Cain the Center of Attention at Tuesday Debate

There was one clear winner from Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, based on the metrics of name recognition alone: businessman Herman Cain's "9-9-9 Plan." Cain, the latest Republican presidential candidate to surge to the top of the polls, found himself in the hot seat Tuesday night at a debate in New Hampshire centered on the economy.

Nearly all the candidates at the debate table had something to say about Cain's plan to replace the tax code with three, flat nine-percent federal taxes on consumption, business and income. Cain, once delegated to the remote wings of the debate stage, has of late, enjoyed a surge in the polls since he won the straw poll in Orlando, Fla., last month, and at the first debate since he joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the top tier, Cain and his policy proposals took up more of the debate's time than the ideas floated by any other candidate. Of course, this isn't to say that any of them praised Cain's idea. Everyone who had an opportunity took shots at the plan.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested that the 9-9-9 scheme would be "inadequate" to solve the nation's problems. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, sharply questioned Cain's economic credentials. Bachmann said the plan would do little to create jobs and would simply offer the government a new way to collect tax revenue. Cain defended his plan as a fresh solution. "Therein lies the difference between me, the non-politician, and all of the politicians," he said. "They want to pass what they think they can get passed rather than what we need, which is a bold solution." Texas Rep. Ron Paul also attacked Cain for naming former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as the kind of person he would appoint to the Fed if elected.

But none of his detractors were able to stop Cain from repeating the line all night. Perhaps not anticipating that the candidates would spend their own time discussing Cain's proposal, the moderators ran a pre-arranged clip of Cain touting it a few weeks ago and asked all the candidates to comment on it. Again. So they did, and the "9-9-9 Plan" got a fresh dose of airtime. It was as if every time the candidates mentioned those words--"9-9-9"--Cain got a little more powerful.


Separately, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney defended the 2008 bailout of Wall Street banks, saying it was essential to preserving the nation's currency and financial system from collapse. Asked about his own 59-point plan, Romney said that while simplicity like the 9-9-9 plan are often helpful, they're also frequently incomplete. He noted that he wants to target a middle-class tax cut because the rich will survive and the poor have a safety net. As for his own economic plan, Perry said he is introducing it shortly, but the government must open the way for more production of domestic energy.
Hours before the candidates met, Romney picked up New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's endorsement, which he hopes will help cement his support among the GOP establishment and nurture an image that he's the party's inevitable nominee. But at least for tonight, everyone's talking about the 9-9-9 plan, and Cain couldn't have asked for a better gift from his opponents.

Van Jones Remarks on the Progressive Movement (Cont'd)

Former Obama administration Green Jobs Adviser Van Jones called on progressives to learn from the successes of the tea party movement. He warned that the progressive movement must be tied to "principles and not a person." Mr. Jones' speech was part of a Campaign for America's Future conference grassroots organizing, the progressive movement, and helping the middle class in a slow economy.

Van Jones Remarks on the Progressive Movement

Former Obama administration Green Jobs Adviser Van Jones called on progressives to learn from the successes of the tea party movement. Mr. Jones' speech was part of a Campaign for America's Future conference grassroots organizing, the progressive movement, and helping the middle class in a slow economy.

Obama's Best Bet for Reelection: Social Networking?

President Obama may be struggling in polls and losing support amongst his core supporters, but when it comes to the ability of identifying, connecting with and mobilizing voters, as well as integrating voter information with the complex workings of a national campaign, his team is way ahead of the Republican pack.
Alone among the major candidates running for president, Obama not only has a Facebook page with 23 million "likes,” he has a Facebook app that is scooping up all kinds of facts about his supporters. Users of the Obama 2012 AreYouIn? app are not only giving the campaign personal data like their name, gender, birthday, current city, religion and political views, they are sharing their list of friends and information those friends share, like their birthday, current city, religion and political views.
According to a report by CNN, the Obama operation staff members are using a powerful social networking tool called NationalField, which enables everyone to share what they are working on. Modeled on Facebook, the tool connects all levels of staff to the information they are gathering as they work on tasks like signing up volunteers, knocking on doors, identifying likely voters and dealing with problems. Managers can set goals for field organizers like the number of calls made, the number of doors knocked, and see how people are doing against all kinds of metrics.
In addition to all the hard data, users can share qualitative information: what points or themes worked for them in a one-on-one conversation with voters, for example. "Ups," "Downs" and "Solutions" are color-coded, so people can see where successes are happening or challenges brewing.
For a campaign that tapped the volunteer energies of millions of people in 2008 and appears to need all the help it can get in 2012, these kinds of fine-grained technologies could make a key difference. While the Republican field has been focused on how their candidates are doing with social networking, Obama's campaign operatives are devising a new kind of social intelligence that will help drive campaign resources where they are most needed.
It all sounds like common sense, but actually, connecting and synchronizing the data a campaign collects from its field operation, fundraising operation and Web operation isn't a trivial task. Most political campaigns tend to rely on consultants to carry out part or all of these functions, resulting in even greater obstacles to sharing information.
But how powerful can this data driven politics be? By the end of the 2008 election, it had amassed 13 million supporter e-mail addresses, collected nearly 4 million individual donations and tallied about 2 million registered users on my.BarackObama.com, the campaign's social networking platform. Seventy thousand members have used the site to conduct their own personalized fundraising campaigns.
Since 2008, enthusiasm for Obama has waned, but his online presence hasn't. His base on Facebook has soared nearly six times from the 4 million he had on Election Day, and his following on Twitter now stands at 10 million, dwarfing the Republican field. So even if Obama isn't drawing millions of people off their sofas to rally to his side on their own in 2012, his team has a huge amount of raw data to work with as they build his re-election machine.

Perry in a Heap of Trouble after Pastor Remarks

These days on the campaign trail poor Rick Perry just can’t seem to catch a break. The presidential hopeful spoke at the Values Voter Summit, a social gathering of hundreds of conservatives in Washington, on Friday, however the evangelical pastor who introduced him stole the show, sparking a controversy in the process. The Texas pastor introduced Rick Perry at the major conference of Christian conservatives as “a genuine follower of Jesus Christ” and then walked outside and attacked Mitt Romney’s religion, calling the Mormon Church a cult and stating that Mr. Romney “is not a Christian.”
Jeffress praised Rick Perry for defunding Planned Parenthood in Texas, calling the provider of women’s health and abortion services, “that slaughterhouse for the unborn.” He also lauded Perry’s “strong commitment to biblical values.”
Jeffress’ comments and his backing of Perry threaten to inject some tension into what has been a relatively quiet year for religion on the campaign trail and the Perry campaign sought to ease the growing uproar.
This raised immediate suspicions that the attack might have been a way for surrogates or supporters of Mr. Perry, the Texas governor, who has stumbled in recent weeks, to gain ground by raising religious concerns about Mr. Romney. The campaign’s official comment on Jeffress changed quickly on Friday afternoon. When initially asked by ABC News whether Gov. Perry agreed that Mormonism is a cult, Perry spokesman Mark Miner said: “The governor doesn’t judge what is in the heart and soul of others. He leaves that to God.”
Back in 2007, Jeffress had this to say about Romney: “Even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult.” In 2008, Jeffress asserted that Mormons worship ”false” god and said: “I believe we should always support a Christian over a non-Christian.”
The Perry campaign sought to put some space between Mr. Perry and Mr. Jeffress, stating that the governor “does not believe Mormonism is a cult” and that Mr. Jeffress was chosen to speak by the organizers of the event, the Values Voter Summit, which was put on by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and other evangelical Christian groups. A Romney spokesman declined to comment on Mr. Jeffress’ remarks.
While refuting that his comments were coordinated with the Perry campaign, Mr. Jeffress said he emphatically believed that Mr. Romney’s faith would spell trouble for him with many Republican voters and make it hard for him to win in Iowa, as well as South Carolina and other Bible Belt states.
He also said that he believed Mr. Romney is a “good, moral person,” and that he would endorse him over the president. If it comes to that, he said, “I’m going to instruct, I’m going to advise people that it is much better to vote for a non-Christian who embraces biblical values than to vote for a professing Christian like Barack Obama who embraces un-biblical values.” Looks like things are starting to heat up as the year winds to a close. These next few weeks on the campaign trail should be very interesting to say the least.

2010 Elections and the Democratic Party

Former Governor Kaine spoke about Democratic Party prospects in the 2010 midterm elections and the party's efforts to register and motivate voter turnout.

Christie Set to Run?

After months of avoiding the issue, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is finally giving some serious thought to the idea of throwing his hat into the ring for a GOP presidential run; and could make his decision next week, The Post has reported. The announcement may come as early as Monday, said sources familiar with Christie’s thinking. The renewed consideration about a White House run came after prodding this week from some Republicans he idolizes, as well as a Republican field that has been struggling to put forward a clear front-runner, creating an opening.

Only the pugnacious, popular Christie could pull off such a complete 180 from his blustering denial of interest less than a year ago. Republican insiders familiar with Christie's thinking about a presidential bid are now putting the odds of him running at 50-50, telling CBS News there's a "decent chance" he will get in. If Christie rules it out, as one insider said, it's because he will see too many potential roadblocks in his path to the Republican nomination.

Insiders say Christie is ready to put a presidential campaign together “pretty fast.”
And he’d have to, since filing deadlines for key primary ballots are just weeks off.
Months ago, his top advisers roughed out a finance plan that could be put into play immediately, insiders said. The heightened buzz has Washington Republicans worked up too. If Christie decides to run he would be a formidable force in uniting the base of the GOP and winning over independents. His candidacy may not be a lock on the White House, but his positive effect on the race

It may be too late for Christie to make a competitive run. Running an effective campaign for president takes years of preparation and planning and is difficult to create this late in the game. Raising the money needed would also be a daunting task for Christie. The filing deadline for the Florida primary is the end of next month, and Christie would need to put together a campaign team and fund raising

apparatus within a matter of weeks if he decides to get in. And he could have a hard time keeping up with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in fund raising when he does get in, since he'll have to focus on developing a national platform and prepare for debates and interviews.

It's also unknown how rank-and-file Republicans will respond to Christie, who holds moderate views on bedrock conservative issues like gun control, civil unions, and immigration that will make it hard for him to compete in the first-in-the-nation voting state of Iowa. But Christie would also enter the race with serious advantages, including the strong support of wealthy northeastern donors and a brash, confrontational style that makes many Republicans swoon.