Iowa has three million people. Of those 100,000 will vote in the Democratic caucus. You could try and identify who those 100,000 are, and focus on them directly, which is not a bad idea. Or you could think those 100,000 don't live in a vacuum. They do breathe the air in their towns. They are in tune with their county grapevine. I think getting free local media attention is absolutely fundamental, the local newspaper, the local radio.
There has got to be some software somewhere that will give you the itinerary for what I am proposing. Try and make as many Walmart stops as possible using a helicopter. Metrics used: how many Walmarts did you visit, how many hands did you shake? How many local reporters did you invite to each event? If you do this for one week, can you make 100 Walmart stops? That is what I am asking. Greet people at the door.
I am a fan of Walmart. Most people don't realize Sam Walton is a bigger deal than Bill Gates. Walton's numbers are stronger. In most of those small towns out there, Walmart makes it possible for people in the middle and lower income brackets to buy stuff that one generation earlier were only in fantassyland. Bedsheets from China? C'mon.
I guess Walmart could do a better job of taking care of their workers. But they are not breaking no law. Health care is primarily a public sector undertaking. You can't blame public failure on a private enterprise.
The Walmart in those small towns is like the subway in NYC. That is the only place where the locals get to see each other in large numbers. I personally have visited more Walmarts all over this country than Hillary ever would, and she once sat on the Walmart Board. And I am not even running for anything.
At each stop you should get your local volunteers to show up. After all, it is those volunteers who do all the work after you and your staffers are long gone.
Iowa is proof America is not a country of 300 million where it is not humanly possible to go meet every possible voter one on one.
Hillary tops 50% now nationally. Edwards Kennedy was the same way in 1980. Kennedy and Clinton are famous last names. They are dynastic. It is like 1976 is when America tired of being a republic. You have had either a Bush or a Clinton run at the national level ever since.
I am not worried. We just have to keep plugging in.
Barack must win Iowa. That is where the game begins.
This game is physical.
In The News
Clinton Now Ahead of Obama in Money Race ABC News Clinton holds nearly three months before the voting starts, to Obama's $35 million$32 million. ...... an aggressive third quarter of fundraising. ..... had a total of $50.5 million in the bank .... nearly $16 million of that cannot be used for the primaries. ..... They each reported debts Clinton owed $2.3 million and Obama owed $1.4 million. ...... McCain, enjoying something of a resurgence in the polls ...... Clinton used the third quarter to secure her place as a national front-runner. She has recently hit 50-percent support among Democrats in national polls ....... $4 million for salaries followed by $2.2 million for travel ....... Clinton also refunded $1.2 million to donors ....... Obama had a $3.8 million payroll for the quarter and spent $2.3 million on travel. ....... Giuliani leads all candidates in radio advertising with more than 640 spots in several states ....... radio is cheaper and can be targeted to specific audiences. ....... Romney had placed 10,600 television ads from Jan. 1 to Oct. 10. Richardson, the Democrat, was second with 5,800 television spots. ....... Obama ramped up his advertising toward the end of third quarter, spending nearly $3.3 million on media. He has placed more than 4,200 spots on television, practically all of them in Iowa India-US nuclear deal stalls indefinitely Guardian Unlimited Described by the Bush administration as the "single most important initiative in the 60 years of our relationship"' the landmark agreement would have allowed India to become the first nation allowed to keep its atomic weapons and to trade in nuclear technology despite not having signed international treaties on non-proliferation. ....... The communists' argument is that India's foreign policy is becoming subservient to the US, and that Washington is steadily moulding the country's economy. The nuclear deal, they say, tightens America's hold on India. ...... an "ideological battle in India between isolationists and globalisers". ....... 80% of the US Congress voted for the deal." ...... was seen as a way of bringing India, which has an advanced military and civilian nuclear programme, in from the cold. ..... would help to supply India's growing energy needs and mitigate against greenhouse gas emissions. ....... "It would have seen India become reliant on imports of enriched uranium rather than relying on our own supplies." Olmert hints at Jerusalem split Guardian Unlimited the move would remove a significant obstacle Clinton backed by 50% among Dems USA Today she commands the most enthusiastic backing of any contender in either party. ..... a landscape for 2008 that seems to be moving toward Clinton in particular and Democrats in general. ...... he cautions on Clinton's positive results: "These perceptions can turn around in a great big hurry if you lose an early primary." ........ 50%-21%, her biggest edge since spring ...... two-thirds of Clinton's supporters say they are "certain to support" her. ..... Only once has a presidential candidate received as much as 50% support in a Gallup Poll and then gone on to lose his party's nomination. That was Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1980. ......... she has continued to be out there saying where she wants to take the country ...... 53% of Republicans say they "might change their mind" about which candidate to support. ..... 64% of Democrats say they would "enthusiastically" vote for Clinton as the nominee; 49% say that of Obama. ...... When his name is included in the horse race, the former vice president finishes third, behind Clinton and Obama. Benazir Bhutto returning to Pakistan defiant but compromised International Herald Tribune her Pakistan People's Party hopes to draw a million people onto the streets of the country's biggest city to give her a spectacular welcome and launch its campaign for parliamentary polls in January. ....... has vowed to quit the powerful post of army chief if he secures another five-year presidential term. ...... the chaotic 13-year period of civilian rule that preceded Musharraf's takeover. ...... allegations of massive corruption and misrule that left Pakistan nearly bankrupt. ...... Bhutto, now 54, claims charges against her including amassing properties and bank accounts overseas while in power were politically motivated. .... Swiss authorities convicted her of money laundering in 2003 and ordered her to pay US$11 million to the Pakistani government. The conviction was automatically thrown out when she contested it, but the case remains under investigation. ........ corrupt politicians they likened to parasites and piranhas. ...... Bhutto's premierships between 1988 and 1996 saw her clash with the country's army-led establishment, which held great sway over foreign policy during a period when Pakistan pushed on with its nuclear weapons program and backed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. .......... she would let U.N. investigators question Abdul Qadeer Khan, the nuclear expert blamed for leaking Pakistani weapons technology to Iran and North Korea. Khan was pardoned by Musharraf, who has refused foreign authorities access to the man considered to be the father of Pakistan's atomic program. ........ A day before he was hanged, Benazir visited him in prison. .... "I told him on my oath in his death cell, I would carry on his work," she recalled later. ...... became the first woman to lead a modern Muslim nation. ...... September 1996, when her younger brother Murtaza Bhutto was shot to death in a gunbattle with police outside his home in Karachi. Bhutto's mother threatened to file murder charges against her and Zardari. Her youngest brother, Shahnawaz, had died under mysterious circumstances in France a decade earlier. ........ Benazir accused President Farooq Leghari of involvement in Murtaza's death and Leghari dismissed her second government amid fresh allegations of misrule. ....... a country often associated with Islamic extremism and oppressive social customs. ....... I am a symbol of what the so-called 'Jihadists,' Taliban and al-Qaida, most fear ..... "I am a female political leader fighting to bring modernity, communication, education and technology to Pakistan." China "furious" at Dalai Lama's US award Reuters U.S. Congressional Gold Medal .... after being hosted at the White House by President George W. Bush. ...... "We are furious," Tibet's Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters. "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world." ..... The Dalai Lama has said he supports a "middle way" policy that advocates autonomy for Tibet within China, but Qiangba Puncog said China believed he still supported independence and warmed that separatist activities in the region were increasing. ....... Earlier this year, an ethnic Tibetan in the western province of Sichuan addressed a crowd on the need for greater religious freedom and for the Dalai Lama to be allowed to return. The man, Runggye Adak, has been charged with subversion ........ graffiti calling for the Dalai Lama's return was found scribbled on walls, a sign of his residual influence throughout ethnic Tibetan regions of China. Clinton edges Obama in latest cash on handChicago Tribune $10 million transferred from her Senate re-election fund. ...... as they built out field organizations ...... Boosted by early and aggressive television advertising campaigns in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney is leading in the polls in both states. Clinton, Obama Enter Next Stage of Primary Race Flush With Cash Bloomberg next 100 days ....... Most states will hold their contests by mid-February ...... Clinton paid $15,000 for office rent to the William J. Clinton Foundation run by her husband ....... pent $6 million on payroll, $1.7 million on media and almost $1 million on polling. ...... Among Obama's expenses was a $9.30 charge for printing at the Clinton Library in Arkansas. He spent $5.6 million on payroll, $2.1 million on telemarketing and $3.7 million on media. ....... Obama is spending as much per week on Iowa TV as Kerry did less than a month before the 2004 caucus ....... the Clinton campaign burning through $22.6 million, compared with $21.5 million for the Obama campaign. ...... Obama reported more new donors in the third quarter than he estimated at the beginning of the month. His total of 108,000 new contributors may have topped Clinton's estimate of more than 100,000. ....... Clinton's biggest sources of money were New York-based Morgan Stanley, whose employees gave $209,970, and New York- based Goldman Sachs Group Inc., whose employees contributed $186,540. ....... ``When you look at the scale and scope of the operations that both of these campaigns have, it's staggering.'' Clinton: A week of courting yet more women Baltimore Sun Clinton plays the front-runner’s gameMSNBC she’s tempted to follow the dismissive rule laid down in 2000 by George W. Bush: the sooner you can retreat into a bubble, the better. Why should male candidates be the only ones allowed to be imperious? ....... In 2000, Bush was careful to be point of stark fear about his media and crowd surroundings; he positively hated unplanned, spontaneous contact with voters he didn’t know, or hadn’t vetted. ............. “But Hillary’s people are acting just like the men. It is all very closed-off and top-down.” ........ Politics, said the late Lee Atwater, is a “base game.” He meant that a candidate had no chance unless he (or she) had a loyal, unshakable core of supporters who would “stick” no matter what. For Hillary, it’s the Reddy Women. They comprise much of her operational core and the demographic bull’s eye of the voter cohort she wanted to win. ........... The message: Clinton’s campaign would be the history-making capstone of a generational gender crusade for power. ........ Her Woman to See in Iowa is Christie Vilsack ....... In New Hampshire, Hillary’s local hub is in the Shaheen family. ..... Every successful presidential campaign has a cadre of trusted aides drawn from some deep aspect of the candidate’s roots. In JFK’s case, it was the Navy: the PT-109 tie clasps his friends cherished were much more than trinkets, they were talismans. .......... Hillary’s is a remarkable network of women that has been deepening in experience, yet still hungry for power on their own. ......... Mandy Grunwald, the veteran media expert; Patty Solis Doyle, the campaign manager ....... Tamara Luzzatto, the tough-as-nails Senate chief of staff; and Teresa Vilmain, a legendary organizer who was lured back into the game for one last go-round in Iowa. ......... talented and tough .... fiercely loyal to Hillary .... running a shrewd, tough campaign ..... Concord Monitor columnist Katy Burns. She asked last weekend whether New Hampshire voters should elect someone (like Bush) seemingly “obsessed with control and secrecy.” The question isn’t whether she can win, Burns, wrote. “A better question is, should she win?” Clinton banks on female vote MSNBC 400000 usd grant for Nepal to combat corruption - ADB Forbes help the Himalayan Kingdom combat corruption by strengthening the capacity of concerned government institutions in fulfilling their respective mandates......... good governance and strong institutions are central requirements for poverty reduction and economic growth, adding effective anti-corruption measures are at the core of good governance. Nepal Maoists start anti-Dalai Lama campaign Hindustan Times last month Christian groups from nearly 20 countries had held a nine-day conference at a resort in the valley. ...... though the conference was ostensibly called to discuss religious issues, it meant to add momentum to the movement to free Tibet from China. Buddhist monks from India, Nepal, Japan, the US, Britain, Germany, Uganda, France, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Iraq and Tibettook part in the meet ........ Prachanda has ruled out allowing the office of the Dalai Lama's representative in Kathmandu to re-open, saying his party would not condone any action that could displease China. ...... India's diplomatic policy towards Nepal has been floundering since it helped a multi-party government end King Gyanendra's regime and come to power. China, on the other hand, enjoys the best possible relations with Kathmandu though it supported the royal regime and sold it arms and ammunition to hunt down the Maoists. Dacoity in moving train in Bihar Times of India Nigeria: Country Signs Military Pact With India AllAfrica.com India, Nigeria reaffirm stance on UN Security Council, boost tiesAFP Nigeria: Indian PM Wants New World Money OrderAllAfrica.com Nigeria and India must work together to reverse the imbalance in international financial and trading systems and make them more development friendly ........ "The crushing burden of debt on the poorest of the poor, and barriers to trade in the form of restricted market access and distortion in subsidies need to be removed." ........ the United Nations. ...... the structure and functioning of the organization has to reflect contemporary global realities. It has to become a truly representative world body." ....... The information revolution and higher level of literacy have raised expectations. Disparities are leading to social tensions. Economic growth has to be accompanied by better distribution of its benefits ........ We wish to see many more African companies doing business in India. We will facilitate this process. ........ "Annually, over 15,000 African students study in India. Many Indian engineers, doctors, accountants live and work in Africa." ....... India seeks much greater convergence with Africa ...... While India is the largest democracy in the world, Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa. India's Singh Tells Bush of Nuclear `Difficulties' (Update4)Bloomberg Hope not dead for India on US nuclear dealReuters India HK papers: Hu's report charts clearer roadmap for China Xinhua Front-runners for China leadership take centre stageAFP his pet theme of "scientific development" -- a call for more sustainable growth that mitigates many of the problems caused by China's economic boom. ....... Hu is widely suspected to be battling behind the scenes during the Congress against a faction dominated by former president Jiang Zemin over appointments to top decision-making bodies and his successor. Dell Defends Layoff Decision KXAN-TV Led Zeppelin to sell music online Reuters such hits as "Stairway to Heaven" and "Communication Breakdown," which has sold an estimated 300 million albums worldwide Two codefendants to testify against OJ SimpsonLos Angeles Times the alleged theft of about $80,000 in sports memorabilia from two collectors at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino. ....... "O.J. is the big fish," said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and a former federal prosecutor, "and I think prosecutors are trying to line up everybody to point the finger at him." ....... Simpson asked Cashmore to help him move some things, and the men drove to Palace Station, where Simpson had been told that some memorabilia belonging to him was being offered for sale Britney turns herself inTampa Bay's 10 Wearing large sunglasses, the pop star went into a police station to be booked on charges of hit and run and driving without a valid license. She was there about 45 minutes, being photographed and fingerprinted. ..... The charges stem from an August wreck where Spears struck another car while trying to park her own vehicle. She was seen on a videotape walking away after checking the damage.
No comments:
Post a Comment