aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Hillary 1984 whodunit: Less “citizen” than meets the eye

All the talk about “anyone can do it” may well be true, but as I suspected, it was not just any “citizen” who made the anti-Clinton ad:

Hi. I’m Phil. I did it. And I’m proud of it.

I made the “Vote Different” ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it--by people of all political persuasions--will follow. [...]

I’ve resigned from my employer, Blue State Digital, an internet company that provides technology to several presidential campaigns, including Richardson’s, Vilsack’s, and—full disclosure—Obama’s. The company had no idea that I’d created the ad, and neither did any of our clients. But I’ve decided to resign anyway so as not to harm them, even by implication.

This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.

The LATimes on Blue State Digital:

In its statement, Blue State Digital said, “Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. De Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately.”

Blue State Digital was founded by techies who worked on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign. It is viewed as one of the top Internet firms working for Democrats.

The company has provided technology, software development and hosting for Obama’s campaign, and one of the firm’s founding partners has taken a leave to work for Obama.

I get that there’s a revolution going on here but this was not just any politically active citizen; this was a professional acting unprofessionally.