"Erin Kotecki Vest spent ten years as a broadcast journalist in Los Angeles, Orlando and Detroit winning six Golden Mic Awards with LA news institution KFWB. She now serves as Political Director and Election 08 Producer for BlogHer.com as well as contributing regularly to the Huffington Post, MOMocrats.com, and her own site Queen of Spain Blog."
On her blog she said,
"I wasn’t supposed to be doing the interview."
"I shopped at the Eugene, Oregon Target at 8pm Friday night for camera-ready clothes, notecards, and hairspray."
"I met the Senator from Illinois in the hallway of Roseburg High School while he was on his way to use the rest room. I know this. He told me so."
Our ooVoo conversation started with Jill asking the Erin how she prepared. Erin said the Blogher community drafted collected the 12 questions which were not secret so there was no fear of being ambushed. Each candidate would have time to prepare and this made it easy for to do interview. She counted her blessings and didn't have to go crazy. The on-camera interview was conducted in Roseburg, Oregon, by Erin with input from Contributing Editor Kim Pearson. She got through 7 of the 12 questions in the 10 minutes and on her blog she said, "This interview was not a surprise investigation by us. We’ve had these questions on the record since the BlogHer conference last July. So I knew this was not going to be a ‘follow up question’ or ‘on the spot attack’ type of interview. That helped. Back in the day I would have been plotting 40 follow ups and 40 different takes on those follow ups depending on his answers."
I asked Erin of the politicians she's interview who seemed the most sincere. She said Obama was the most genuine she ever met, he's charismatic, he had no handlers, was not so scripted or protected with every word out of his mouth and that was a relief for her. Momocrats said when Obama speaks and does his "ums" he reminds you of that college professor that was a little absent minded, but you saw the wheels spinning, watched the gears go and you see how brilliant he is.
The blogging community is growing she said and high profile people like Michelle Obama are now blogging on Blogher. When asked how could McCain supporters could be engaged she said she's not sure how to get them to support Obama and she's not trying to change their minds. Her biggest worry is the undecided voters and independents.
On her blog she said, "I love being a blogger. I love being a blogher. I love that after I interviewed the man who very well could make history I could tell you this story, and scream and cry. Years ago I could never have done that." Now they call her for interviews and she doesn't wait their call. Although she said she's still hasn't heard from McCain's people.
Once again our ooVoo time was up and Erin had to go. Her humor, fun spirit and passion for the political process and citizen activism was a real inspiration and 30 minutes of conversation was not enough. So after our ooVoo chat ended I logged onto Erin's Sunday Inquisition show and couldn't help but notice that Jill and Digitalsista were there too.
The main topic of that broadcast was about Lee Stranahan and how he's been banned from posting at Daily Kos, a liberal political blog after he started talking about the John Edwards scandal which finally broke on mainstream news yesterday. There was a lively and energetic discussion and Stranahan joined to share his side of the story. He said has been doing short video parodies on YouTube since December and cross posting on Kos 2-3 months ago starting posting on Huffington post doing comedy. He's been looking at Edwards scandal and his post, Say It Ain't So, John -- Why Progressives Need To Get Out In Front Of The John Edwards Affair Rumors 180,000 views, went viral, hugely viral. He thought he made his point clear that he was a progressive democrat and wasn't prepared for all the harshness and extreme backlash.
Related links:
- BlogHer EXCLUSIVE: Barack Obama answers policy questions from women who blog (Video) | BlogHer
- Erin Kotecki Vest Meets Senator Barack Obama, Part One
- Erin Kotecki Vest Meets Senator Barack Obama, Part Two
- Erin Kotecki Vest - The Huffington Post
- Erin Kotecki Vest: Banning Bloggers -- I've Heard Enough Singing From the NetRoots
- My Left Wing:: Irrefutable Proof Of The John Edwards Scandal
- Lee Stranahan: John Edwards Needs To Stop Taking The Fall!
