Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Does Barack Obama a Favor

Today Barack Obama is making his third stop in Michigan this month and his first stop in Detroit. Detroit is a regional democratic strong hold and could be instrumental for the democrats taking the state in the general election. Kwame Kilpatrick is Detroit youngest Mayor ever elected (at age 31) and he is currently embattled in a scandal that will most likely bring him down. Kwame shares many similarities to Barack; both are young black democrats with meteoric career paths. Barack hopes that the similarities, associations and any comparisons end there. Kwame is political poison and his support would be as helpful as a Bin Laden endorsement. Association between Kwame and Barrack are the equivalent to tying McCain to George W. Bush. Kwame did do Barack a huge favor though, he won’t be attending Barack’s Detroit rally. If you’re wondering why, just do a Google search for Barack Obama then do one for Kwame Kilpatrick. There is a vast difference; Barrack commands the first page with a positive crafted message while Kwame is plagued with scandal headlines.

So the reason Barack doesn’t want a photo op with Kwame, is the Google results? Well, not exactly, there is the fact that “the hip-hop mayor” is involved in the most comical sex scandal this year (except perhaps Spitzers). Kwame denied a relationship with his Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, 37 but was ousted for lying under oath when the text messages from his city owned phone where made public. See if you think the text messages below contradict his sworn testimony that he did not have sexual relations with Beatty (I personally love the LOL’s from the mayor). I will give Kwame a little credit though; at least he did Barack a favor and didn’t hurt him like his self promoting pastor.

WHAT THE KWAMI TEXT MESSAGES SHOW:
9/12/02, 10:38 p.m., during trip to Washington, D.C.
Christine Beatty: Can I just come and lay down in your room until you get back?
Kwame Kilpatrick: Yes.
9/13/02, 9:02 a.m. (the next morning)
KK: They were right outside the door. They [the mayor's bodyguards] had to have heard everything…
CB: So we are officially busted! LOL
KK: LOL LOL! Damn that. Never busted. Busted is what you see! LOL. …
CB: LOL, LOL. Damn, so they have to walk in before you conceed busted! LOL.
KK: Hell yeah. Walk in.
9/15/02, 3:38 a.m. (still in Washington)
CB: I’m on my way to your room now. But by the time you get there I’ll be sleep and it will be 5am!
KK: I got something for you.
CB: LOL. Is that so? I’m in your room. Don’t let Mike check it [an apparent reference to Mike Martin, a bodyguard who often traveled with the mayor]. Are you in route or still hanging? What do you have for me?
9/24/2002, 6:56 p.m.
CB: This is one of those little things I had to tell you. Last night when I was laying on your shoulder in the car and you held my face and sang whatever song it was, that felt so good. It was just one of those little moments when you just made me fall some more.
9/28/2002, 11:53 p.m.
CB: Where are you now?
KK: At home waiting for all EP [executive protection unit officers] to leave. Where are you?
CB: At the residence inn in Madison hgts.
KK: What rm?
CB: …I’m in room 311 in bldg 3 in the back.
10/7/2002, 11:20 p.m.
CB: OK, I’m feeling like I want another night like the most recent Saturday at the Residence Inn! You made me feel so damn good that night. As you can see I can’t let it go! …
KK: I feel that we can do that in WV [West Virginia] + just relax together. I need you soooo bad. I want to wake up in the morning and you are there. Make it happen. Love ya.
10/8/2002, 10:18 a.m.
KK: I’m fine. Need a break. I want to get out of town w/you. Check on resorts outside of Houston.
10/16/02, 11:48 p.m.
KK: I’ve been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days…relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.
10/31/2002, 5:28 p.m.
KK: I’ll feel better once I’m holding you.
CB: You didn’t say whether or not we are trying for some time tonight.
KK: Definitely. I’m getting a room. Damn that!
CB: LOL. Okie dokie.
(Kilpatrick later tells her to pick up room key at Marriott)
11/1/2002, 12:28 a.m.
KK: 6301 or 6302?
CB: Definitely 6302! 6301 has two double beds.
4/8/2003, 8:55 p.m.
KK: I’m at Laker game. The security doesn’t believe I’m mayor. Mike is pulling out all kind of shirt to prove it.
CB: And, did you miss me, sexually?
KK: Hell yeah! You couldn’t tell. I want some more. Don’t sleep!
5/5/2003, midnight
KK: That’s the first time that I couldn’t fully seduce you. My game is off. LOL! Thanx for the conversation and the QT! Love you!
CB: LOL! Your game is way on baby! “you had me at hello!” Jerry McGuire 2000. LOL. I just didn’t want to get caught.

A while back Britney Spears walked into a barber shop and shaved her head. The photographers where right there and of course the pictures would soon end up online. What a crazy chick right? She must be really screwed in that bald head! Before that she had accidentally flashed a private part to the paparazzi and exposed, (excuse the ludeness) a shaved part of her anatomy due to a lack of underwear and some good upskirt photography. What an idiot!

Well not so fast, maybe she just got a little advice on SEO and PR (public relations, not page rank) and realized that she could bury the pictures of her shaved private part with the new pictures of her shaved head. Searches for ‘Bald Britney ‘ images and ‘Shaved Britney ‘ images would then produce the pictures of her at the barber shop not the club. Now I may be assonated for revealing this to the world about the pop star, but it demonstrates a good point, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has a role to play in public relations. This doesn’t clear Britney from being completely nuts, but it shows that unwanted press can and is buried through strategic planning. Companies that receive bad publicity often wisely release their own versions of events along with other materials that flood the search engines burying the bad news. This isn’t really misinformation, but more like over whelming the information outlet. Politicians have been accused of this for years; they call it wagging the dog, or in Bush’s case it’s gay marriage instead of a haircut. It’s the same thing as in SEO, if there is something people are paying attention to that you don’t want them to (like the war in Iraq in the Bush example) simply point at something else and start yelling “Hey! Look over there!”. When done correctly, by a genius like Britney, only an isolated Michigan SEO blogger notices… when someone that isn’t quite as sharp like, say President Bush does it though it can be less effective. Regardless, there is a lesson here for all companies and people that want to manage their brand online, everyone is going to get slammed on the net, so make sure the slams don’t get top page ranks on the search engines. Throw a hay stack on that needle.

The business environment in Michigan is without a doubt depressed. Presidential candidates have called it a one state recession and butted heads debating if the auto jobs will ever return and they probably won’t any time soon. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and heavily dependent on manufacturing jobs at a time when they are being rapidly outsourced to the developing world. Michigan is down but not out though, with a long history of innovation and an educated work force Michigan has the opportunity to reinvent itself as a technology leader. Michigan’s governor Jennifer Grandholm has suggested that we lead the nation in green technologies; others have suggested that short sited auto executives move their focus from hummers to hybrids. Other experts have suggested nanotechnology and biotech. However, high tech companies have been thriving in Michigan for years though, Troy is known for its miniature Silicon Valley technology center and midland has housed Dow Chemicals for decades. Two new high tech firms have chose Ann Arbor, High Tech Firms MyBuys and Sakti3, for their locations. MyBuys is a California based personalized product recommendation company and Sakti3 will be producing batteries. I find it very interesting and refreshing that MyBuys has chose to invest 5.4 million in their Michigan location, since like many others I have a pet direction that I feel Michigan should diversify into in the area of internet marketing and ecommerce. This is the niche I dwell in and I would like to see the state I dwell in become a major player in the area as well. Perhaps we can have a major SEO or search conference hosted in Michigan, after all Chicago, Los Vegas and New York are going to get boring. Obviously there are many areas in technology though; it’s just nice to see web marketing joining in the diversification. In 2007 Michigan was ranked 10th for cyberstates, a ranking devised to show the quantity of high tech jobs per state, California, Florida and Georgia took the top positions, for now.