Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Election Icons

"Now that Barrier Island Girl is back with her camera,
maybe there's a deal to be done here."
Local congressional candidate Joe Roberts, who's running an uphill battle against incumbent congressional oil-drilling man Jeff Miller, is in the midst of updating his campaign web site. It's about time.

Some of the Joe Roberts links aren't working yet. Some that do just take you to a "coming soon" page, including the link to a promised "Joe's blog."

Now, that could become interesting. 6th District congressional candidate Dave Bruderly has been writing his "Politics and Sausage" blog for some months, now, and it's become increasingly interesting.

What's terrific about political candidate blogs is that the format virtually requires a candidate to abandon the stock "prepared speech" approach and start expressing himself regularly about a wide variety of public issues in a personal way.

We've been following Bruderly for some time. By now, we feel as if we know him better than our own congressman -- or the guy who would like to unseat him, Joe Roberts.

Maybe "Joe's Blog" will change all that.

The one thing that did catch our eye on Roberts' new web site is the snazzy graphic in the upper left corner. It's a short animated slide show that flips through five familiar American icons against a subtle American flag background.

We didn't go to the bother of re-animating the graphic, but you can see the single slides above: the Statue of Liberty, the Capitol Building, a pristine beach scene showing "waves of grain" (if that's what sea oats are), and the water tower at Casino Beach.

The water tower? Well, why not? It's just as familiar to locals as the graphitti bridge under the 17th Avenue viaduct -- and a bit more sightly, too.

The thing is, Joe needs more icons to tell his story. Five just isn't enough. Only two from the beach is pitiful.

Now that Barrier Island Girl is back with her camera, maybe there's a deal to be done here. Joe might give her a forum to show a photo a week illustrating whatever it is Barrier Island Girl and her friends are concerned about -- world peace, national health care, save the dolphins, oil drilling, the ballooning federal deficit, etc. etc.

If it can be told through a camera lens, Barrier Island Girl can snap it for him -- and make it stunningly beautiful.

2 comments:

Barrier Island Girl said...

Wow! Thank you so much! Coming from you this is high praise, indeed.

It is wonderful to be home for a week. I had to re-introduce myself to my husband and my camera. They both seemed pretty happy that I'm home. ;-)

After a couple more visits to Tennessee to care for my parents, I should be home at last by the first part of August.

Thank you again for your kind comments.

DJ

Anonymous said...

First time reading your blog, love it! As a transplant to Pensacola I lack knowing the history and stories of who's who's and who's not. You're great!

I know about Joes campaign, but did you know we have a truely viable candidate (Dem) for Holly Bensons seat in District 3? Liz Campbell's a retired Navy Veteran (Chief, 22 years of service), with a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Science, and she's running in a district that's 54% democratic with a huge swing vote foaming at the mouth for change. She's collecting endorsements like baseball cards... How's that for a little shake up to the powers that be?

You can check out her site at : LizCampbell2006.com