A group of dedicated Hillary Clinton supporters who blog on many sites. This is our home base for the publishing of diaries that we cross post on the public blogs.
Someone needs to tell Senator Barack Obama that the Constitution only provides for one Vice President. Obama has dangled the Vice Presidency in front of three prominent female politicians in a Janus-faced strategy to gain their support.
Typo. The title should be: Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks?
This morning I had my usual Honey Dew iced coffee Large for $3.19 including tax. Yes, NH does have one tax, the Rooms and Meals Tax at 8%.
Most days I make coffee at work, Seattle's Best French Roast ($7.99 lb. and lasts me about a month) but when I get the urge for Iced Coffee I go to Honey Dew. You see, I drive right by Dunkin' Donuts on the way to Honew Dew and there is always a minimum of 3 cars in line and most days 8 or 10. Honey Dew is lucky to have 1 car ahead of me. Besides, NH is cheap and Honey Dew is cheaper than Dunkin'.
Honey Dew is very busy inside at 7:30 but I'm told their busiest time of day is between 5:30 and 6:30 AM. That is when the working folks drive through on the way to their 7 AM jobs. Ok, so a few doctors and nurses go to work early too, but I bet they don't stop at Honey Dew.
But the big news in town is the Starbucks being built across the street from one of the other Dunkin's. Yes my home town is blessed with 6 Dunkin Donut shops and will soon have our very own Starbucks.
Some of you might have caught my posts regarding an event my daughter and I attended with Hillary last night (here and here). Part of the program included a video of Hillary, Chelsea and Mrs. Rodham at various events together and they've just added it to the campaign's YouTube webpage.
What a great day! An event that started out with a goal of bringing together 1,000 women, and maybe raising half a million dollars turned out to be an even bigger success than expected. They completely sold out and then some guys - we were 1,400 1,500 strong and together we brought in over $1 MILLION for Hillary's history-making run for the White House!
My daughter and I got down to the event at around 4 or so - just in time for the check-in. The campaign thought ahead - goodie bags were at the ready for the kids so they wouldn't get fussy or hungry. Just the thing for an excited and bouncy 7 year old.
Each table host was encouraged to name a woman who they admire or has made a difference in their lives. The honoree at our table was Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who has worked night and day on behalf of her friend Hillary.
Everyone's been working hard for our gal - and I think this video says it all as to why...
I've written about my son a few times over the past year, and of how Hillary has my undying gratitude for her work on behalf of children with special needs. Well this one's for my little girl...
Over the past few weeks I've been stepping up my efforts to raise money for Hillary's campaign via my HillRaisers link, and it's been going pretty well. The folks here among the Net Roots are incredibly generous and Hillary's got some amazing backers on this and other discussion boards and blogs. In increments of $10, $20, $50 and even one or two $1,000+ donations, Hillary's online supporters have stepped up to the plate when it counts. Because of our joint efforts, I've raised just shy of the $20,000 mark and I'm not letting up until she wins this thing in November.
Because of this I'll get to attend an event here in DC this week with Hillary - along with about 1000 other folks but the point is, I'm going to get to hear her speak and I can't wait. I'll also get to bring a guest and since it's tough fur hubby to get time off work in the middle of the week, I'm going to take my little girl with me to hear Hillary speak. She's a huge fan and has been a great help with our efforts on the local level, and I can't think of a better event for her to attend. This will be held in a conference center rather than a stadium or rally with bleachers - so she'll get to actually hear what's said and in a much calmer setting. She'll actually get to see what's going on too.
Isn't it time for the Monkeys to award wings to the fiercest fighter of them all for our girl Hillary, Bill Clinton? Shall we award him wings? And how about his own tee-shirt designed by a hampster with a picture of his girl on the front, and WINGS, on the back?
Mike Caulfield at Blue Hampshire writes that during a layover at Reagan National, he wandered into a CNBC News Shop and came face to face with a "Hillary Nutcracker".
Following my friend Lois Capps' endorsement of Barack Obama, it became clear that I had done her and other delegates a disservice by not disclosing information I witnessed at the Texas caucuses, and that endorsements should be made with the benefit of this information. After her endorsement, I wrote to Rep. Capps so that she can be fully informed in the event that delegates are forced to shift from one candidate to the other as the party forms a consensus behind the stronger of the two candidates.
I need to point out that I am not on the Hillary for President campaign staff, and that the campaign has gone to significant lengths to keep this dirty laundry out of the press. However, it is my strong feeling that we should not withhold evidence of crime, particularly since it is inconsistent with the public Obama image of being above "anything it takes to win," and it sheds significant light onto the otherwise puzzling difference between the popular vote and caucus results. Here are excerpts from my letter to Rep. Capps.
Look! Up in the sky! It's a gas tax! It's lost jobs! It's NOT Jeramiah Wright!!!!
Ever get the sense that the huge stink Obama's making over Hillary's plan to shift the gas tax from us working folks to the big (and rich) oil companies is just one big effort to distract us from other headlines? Headlines he'd rather we weren't talking about in the lead-up to the primaries next Tuesday?
So he's finally distanced himself from Wright after 20+ years - for real this time in a presser on Tuesday. Is that supposed to make us forget that he sat in Wright's church for 20 years?
Yesterday, the Denver Post Editorial made a lot of the same points that other bloggers and reporters have made about Obama's hypocrisy in new-found "surprise" over Wright...
The April issue of Fast Company® has a cover story on the Branding of Obama. I thought now would be a good time to explore the marketing and polishing of the Brand.
The Fast Company article is favorable for Obama, please read it.
I've been somehow involved with marketing for most of my life and I love to step back from my Hillary supporter self and look at the marketing aspects of this campaign. From John Edwards as the people's champion to Hillary as the stable mother figure, I've been intrigued at the approaches taken by the various marketeers.
No campaign strategy in my memory comes close to the total control of message and outright branding of the persona of Senator Barack Obama. And make no mistake, this is classic product branding executed as well as any major corporation would in launching their newest flagship product.
My marketer's cap must be tipped to David Axelrod. What a job he has done. We sometimes grumble about the millions people like Joe Trippi get for helping Howard Dean and John Edwards lose but Axelrod has earned every penny.
From Fast Company
The fact that Obama has taken what we thought we knew about politics and turned it into a different game for a different generation is no longer news. What has hardly been examined is the degree to which his success indicates a seismic shift on the business horizon as well. Politics, after all, is about marketing -- about projecting and selling an image, stoking aspirations, moving people to identify, evangelize, and consume. The promotion of the brand called Obama is a case study of where the American marketplace -- and, potentially, the global one -- is moving.
They go on to say
"Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand," says Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide. "New, different, and attractive. That's as good as it gets." Obama has his greatest strength among the young, roughly 18 to 29 years old, that advertisers covet, the cohort known as millennials -- who will outnumber the baby boomers by 2010. They are black, white, yellow, and various shades of brown, but what they share -- new media, online social networks, a distaste for top-down sales pitches -- connects them more than traditional barriers, such as ethnicity, divide them.
Let's try and explore what David Axelrod has acomplished to create this brand.
Senator Obama calls Hillary a panderer for proposing a gas tax holiday and says she's no different from McCain. I think that's old politics and here's why.
In Illinois Barack proposed the same thing, a gas tax holiday. At that time he had his 'bottom up' philosophy and he could see that the people needed to get some of the breaks in order to realize how many we don't get, and how many big business does get. Now he thinks it's a bad idea, but he's not only being disingenuous, he's also misrepresenting Hilary's position.
Hillary does not claim, as says Barack, that this is a comprehensive solution to the energy crisis, she says it's a good idea. She'll take the pandering tax breaks from big oil and give pandering tax breaks to drivers. Sounds like fun to me, and about time. It won't solve anything long term, but it will get big oil used to the idea that their tax breaks are endangered and the days of gouging drivers are equally endangered.
It's not McCain's plan. McCain plans to cut the tax but not replace it with taking the break from big oil. Under his plan big oil gets to keep their obscene profits and the tax holiday comes from more borrowing.
But, that's not the only place she'll pander. She'll take away panders to the polluters and pander to green energy. She'll take away the panders to ultra-rich and pander to struggling Americans. Barack says she's pandering, and I say pander on, about time someone cared enough to pander to me.
It's a first step, not one the economists think will do any good, but one that can very well lead us to ask for more. More fairness more justice, and more personal freedom.
In this extraordinary election year, Indiana's Democratic voters have been presented with an extraordinary opportunity: Choose for their party's presidential nominee between a gifted senator from Illinois who has enthused millions of new voters and an equally talented senator from New York with years of high-level experience.
It's been difficult for voters in other states to decide a clear favorite between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It's also a difficult choice for The Star's Editorial Board, which recently questioned each candidate in person about key issues facing the nation.
Clinton offers a clear-eyed view of the way things are. She offers nuanced positions on how to address the war in Iraq, trade with China and economic expansion. Her depth of knowledge is remarkable.
As impressive as Obama appears, he is still in his first term in the U.S. Senate, and only four years ago was serving as an Illinois state senator. His inexperience in high office is a liability.
Clinton, in contrast, is well prepared for the rigors of the White House. She is tough, experienced and realistic about what can and cannot be accomplished on the world stage.
Yet, one thing is clear: The next commander in chief will take office at a time of extraordinary risk for this nation, both at home and abroad. The challenges -- including those posed by a sagging economy, rising energy and food costs, the gap in health care, wars in two countries and threats from Iran -- are complex.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the better choice, based on her experience and grasp of major issues, to confront those challenges. She earns The Star's endorsement in Tuesday's primary.
Wow - just wow. I've always known Hillary was tough - especially after she went toe to toe with Keith Olbermann (feh). But then I heard she was scheduled to appear on the O'Reilly Factor tonight and holy mackerel did she ever kick some butt.
She took no quarter - she gave better than she got and she kept to the issues and was rock-steady in making sure O'Reilly didn't get away with distorting the issues or claiming universal healthcare would bankrupt the country.
She jumped all OVER that last point and made it clear that health care is a moral issue - and reminded O'Reilly that the plan would ALSO cover working families with kids dealing with juvenile diabetes or other life-threatening illness after he tried to bitch about having to help pay to cover some addict who puts away a bottle of gin every day.
At any rate and without further ado - take a look at how a pro handles O'Reilly. She sticks to the issues and leaves everyone smiling at the end of the day...
No no no... I'm not talking about her supporters here on the blogs (though we ain't chopped liver!). I'm talking about two big supporters in NC and IN in Governor Mike Easeley and Senator Evan Bayh - both huge figures in their respective states. Politico's got write-ups on line regarding each of them and I thought it'd be fun to take a look at Hillary's secret weapons in the upcoming states.
First up - Gov. Easley.
From his endorsement of Hillary...
"I am supporting Hillary Clinton because she has a passion for improving the lives of all Americans. She will be a president who stands up for people across North Carolina - and this country - every day in the White House," said Governor Easley. "I know she will get to work immediately making education and the economy her top priorities for our nation. She is ready to lead our country and has the ability to deliver."
Senator Obama is just now demonstrating righteous anger toward his former pastor over controversial remarks that he made at the pulpit - sermons that Senator Obama undoubtedly heard and did not object to during his 20+ years spent as a parishioner. Talk about a delayed reaction! The American people aren't stupid Senator: You are merely angry because he is raining on your parade.
I thought now would be a good time to explore the marketing and polishing of the Brand.