is just dying for her to play the experience card.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

ErikSchwartz — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:57:51 -0000

I spent the last 3 days on talk radio row in Manchester NH. I also attended a number of rallies including Obama's last night (they'll give anyone press creds these days :-), Foneshow is a media outlet).

Some observations:

Hillary has almost no draw amongst independents.

Obama was hugely hurt by the fact that UNH is on winter break, and dartmouth is just barely back.

Ron Paul drew a lot of students that might have supported Obama and never would have supported Hillary.

Bill was EVERYWHERE on the ground.

The Clinton organization is superb.

No one except dyed in the wool democratic activists are excited about Hillary.

Watch what happens with the super delegates, the Clintons are leaning on them not to commit to Obama. This is potentially HUGE.

Obama is an incredible speaker, even better in person.

IMO, the only republican Hillary could defeat is Giuliani, and she could only do that by waging the ugliest campaign in history (Rudy lived with his two gay friends after his wife threw him out... that kind of stuff.)

Against any other GOP candidate her loss would be on the scale of Dukakis.

What state that Gore lost in 2000 do you think Hillary would win?

Erik

PS I've posted some pics from the weekend on the foneshow blog, I also twittered and twittergrammed a bunch (twittername is eriks)

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

michael — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:19:23 -0000

I have to agree on the electability front: I have been actively devouring the conservative points of view, and it is quite plainly obvious that a Hillary candidacy would pose serious challenges; rightfully or wrongfully, they plainly have it out for her. this is probably why she does not poll well against any of the GOP.

(And this is not to disparage her, but just to draw attention to a facet of the primary races.)

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Andrew Parker — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:28:32 -0000

I really hope you're right; both Hillary and Obama would be great, I'm sure. In fact, I have little preference between the two; I think even Edwards would do a great job.

The pessemist in me though believes that Hillary is unelectable due to two reasons:
1) Sexism (still strong, just more unspoken today)
2) The though of Hillary being president is so terrifying to the three wings of the Republicans (evangelicals, national security, and econ conservatism) that her candidacy would act as a coalescing force... Republicans would set aside their differences and rally behind one candidate in an effort that says "anyone but Hillary!"

I'm an independent (I don't believe in a two-party system, so I won't register anytime soon), so I can't vote in the primary. But, if I could vote in the primary, I'd vote for Obama solely for the reason of "electability" in a general election.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

fbias — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:25:24 -0000

As with some of the comments, I too hope that you do not stop writing, on occasion, about your opinions on anything you feel compelled to write about. Politics is certainly fair game for a blog like yours, and I appreciate your willingness to put your opinions out there and defend them. It's a very healthy and vital component of the political process. I also happen to agree very much with your viewpoints. I would happily vote for either Clinton or Obama, and feel both candidates would make excellent Presidents. I hope that the nomination process remains positive and productive for the Democrats. Given the heavyweight fight that is occurring, there is significant risk that it could become overly negative, bitter, and destructive for the two candidates. I am hopeful that the Democrats don't implode during what should be their year. I don't think it will happen, and I think Clinton and Obama will refrain from tactics that might ultimately tarnish their campaigns, but the risks are certainly there.

As far as the comments about Favre's wife playing quarterback, Chris Rock made the same analogy in his New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden. He stated that were his wife to come on stage and run through a brief stand-up routine, not a single person in the audience would find her the least bit amusing. The analogy is good for a laugh from someone like Chris Rock, but it is completely flawed. While the extent and value of her experience in the White House certainly warrants discussion, to entirely dismiss it as nonexistent, inapplicable, or irrelevant is totally absurd.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Stephen L. McKay — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:06:05 -0000

Fred,

On McCain you wrote; “I don't agree with him on many positions, but I think he'd be a fine leader for this country.”

I don’t get that. It’s like hiring a well respected architect who specializes in, and is a fanatic about ultra modern to design your house when you want a colonial. Sure he/she will get the job done, but will it be the job you wanted?

Also, I think Courtland is right. I have seen glimpses of McCain’s temper, and it can be pretty nasty (remember when he cursed at Maria Shriver in 2000)!

McCain deserves my respect for his service, but not never my vote for president.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

Leigh — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:25:01 -0000

In dec last year, I was in NYC for business and my husband similarly was in Atlanta. Both of us ended up having political temperature check discussions with our African American cab drivers. What we found interesting was that both of them were voting for Hilary. Actually, that's not true. Even more fascinating, was that both were actually voting for Bill AND Hilary and both said the exact same thing only in slight different ways...

America is in big trouble. We don't need a rookie. Obama = Rookie / Hilary = Hilary AND Bill and Bill = successful presidency = prosperous America

So looks like at least Hilary's got the North and South African American cab driver votes wrapped up.

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

john demayo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:10:18 -0000

I enjoy your political commentary, thoughts and musing and would encourage you to continue to write on these topics. Honestly I find the posts related to music a little annoying, but hey, the blog is about you and not about what I want to read, right?

Re: Thoughts on New Hamphsire

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:09:02 -0000

That's my analysis too

I wonder if anyone can put the three legged stool back together anymore

Romney tries and ends up looking like a two faced flip flopper

Fred