John Edwards the Elitist?

With all the talk about $400 haircuts do you think they’ll even notice that John Edwards is the only major Democratic presidential candidate that has never sent his kids to private school?

Comparing Burn Rates

In fund-raising, a measure arguably more important than any other is “burn rate”. Burn rate is the percentage of the total money a candidate brings that they send right back out the door. Higher burn rates, especially in the early phases of a campaign, can be fatal. We’re still months away from the point in which the most expensive aspects of the primaries – heavy television and direct mail buys – begin.

According to the recent reports here is the burn rate ranking among all the candidates that have raised the competitive sum of $10 million or more:

1. Clinton – 35.3%
2. Obama – 39.6%
3. Edwards – 44.6%
4. Richardson 47.1%
5. Dodd – 53.4%
6. Giuliani – 54.1%
7. Romney – 72.7%
8. McCain – 90.5%

Hillary Clinton’s Internet Campaign

That Hillary Clinton spoof video was the first sign of imagination from the Clinton campaign.

Look at a comparison of the three major Democratic campaigns’ traffic:

That massive spike is the effect of Hillary’s Soprano ad.

Hillary Soprano

Hillary needs to do a lot more stuff like this if she wants to be president. Nice to see she has a more lighthearted side.

2004 Redux?

Man, did Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama learn nothing from the negative primary campaigns of Gephardt and Dean?

In recent days, some of the high-minded sheen of Obama’s candidacy has been tarnished by an opposition research memo circulated anonymously by his staff that outlines the record of his main rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, on outsourcing. Obama later apologized for the memo–which described Clinton as the senator from Punjab, India–after the Clinton campaign obtained it and made it available to reporters.

But the behind-the-scenes skirmishing between the campaigns continued. Asked to respond to the Obama speech on Friday, a Clinton campaign spokesman offered to provide opposition research anonymously and not-for-attribution to the campaign. When those terms were rejected, the Clinton spokesman declined to comment.”

Negative campaigning in a multi-candidate race is a totally losing proposition. And yet the two marquee candidates on the Democratic side are already engaged in all out press war – it’s ONLY JUNE!

This calls for moving John Edwards up on the horserace.

Horserace Update: 1) John Edwards 2) Hillary Clinton 3) Barack Obama 4) Bill Richardson

What Influences Matter In Politics?

I didn’t actually get to watch because I don’t have cable, but I heard good things about the CNN forum on faith in politics with the top Democratic candidates for President. I think forums like this are important if they are an authentic source of morality and values for each candidate. Voters want to know who they are electing and a critical part of this understanding is learning the candidate’s source of inspiration to serve.

While I am not personally somebody that waves their religion in anyone’s face, I do understand why voters would want to know more about the motivations of those that seek to represent them. At the same time, there should be similar opportunities for the discussion of secular influences on the candidates. As a Christian, the Sermon on the Mount means an awful lot to me but so too does the example of my parents, and the example of my pappaw.

So what influences matter? All of them. There’s no reason for us to be scared to discuss faith with our leaders, or those that hope to lead us, but there’s also no reason why that should be the end of the conversation. And wouldn’t it be so much more interesting to see more real conversations with the candidates than more of the same mind-numbing over-prepped “debates”. Anybody can deliver the script they’ve been trained to regurgitate in response to a particular question- the influences that shape that person and how they have responded to particular situations in their own life are the things that set individuals apart and those things really do matter in politics.

Hillary’s Expectations Game

By now you’ve all heard about the “leaked” Mike Henry memo that advised Hillary to cut bait in Iowa. Classic example of a staged leak. Hillary never had any intention to leave Iowa, but she’s watched as a narrative has developed that leaves her with little upside in Iowa. She doesn’t, in fact, look likely to win even though she’s supposed to have all those Clinton connections, the best staff, and the most money. Up till now, even without the expectations on her to win, she’d have looked pretty bad coming out of Iowa with anything but first.

Enter the Henry memo. This memo was never serious, it’s doing right now what it was written to do- reset expectations. Now the headline is that a senior Clinton official wants to leave Iowa while other staff and the Senator want to “compete” ( e.g. – “We are unequivocally committed to competing in Iowa.”) Notice: not win, compete. You’d think the media would see through this, but no, we get headline after headline reinforcing the narrative they sought to inject: