Monday Buzz: Inaugural Fever, NDN Internacional, y Mas (and More)

It was a worldly week for NDN, with Simon quoted in Agence France-Presse (France, English translation here), Diario Público (Spain), Telemetro (Panama), RTBF (Belgium), Realitatea (Romania) and Globo (Brazil) on how President-elect Obama will reinvent the White House the same way that he reinvented how political campaigns are run. From the English translation of the AFP story:

"Obama is going to change the game with government the way he changed the game with politics," said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a Washington-based progressive think-tank.

"We should expect that experimentation is not just going to happen in the White House, but there will be competition inside the administration," he said at a panel discussion this week on the Internet and policy-making.

"Using these tools is going to become a critical way that Barack is going to evaluate the performance of his own team," Rosenberg said.

Simon was also quoted in the El Paso Times about last week's Obama-Calderon meeting and the beginning of a stronger US-Mexico relationship. 

Morley Winograd and Mike Hais were quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Advertiser, the Boston Globe, and Prophetizing.com about Obama's use of technology and his appeal to civic service, both themes that they explore extensively in Millennial Makeover. From the San Francisco Chronicle piece:

Morley Winograd, a fellow at NDN, a Democratic advocacy group, and co-author of "Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, & the Future of American Politics," said that the speech will probably include at least one reference to a theme that Americans on both sides of the aisle will welcome: "rebuilding America's civic spirit."

"The way to solve that is through a unified effort, a perfect millennial theme, the 'Joshua generation' - that we hold hands and blow down the walls together," he said. "I don't think it will have a single digit of partisan tinge. ... It will be 'everybody is in this together.' "

Morley and Mike were also quoted in The Hill about Speaker Pelosi's Rickroll YouTube video (now there's a sentence I never anticipated writing). From the Hill article: 

“I think this is part of the congressional wakening that, given the power of social networks demonstrated by the Obama campaign, Congress needs to get with the program,” said Morley Winograd, coauthor of the book Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics.

“The key to success in YouTube or any other social network is to have something that's inherently interesting, and I think that's what they're trying to get at with this choice,” Winograd added. “I think it's important for politicians using this kind of medium have a challenge to make sure their use of pop culture isn't exploitative or old-fashioned. It's a delicate line to walk.”

Finally, Rob was featured in Roll Call on the need for a carbon tax, and NDN's pollster and longtime friend Sergio Bendixen was featured in Politico.