It's no wonder Democratic candidates can't win elections

[TrogL]

http://roger-owen-for-congress.4t.com/

Will somebody PLEASE talk to the guy?

Oh, and don't forget the spelling mistakes.

[Mz Pip]

1. He certainly could have left out

the dumpy graphics and the pictures of him cleaning out his swimming pool. :eyes:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[emulatorloo]

5. I gather he is a "swimming pool professional" so that shows that he

is a hard worker.

[Mythsaje]

2. That is one of the most amateurish websites I've ever seen...

It's not even though it's all that hard to build a decent looking, professional site yourself. I should know--I built my own.

He desperately needs to talk his 15 y.o. neighbor into building his site. Frontpage actually has a spell-checker.

Sheesh.

[emulatorloo]

3. I know people who find ugly websites "charming" and "authentic"

Hopefully he didn't pay too much for it.

But I gotta say, Green Lettering on a Black Background + badly resized JPEG clip art makes my head hurt.

[Webster Green]

13. OMFG! ......That site requires Dramamine® to view...

All the day-glo text is center aligned, making it even more ugly, no white space, or alignment, or any design principles to be found anywhere on the site. A total cluster fuck!

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. The website is uhmmmm...

Retro?

[MadMaddie]

6. OH GOOD GOD....You have to warn us....

My eyes bugged out...:wow:

I have an idea...we have some very creative people on DU don't we? Maybe we can come up with a group of volunteers to get together and offer our services to these Dems. I think this is something we could do....

Help create and update their websites-We have great designers...
Editors-We have some great writers on DU
Maybe a review board to work with the candidate....


What do you think?

[trumad]

8. Try viewing his web site with a black light

trippin dude.....

[KansDem]

7. Why?

Don't you think
this will work?

[MadMaddie]

10. Bwah....haw...haw...haww..

It might appeal to the 1 year to 10 year age group!! :rofl:

[emulatorloo]

17. Sorry - yr graphic is not Blurry enough and Too Few Compresssion Artifacts

You need to Jpeg-compress the life out of it, and then scale it up and compress it again-

[enlightenment]

9. He doesn't sound like much of a Democrat to me.

Is that the best they can come up with in Texas?

yikes.

[Katherine Brengle]

24. The only thing that struck me as other than the norm for a Dem was his

interest in reviving religious faith, and that is not really anything out of the ordinary, especially in Texas.

Did you read the whole page? A lot of what he had to say was pretty dead-on.

[enlightenment]

41. Yes, I did read the whole page.

I guess it just didn't ring very true -- sort of a libertarian swing, and then over to the right, and then back to the left.

That said, I don't live in Texas (though I have in the past) so I shouldn't judge -- and I'm a big believer in parliamentary democracy because it allows for more individual variety.

Don't know if you're in Texas -- if so, I'll keep my fingers crossed that your state winds up with many Dems elected at the local, state, and federal level. :)

[rucky]

11. Really, gawd. It SMACKS of authenticity.

we wouldn't want that in a Congressional candidate, now, would we?

:eyes:

[Trillo]

12. Regardless,

the guy is out there trying.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

14. Not Sure Why The Fuck We Feel The Need To Bash This Guy,

But whatever.

I read the site and though it isn't artistically my style I think his passion, tone and message was fine and intent was good. I see no dishonor in his site nor his running. Why we are choosing to be petty against those that are actually trying to support our side and get out there to do just that is beyond me.

I wish him luck.

[MadMaddie]

16. That's what I was saying in Post # 6

Granted I had a smart ass response...

I applaud his effort...

We have a lot of creative people here who could help if we organized.....design, editing....etc..

I am betting many of the these dems don't have a lot of money....

We have to help these candidates if they are to be successful.....

[tom_paine]

20. I agree. I also wish him luck and resent the bashing he is taking

The incumbent is Louie Gohmert, a Bushevik 'Pug.

[Katherine Brengle]

25. Agree--then aesthetics are the problem, not the guy--his ideas were

pretty good, a lot of it was the same as I would say. (There has to be a better way to write that last part of that sentence... ugh...)

[emulatorloo]

29. Point well taken n/t

[wake.up.america]

37. He seems like a "good" guy. I agree, instead of bashing, let's help him..

if he wants it.

[texastoast]

15. Everyone who made fun of the web work should

volunteer to help the guy artistically.

His message is good. Go diss a repuke site.

[Katherine Brengle]

26. Amen--not everyone is a web design wiz! n/t

[MercutioATC]

18. Is it legal to link to your private business on a campaign website?

I'm assuming (at least at some point) the campaign will get contributions. Wouldn't linking to the candidate's private business on the official campaign website be a no-no?

...and I agree with the other posters here. Horrific web site design, horrific grammar and spelling...just horrific in general.

[texastoast]

19. This is just getting worse and worse

What a bunch of uppity posters. Go run for office yourselves. And don't you dare make any mistakes or have what some people consider an ugly website. I'll be watching and dissing your uppity asses.

[Webster Green]

22. Website design critiques should be bi-partisan...

A crappy design is a crappy design.

No intense offended!

[bunkerbuster1]

21. self-delete

because texastoast is right. I guess.

[Katherine Brengle]

23. I wrote the staff an email pointing out the problems with the site and

suggesting some alternatives... we should check back in the future and see if anything changes.

I definitely understand how this could have happened though--I am working on my own site right now and without the help of a couple of very compassionate techie types, I would be up a creek. It isn't easy for someone with little computer background.

[Katherine Brengle]

31. He actually emailed me back himself--apparently he plans to fix the site

if he wins the primary. In a way it makes sense--why put in all the effort and money if he might not even be running in the general election?

Seemed like a nice enough guy...

[northofdenali]

27. His primary is in about a week -

I emailed him a good luck. I hope he takes it; even if he doesn't, I hope he checks out DU and notices those who volunteered to help with another website (I'm clueless, myself). Anyone with the courage to run as a Dem in Texas OR Alaska is worth the effort.

[tjwash]

28. So he sucks because?

His web site doesn't look good? So he is not getting a shitload of republican money dumped into his campaign and able to hire web designers to prop him up.

Or he sucks because there are pictures of him working at an obviously physically hard and demanding job and *gasp* getting his hands dirty?

It's making fun of this kind of shit that got us stuck with Arnold musclehead here in California. The problem's not his website, it's everyone's attitude that they will take any type of a turd, as long as it is packaged right, looks good on TV, and has a catchy slogan that fits on a t-shirt.

[LA lady]

30. I know the area VERY well

I used to live there. It's all bad news:

http://theleftnut.blogspot.com/

"Now, as the primaries get underway, Democrats pound their heads against a wall trying to figure why we can't get a decent contender for the race. The previous favorite for the Dem ticket was a swimming pool contractor named Roger Owens (his website has been banned from MyDD.com, thus no link necessary). Besides the fact that the guy builds pools for a living and has no prior political experience outside of maybe a PTA or Neighborhood Association, he happens to be a fairly big douche-bag. This week, he bashed a Democratic candidate for Texas House district 7, Patrick Franklin, on his sexual orientation and chewed out a local Democratic organization's leader, Donna Rosenblum, for calling his actions hurtful to the party."

Read it and weep. Are there no DUers willing to run in any of these areas???

[Gusto md]

32. Is that pic photoshopped or is it just me?

The completed pool shot... check out the grass, and the plants on the right hand side.....! :hi:

[Katherine Brengle]

33. Okay, I was all for the guy until he emailed me... the 2nd time--

He emailed me back about the suggestions I offered for his site (very simple--just make the background white, keep the colors to navy blue and dark red, with black text and a smaller picture that doesn't dominate the entire screen).

He just emailed me again, saying that he had taken my advice and updated the site, so I clicked on the link, and it's just silly... The background is now bright aqua rather than black, and everything else is basically the same... I am not sure if he honestly thought he had taken my advice (in which case he really may be stupid, sorry) or if he was being snide (in which case he really may be a jackass, sadly enough)...

Anyway, it was annoying.

One day, I am just going to run, because some of the yahoos are really not fit to be making decisions for us...

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Wait.. So, what does the prescription drug plan have to do with aliens?

I'm totally confused.

[ThoughtCriminal]

35. That would actually explain quite a bit

Kodos and Kang wrote it.

[wake.up.america]

36. I think I could throw something together in quick time for free...

does anyone know this guy?

[zonmoy]

38. While hideous

I think the democratic parties problems are much deeper than bad website design.

[RagingInMiami]

39. He's running in a rural part of Texas

And those are the people who will be voting for him, and I'm sure they're not too worried about him not having the perfect website.

[JNelson6563]

40. Very elitist attitudes, shameful DUers

Yeah, no wonder we never win. Looka t how we treat those willing to step up.

We've got this guy, a nobody in the middle of nowhere, who is obviously very earnest in his run for Congress. Seems like a real "Mr. Smith" sort of guy but a bit different in that, I think if he actually made it to Washington he'd go along with the Dem caucus on the real important votes. He'd be another player in our column at least.

He's a product of his environment and that's good as that is who he needs to win over. He hits on some good points too, especially the corporate welfare.

Instead of deriding him for his amateurish efforts, why don't some of the techies here e-mail the guy and offer to help him polish up his site a bit? Of course, with a site like that he certainly must seem approachable to local voters.

In addition, did you look at the Cong. District? It's a mighty big territory to work. He's probably got very little money to work with.

This thread is pretty sad. For the most part, what a bunch of keyboard commandos! Snooty ones at that. :puke:

Julie