CNN iReport

White House political strategist David Axelrod appeared in a mixed reality event in SecondLife, after a day of intense Pakistan strategy discussions with President Obama's inner circle.  Hosted by the University of Delaware on October 7th, Axelrod's entire presentation, interview and Q&A session was simulcast into SecondLife (SL). The real life event host, communications Professor Ralph Begleiter, announced, "We are casting this [event] into Second Life, but I won't spring that on you [David]." To which Axelrod replied with a joke about the Marx brothers, "this is so simple even a four year old could understand it... somebody find a four year old..." because I can't make heads nor tails of it.

University of Delaware Provost Tom Apple (Picture 5) made the formal introduction, summarizing Alexrod's biography.

Alexrod shared many stories about President Barak Obama on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008. The campaign started with 8 people in a room in Chicago with no money and no outsiders believing that they had any chance. Alexrod said "no matter how much confidence you have [in your candidate], until you see them under that relentless press, you don't know them."

Alexrod commented primarily about US healthcare reform, but also strayed into current affairs, including the economy. He said about the stimulus bill, "a third of it was to help people trapped in recession..." a third to help state and local governments... and a third to fund infrastructure projects. About unemployment, Alexrod stated. "it is a difficult time...." when President Obama came into office 700K jobs were lost per month, then 400K, and lately 250K. And he mentioned that there is a new GI bill that will help returning veterans.

Over 40 SL avatars attended the event (Picture 3), including several famous SL political activists from Netroots Nation, Virtually Speaking, Imagine Network, and other SL activities. Shown in the picture from left to right are Chester Digfoot, Oronoque Westland, Emerald Charming, Melva Juran, Michele Mrigesh, Florenze Kerensky, German Guru, Russell F Comsys, Trinity Coulter, Marty Snowpaw, Magros Zapatero, Marcel Rydell, and Zenobia Kronfeld.

Firery Broome (Picture 4) organized the Second Life event for University of Delaware. She did an outstanding job streaming RL video into SL by streaming off a web page, and was very helpful in general providing background information for this story.

A college student attending Alexrod's event in SL, Yoda Xenga said, "I am a graduate student and future history instructor.  I am looking at second life as a future teaching tool."

I was able to interview several of the audience members about their expectations for David Alexrod and feelings about current issues. There seemed to be quite a lot of interest in foreign affairs, particularly Afghanistan, with October 7th being the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Operation Enduring Freedom, the war in Afghanistan.

The people at the real life (RL) event were told that the focus would be US healthcare reform, and they mostly asked questions about this topic. The mood and expectations in SL were quite different. Foreign affairs and especially Afghanistan were on people's minds. Susi Spicoli (Picture 6) and Manny Garnburg (Picture 7) were particularly outspoken in public SL chat opposing the occupation of Afghanistan.

In addition, several others attending the Axelrod event had comments to share about Afghanistan.

Audience member Gryff Richard said, "Axelrod is smart guy... Afghanistan ....[we] need to get out of there ... is a mess while US and NATO are seen as occupiers - all we do is increase animosity... there is no military solution in the traditional sense... Al-Qaeda will just move [to] Somalia... and Taliban they live there [and] won't go away."

Birdie Newcomb commented, "We could have friends over there [Afghanistan], but they have to see us as invaders, occupiers, or maybe just another bandit warlord. What is it that they see when they see us? Pretty frightening. Axelrod is a politico -- but I don't know how experienced he is about other cultures."

German Guru (Picture 8) said "they have not explained at all why they are in Afghanistan, number one, and number 2 what the objective is.. plus it's just plain stupid.  medieval war lords, that you can rent but not buy... so it seems a giant waste of resources.  I loved what Obama came in to do.  But getting bogged down in Afghanistan could distract and become a disaster. But main point is nobody has given a credible story why US or others are there."

Kelvin Glimmer at the Alexrod event, also commented about Afghanistan, "Ask the Russian  people what they should have done after 1980... it is like asking from where does the wind come from."

On a light note, one could have entitled this article, "White House Strategist meets Flying Spaghetti Monster." lol One of the most remarkable SL avatars at the Axelrod event was donned by Emerald Charming. Resembling a large white alien spider (Picture 3), I wondered what she was on about. Emerald explains her outfit, "The Flying Spaghetti Monster is not a spider, He is our Creator. There's a good Wikipedia article about Him if you'd like to know more about our Maker," Indeed, FSM is the deity of the parody religion Pastafarianism (Picture 9). More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

About the Event Speakers

Event host and interviewer Ralph Begleiter (Pictures 1 and 10 left) is University of Delaware's Edward and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Communication and Distinguished Journalist in Residence. His background includes a lengthy CNN career as world affairs correspondent, and current host of the US Public Broadcasting Service show "Great Decisions."

Before joining the Obama administration, David Axelrod (Pictures 1 and 10 right) served as senior adviser to the Obama-Biden presidential transition and senior strategist to Obama's campaign for the presidency. From 1988 until 2009, Axelrod was senior partner at the political consulting firm AKP&D and principal of ASK Public Strategies, a communications professor , a campaign consultant, philanthropic fund raiser, and a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
See his biography on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axelrod