The book is basically broken into three big pieces of advice: Be Cool. Be Social. Be The Change.

One section that I read with some anticipation was about playing hardball. I tend to try and be nice. I’m not always successful at that, but I’m never known for being mean or playing hardball. Libert and Faulk write that Obama knew when to throw his pressure down hard, and how that made a difference in his campaign. One example revolves around the decision to not abide by any funding limitations in his campaign. When he realized that he could raise huge sums to compete against Arizona Senator John McCain, Obama took that path, knowing that he’d take a small opportunity bump (in the form of getting bashed by McCain and the press, and risking going back on his previous position), but that the money would compensate for that in what it could deliver in campaign effort.

These kinds of business lessons, these little nuggets of strategy, are what you should expect from Barack, Inc.. It’s not an overly long or scholarly read. It’s not meant to be. It’s supposed to be a business book. I found all kinds of little nuggets in there that were great reminders.

It should come as no surprise that the team behind Mzinga would talk about community and Obama’s use of a community platform within his larger campaign mechanics. Many people argue that this was what won the game, that Obama had access to more people via the online and mobile communications platforms than his opponent. There are many business ideas in the community section that make the book a worthy purchase for you, no matter your political leanings.

I want to stress that point one more time: this book isn’t for democrats. It’s for people who want to see how a businessman (more accurately his team and his community) got the job done.

I recommend it to be on your bookshelf for 2009:

Photo credit dystyles

After that, we talked about all the things going on in Loren’s world. ( The backstory is summed up here). And there are lots of opinions all the way around. I don’t normally get into this side of the conversation. To be honest, it’s partly because I have friends on all sides of the argument. Further, I guess I have my own very private opinions on everything, but I don’t use my site as a platform for discussing the larger issues. Just my take. But I want to talk about something that came out of the conversation with Loren tonight.

(And this post will have nothing to do with taking sides. I understand most people’s take and opinion on Loren’s body of work. This isn’t that. It’s what started my head moving.)

There are MUCH WORSE things on the way soon from others.

The intent of this cover from the New Yorker magazine was intended as parody. Blogs like Ta-Nehisi Coates have covered this in great detail, including the sentiment that this kind of attempt at parody didn’t go over well with the black community. (By the way, this is the first echo of the Loren Feldman story. His satire went over poorly.)

But this is what’s out there. This is the surface. This isn’t the secret campaigns that will (are?) spread through social networks, across back channels, hidden in some other kind of FriendFeed that we haven’t seen. Or maybe it’ll be out in the open, as Louis Gray reported on a short while back.

All Is NOT Shiny

For a moment, we need to consider the larger implications of how social media can power some really negative experiences. Flash mobs are fun. But what else could they be?

This isn’t one of those “film at 11″ shocker posts. Instead, it’s something I wanted to write to say that if you think that beating Loren Feldman down because his video broke away from satire and fell into racism, then you’ve lost. The fight is, I believe, a lot more sinister, running deeper under the radar than that, and with names that aren’t in the blogosocialmediacirclefishbowl sphere.

Fight racism. Fight hatred. And be damned sure you’re looking for the scarier threats that trawl those waters.

But how? And where? And what will be the way we see this all come to light? That I’m not so sure about, and further, when you think about how one might patrol for such, I think free speech (not hate speech, but the other stuff that will get sucked into the nets) might get caught up, too.

And, as Clarence might say, “Marinate.” Because I sure have been, and I’m wondering just how scary America might be revealed to be on the way up to the US elections in November.

And you?