Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Politics 2008: The Media Conference for the Election of the President Tuesday, October 14 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Session II The Digital Election: The Activist System and the Political Blogosphere Ed McFadden, Advisor - Speechwriter, Sen. Fred Thompson, Director, Corporate New Media Strategy, Verizon Jonathan Martin, Reporter, Politico Jon Henke, Blogger, The Next Right Nathan Daschle, Executive Director, Democratic Governors Association Liba Rubenstein, Manager and Co-founder, IMPACT/Public Affairs, MySpace Pete Snyder, Founder & CEO, New Media Strategies, Inc., (Media consultant to Rudy Giuliani), Moderator Jonathan Martin, Reporter, Politico: Jonathan Martin has had "a fever" for politics, government, public affairs and history from an early age. Martin grew up in a family that took subscriptions to all three weekly news magazines and he was subjected to a vacation diet of battlefields, museums and other landmarks of historic note. Thus imbued with a deep curiosity about The American Experience -- not to mention a working knowledge of every significant National Park Service-run property along the eastern seaboard -- he initially pursued a career in politics and government.Dissatisfied with the ideological and professional constraints of such work, Martin's passion for the "how and the why" naturally led him to a track where he could write, report and think about his passions (some may say obsessions). Martin comes to Politico from National Review, where he wrote about politics for the magazine and the Web site. Prior to that, he worked for The Hotline covering topics ranging from gubernatorial contests to congressional leadership battles. He writes a blog about the candidates for the 2008 Republican nomination for Politico. A Virginian, Martin is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. In his free time, Martin enjoys C-SPAN, thumbing through random sections of What It Takes, reading profiles of obscure House members inThe Almanac of American Politics and devouring regional American cuisine. Martin will cover the 2008 presidential campaign for Politico, and hopes to record and explain this history with the same zeal that led his parents to intersperse his Berenstein Bears volumes with biographies of Kit Carson and William Henry Harrison. Nathan Daschle is the Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA). He previously served as the DGA’s Counsel and Director of Policy. Nathan came to the DGA in July 2005 from the law firm of Covington and Burling, where he was an associate in the litigation practice group. Nathan has also served in the legislative affairs office of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Prior to this, he worked on the 1996 U.S. Senate campaign of Tom Strickland (CO). In July 2006, Nathan was named as one of Washington’s “40 Top Lawyers Under 40” by Washingtonian magazine. Nathan received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2002 and his B.A., with distinction, from Northwestern University in 1995. He is married to Jill Daschle and has two sons, Henry and Truman Pete Snyder, Founder and CEO, New Media Strategies, Inc.: Pete is the Founder and CEO of New Media Strategies, the industry pioneer and market leader in Online Intelligence and Word of Mouth marketing, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Drawing on his background as a nationally known pollster and a media consultant, Pete founded New Media Strategies in 1999, and in doing so created an entirely new industry in Online Intelligence and Word of Mouth marketing. For three years in a row, New Media Strategies was named to the “Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America,” by Inc. Magazine. Proving that a company can achieve fast growth, profitability, and create a winning corporate culture, both Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Business Journal twice named New Media Strategies as one of the area’s “Best Places to Work." Additionally, Pete was honored by Fortune Small Business for his innovative management-style when they named him “2006 Best Boss.” Over the past nine years years, Pete has guided New Media Strategies as CEO, building a blue-chip client base that features some of the best known brands and corporations in the world, including among others: ABC, Boston Beer Company, Burger King Corporation, CBS, Chanel, Coca-Cola, Disney, Dodge, EA, Ford Motor Company, HBO, Jeep, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Northwest Airlines, Paramount Pictures, PepsiCo, RCA Records, Red Bull, Reebok, Revlon, Sci-Fi Channel, Sony, USA Network, and Wyeth. NMS’ record of real results for our clients speaks for itself, for in 2007 NMS helped market twenty-five feature films that hit the top spot at the box office. National media have taken notice. Ad Age, Ad Week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bloomberg, Brandweek, Businessweek, The Chicago Tribune, The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Daily News, The South China Post , The Sydney Morning Herald, Variety, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Washington Business Journal have covered Pete and New Media Strategies. A former political media consultant and a pollster to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Pete regularly appears as a commentator on the Fox News Channel and he can been seen every Tuesday morning on Fox News’ “Happening Now.” Pete has also served as a marketing and political expert on CNBC, The News with Brian Williams, the CBS Evening News, Fox News Channel’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hannity and Colmes and Fox and Friends. Pete and his wife, Burson, reside in McLean, Virginia. Ed McFadden has seen the media from several different perspectives and remains unsure of exactly which angle he prefers. He started his career in journalism, serving as an editorial writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe, where, among other stories, he covered the momentous changes in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He would later serve as a reporter for Thomson Financial, covering Congress with a focus on tax and public-financing issues, and as a Washington-based editor for Reader’s Digest, working with such writers as Robert Novak and Michael Barone. As well, he initiated the magazine’s foray into broadcast journalism, directing joint editorial projects with CBS News and ABC News, among others. More recently, he served as chief speechwriter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, also serving on the Department of Justice’s task force on intellectual property. In 2005 he joined Verizon Communications, where today he is the director of corporate new media strategy. In February 2007 Ed (in an unpaid role), along with media consultant Mark Corallo, started working with former Sen. Fred Thompson, and is in-part credited with developing the online strategy that jumpstarted Thompson’s presidential campaign, the highlight of which was getting cold-called by Jonathan Martin. Ed continues to serve as an adviser to Senator Thompson, as well as serving as a volunteer writer for the Republican National Committee and an informal adviser to the House Republican Policy Committee. Ed is a graduate of the University of San Francisco and Stanford University’s professional track publishing/new media program. He has also served as a writer and editor for several books, including, Cisco Unauthorized: Inside the High Stakes Race to Own the Future and The History of Wine in America.