Even though Trojan Condoms launched its Evolve America tour last April, the safer sex campaign still made quite an appearance at both the Democratic and Republican Conventions. Calling it the "condomvention" Trojan's bus rolled into Denver, Colorado for a huge party the first night of the festivities.
With special guests including Ja Rule, Spike Lee, Alan Cumings, Josh Lucas, Tony Goldwyn, and Gloria Reuben, the party started with open bar and a little comedy.
The Evolve Tour targeted delegates, sexual health advocacy groups, policymakers and the presidential candidates themselves, urging them to acknowledge safer sex issues and get them on the political and social agendas.
"condom advertising restrictions on network prime time television in effect, and over a billion dollars spent on abstinence-only education that does not advocate condom use..."
There are two tours continuing from the conventions. Evolve Yourself and Involve Yourself plan to crisscross the country through the final months of the Presidential campaigns.
"Trojan Evolve is a call to action," says Jim Daniels, Vice President of Marketing for Church & Dwight Co Inc. "We're quite literally going city to city asking Americans to pledge to use a condom every time, sign a petition for change and help turn the tide on the unhealthy state of sexual health in this country."
See my video on the campaign below and take the pledge at TrojanCondoms.com
I had a great opportunity to talk with young head of Hip Hop Republican a blogging website that talks about race and age in the republican party at the RNC.
Today I met with many of the Young Republicans in the party who can't help but notice that the stereotypes of old, white, men are more valid than they would like. Leaders from the popular youth blog HipHopRepublican.com sat down with me to talk about opportunities that their party could harness if they were only willing to do the kind of outreach that Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's campaign does.
The young people all have ambitions to achieve goals or run for office, but they are fighting an uphill battle in a tough establishment world. Their optimism reigns supreme, however, and the push mountains in efforts to move their party to something a little more mainstream.
I sat down with Princella Smith, a young woman who works for former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's new organization American Solutions. Ms. Smith got her start from a competition offered by MTV several years ago that allowed her to play a major roll in forums during the previous presidential election. She now serves as a major policy adviser and spokesperson for American Solutions - all before the age of 30. She is connected and personable. In passing I mentioned that I was hoping to get an interview with Michael Steele candidate for Lt. Governor in Maryland. I had seen his commercials years ago when he ran and enjoyed the ad which became known as the Puppy Kicker ad that I still find to be so outside the box and original.
Princella quickly dragged me over to what became known as Radio Row where all the talk news stations were poised to do interviews as politicians and prominent party people passed through the halls. Against the wall was Michael Steele doing a quick interview. Princella introduced us and quickly snapped a picture. I can safely say that it is the only picture of me with a Republican politician - luckily its one of the decent ones. See the full video of the interview here.
Morgan Thomas is still in collage but already works on three campaigns this year all while serving her duties on the national board of Young Republicans. She is clearly a bright and eager young woman who hopes to win a mayoral seat before she is 30 and eventually run for governor. This was her first convention and the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin had excited and encouraged as a young female republican. See the full video of my interview with her here.
Claudio Simpkins told me that he frequently gets confused for Barack Obama, and with a beaming smile it isn't hard to understand why. From a broken home that had drugs and hardship bearing down on him it would have been easy for him to fall between the cracks of the system. Instead, Claudio rose to the challenge and is now at Harvard Law School. He has a deep passion to give back to his community with no real immediate enthusiasm about running for office. It doesn't stop him from having a little fun when people ask his friends "Wait... Is that? Is that him!?" See the full interview of him here.
Richard Ivory came up to my cafe table asking if we could share it because there weren't any others around. We introduced ourselves and I knew instantly that we were allies in the youth movement. Richard started HipHopRepublican in attempts to bring more youth to politics on his side of the partisan divide. Republicans aren't popular in New York City and Richard describes himself as a moderate who is heavily influenced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose campaign he worked on. After talking issues with Richard, I couldn't help think that in the Bible-Belt he would be a Democrat... but decided not to alienate him.
It was Richard that guided me to some of these most remarkable people that I met while at the RNC. A majority of the time I spent with Richard was with him shouting and running after passers by who he thought would be good for me to talk to.
Richard is up to his chin in hope for the youth movement to gain traction in the GOP. His connectivity and tenacity are honorable and unbelievable, but his friendliness and hope for his party's future is what brings people to him. Along with his friends and colleagues he hopes to bring the GOP into the new century where the party is more reflective of our country in race, in gender, and in age. It is with this kind of community Richard thinks they can sustain their party.
While I certainly don't agree with them on a lot of issues, if there's were the faces of the GOP it would be a lot more difficult for opposition to succeed. CE and Brett, the co-authors of the new book Why You're Wrong About the Right think, however, that the old white stereotype is not the reality. They see when looking at their friends. CE tells me she has a good time, goes out, parties, goes to ball games. She's not an old fuddy duddy like some of the delegates seen on the floor night after night. See the full interview with these two co-authors here.
She is clearly a strong, polished, and well educated young woman who remembers with clarity Bill Clinton's outreach at the MTV/Rock the Vote candidate forum in 1992 where the famous Boxer or Briefs question was asked. CE says the mere outreach by him was a huge step for a politician to make, and she's surprised that there haven't been any republicans since take on similar forms of outreach. The book presents photos and interviews with those who don't fit the traditional appearance of the GOP. Youthful and minority faces shine from the pages as the argument is presented that not everyone is old and white.
The others would say that its just most of them.
Embedded through the links above are the entire interviews of these remarkable young people, and below is my comprehensive clips and soundbites of their comments. Also see my interview with Armstrong Williams, conservative talk radio host about these topics. I'll continue to upload videos as I render them.
Tuesday was the day of the Ron Paul Revolution transition into the new Campaign for Liberty headed by former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul from Texas. Over 12,000 people attended the rally some from as far away as Georgia and New York who all drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota just to take part in the finally of the campaign.
Many young people were in attendance who expressed their disenchantment with the two party system, the war in Iraq, health care, and more.
The Convention was designed as a counter convention to the Republican National Convention across the Mississippi in St. Paul, Minnesota where they say their Revolution Continues. A major component the Campaign for Liberty lists is to gain a "foothold in political life at every level of government by expanding our precinct leader program."
Below is a quick video compilation of some interviews I did and what it was like in the event on Tuesday night. It was filled with a lot of great energy and enthusiasm as you'll see.
The first day of the Republican Convention may have been stifled by the hurricane in the gulf, but protesters refused to let it stop their message. Whether anti-war, pro-universal health care, pro-choice, anti-choice, or anti-government in general, protesters packed the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota hoping to impact convention goers.
The events were mostly peaceful but a small group of anarchists broke out store windows, police car windows, slashed tires, and caused a general ruckus.
One RNC official at the press and media check in expressed his disappointment in police who allowed much of the destruction. But one former 70's war protester who joined the events today said the police were much calmer than those in the 60's and 70's who he said were less patient. There were, however, live streaming videos of police shooting tear gas into crowds, shooting people with rubber bullets, and huge blanket arrests. Despite those events, reports were that only 150 had been arrested, no word on how many have been detained.
One thing is for sure, the use of policy and national guard troops was much more present on the streets of St. Paul than in Denver. While at the DNC convention, security was limited mostly to the parameter, many police and guard troops kept to the streets. There were minor injuries, many journalists were accidentally gassed including former campaign manager for Vice President Al Gore and CNN Consultant Donna Brazil, Democracy NOW reporter Amy Goodman was arrested, and many journalists were detained until they could prove they were official media.
No word on whether these protests will continue throughout the course of the Republican Convention.
Even though Trojan Condoms launched its Evolve America tour last April, the safer sex campaign still made quite an appearance at both the Democratic and Republican Conventions. Calling it the "condomvention" Trojan's bus rolled into Denver, Colorado for a huge party the first night of the festivities.
