In today’s show, we continue on our Twitter kick. Last week, we had David All, a conservative new media strategist, on to discuss how conservatives are winning the Twitter war and why it’s essential that they do. Today, we’ve got Jim Gilliam, co-founder of Brave New Films and Chief Technology Officer of Business.com, who recently created Tweetprogress.us, a directory of progressive tweeters and a place where people can be mentored in Twitter politics. Can progressives come back in the Twitter war? Is it important to people like Jim to push the #p2 hashtag? Is competition as much a part of the progressives on Twitter as it is for the conservatives? Jim makes some good points about the driving forces in elections; how the 2004 election was driven by blogs, how 2008 was driven by video, and how he believes 2012 will be driven by Twitter. A curious thought, sir, but can you imagine Mitt Romney twittering about his magic underpants in 2012? Hmm.

With the end of the August recess, the word is that President Obama is considering giving a major speech to Congress, outlining his healthcare demands. Oh yeah, and the public option might not be on the table. How disappointed are you if you’re a progressive right now? Does it feel odd to be agreeing with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? I feel dirty, personally. But why is this happening? Is it Rahm Emanuel? His appointment was a big change in tone from the campaign, and putting such a hard-ball abrasive guy at the forefront of healthcare reform might have been a huge mistake.

While the administration is trying to get back to its roots, with the president holding a charming “huddle” with Organizing for America last week, Maegan believes Obama needs to get back online and start speaking to his people directly. Youtube it, baby! Also, it might help not to lump all young people together (college students and young professionals do not have the same priorities, yet they are both “young”) and to ask people to do more than just provide community service. Ted believes a big problem here is that Obama underestimated the trust factor – people don’t trust the government after eight years of blunders – and the voters aren’t too comfy with all these giant new government programs he’s pushing.

Finally, we touch on Glenn Beck, who thoughtfully decided to call Obama a racist, and how this fine, upstanding boy scout could be the future face of the Republican Party; but that’s probably a bad idea. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawplenty, however, both seem to be poised to reposition themselves as potential leaders for 2012 over such populist politicians as Mike Huckabee. Time to start watching the Iowa papers, everyone!

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

It’s Tea-Bagging-Tea-Party-Glenn-Beck’s-Birthday-Day! Everyone’s going wild about getting tea-bagged today, with parties taking place in major cities all across the country to protest Obama raising taxes and bailing out Wall Street. But what’s interesting to us is how all this is being organized. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have turned into a huge organizing tool for this group, with #teaparty trending to the top of Twitter’s search. So here’s the big question: how should new technologies, like Twitter and Facebook, be used in campaigns, and how should they be used in government?

Adriel Hampton, a news commentator, new media pundit, and investigator with the San Francisco DA Office, is running for Congress in California’s 10th Congressional District and he joins our hosts Ted Johnson and Maegan Carberry to talk twitter and populism, how the mainstream media has mostly ignored the tea parties, and how government shouldn’t waste this activist energy, no matter which party it belongs to. What’s with Obama stopping his twitter feed just because he’s not in office? Doesn’t that show how the administration isn’t being engaged technologically? Can the Republicans really take this populist “revolt” and somehow organize it for the next election? We also get a friendly call from Steve, a fellow BlogTalkRadio, wondering why the media isn’t taking the tea-bag parties seriously?

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.