I have a number of blogs and on this one, I vowed that I would keep it dedicated to social media. Today, after being beaten down by Obama supporters in the Obama-dominated Twitter community, I decided to hell with it. This is my blog, under my name and I'm going to write about something that has completely affected my life.

And then I read this. And Amy said everything I was thinking and more. So, without any hesitation, I'm giving her words another screen. My screen.

The following is a post by Citizen Mom:

You're Damn Right I'm Bitter

BY AMY Z. QUINN

Yes, it smarts.

Yes, I'm angry and disappointed today.

And yes, I'll still vote for Barack Obama in November. But you should understand why I'm not feeling great about it this morning.

Now that it's over, now that everybody's been able to run their ecstatic headlines, can we all just admit that the MSM and the Yes! We! Can!-crazed online world had a deep desire to see Obama win, if only so everyone can soak in the aura of the New Kennedy or the first black president or the generational shift, or to have anything but the Clintons to write and talk about for another four or eight years?

Hillary Clinton's announcement in her speech Tuesday night that she would be neither conceding nor endorsing Obama just yet seems to have mystified or angered a lot of people. Even my respected colleague Will Bunch seems to have got it very, very wrong.

Here's what that non-concession sounded like to my ears: Obama may have garnered a sufficient number of delegates to secure a historic nomination for the presidency. He may even beat John McCain, with the support of many Democrats who cast their primary ballots for Clinton -- including me. But he certainly hasn't "won" my vote.

Because for weeks now, I've watched Clinton rack up decisive wins in key battleground states, securing blocks of voters Obama will desperately need in November. Then I listened as each of those victories was called meaningless, simply unneeded because some formula spelled out in the daily Obama campaign email and understood only by cable news anchors had already determined that "mathematically, she can't win."

I heard the voters who chose Clinton in Pennsylvania dispatched with the descriptor "blue-collar whites," which is a polite way of calling someone of a certain socioeconomic status -- my parents, I guess -- some uneducated racist white trash. Or in the case of West Virginia, Dogpatch hillbillies who shouldn't even be allowed to vote.

Was that elitism, or just politics? I can't decide, but I'm damn sure that's what Clinton was talking about when demanded for "the 18 million people who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, and to no longer be invisible."

I watched, with genuine emotion and pride in our country, as women born before women had the right to vote cast their ballot for Clinton, then be lumped in with the rest of the women who were voting with their vaginas. At the same time I read African-Americans only a few generations removed from segregation talk about how moving it was for them to cast a vote for Obama, and saw many black superdelegates who had supported Clinton for years simply switch their allegiance, yet never be accused of "voting race." I read story after story about how the popular vote didn't matter anyway, because the coming tidal wave of superdelegate endorsements would put Obama over the top. How she might as well just drop out now and stop all this nonsense.

I was still waiting for that tidal wave of endorsements Tuesday night when Obama staggered across the finish line, at the last possible second, as the last votes were being tallied in the last states to hold their primaries. This is a mandate?

For weeks I've listened to Clinton be accused of tearing the Democratic party asunder -- of damaging democracy itself -- by winning. I've heard her viciously criticized for attempting to deny Obama, so clearly a special, once-in-a-lifetime candidate, his destiny by being obstructionist enough to win as many, and often more, votes as he. I watched TV pundits driven to near-maniacal ranting because Clinton had the astounding arrogance to inspire as many people to believe in her ability and experience as believe in Obama's magical historical mandate.

Was that sexism, or just politics? I'm not sure, but I do know that Keith Olbermann can bite me.

Last Saturday, I watched the DNC Rules Committee grudgingly give Clinton half of what she fairly won in Florida, and penalize her -- stripping her of delegates -- in Michigan, then give them to a candidate who chose not to have his name on the ballot. I watched startling assumptions, obviously designed to benefit Obama, be made about the true intentions of thousands of people in Michigan who had already made a choice by voting Undecided. Hell, there weren't even any dangling chads to go by, just exit polls and the desire for it all to be over already.

As for former President Clinton, yes, dude was off the hook at times, but be clear about the fact that he was often absolutely correct. Many in the media were already against Hillary even before they fell so giddily in love with Obama. Obama's campaign did allow others to do their dirty work, and Obama's half-hearted attempt to distance himself from the hate being preached at his church was, in fact, pretty damn slimy.

Some of Obama's most passionate (and annoying) supporters refuse to believe -- simply cannot fathom -- that their guy would lower himself to engage in time-tested street politics like good old-fashioned shit talk. Look, when I first heard about that Rev. Pfleger thing, even I was like "Oh come on, where did they dig this one up?" I kind of agreed with Obama's dismissal of the whole thing as gotcha politicking.

Then I realized this wasn't some nugget culled from the nether regions of YouTube: This shit happened two weeks ago. And if we're going by the reaction of Obama's (now-former) fellow congregants at Trinity United who clapped, cheered, leaped to their feet to express their enthusiastic agreement with a Catholic priest who stood in their consecrated space mocking Clinton's ambition as disgusting entitlement, her desire to win as some racist inability to believe that a black man would dare to defy her, well, then it's hardly she or her supporters who are playing any race cards.

Was that sexism at work, or just politics?

It was certainly repulsive to me as a Christian. Offensive to me as a woman.

But mostly today, it's all just disturbing to me as a Democrat, who will now be expected to shut up and fall into line behind Obama. Talk about a massive sense of entitlement.

While twitter is down for me (argh!), I'll share some content that stole my heart today.

Straight outta Philly, kickin' everyone and everything in its way, is Shmitten Kitten. A friend at work dropped the URL while we were chatting today, thinking I'd seen it. I logged on only to have my mind blown. It's genius. And I'm not just saying that because one of it's creators and bloggers happens to be my friend Anna and her friend, Shannon. I love me some pop culture and these girls are serving it up fresh..

Expect to see and hear a lot more from Shmitten Kitten.
*~*
Elsewhere in the blogosphere...thanks to Dave Parmet for the shout out on his blog for my agency Red Tettemer AND for raving about our client The Franklin, which he had long standing plans & tickets to see their Star Wars exhibit. And that was none of my doing. I swear! He just *loves* The Franklin! And really, why wouldn't you? The museum is outstanding:) In fairness, Philly is filled with great museums, such as: The Please Touch Museum for kids/families (soon moving to a much larger space this fall), The Brandywine Museum (which I *adore* - I am a Andrew Wyeth FANATIC), The Barnes (expected to move into the City of Philadelphia in the next few years), the PMA (immortalized by Rocky), the fascinating medical oddity Mutter Museum, the Rodin Museum and so many more. Visit them all. They are wonderful.

This new version of Firefox totally blows. It's not showing the background of my twitter page on my PC (works on my mac) and it doesn't pull up my blog (this one right here, if you can get to it and read it!) on either PC or mac.Firefox, please get better! We rely on you!

Today I'm loving the Twitter companion app Who Should I Follow, in which you plug your Twitter username it gives you suggestions of other twitizens who may be of interest to you. (hat tip to twitter pal, Laura Fitton for that gem.)

I'm also one of the beta users of new mobile/web app Brightkite, a "location-based social network" where you "track your friends" (not as creepy as that sounds in real life, I swear!), "see where your friends are and what they're up to, in real time" and "meet people around you."

It is cool. Today I meet via text, someone else who works in my office building. That was novel. What I wish it had, was the functionality of my beloved and much missed Dodgeball, which a huge group of my friends used in NYC and we could see where we all were as we bar hopped or dined and often, meet up later at the same location by texting where hanging out throughout an evening. In NYC, where bar hopping is the norm and the options are endless, dodgeball was a great way to meet up with more and more friends throughout the night, or keep at-home friends posted on our whereabouts and potentially persuade them, via our Dodgeballs, that they were missing out on a great time and lure them out to meet us. In Philly, I didn't find much of a Dodgeball community when I moved here, which was disappointing, but alleviated by the robustness of our tweeters.

I have high hopes for Brightkite as a Dodgeball place filler for me. I'll keep you posted!

Do you love this SouthPark clip as much as I do?



I will admit, I kept thinking, doesn't anyone in SouthPark have EVDO?

And local blogger-slash-fellow smores lover (long story), Citizen Mom, captures the photo of the night here in Primary Central aka Philadelphia.

When I was a little girl, my mother tutored me as a toddler so that I would be prepared or even advanced when I started school. She used to patiently show me flash cards of letters and numbers, quizzing me and helping me to start reading and counting. I remember it being hard to sit still for these exercises but she was consistent and patient in tutoring me. It was during this time that I remember my Mom telling me that when I grew up, I could be anything I wanted to be. From a dogwalker to a teacher to President of the United States.

I never realized the enormous significance behind my smart, optimistic mother telling me that in the 1970's, until Hillary Clinton's speech tonight. America has had 43 Presidents in its' lifespan. That's 43 men of various creeds, economic status and ethnic backgrounds. Not one woman. And in fairness, not a black man (that we know of!), either.

Just like social media is a global movement that the US must embrace, so are candidates of change.

I know, I know, some of you who read this blog may taser me if I write another Twitter entry, but trust me, I have good reason. First, thanks to fellow Philly Blogger and Twitter friend Amy Z. Quinn for including me in a story about twitter that she filed for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

I know that companies big and small are still toeing the waters on connecting with people via CGM and social networks, having heard horror stories of bloggers and their readers that have criticized or bashed corporations online. That said, I recently had a personal experience with a major corporation actively participating in a social network so fluidly and helpfully, that I have to share the story.

Comcast, a major corporation that has taken a lump or two from unhappy customers online. (NOTE: Comcast is a client. However, I did not counsel or work on the tactic I am going to share with you. Comcast did not ask me to blog this. Nor did my employer.)

Recently, I learned that Comcast is actively using social media platforms to monitor mentions of their Brand online, when I read this incredible story by TechCrunch co-founder and blog mogul, Michael Arrington. In the blog post, (which you should read), Arrington explains how his comcast broadband went out, he called Comcast to find out what was going on, only to be told it was a California wide outage. However, when he spoke with other area friends with comcast, their cable was working, and Arrington ended up taking his laptop to work at a friend's place, which turned into a major distraction (read the story!). Frustrated, Arrington began tearing into Comcast on Twitter, and within 20 minutes of his first tweet, an executive from Comcast in Philadelphia, called him to sort out the problem.

It was, big business using social media to connect directly with customers and offer a better user experience. It is, essentially underheard of.

Since this modern day miracle last week, I have been following Comcast Customer Outreach guy Frank Eliason, the person behind the username ComcastCares on twitter. This guy is absolutely incredible. From answering questions to helping resolve appointment and billing issues, using only the 140 characters Twitter allows!, he is speaking with Comcast customers in the Twitter community promptly and like a real person. Comcast, is HEARING and RESPONDING TO, their customers by trusting one smart and reliable employee, to represent the brand and products in community. Even more incredible, is that Frank doesn't just twitter 9-5PM, he keeps the extended hours that many of use in the tech community keep, as we use the tool like our right hands.

This week, I had a comcast issue come up, but it was minor and I didn't want to bother Frank, as word has spread among the broadband-reliant community - many of whom are comcast customers and live in breathe in twitter, so speaking to comcast where they live and breathe is a dream come true. A twitter friend urged me to ask Frank about my problem and I heard back from him in under 10 minutes. He personally resolved my problem in under 24 hours, via 140 characters and a couple of follow up emails.

I applaud Comcast for being an example of how to be a valued Brand/Corp in community. You'll keep my business.

I am freshly back from Travelcom 2008 in Chicago, where I was invited to join Yahoo's panel discussion of quantifying the social media behavior of online travelers. I was invited by Yahoo's Brad King, who heard about me through Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps, whom previously interviewed me about Philadelphia's unique uwishunu social media campaign. Sarah analyzed our social media work for uwishunu and wrote about it as a case study for a new social media analysis model she/Forrester created (collaboratively with Compete Inc., I believe). Sarah used the uwishunu case study in this session and I was particularly pleased that she included the point that it was a team of people at GPTMC who made uwishunu and our social media tactics a success. A social media director is a great start for an agency or organization but it takes the dedication of a whole team to make it all work.

Also on the panel were Greg Saks from Compete and Aaron Cooper from Orbitz.

Pretty diverse group of us and it was an interesting discussion all around.
~*~
Of course, it wouldn't be a trip without a travel fiasco for me. I was caught up in the American Airlines debacle en route to Chicago. Fortunately, I had the sense to immediately call their 1-800 number as we all queued up to be rebooked and I secured one of the last seats out of Philly that night. Unfortunately, there was a lightening storm in Chicago, and my flight was forced to move on to Indianapolis, where we touched down for about an hour and eventually headed back to O'Hare for a very late arrival.

I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, a massive hotel complex, only to find that the day shift had allegedly made some mistakes with bookings that left me without my reserved room with a king-sized bed. Instead, this massive hotel complex told my tired and harried self that they had a sofabed room for me. Huh? Wha..?

Frankly, I was too tired to fight. I was too tired to hit the streets with luggage and a laptop and find another hotel after midnight. I was *speaking* at a conference in *this* hotel in the morning!

Unhappy but resigned, I sighed and asked if the sofabed was at least pulled out and made up for me. The front desk clerk assured me it was. So I schlepped with my luggage - not a bellhop in sight, even when I stepped out of the taxi at the front entrance - over a skywalk and to the West Tower.

Of course my key card didn't work for the elevator, luckily another guest arrived and his worked. I went up to my floor, 36 (the top floor, maybe there's a view!). I arrived at my floor, confused, because I stepped out and saw conference rooms. One said "Chicago Board of Trade" on it. Clearly this is not right. These aren't hotel rooms. Additionally, there was a group of security huddled around the body of a semi-conscious drunk man laying on the floor next to my room door.

Honesty, I didn't care about the drunk guy. I was TIRED. Get me a bed. I keyed into the room, and I found...a meeting room. Yes, you heard me, a meeting room. Two couches, neither are a pullout. Now I was pissed.

I called the front desk, explained my problem and they transferred me to a general voicemail for the hotel. I kid you not. I called back, asked them to please not transfer me again and explained there was no pullout in my room. The woman on the phone gaves me attitude, like I am making this UP! I asked her to just send a cot up.

The cot took about 20-25 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, I stepped into the hall and briefly chatted with security, who were still huddled around the unconscious drunk; then I fell asleep on the couch. The cot arrived with no pillows or blankets. The housekeeping man told me to take them from the closet. I found some musty pillows and blanket, wrapped a towel around the dusty pillow and used it. Basically, I reverting to tactics one might use in their 20's while staying in a European hostel.

At this pointed, I'd twittered the whole saga.

I used my phone as an alarm clock and hit the hay.

I will say, the Hyatt Regency Chicago charged me half price for the room and gave me a voucher for breakfast, but why didn't they find me a room in another Hyatt in Chicago? Or another hotel?

You can bet I won't stay at the Hyatt Regency Chicago again, even though the clerk at check out made me smile. After he apologized twice for the room ordeal, he looked at me and said, "Miss Heckenberger, I can only hope that the Eagles or the Phillies win a championship for you this year." I don't know how he knew I was from Philly, I checked in with my passport which identifies NYC as my hometown, but he won me over for a moment and I twittered that too;)