It's 1:37 AM here in West Palm Beach and I just returned from the Miami Victory party--boy, was that fun and...not sure what word to use--I'm really tired--so I'm going to simply write, fulfilling.
Many conservatives had speculated that McCain would loose in Florida because the primary here is a closed one, denying him his traditional allies', the Reagan Dems and Independents, votes that have carried him strong in New Hampshire and South Carolina. But the victory tonight in Florida was complete. Romney did not have any clear victories in Florida that his camp can point to for hope in defeating John McCain in future primaries. And in running so far right, under the guise of the inheritor of the Reagan mantel, Romney denied himself California and New York--a collassal screw-up. Surprisingly, in Florida, McCain won, or very nearly won, the right-to-life vote and the good 'ol boy vote, along the I-4 corridor. And in Orange County, Romney needed to trounce McCain but instead only won by a couple of hundred votes. Naturally, McCain carried by extremely wide margins the more moderate Republican areas. Miami-Dade, for example, was so lopsided as to be meaningless for Romney.
In all likelihood now, John McCain will be the Republican nominee for President and will very likely be inaugurated on January 20th, 2009 as our 44th President.
I'm glad I could be a part of this before the New Hampshire victory to the Florida pounce. I stood by my guy, good or bad, and along with all of the other volunteers and the few staffers we won and won big.
For me, Florida was personal as I believed that it would be important in such a close race--that's what all of us in the campaign thought it would be--that those from Orlando through to Brevard County, which is the Space Coast, know that John McCain was a friend of space exploration. And you know, maybe it only added a few hundred votes. But now the issue is there in our campaign and my work is done for the time-being.
I am so very much more tired than I have ever been before. This campaign has drained me in a way that nothing before ever has. I am really looking forward to some down-time. Christian, Bo, Mark, and Buzz, just to name a few, will only have a couple of days before they head out for the big wins to come in California, New Jersey, and New York. Where things go from here is anyone's guess. But for now, I have things to do and a wife to relieve of the duties she's had to bear alone.
Night all, from the great state of Florida, newly made "McCain Country".
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Return to Florida
Turns out that Mei was fine. The doctors think there are some things going on with her but they can be dealt with over time. The stress of my comings-and-going's, handling the dogs by herself, all while working full-time also contributed. Mei has bounced back and is fine now, so she let me go back to the campaign. I'm in Continental Airline's President's Club right now typing away and waiting for my IAH-PBI flight.
The race in Florida has tightened up quite a bit. Some polls show us ahead, others behind. Unlike New Hampshire or even South Carolina, this is going to be a nail-biter. But if we do win Florida, it's a big nail in Giuliani's coffin and yet another one in Romney's. As for Huckabee, I'm not sure how he comes out on a loss in Florida. Ron Paul I think is in because he likes the attention--he doesn't get much of that in Congress--and becuase he probably believes the insane rantings that are his debating points, such as the I-35 corridor being the first-step towards destroying America.
The McCain campaign was going to try to get a Space surrogate to campaign on behalf of the Senator to try to get that area of the I-4 corridor. Sadly, that individual had to back out for work-related reasons. So I took it upon myself to contact a few people I know in the aerospace business such as Tim Crain, John Carson, Bob Bishop, George Whitesides, Jim Kirkpatrick, and the AIAA. Eventually, I was able to talk to Colonel Eileen Collins of STS-93 and 114 fame about considering working with the campaign on Space matters.
What a great sight that would have been...the rockets in the background, Senator McCain and Astronaut Collins together talking about how important the Space program is to America. Well, it's not happening, at least not state primary. Between the campaign being to busy and I not having enough authority, that bird got away, though I hope we can still work with Col. Collins in the future. She is an incredibly gracious person to interact with.
In the meantime, I'm still waiting for George and Bob to come through, though no feedback yet.
The race in Florida has tightened up quite a bit. Some polls show us ahead, others behind. Unlike New Hampshire or even South Carolina, this is going to be a nail-biter. But if we do win Florida, it's a big nail in Giuliani's coffin and yet another one in Romney's. As for Huckabee, I'm not sure how he comes out on a loss in Florida. Ron Paul I think is in because he likes the attention--he doesn't get much of that in Congress--and becuase he probably believes the insane rantings that are his debating points, such as the I-35 corridor being the first-step towards destroying America.
The McCain campaign was going to try to get a Space surrogate to campaign on behalf of the Senator to try to get that area of the I-4 corridor. Sadly, that individual had to back out for work-related reasons. So I took it upon myself to contact a few people I know in the aerospace business such as Tim Crain, John Carson, Bob Bishop, George Whitesides, Jim Kirkpatrick, and the AIAA. Eventually, I was able to talk to Colonel Eileen Collins of STS-93 and 114 fame about considering working with the campaign on Space matters.
What a great sight that would have been...the rockets in the background, Senator McCain and Astronaut Collins together talking about how important the Space program is to America. Well, it's not happening, at least not state primary. Between the campaign being to busy and I not having enough authority, that bird got away, though I hope we can still work with Col. Collins in the future. She is an incredibly gracious person to interact with.
In the meantime, I'm still waiting for George and Bob to come through, though no feedback yet.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Update
Mei called me an hour go to say that she was on her way to the hospital after her doctor told her to get there after examining her. I left for Austin on the next flight. Cooling my heels in Houston (IAH) right now. TBD what I'll do next. Hope Mei is good.
Florida
I've been working for the past 4 days with Warren Hendriks and Ellen Cahill in the surrogate office. It's been an interesting change from the War Room. The WR was a constant bang-bang-bang environment with a let-up only when you went home. The surrogate office is much more like a real job...mostly boring but interrupted by moments of sheer panic.
On Tuesday (1/22) we had a big surrogate, someone who was supposed to represent the campaign at an AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) event, "Divided We Fail" that was to be held in Tampa. Well, our surrogate, let's call him Boy'O, he decided with less than 24 hours to go, that he simply could not make it, so sorry and all of that. I had just called his assistant to confirm Boy'O's flight info so that one of our drivers could meet him when arrived and his secretary, with sunshine full in her voice, said he wasn't coming...ummm...hold on for Warren.
But these old bulls, such as Warren and Stan, they are magicians and before long Boy'O was back on, though at another event. In the meantime, we had to scramble to get someone to the AARP event and make sure that their travel arrangements were squared up.
On Tuesday (1/22) we had a big surrogate, someone who was supposed to represent the campaign at an AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) event, "Divided We Fail" that was to be held in Tampa. Well, our surrogate, let's call him Boy'O, he decided with less than 24 hours to go, that he simply could not make it, so sorry and all of that. I had just called his assistant to confirm Boy'O's flight info so that one of our drivers could meet him when arrived and his secretary, with sunshine full in her voice, said he wasn't coming...ummm...hold on for Warren.
But these old bulls, such as Warren and Stan, they are magicians and before long Boy'O was back on, though at another event. In the meantime, we had to scramble to get someone to the AARP event and make sure that their travel arrangements were squared up.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Moving to Florida
I've been on the War Room for three days now. I have to admit, Bill Bloomfield was right--it is tough to keep up with these 20-22 year-old guys. But it's been rewarding too to know that I can do it. My output is right up there with anyone else who has only been in the Room for a few days, about 10 postings each day. The video is the most difficult because you want to make sure you get the clip to start right when the story you're referring to begins; this is a big time-saver for the higher-up's so that they don't waste a lot of time watching stuff other than what they really need.
Tonight I was asked by Bill if I could tear myself away from the fun that I was having as part of the War Room and go down to the Florida HQ to work with the group that handles the surrogates.
Surrogates, it was explained to me, are people who can draw a crowd and are there to to tell their audience why John McCain is the man to lead our country. This sounded interesting and...well, I agreed. After being in the War Room for 3 days, a very intense experience, I felt I could handle anything.
Naturally, I agreed to go. So I am leaving DC tomorrow to go home, change clothes, hug my wife and dogs, and get back out on the road Sunday AM.
Tonight I was asked by Bill if I could tear myself away from the fun that I was having as part of the War Room and go down to the Florida HQ to work with the group that handles the surrogates.
Surrogates, it was explained to me, are people who can draw a crowd and are there to to tell their audience why John McCain is the man to lead our country. This sounded interesting and...well, I agreed. After being in the War Room for 3 days, a very intense experience, I felt I could handle anything.
Naturally, I agreed to go. So I am leaving DC tomorrow to go home, change clothes, hug my wife and dogs, and get back out on the road Sunday AM.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
War Room
When I arrived at the McCain headquarters in Alexandria, VA on Monday, the 14th, Bill Bloomfield, my Überbefehlsmeister, moved me initially into accounting. Although he had initially indicated I would go to the War Room, because they were getting short-handed due to a lot of the WR volunteers heading back to school, he instead moved me to help with some of the accounting drudgery that needed to be done. So, for a day and a half, I worked with Abe and Christy on building out numbers for 1099's. But I hate accounting and begged...well, yeah, begged Bill to put me on the War Room.
Bill was initially concerned that someone of my age (I'm 45) wouldn't be able to handle the fast-paced and detailed environment that is the War Room. There are two shifts, 5 AM - 3 PM, 3 PM - 11 PM. But most people do more like a shift and a half or two. Travis Consadine and Abraham both do those long hours several times a week. And the work at the War Room is a bit tedious and detailed. It has to be since your product is what the campaign staff reads to keep up to date on what the press and blogs are saying about our man. Remember also that most of the campaigns are putting their ads up as web-ads on their own website and hopping that the press will do the TV broadcasting as they report on the web-ad. This is manner os most of the lying junk that Romney's folks gin up, so the campaign definitely has to stay on top of this.
And boy, now that my first day is over, is the War Room ever a rush! I mean, you are concentrating on doing one thing well but quickly and then moving on to the next one, bang, bang, bang for most of the day until one of the two or three lulls in the news day come up.
I've posted pictures of the DC HQ and the War Room.
Bill was initially concerned that someone of my age (I'm 45) wouldn't be able to handle the fast-paced and detailed environment that is the War Room. There are two shifts, 5 AM - 3 PM, 3 PM - 11 PM. But most people do more like a shift and a half or two. Travis Consadine and Abraham both do those long hours several times a week. And the work at the War Room is a bit tedious and detailed. It has to be since your product is what the campaign staff reads to keep up to date on what the press and blogs are saying about our man. Remember also that most of the campaigns are putting their ads up as web-ads on their own website and hopping that the press will do the TV broadcasting as they report on the web-ad. This is manner os most of the lying junk that Romney's folks gin up, so the campaign definitely has to stay on top of this.
And boy, now that my first day is over, is the War Room ever a rush! I mean, you are concentrating on doing one thing well but quickly and then moving on to the next one, bang, bang, bang for most of the day until one of the two or three lulls in the news day come up.
I've posted pictures of the DC HQ and the War Room.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Starting A New Chapter In DC
The day after victory day, I was at the New Hampshire HQ cleaning up and helping to put things away when Bill Bloomfield, national head of volunteers for the McCain campaign, called Mary to ask if she had 4 volunteers she could recommend, the only requirement being that they have a heartbeat and maybe, but not necessarily, a brain wave. I qualified!
Bill was looking for people ASAP to work in the War Room. Honestly, how could I not jump at that? I mean, working on the New Hampshire campaign was like being introduced to the coolest drug in the world and then, on Wednesday, being asked to work where the stuff is made. I just had to do it.
I told Bill that, after spending some time with my wife, I would fly up to DC from Austin on Monday, the 14th. However, since Austin is still, in many respects, a small town, I couldn't get an early-AM flight that would get me into DC before 11 AM, which is for a campaign that promises 18-hour days, a bit late. So I chose to come up Sunday night and start early on Monday. So, here I am, at the Hyatt in Crystal City. Great hotel, btw.
But I'm not sure how much Bill and the War Room crew will take to me. For starters, Bill was less than enthusiastic when I mentioned that I would like to be able to go back home on weekends so that I could spend a bit of time with my wife. No, that definitely did not illicit a positive response. So I'm pretty sure my tenure in the War Room will be a bit less than lengthy, even though I'm more than willing to work the 18-hour day for 5-days. Mei and I have talked about me working 2 weeks and then taking a weekend off. But my feeling is that, since all the WR does is scour the web and TV for news, I can do my job either here at the headquarters or on the road. All I need is a new Eye-TV and Internet and I'm good to go.
Bill was looking for people ASAP to work in the War Room. Honestly, how could I not jump at that? I mean, working on the New Hampshire campaign was like being introduced to the coolest drug in the world and then, on Wednesday, being asked to work where the stuff is made. I just had to do it.
I told Bill that, after spending some time with my wife, I would fly up to DC from Austin on Monday, the 14th. However, since Austin is still, in many respects, a small town, I couldn't get an early-AM flight that would get me into DC before 11 AM, which is for a campaign that promises 18-hour days, a bit late. So I chose to come up Sunday night and start early on Monday. So, here I am, at the Hyatt in Crystal City. Great hotel, btw.
But I'm not sure how much Bill and the War Room crew will take to me. For starters, Bill was less than enthusiastic when I mentioned that I would like to be able to go back home on weekends so that I could spend a bit of time with my wife. No, that definitely did not illicit a positive response. So I'm pretty sure my tenure in the War Room will be a bit less than lengthy, even though I'm more than willing to work the 18-hour day for 5-days. Mei and I have talked about me working 2 weeks and then taking a weekend off. But my feeling is that, since all the WR does is scour the web and TV for news, I can do my job either here at the headquarters or on the road. All I need is a new Eye-TV and Internet and I'm good to go.
Victory Day
As most of you know, Tuesday, January 8th, was a big day for Senator McCain. His victory over Gov. Mitt Romney was resounding with a 6% spread. For all of us at the headquarters, it was a time to celebrate and we did that down in Nashua.
I took a lot of pictures of the celebration and would have posted them except...well, I lost my camera. I'm really disappointed about loosing my Canon PowerShot 900 since there was a picture of my that Rebecca took that shows me actually working, on top of a recording I did of the Senator's victory speech.
On victory night, I ended up being interviewed by an AP reporter and camera-woman. Later that night, a crew from a local DC channel interviewed me, Ian, and another volunteer about McCain's victory and what it meant both for the campaign and for us. All of this was very fun.
However, after 4 days, I was exhausted. I'm not used to working a 16-hour day and, after hearing the Senator's victory speech, I drove back to my hotel room in Manchester and crashed.
I took a lot of pictures of the celebration and would have posted them except...well, I lost my camera. I'm really disappointed about loosing my Canon PowerShot 900 since there was a picture of my that Rebecca took that shows me actually working, on top of a recording I did of the Senator's victory speech.
On victory night, I ended up being interviewed by an AP reporter and camera-woman. Later that night, a crew from a local DC channel interviewed me, Ian, and another volunteer about McCain's victory and what it meant both for the campaign and for us. All of this was very fun.
However, after 4 days, I was exhausted. I'm not used to working a 16-hour day and, after hearing the Senator's victory speech, I drove back to my hotel room in Manchester and crashed.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Day Four
I thought yesterday was a long day, but today made that one look short. Yesterday, the stack of caller info was a couple of inches thick--today we did twice that for each of us. And the folks in back who love to analyze this stuff are wanting more tomorrow. Like Bo said, data is like heroin, the more you get, the more you want.
I'm too tired to write more. On my way back to hotel to sleep. Have to be up at 6 AM to meet at 7:30 AM with data guys. Today's photos have been uploaded.
Night all!
I'm too tired to write more. On my way back to hotel to sleep. Have to be up at 6 AM to meet at 7:30 AM with data guys. Today's photos have been uploaded.
Night all!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Day Three
Today was a long one at 14 hours but now is over at 2:25 AM.
I was up until 6 AM trouble-shooting a video broadcast issue that was not resolved. Seems the issues that QuickTime Player had before the 7.3.1 still persist making it impossible to check the feed for quality, so I had to give up.
Because I set my iPhone's alarm clock to the wrong day--I thought today would be Friday, not Saturday, I woke up at 11 AM and didn't get in until 12:30 PM. Once I got in, it seemed that the order for the day was data entry. Why is that so important?
When Senator McCain's campaign re-aligned last Summer, one of the things it did was cut costs dramatically. That meant that allot of the work is done by people. Unlike Romney's campaign, every single voter who is called has a human voice from the McCain campaign on the other end. Others use machines to filter out their calls, but we do it by hand. Literally.
Each volunteer caller, some of whom have been Representative Christopher Shays, among other members of Congress, fills out a call sheet indicating whether the call went through, the person answering is or is not a McCain supporter, and whether that household needs a ride to the polls, wants a sign, etc. Once that info is written down by the caller, we take that info and put into the campaign's database. By hand.
I typed in about 2,000 names today.
Slow work. Yup, very slow.
But necessary since this is the one of the important ways that the campaign tracks how voters are thinking about Senator McCain and getting those who need help to the polls so that they can exercise their right and cast a vote. Granite State residents take this right very seriously and I think it's great that all of the campaigns here are trying their best make sure voters have zero hinderance in exercising that right.
Later in the day, I designed the Press Credential badges. As far as New Hampshire is concerned, that's probably the last design work I'll do since the primary is on Tuesday, January 8th.
Well, that's it for me--I'm tired and a bit delirious. Night all.
I was up until 6 AM trouble-shooting a video broadcast issue that was not resolved. Seems the issues that QuickTime Player had before the 7.3.1 still persist making it impossible to check the feed for quality, so I had to give up.
Because I set my iPhone's alarm clock to the wrong day--I thought today would be Friday, not Saturday, I woke up at 11 AM and didn't get in until 12:30 PM. Once I got in, it seemed that the order for the day was data entry. Why is that so important?
When Senator McCain's campaign re-aligned last Summer, one of the things it did was cut costs dramatically. That meant that allot of the work is done by people. Unlike Romney's campaign, every single voter who is called has a human voice from the McCain campaign on the other end. Others use machines to filter out their calls, but we do it by hand. Literally.
Each volunteer caller, some of whom have been Representative Christopher Shays, among other members of Congress, fills out a call sheet indicating whether the call went through, the person answering is or is not a McCain supporter, and whether that household needs a ride to the polls, wants a sign, etc. Once that info is written down by the caller, we take that info and put into the campaign's database. By hand.
I typed in about 2,000 names today.
Slow work. Yup, very slow.
But necessary since this is the one of the important ways that the campaign tracks how voters are thinking about Senator McCain and getting those who need help to the polls so that they can exercise their right and cast a vote. Granite State residents take this right very seriously and I think it's great that all of the campaigns here are trying their best make sure voters have zero hinderance in exercising that right.
Later in the day, I designed the Press Credential badges. As far as New Hampshire is concerned, that's probably the last design work I'll do since the primary is on Tuesday, January 8th.
Well, that's it for me--I'm tired and a bit delirious. Night all.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Web Gallery
I have a few places that I am posting pictures, take your pick:
Web Gallery
Flickr
Picasa
Hope you like them.
Web Gallery
Flickr
Picasa
Hope you like them.
Day Two
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was asked to design the credentials for those lucky enough to travel with Senator McCain on his "Mac is Back" tour through New Hampshire. And I also wrote that I chose to use Apple's Pages i-App instead of InDesign, Quark Express, or any other high-end graphics and page-layout application.
Choosing Pages proved to be a really good decision because, as it turned out, almost 200 people will be on the "Mac is Back" tour. Had I used those "better" apps, I am not sure how I would have embedded all the names, though I'm sure there is a way. But Pages supports linking text implementing that is real easy. So, embedding names onto each card was reduced to copying the whole names text list and pasting on the first text field on the first badge and watching as all of the info cascaded into all of the other badges. Wow! That was easy.
Still, as easy as getting the attendee info onto the cards, something I thought would take the most time, it was the several designs and redesigns of the badges that ended up taking up all of my second day of volunteer work.
Tomorrow, I am going to try to finish the Quicktime Streaming video feed so that everyone can see a live video feed of the McCain New Hampshire HQ and the constant effort that goes into reaching out to voters.
But now, it's time for sleep...
Choosing Pages proved to be a really good decision because, as it turned out, almost 200 people will be on the "Mac is Back" tour. Had I used those "better" apps, I am not sure how I would have embedded all the names, though I'm sure there is a way. But Pages supports linking text implementing that is real easy. So, embedding names onto each card was reduced to copying the whole names text list and pasting on the first text field on the first badge and watching as all of the info cascaded into all of the other badges. Wow! That was easy.
Still, as easy as getting the attendee info onto the cards, something I thought would take the most time, it was the several designs and redesigns of the badges that ended up taking up all of my second day of volunteer work.
Tomorrow, I am going to try to finish the Quicktime Streaming video feed so that everyone can see a live video feed of the McCain New Hampshire HQ and the constant effort that goes into reaching out to voters.
But now, it's time for sleep...
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Day One
After some flight delays, I made it to Manchester, NH and to the McCain headquarters here on 250 Commercial Street. The McCain HQ is located in an old textile factory that I call the Mile Long Building.
One of the nice things about offices here is that you have the feeling of room, even if your crowded next to people, because there are 15 foot ceilings.
Initially, I was assigned to call perspective voters to ask for them to support Senator McCain in the New Hampshire Primary on January 7th. I hate, hate to ask anyone for anything, never mind some stranger who has been called on average 7-15 times to support candidate "X". So, I was definitely not looking forward to this. Nope...even with an occasional pep talk.
Fortunately, within an hour, I was asked to work on some work on designing credential badges for those going on Senator McCain's Straight Talk Tour bus. The assignment was pretty open-ended, so I took my cue from a security badge I saw that day and the badge I wore while at JPL. When it came to actually building up the design, I decided to use Apple's own Pages i-App. So, I spent the Day 1 doing what I did way back in 1993-1996, but it was fun.
Later, I was asked if there was a way to broadcast the Iowa returns using the campaign's projector. Initially, the returns were being show on a TV that belonged to one of the staffers. After getting Zach's speakers from his office, we hooked everything up and everything went great.
My first day was fun and interesting. I met a lot of interesting people, stood outside in 3°F weather (not gonna do that again) to greet Senator McCain as he returned to New Hampshire from Iowa, and did good work that will most likely outlast my time here in the Granite State.
One of the nice things about offices here is that you have the feeling of room, even if your crowded next to people, because there are 15 foot ceilings.
Initially, I was assigned to call perspective voters to ask for them to support Senator McCain in the New Hampshire Primary on January 7th. I hate, hate to ask anyone for anything, never mind some stranger who has been called on average 7-15 times to support candidate "X". So, I was definitely not looking forward to this. Nope...even with an occasional pep talk.
Fortunately, within an hour, I was asked to work on some work on designing credential badges for those going on Senator McCain's Straight Talk Tour bus. The assignment was pretty open-ended, so I took my cue from a security badge I saw that day and the badge I wore while at JPL. When it came to actually building up the design, I decided to use Apple's own Pages i-App. So, I spent the Day 1 doing what I did way back in 1993-1996, but it was fun.
Later, I was asked if there was a way to broadcast the Iowa returns using the campaign's projector. Initially, the returns were being show on a TV that belonged to one of the staffers. After getting Zach's speakers from his office, we hooked everything up and everything went great.
My first day was fun and interesting. I met a lot of interesting people, stood outside in 3°F weather (not gonna do that again) to greet Senator McCain as he returned to New Hampshire from Iowa, and did good work that will most likely outlast my time here in the Granite State.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
McCain Third in Latest DesMoines Register Poll
The Des Moines Register came out with its latest, and last, numbers before the Iowa Caucus on Thursday, the 3rd. And for McCain supporters, there is some good news. Note to those who don't know; McCain is not a big ethanol from corn supporter (though as one in the oil & gas business, I think it's great!), yet Iowans seem poised to give him a good 3rd place finish on Thursday.
As many of the pundits and other talking heads have said, McCain coming in 3rd in the Iowa caucus would gain momentum, or the Big Mo as George Bush Sr. called it, that could help him best Romney in the New Hampshire vote on the 7th. As of the time of the Register's polling, Huckabee still had a solid lead over Romney at 32% to 26%. But the big news in the Register's latest poll is that McCain is Numero 3 at 13%. Fred Thompson, who many thought would be the No. 3 guy, is down in Ron Paul territory of 9% while Giuliani is polling only at 5%...ouch!
The latest Rasmussen poll had Huckabee and Romney tied, giving most in Romney's camp hope that the negative ads he ran against Huckabee had some downward pull on Huck's numbers. But a lot of pundits have said that, while Rasmussen is good, The Des Moines Register's polling, when it comes to Iowa, rules.
If you are Romney supporter, or more critically a Romney financial backer, The Register's polling numbers can only be termed really ominous. Definitely not the way Romney wanted to ring in the New Year. Romney's strategy of buying the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries really does seem to be falling apart. The negative ads have not stuck leaving Romney few options to exercise in the next two days.
That Romney's negative, and according to most news sources, dishonest ads against Huckabee do not seem to be working in Iowa begs the question of whether these same crap-o-la ads against McCain will fall flat in New Hampshire? The worstcase scenario for Romney is that voters have decided that Romney will simply say and do anything to reach the office. It's one thing to be ambitious but quite another to be craven.
The Des Moines Register's latest polls are also bad, really bad, news for Thompson, who frankly does not look like he is built for campaigning. If he looses to McCain in Iowa, doesn't do 3rd in New Hampshire, and does not get at least a strong 3rd in South Carolina, Thompson is done and the only thing to wait for is the exit speech, which should come right after South Carolina. Thompson's campaign has been an absolute disaster. While he has stuck to message, it's clear he doesn't have the presidency burning in his belly.
So, for Air McCain's perspective, the latest Des Moines Register polling data is really good news. I'm sure on the 7th that there will be much more to come.
As many of the pundits and other talking heads have said, McCain coming in 3rd in the Iowa caucus would gain momentum, or the Big Mo as George Bush Sr. called it, that could help him best Romney in the New Hampshire vote on the 7th. As of the time of the Register's polling, Huckabee still had a solid lead over Romney at 32% to 26%. But the big news in the Register's latest poll is that McCain is Numero 3 at 13%. Fred Thompson, who many thought would be the No. 3 guy, is down in Ron Paul territory of 9% while Giuliani is polling only at 5%...ouch!
The latest Rasmussen poll had Huckabee and Romney tied, giving most in Romney's camp hope that the negative ads he ran against Huckabee had some downward pull on Huck's numbers. But a lot of pundits have said that, while Rasmussen is good, The Des Moines Register's polling, when it comes to Iowa, rules.
If you are Romney supporter, or more critically a Romney financial backer, The Register's polling numbers can only be termed really ominous. Definitely not the way Romney wanted to ring in the New Year. Romney's strategy of buying the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries really does seem to be falling apart. The negative ads have not stuck leaving Romney few options to exercise in the next two days.
That Romney's negative, and according to most news sources, dishonest ads against Huckabee do not seem to be working in Iowa begs the question of whether these same crap-o-la ads against McCain will fall flat in New Hampshire? The worstcase scenario for Romney is that voters have decided that Romney will simply say and do anything to reach the office. It's one thing to be ambitious but quite another to be craven.
The Des Moines Register's latest polls are also bad, really bad, news for Thompson, who frankly does not look like he is built for campaigning. If he looses to McCain in Iowa, doesn't do 3rd in New Hampshire, and does not get at least a strong 3rd in South Carolina, Thompson is done and the only thing to wait for is the exit speech, which should come right after South Carolina. Thompson's campaign has been an absolute disaster. While he has stuck to message, it's clear he doesn't have the presidency burning in his belly.
So, for Air McCain's perspective, the latest Des Moines Register polling data is really good news. I'm sure on the 7th that there will be much more to come.
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