MTV to Plug Political Essay Winners
MTV, home to scantily clad pop stars and steamy reality show couplings, tried to launch a new trend last week: the essay contest. The cable music channel, along with the Democratic and Republican national convention committees, is cosponsoring the contest to find young people to speak at each party’s convention this summer.
Two 18- to 24-year-olds will be chosen as winners, one from each party’s pool of essayists. The Republicans’ “Stand Up and Holla!” competition asks entrants about the importance of community service. The Democrats’ “Speak Out for the Future” contest prompts writers to discuss the connection between youth and politics.
“The effort here is to get more people involved in this election,” Rod O’Connor, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee, said. “To do that, you have to let people feel like they have a voice.”
Submissions will be accepted until June 1; the Democrats have received about 200 entries, and O’Connor anticipates a few thousand more. Republicans did not have contest figures. Committees from each party will narrow each field down to 10 finalists. The public will then vote for their favorites, “American Idol”-style, based on video clips posted on the Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee and MTV websites.
Young people “are the future of our country,” said RNC spokeswoman Christine Iverson. “We think it’s important that their views and their thoughts and their ideas become part of the debate.”
For those dubious about the hipness of writing essays, MTV promises to “bring some energy and coolness” to the task, said the channel’s vice president for public affairs, Ian Rowe. The winners will be revealed on MTV’s “Total Request Live” video hits show.
Surprise Endorsement
Joe Trippi, the Internet mastermind behind former Gov. Howard Dean’s failed presidential bid, keeps popping up in different political guises. MSNBC commentator, progressive blogger -- and now book endorser.
Thursday’s post on Trippi’s blog, ChangeforAmerica.com, was an impassioned appeal to buy Arianna Huffington’s new book, “Fanatics & Fools.”
“I think she really captured the need for grass-roots involvement and the kind of energy and boldness that the Dean campaign was an example of,” Trippi said in a phone interview. “I read it and thought other people should take a look at it, particularly people looking at what they can do to beat Bush in November.”
Trippi, who talked politics with Huffington while on the campaign trail, had no formal arrangement with the independent commentator and former California gubernatorial candidate.
“I strongly believe people should read the book,” Trippi said. “If I were John Kerry, I’d read it.”
Trippi, speaking from his Maryland home, is planning a public launch of his blog in the next two weeks.
Youthful Indiscretion?
It would appear John F. Kerry has a dark secret.
The presumptive Democratic nominee for president was once a Young Republican.
At least according to the 1966 Yale University yearbook. Underneath the Massachusetts senator’s graduation year photo, his campus activities are listed -- including the Yale Political Union, a debating group; varsity soccer; and the Young Republicans.
The unlikely extracurricular is either a mistake or a 38-year-old practical joke, according to campaign staffers and classmates of Kerry’s.
“My bet is it’s a joke, because John was very careful about what he did and didn’t do,” Renny Scott, president of the Yale Republicans that year, told Associated Press. “Everything was with a mind to the future.”
Everything including Kerry’s membership in the Yale Young Democrats -- one activity fit for the future candidate’s resume.
The college’s Republican club registered hundreds of students in 1965, after offering them beer for a $3 fee.
Duly Quoted
“It’s upsetting and absurd that that analogy has been put out there. You’d think that somewhere along the line they would have checked.” -- Leigh Oshirak, a Pottery Barn spokeswoman, complaining about a metaphor used by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in a new book by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward. Powell likens a U.S. invasion of Iraq to what he calls “the Pottery Barn rule”: “You break it, you own it.” The home decor store has no such rule.
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Compiled from staff, Web and wire reports by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.