Kucinich's hot site ...
According to Alexa.com, the Dennis Kucinich for President campaign has one of the hottest sites on the Web. However, according to the campaign, Alexa.com didn't want to list Kucinich with other sites on its Presidential 2004 promotional page. After sending out an email encouraging supporters to email Alexa.com and have them promote the Kucinich site growth, the company did: ["Presidential Candidates on the Web"].
The enemy is ... The sweets
OK, Joe Lieberman is taking on the most evil of all things in America - the jelly doughnut: ["Lieberman takes on jelly doughnuts"]. Shock, gasp, horror, of all things to go after - the jelly doughnut. I guess we should be thankful. He could have gone after my personal fave, the Boston Creme.
But seriously, yeah, junk food is bad. We all know this. Do we need more regulation of this stuff though? No, we don't. If people kill themselves on sweets, they kill themselves on sweets. There isn't anything we can really do about it. It's funny though: He can suggest more regs on this but I would bet anything that he doesn't favor labeling genetically-engineered or modified Frankenfood. I think I will try and find out. :-)
Reaching the people, Nixon style
Speaking of Lieberman, the campaign has made a major TV buy [$300,000] for next week and will be broadcasting an "unedited, televised town hall forum" in New Hampshire. According to a press email, the half-hour forum will be filmed live-to-tape next Thursday and will air on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. on WMUR [Manchester's Channel 9]. The audience will be composed of undecided voters.
This is very reminiscent of ads aired by Richard Nixon in 1968 which were well written about in Ted White's classic - and must read - political book "The making of the president: 1968."
Currently, Lieberman is the only candidate spending big money on the Boston TV market, with ads on five different channels.
Dean on jobs
Howard Dean spouted off about jobs today after the release of the latest unemployment figures:
"Today's job announcement is another link in the chain of President Bush's broken promises. When he proposed his program of tax cuts for the rich, he said they would create 306,000 jobs a month. November's 57,000 job record puts the administration even further behind its promise -- and puts the American worker further behind the eight-ball. Worse yet, manufacturing -- the heart of American prosperity -- continued to lose jobs for the 39th consecutive month. In November, another 17,000 American factory workers got the unwelcome news that they lost their jobs -- just in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, the Administration and the Republican Congress refuse to take up the extension of unemployment benefits that would help millions of jobless workers in the new year. It's time to take back America and put America back to work."Baines endorses Kerry
Manchester Mayor Bob Baines, fresh from his victory over Republican Carlos Gonzalez, has jumped on what many believe is a sinking ship. According to a press release this afternoon, Baines endorsed John Kerry. This endorsement was rumored to be coming. Baines is best known as a former high school principal and will head up the "Educators for Kerry" effort.
Democrats in the South
This weekend, the Democrats will be in Florida for their annual state convention, hopefully broadcast on C-Span. There are rumors that there will be a straw poll. However, CNN's "Inside Politics" is reporting that President Bush is barely leading Dean or Wesley Clark in Florida by 8 percentage points. Stu Rothenberg noted that while 8 percent is above the margin of error, for a sitting president, these numbers aren't very good for Bush. I would add that these numbers are surprisingly high for someone like Dean who many - including myself - predict will have a bitch of a time down south.
In the primary, Dean has 16 percent, with Lieberman and Clark at 15 percent, Dick Gephardt with 9 percent and Kerry hobbling at 6 percent.
Rothenberg also predicted that both Arkansas and Louisiana while tilting Republican, will be in play next year.
In other polls, Zogby is showing Dean vaulting to the top of the South Carolina pile: Dean with 11 percent, Lieberman and Clark at 9 percent, with Al Sharpton, Gephardt, and John Edwards lumped together with 7 percent.
