Analysis: Coffee, tea and punditry from Barbour
In the two- and three-minute clips, Barbour gives his opinions on everything from the new federal health care law to U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri, who angered people by saying women could avoid getting pregnant in cases of “legitimate rape.”
Barbour tells The Associated Press that a Washington friend approached him with the proposal for the video series as a way to reach people, unfiltered, with frequent messages before the Nov. 6 election.
Barbour writes the short scripts, and posts them to an iPad, which has a teleprompter app. He said he reads from that while someone uses an iPhone to shoot the video, which is then emailed to the Washington friend for post-production work, including adding a logo with a steaming cup of coffee. Barbour, incidentally, is not a coffee drinker himself. He likes hot tea.
Some of the videos were shot at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Barbour said some have been shot in his Ridgeland office at the Butler Snow law firm, and some in his office at BGR, the Washington lobbying firm he founded two decades ago.
The videos are posted early in the morning, usually several times a week. He said more than 100,000 subscribers receive email with a link to each new post.
“It’s a little bit of a lark,” Barbour told AP. “I hope that the Republicans who subscribe to them … will get something they consider useful.”
Emily Pettus
Daily Journal
10/1/12
Magnolia Tribune
