Obama, Hillary, Spitzer

Good Times Are Here

The Democrats have it real good right now. But we must remember, a party in power for about 12 years gets tired. You become too much of a status quo. You are no longer looking for new ideas, new political techniques. But I must admit I did not think Bill Clinton was spent in 2000. That guy would easily have won two more terms if there were no term limits. He is a policy work. He is experimental. He is open minded. He works like a demon. That last part escapes most people's minds. If there is one outstanding quality that Bill Clinton has, it is that he works very very hard.

The party is on an upswing. We won 2006.

I was crazy about Hillary, and then Obama showed up, and I have been crazy about him since. I am betting on Obama. He really is gifted, his appeal is postracial. Take two examples.

Hillary: "I am in to win."

Obama: "I am in to transform the country."

Hillary was in a hurry to announce how much money she had raised, $25 million tops. Obama instead came out saying more than 100,000 people had donated to him.

Those were two master strokes in a row.

The third was on health care. Hillary came out as the policy work, with all the right ideas. But Obama was the one who hit it on the selling part. He came out saying it is the selling part that is more challenging. And he started work on that.

Hillary is supersmart. I have long thought she is smarter than Bill Clinton. She sure got better grades at Yale than he did. And she is methodical. Her mantra is Money, Message, Organization.
Obama is smart too. But I suspect he has better political instincts than Hillary, slightly better. That is what draws me to him. It also helps that I can identify with him more: he is a minority male, brown, with Third World background, has spent a few years as a child in a poor country.

Bad News

Hillary has only spent 20% of what she raised. That looks great on her. She is thinking long term. She is being wise. Obama on the other hand has been spending left and right. This is the worst Obama news I have received since he jumped into the fray. If he were to repeat this Dean mistake two more quarters, Hillary will be the nominee.

Looks to me like Obama does not have tight control over his staff. Some of his staffers are believing the Obama halo and hype a little too much. Obama's charisma is for real, but not even he can survive bad budgetary indiscipline in his campaign. If you can't run well the finances of a presidential campaign, how will you run the finances of a country where you are talking trillions of dollars?

Because Obama is more reliant on small contributors than Hillary, he needs to be miserly. He needs to beat the Hillary ratio. She is at 20%. You shoot for 18.

Fitting In Spitzer

It might be an Obama-Hillary ticket. It might be a Hillary-Obama ticket. It might be an Obama-Spitzer ticket. It might be a Hillary-Edwards ticket. My first choice is Obama-Hillary with a muscular gender agenda: half the cabinet is female, War On Domestic Violence, a major push for equal pay.

There are three Democrats in America right now who I would love to see in the White House: Obama, Hillary, Spitzer. All three fire up my imagination. Good for Spitzer he is not national right now. That plays to his number one strength: making sure you do your due, diligent homework.

How do you fit all of them in?

Say it is Obama-Hillary for eight years, and then Hillary does a Cheney and steps out. That opens it up for Spitzer who has had eight wonderful years as New York Governor. And although he is a Dem, he has been away from Washington, acting like he were in the opposition, away from the national seat of power, and so preparing, busy preparing, and it does not feel like Democratic continuation, but eight fresh years.

I would hope Spitzer would have a woman running mate.

16 Years Are Possible

Thanks to Obama, Hillary, and Spitzer.

Hillary

I really really did like the idea of the first woman president. The good news for me is I don't matter. I am not even a voter. It is the process that will decide if it will be Obama or Hillary. So I will not feel bad if it is not Hillary but Obama.

But I do think 2004 was Hillary's year. She missed it. Oh, well. And she could not have been an anti-war candidate back then.

Remember when in 1992 Bill Clinton said "Vote for one, get one free?" It is the same deal with a vengeance. Now the Clintons are post-scandal. There is no more mud for anyone to throw. They are rich and content and so more focused. Daughter is post-college. No kid to raise. They know presidential politics inside out. And they have each other.

Obama sure has his work cut out for him.

But then Hillary has Bill. Obama has the internet. Obama has done a great job with his website. It is much more interactive than that of the others.

In The News

Richard Gere up in flames in India Online Rock Radio Protests against the actor erupted in at least three Indian cities ..... At some point during the event, Gere kissed Shetty several times on the cheeks and dipped her in an embrace. Pictures of the hug made the front page of several newspapers ...... Shetty said protesters "over reacted" ..... He recently spoke to 15,000 sex workers about the subject and said it was one of the most meaningful experiences of his life: "I asked the girl who was translating for me, 'They understand the word sex?' 'Yeah, absolutely.' 'Do they understand the word condom?' She said, 'Absolutely.' So I started chanting 'No condoms. No sex. No condoms. No sex.' And 15,000 sex workers chanting that as a family, it was really extraordinary. One of the more moving moments I've had."
Bollywood Stars to Marry Friday in India ABC12.com
Obama dominates Democratic fundraising race World Peace Herald has out-spent every other Democratic candidate -- Analysts studying the latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings warn that Mr. Obama is taking the same path as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, whose 2004 Democratic presidential campaign generated early excitement but collapsed quickly after his defeat in the Iowa caucuses. ....... Obama has a clear edge over his Democratic rivals among small donors, with 22 percent of his fundraising coming in contributions of less than $200, accounting for $5.8 million. Small donors accounted for 9 percent of Mrs. Clinton's fundraising ........ Mrs. Clinton's campaign is in a strong position, Mr. Toner said, because her rate of spending was less than 20 percent of her receipts -- a frugal pace for a major national campaign operation. ..... Obama also has received contributions from former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner ..... "When you can get millions to participate and donate small amounts to your campaign, you have an easier time and you can focus on other things."
Clinton old guard lines up with main rival Obama Mail & Guardian Online Senior Democratic figures are defecting from Hillary Clinton's camp to her main rival, Barack Obama ..... Among Obama's contributors were a dozen former fundraisers for Bill Clinton and at least four members of his administration. ....... he will seek to blunt criticism that he is all sizzle and no beef, lacking detailed policies. ...... The defectors include Alan Solomont, who was in charge of party finances during the Clinton administration and was close enough to the Clintons to be an overnight guest at the White House. He told Newsweek: "People are ready for a new generation, a new face and a new voice." ........ Former members of the Clinton administration now supporting Obama include James Rubin, Reed Hundt, Michael Froman, Brian Mathis and Greg Craig. Obama raised almost twice as much as Clinton from one of the leading Democratic funders, Goldman Sachs: $94 450. Leonore Blitz, who raised about $250 000 for Clinton's senate race, said she was supporting both Clinton and Obama. ........ Obama raised $24,8-million in donations for the Democratic primary contests, which begin in January, whereas Clinton reported $18,2-million. ........ On the Republican side, Mitt Romney was confirmed as the most successful fundraiser ...... Obama's biggest donor state was California, providing him with $4,1-million, followed by his home state, Illinois, with $3,8-million. He raised $2,7-million in New York ....... Clinton only raised $378 000 in Illinois. She raised $5-million in California, and $3,5-million in Washington DC. Obama, who refuses money from lobbyists and has returned money received from them, raised only $876 000 in DC.
India to be second largest market: GM Times of India Indian manufacturing costs are extremely competitive and among the lowest in the world, even as this country is poised to become the world's second largest market in less than a decade ...... not just because of low wages but also because of the Indian attitude that abhors waste ........ "In the second phase of growth, we expect more and more OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to use India as a domestic base for exports,"
Why Lalu Prasad failed in Bihar - and succeeds as railway minister indiainteracts.com when he took charge of the railway ministry, transformed it into a miracle of modern management technique. ..... behind his deceptive exterior ticks an astute mind, which has little difficulty in mastering the complexities of a behemoth such as the railways and ensuring that it operates at a profit.
Iraq's Shiite political fissures widen Christian Science Monitor
Sadr pulls loyalists from Iraqi CabinetLos Angeles Times
Al-Sadr orders six Cabinet ministers to quit Houston Chronicle
Google breaks into radio Stuff.co.nz
Why Google spent $3.1 billion on DoubleClick Times Online
Microsoft Warns of Google-DoubleClick Danger Redmond Channel Partner
Is Google taking over the internet? PC Advisor
Microsoft Wants Google's Acquisition of DoubleClick Blocked SYS-CON Media
WiMAX Devices, Coming Soon GigaOm
San Francisco, Partying Like 1999
Look, it’s a router in the sky Cisco and Intelsat are working together to put routers in to orbit, as part of Internet Routing In Space (IRIS) project. The idea is that the U.S. military could use internet protocol for their voice, video and data needs. “IRIS is to the future of satellite-based communications what ARPANET was to the creation of the Internet in the 1960s
First Look: Preparations on at Bachchan residence Rediff Amitabh Bachchan's famed Jalsa Bungalow in Mumbai's Juhu suburb ..... massively guarded home ....... Bachchan's other Juhu residence, Pratiksha .... A wedding in a massive Indian family: is there ever a more legitimate time for household chaos?
Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka likely to skip Abhishek-Ash wedding Newindpress (subscription)
Parent of Bell Canada Considers Going Private New York Times
Dell hires first-ever Chief Marketing Officer Blogging Stocks Former execs with Solectron, Motorola, AMR Airlines and now Oracle have all joined Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ: DELL) ranks as the world's second-largest computer manufactures tries to fight back from a very depressing 2006 and regain some semblance of growth and profit levels. ...... Dell has operated in a cost-crucial commodity business for so long that it really didn't need a marketing leader. Even its servers, storage and printing businesses operated in a commodity fashion. You don't need to market in that universe in most cases. ....... Competitor Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has beaten Dell soundly in the retail consumer market in physical stores (where Dell does not even exist). Also, Dell's recent acquisition of Alienware (high-end PCs) needs a marketing push. If Dell wants to sell more high-margin goods and less of the boring-box and low-margin PC, where competitors have erased Dell's direct manufacturing advantage, it needs to focus on marketing.
Quanta may be developing Smartphone/PocketPC Phone for Dell Mobility Site Quanta, which is the biggest notebook supplier for Dell, is actively developing products for the PDA handset and 3G phone market, and it currently supplies handsets for Hewlett Packard (HP) and O2. Although the size of Quanta's handset business is smaller than High Tech Computer (HTC), its position as an ODM without its own-brand business or collaboration with telecom carriers has allowed it to win the Dell PDA handset project, the sources commented.
Dell to eliminate more than 19 million pounds of lead Reliable Plant Magazine pledged to eliminate more than 19 million pounds of lead from its manufacturing processes as part of EPA’s National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP). ..... Dell will achieve the pledged lead reductions by eliminating the cathode ray tube computer monitors it previously manufactured and replacing them with flat screen panels. The switch will cut a total of 19.75 million pounds of lead and lead compounds and will make Dell the largest reducer of hazardous chemicals in the nation to join the NPEP program
Owner of Bell Canada In Talks To Go Private New York Times it would convert to an income trust, a structure that avoids corporate taxes by paying out most of its earnings directly to investors