Real War Correspondent Big Killer a/k/a State Central Committee member Karl Gilbertson submitted the following field report on Tommy Thompson in Waterloo Wednesday night.
I had the opportunity to attend a Tommy Thompson event in Waterloo on Wednesday night, July 11th. The event was scheduled for 7:00 PM and I arrived shortly before that time. The food line was quite lengthy and the room was over half full already. This was the 6th or 7th and final stop of a long day for Governor Thompson. My guess is he arrived somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45.
The Co-Chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, Leon Mosley, introduced Governor Thompson; however, the big man from Black Hawk County did more than introduce. Leon spoke of taking our country back, of making everyone responsible for self and of the important need to limit welfare and encourage people to work. By the time he introduced the governor the crowd was pushing 120. Big Killer spotted three local media types and one adventuresome journalist from Badger-land also journeyed southwest to hear his “home-boy” share with Iowans.
Governor Thompson was exciting and motivating as he shared his story with the assembled group. I have heard it many times but his story of leaving Elroy Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin with all of his belongings in a paper bag still makes me so proud to be an American. To live in a country where we can come from next to nothing, as far as the things of the world, and achieve anything we set our mind upon is a privilege that I feel TOO many of us take for granted.
The governor’s resume is outstanding!!
Elected to 4 terms as a Republican Governor in a DemocRAT state
Cutting welfare by 93%
Pioneering school choice
Vetoing more bills than all of the other 2008 candidates for POTUS - COMBINED
The Governor talked of his organization and their hard work and how he will have visited every county in Iowa when he completes the bus trip that is currently in progress. He thanked people for their support and friendship.
Just as Leon delivered an awesome introduction, Steve Grubbs did a fine job of wrapping up the event. He asked for people to support Governor Thompson at the Straw Poll in Ames on August 11th. Big Killer is a former salesperson and I have seen so many political types during the last year and a half that do not “close the sale”. They do not ask for the order as we say; they do not ask for the check or the needed activity. Grubbs did a great job of locking down the supporters and shared with us how miracles can happen at the Iowa Straw Poll. One of Steve’s examples was of one of the Real Sporer’s favorite DemocRATs – Jimmah Carter!!! Only in Iowa can an unknown one term governor from Georgia come to Iowa and win the Straw Poll in 1975 and pave the way to the DemocRAT nomination in 1976. And this was all because of his early efforts in Iowa. Grubbs said it can happen again!!
I would encourage all of my fellow Republicans to make an effort to hear Governor Thompson when the opportunity presents itself. I also want to encourage all folks to attend the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on August 11th.
The Co-Chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, Leon Mosley, introduced Governor Thompson; however, the big man from Black Hawk County did more than introduce. Leon spoke of taking our country back, of making everyone responsible for self and of the important need to limit welfare and encourage people to work. By the time he introduced the governor the crowd was pushing 120. Big Killer spotted three local media types and one adventuresome journalist from Badger-land also journeyed southwest to hear his “home-boy” share with Iowans.
Governor Thompson was exciting and motivating as he shared his story with the assembled group. I have heard it many times but his story of leaving Elroy Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin with all of his belongings in a paper bag still makes me so proud to be an American. To live in a country where we can come from next to nothing, as far as the things of the world, and achieve anything we set our mind upon is a privilege that I feel TOO many of us take for granted.
The governor’s resume is outstanding!!
Elected to 4 terms as a Republican Governor in a DemocRAT state
Cutting welfare by 93%
Pioneering school choice
Vetoing more bills than all of the other 2008 candidates for POTUS - COMBINED
The Governor talked of his organization and their hard work and how he will have visited every county in Iowa when he completes the bus trip that is currently in progress. He thanked people for their support and friendship.
Just as Leon delivered an awesome introduction, Steve Grubbs did a fine job of wrapping up the event. He asked for people to support Governor Thompson at the Straw Poll in Ames on August 11th. Big Killer is a former salesperson and I have seen so many political types during the last year and a half that do not “close the sale”. They do not ask for the order as we say; they do not ask for the check or the needed activity. Grubbs did a great job of locking down the supporters and shared with us how miracles can happen at the Iowa Straw Poll. One of Steve’s examples was of one of the Real Sporer’s favorite DemocRATs – Jimmah Carter!!! Only in Iowa can an unknown one term governor from Georgia come to Iowa and win the Straw Poll in 1975 and pave the way to the DemocRAT nomination in 1976. And this was all because of his early efforts in Iowa. Grubbs said it can happen again!!
I would encourage all of my fellow Republicans to make an effort to hear Governor Thompson when the opportunity presents itself. I also want to encourage all folks to attend the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on August 11th.
16 comments:
this type of campaigning works. Congrats to Team Tommy. They are really doing a great job with their candidate. Eyeball to eyeball works. He is proof.
Iowans do a great job of interviewing the presidential candidates so you don't have to.
A record-setting backlog of people needing passports – now close to 3 million Americans – has forced the State Department to issue a plea for experienced officers stationed overseas to come back home and help clean up the mess.
"We did send out a cable to all our consulates requesting help," State Department consular spokesman Steve Royster tells NewsMax. "On the same day, we also sent out an internal release within the department asking for volunteers. We got a sizable response, and that response is taking an immediate bite out of the passport inventory."
In addition, The Associated Press reports that about 450 Washington, D.C.-based officers are being sent to passport centers in Louisiana and New Hampshire. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered the deployments because other measures to reduce the backlog weren't working fast enough, State Department sources say.
"We've made mistakes," the Arizona senator said during an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio. "The responsibility is mine. I'm the candidate."
Four days after accepting the resignations of his two top campaign aides, McCain said he didn't do what was necessary to run a productive campaign and spent just as much as he brought in when he should have been saving up to pay for costly television advertisements for the heat of race.
"We didn't use the money in the most effective way," he said.
USA TODAY Washington bureau chief Susan Page is in New Hampshire today to report on the challenges facing the presidential campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain and his policy speech today about the Iraq War.
This morning, Page tells us, she was:
Having breakfast in the Courtyard by Marriott in Concord with CNN's Candy Crowley when who should walk in the door but McCain himself, arriving to get ready for the afternoon speech in the hotel's ballroom. He walked over to the table to chat.
"Are you all alone?" Susan asked.
"I fired 'em all," McCain joked. (Not really. An aide who had been parking the car then arrived.)
the more you learn about mccain, it becomes clear that this is a pattern of behavior with him.
He seems to be the happiest when he's the most pissed. He sets himself up to be pissed on purpose. He loves an underdog image. He loves a self-rightous image. He loves to be fighting with people. He loves to lose his temper. All of his personal rewards seem to flow from here. He loves his "my way or the highway" approach to leadership.
He self-sabotaged his own candidacy through his own normal and routine behavior. It was always going to turn out this way.
He gained fame and his self-esteem from going against the republican agenda - OUR agenda, not Bush's agenda. His agenda still doesn't fit our agenda - ("comprehensive" amnesty).
Even with a correct approach on terror, it can't overcome his historic middle finger attitude toward the agenda of republicans he hoped would elect him.
Open Left's Chris Bowers builds off earlier research on the IA straw poll's effect on NH.
According to Bowers data, historically a 1st place caucus finish averaged into a 14.5 point bounce in NH polls. 2nd place upped NH numbers 3.2 points, 3rd led to a 3.5 point slip, and 4th place finishers fell 4.4 points.
Bowers then looks at current NH polling and concludes: "Clinton's advantage in New Hampshire is currently so strong that it appears she has a more than reasonable chance to win the state after a third or fourth place finish in Iowa.
In fact, while several other scenarios are quite close, she is currently projected to win the state in every scenario, except for a third or fourth place Iowa finish combined with an Obama Iowa victory."
As a more or less anyone-but-Hillary person, I am concerned too. I think the main problem is that the anti-Hillary votes are being split among several relatively strong candidates: Obama, Edwards, Richardson, and even Biden.
NEW YORK (AP) - An angry Dennis Kucinich lashed out at John Edwards on Friday, saying his Democratic rival showed "a consistent lack of integrity" by suggesting fewer candidates should participate in presidential forums and then trying to explain his remark to reporters.
"This is a serious matter and I'm calling him on it," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in a telephone interview Friday.
"Whispering, trying to rig an election, then denying what's going on and making excuses. It all reflects a consistent lack of integrity."
In an exchange captured on camera and open microphone by broadcasters after an NAACP forum in Detroit, Edwards approached Clinton onstage and whispered in her ear.
"We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group," Edwards said, and Clinton agreed.
"Our guys should talk," Clinton said, complaining the format had "trivialized" the discussion.
Both Edwards and Clinton were asked about the exchange Friday, and offered different explanations.
In New Hampshire, Clinton seemed to lay responsibility on Edwards.
"I think he has some ideas about what he'd like to do," she said, adding she liked participating in the forums.
For his part, Edwards told reporters in Iowa that he wasn't in favor of barring anyone from future gatherings. Rather, he said he wanted to see them separated into two groups of four each, chosen randomly.
"The result would be that we would have a much more serious discussion and people would actually be able to see what the differences are between us," he said.
Kucinich called Edwards' explanation "disturbing" and said he planned to contact Edwards and Clinton immediately to demand an apology.
"I accept their offer to participate in a debate with just the two of them," Kucinich said. "John should be happy with this, since he wants a small group."
Kucinich's bitterness toward Edwards was somewhat ironic, given the boost he gave Edwards in Iowa when they were both running for president in 2004.
Kucinich, who is very popular with a small but ardent group of liberal activists, asked his Iowa supporters to back Edwards if they didn't meet voting thresholds in any of the state's precincts. That effort increased Edwards' final delegate count in the state, putting Edwards within striking distance of winning the caucuses that year.
Porky Iowa, Texas Lead the Farm Subsidy Pig Out: Amity Shlaes
By Amity Shlaes
July 12 (Bloomberg)
Meet Senator Tom Harkin, (D-Pork).
Well, actually he is Senator Harkin, (D-Iowa).
It is the pork part that comes to mind in the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman's briefings this week about the new farm bill. Harkin promises to ``ensure the vitality and prosperity of America's farms.''
The word ``pork'' nowadays has a generic meaning, referring to all goodies that lawmakers give to constituent groups. But the term applies especially well to agriculture, where the subsidy recipients are particularly piggy.
Harkin's Iowa received about $15 billion in farm subsidies from 1995 to 2005.
And Iowa isn't alone among the swinish. The state ranks second in the nation behind Texas when it comes to agricultural subsidies.
Farm subsidies in the U.S. cost about $37 billion annually in taxes and higher prices, or about $322 per household, according to Brian Riedl, who studies farm subsidies for the Heritage Foundation.
Perhaps the country is ready for change? People in Washington this week are saying the new agriculture bill faces a series of obstacles before passage. But a look back at the tradition, which includes both actual swine and the state of Iowa, suggests that agriculture spending will always be with us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2k1Zly2btE
Did Democrat Bill Nelson from Florida really say this?
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- In the eyes of the public, Congress is doing even worse than the president.
Public satisfaction with the job lawmakers are doing has fallen 11 points since May, to 24 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
That's lower than for President Bush, who hasn't fared well lately, either.
His job approval rating in the AP-Ipsos survey remained virtually unchanged at 33 percent.
The 24 percent approval rating for Congress matched its previous low, which came in June 2006, five months before Democrats won control of the House and Senate due to public discontent with the job Republicans were doing.
Just two months ago, 35 percent of the public approved of Congress' work.
Poll respondents from both political parties say they're tired of the fighting between Congress and the White House, and want the two branches of government to work together on such issues as education, health care and the Iraq war.
While the public's approval of Congress has dropped 11 points since May, the percentage of Democrats who are turning up their noses at Congress - like Lambirth - nearly doubled.
Approval among Democrats fell 21 points, from 48 percent in May to 27 percent.
.... Is Bill Nelson saying that returning soldiers get laid now more than they did back in Vietnam? ... If so, I think the American armed services should take advantage of the Florida Senator's comments and put them in a recruiting video.
Jul 13, 8:18 PM (ET)
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that his top rival's attempt to pressure the Bush administration to end the war in Iraq is "a convoluted approach to the problem."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to introduce an amendment repealing the congressional authorization for the war. It would require the president to seek new authority from Congress if he wanted to continue operations past Oct. 11, 2007, five years after initial authorization was given.
"If you simply repeal the language, then presumably you'd have to reauthorize something. You've got 150,000 troops over there and support personnel," Obama told The Associated Press in an interview after a campaign stop in Las Vegas.
"Why we would try that approach as opposed to simply setting a timetable for withdrawal strikes me as a convoluted approach to the problem," he said.
...Later, Obama said he believed the U.S. had a "humanitarian obligation and national security interest in ensuring there's not a complete collapse in Iraq."
He said if elected he would meet with military leaders to determine an exit strategy that would draw down combat troops in about a year.
an excerpt from a column from realclearpolitics on McCain...
It has been the inability of the McCain and Romney campaigns to gain traction, coupled with the strength of Giuliani, that has opened the door for Fred Thompson.
Romney's strategy always called for him to neutralize McCain as a serious candidate, with the theory that in a Romney vs. Giuliani race Rudy's lack of social conservative bona fides would ultimately sink his campaign.
The Romney plan was to string together early wins in Iowa and neighboring New Hampshire and then - with McCain a non-factor and with Romney's ability to draw from his massive personal fortune - present himself as the sole conservative option to Giuliani.
It is an understatement to say that Fred Thompson severely complicates this game plan.
Ironically, a year ago with Giuliani dismissed as un-nominatable and Thompson filming Law & Order, both the McCain and Romney campaigns probably viewed the other as their chief obstacle to the nomination.
While Romney does lead in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, it is hard to see how he becomes the overwhelming "conservative option" in a narrowed field that includes the southerner Thompson.
Just like Giuliani was the key to McCain's demise, Thompson may be what sinks the Romney campaign.
This would effectively leave a two-person race between the New Yorker and the Tennessean, with Romney perhaps siphoning just enough conservative votes that allows
More from Real Clear - John McIntyre
What went wrong?
The McCain camp made several major miscalculations, most emanating from the disease of being far too entrenched inside the conventional wisdom of the Washington beltway.
First was the dismissal initially of Rudy Giuliani as a real threat to the nomination and the impact that the front-running Giuliani was going to have on the rationale for the McCain bid among Republican voters.
Second was the wisdom of continuing to run a campaign as the establishment, next-in-line nominee. That strategy made some sense coming on the heels of President Bush's reelection, but as the President's fortunes soured punctuated by the GOP debacle in 2006, there was no reexamination among the McCain brain trust of running a status quo, "we're-the-next-guy-in-line" campaign in a political environment where the desire for change was large and growing.
Third was an utter lack of understanding for the level of antithapy that many conservatives (outside of Washington) felt towards the maverick Senator and thus the critical need for the campaign to find an issue - other than the war - where McCain could energize Republicans.
Thompson is weak on Values and abortion. Tommy that is!
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