MAD MEN PASSION INDEX: Rating the November Picks!

Dear Readers: The San-Diego Local Order of Bloggers (SLOBs) had the semi-quarterly gathering last night. Per a request from my compatriot Beers with Demo, I have developed the Mad Men Passion Index for our group to help us rate the November election. I also wanted to share other key points that our local “Mad Men” discussed last night as well.

As a big fan of Mad Men, I decided to break the Passion Index into two categories: Inebriation Level (to help forget the flaws) and the Excitement Level (to celebrate the choice in a totally un-politically correct way). Inebriation Level raring is 1 to 5 cocktails; the Excitement Level is 1 to 5 cigarettes (5 being the best for major leg-tingling thrills). Totally awesome selections with no negatives get the brandy-and-cigar choice; horrible picks with no redeeming qualities get the marijuana joint rating. With this in mind, here are some of California’s current ballot hopefuls with their assigned Mad Men Passion Index:

Carly Fiorina: The GOP-establishment candidate for US Senate who was savvy enough to support Proposition 23 and holds her own against Babs Boxer in debates.

Meg Whitman: Whose controlled and canned treatment of Tea Party activists fails to generate grassroots excitement..and don’t get me started on her ham-handed handling of Proposition 23.

Proposition 23: Saving one million California Jobs –

Jerry Brown: A lifetime in politics, a legacy of failure.

I will be using this rating system for the rest of the election cycle; check in with later this week for my other California Proposition Picks 🙂

Beer with Demo and I also discussed the the pomposity and hypocrisy of CBS new-twit Bob Schieffer, who thought it was his place to lecture Congressman John Boehner about his smoking habit. Hey, Bob — where is your lecture to Obama about HIS smoking habit??? Boehner is currently hoping to get an upgrade from House Minority Leader to Majority Leader after Nov. 2nd. Beers with Demo and I both agree that if Boehner does take the lead in the US Congress, he should be the hard-a$$ strategist that Mad Men’s Don Draper is. Boehner should not attempt to be bipartisan, as this will NOT be successful. No matter what the Republicans do in Congress during the next session, Obama will only demonize them anyway (Obama seems stuck on Alinsky Rule #12). Boehner should have one consideration in his decisions for the next congressional session:

WHAT WOULD DON DRAPER DO?

WWDDD: WHAT WOULD DON DRAPER DO?

Here is a handy guide to replace the Alinksy Rules: 10 MAD MEN RULES. Rule #1 – YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. Learn it, live it, love it!

The Beer Summit we had last night was a complete success. The Liberator Today said this:

Looking around at the folks gathered at the Beer Summit today at Sarah’s place, I thought that the founding fathers would have been both appalled by and proud of our situation. I saw a small group of ordinary Americans, Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians, just one of a countless number of such groups, roused to action by a federal government that had over reached its bounds. The Tea Partiers in the room were not tools of corporate interests, not interested in political office, and motivated only by a desire to change the direction of their country. The founders would have been appalled because the constitutional republic they had bequeathed posterity had been so violated by the rapacious over reach of a political class that had lost all regard for their vision of limited government. And they would have been proud that ordinary citizens had risen up to restore that government to its proper limits.

Left Coast Rebel had made us all proud, by getting a writing assignment with Pajamas Media! It’s great seeing one of our group make the big time levels of punditry. LCR’s first piece is the degree of influence Sarah Palin actually has in the Golden State. Please click over and comment, as LCR’s success spreads to our group as well: The Battle for America 2010: Sarah Palin’s Gentle Shade of Purple in a Cobalt Blue State.

W.C. Varones also has a wonderful report from our Beer Summit: Friends in High Places. He also shares one of the biggest gems of news we have: our own Dawn Wildman, Tea Party coordinator extraordinaire and chief of the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition was quoted in National Journal on an outstanding piece on the citizens’ movement: How Tea Party Organizes Without Leaders. My other Tea Party hero, Mark Meckler of Tea Party Patriots, is also quoted.

From Washington’s who’s-in-charge-here perspective, the tea party model seems, to use Wildman’s word, bizarre. Perplexed journalists keep looking for the movement’s leaders, which is like asking to meet the boss of the Internet. Baffled politicians and lobbyists can’t find anyone to negotiate with. “We can be hard to work with, because we’re confusing,” Meckler acknowledges. “We’re constantly fighting against the traditional societal pressure to become a top-down organization.” So why would anyone want to form this kind of group, or network, or hive, or starfish, or lava flow, or whatever it is?

And for us Tea Party activists, I would like to conclude with a quote that is applicable to much of what we do: “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”