Archive for January, 2009

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must… undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Thomas Paine

Meet Richard Sales.  He is a 24-year-old wunderkind and the brains behind some of the best political web ads in the nation.  He is proof that smarts, technological know-how and a great sense of humor can change the debate in political campaigns.

I met Richard during the 2006 election cycle when we used him to produce web ads for the Arizona GOP Party Victory operation.  He produced a number of ads against Sen. Jon Kyl’s opponent, Jim Pederson.

In this last cycle, Sales produced hundreds of ads for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.  A sample is below.  The kid has creative genious, and he also composes most of the music for the ads.  Not bad for a twenty-something guy with a laptop, a keyboard and a great imagination, locked away in a basement to wreak havoc on unsuspecting candidates.

Here is Sale’s description of this ad: 

“The Kerry camp flipped out when they saw this.  If we had hit Kerry in a regular press release, no one would have noticed or cared.  But because this was on YouTube, we got a reaction out of him, throwing him off message for days.  Using humor and pop culture references really helped this ad cut through the clutter of normal web videos — not to mention the strategic thumbnailing of Britney Spears also helped.  The New York Times, HotAir.com,and National Review featured it on their sites.”

Here are a couple more.

And this one, which I linked to a couple weeks ago.

“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” –Thomas Jefferson

The problem with President Obama’s executive order to close Guantanamo Bay within a year is that we must have some place to detain very dangerous people.  Few people like that idea of bringing accused terrorists to American soil, but Congressman John Murtha has offered to house them in his district.  That’s insane, and probably won’t set well with his constituents.

To get an idea of where Obama is seeking advice, Members of the House Intelligence Committee were able to read his draft executive order on the ACLU website before they were given a copy by the White House.  That makes me feel safe…

These are not your run-of-the-mill criminals.  These are people who have essential sworn an oath to destroy America or kills themselves trying.  By housing these terrorists on American soil, we are inviting additional terrorist attacks.

If President Obama doesn’t take the war on terror seriously, we are going to see the dire consequences of more terrorist attacks on American soil.

 In a very interesting, and unexpected, twist on Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, New York Gov. Dave Paterson is going to appoint Kirsten Gillibrand, a second term Congresswoman from upstate New York.

This is a very smart move on Paterson’s part.  Gillibrand is from one of the most Republican districts in New York.  She won her seat after Congressman John Sweeney was busted on drunken driving charges with a woman other than his wife in the car in the wee hours of the morning.

Gillibrand then defended her last November against a multi-millionaire Republican in what was the most expensive Congressional race in the country.

Having Gillibrand on the statewide ticket will help all other statewide Democrats.  But the liberals in New York don’t see it that way – their screaming bloody murder.  Well, not all liberals.  The person pushing Gillibrand the hardest was Senator Chuck Schumer. 

Schumer is a smart, ruthless, self-absorbed kind of guy.  And he is a bully.  I watched him first-hand when I was staffing the Waco hearings back in 1995.  He would badger witnesses that he didn’t like, he played to the press every time he opened his mouth.  In short, he tried to make the hearings into a circus as to discredit the importance of them.

So, now Gillibrand will join Chuck’s circus in the Senate.  Word of caution for her: don’t get between Chuck and a news camera, you’ll get run over by Chuck.

The saga of the on-again, off-again, appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton demonstrates that even the most famous name in American politics isn’t always enough to get you in the game.

Kennedy’s potential appointment was always a bit of a mystery to me.  New York AG Andrew Cuomo is a battle-tested pol who has a strong machine in New York.  Kennedy has some of that mystic star power, but after a disastrous interview with New York 1 TV, and AP that luster began to fade.

New York Governor Paterson, while initially flirting with the idea of appointing Kennedy, made a smart decision in tapping Cuomo.  He will be much harder for a Republican to defeat than Kennedy would have been.  Kennedy sensed she needed a graceful exit, and was said to pull her own name out of contention.  But now the New York Times is reporting that it was tax problems.  Don’t believe it for a second.  She isn’t going for confirmation hearings – Paterson’s people are just trying to save face with Kennedy partisans.

Ultimately, we were spared the prospect of the continuation of a political dynasty – because Caroline Kennedy was not ready for prime time.  Camelot is fading away…

About a year or so ago I downloaded the pilot of Lost on iTunes.  I’ve been completely addicted ever since, and tonight’s last night’s season 5 premiere did not disappoint.

When I step back and think about what I am watching, it sounds absurd. I’m usually a bit of a realist when it comes to TV shows.  But I absolutely LOVE Lost.

Ben still gives me the creeps, and Sun clearly has something up her sleeve.  And the cameo of Anna Lucia was quite a twist.

I’m already counting the hours until next Wed. at 8 p.m.

Arizona’s Republican Secretary of State, Jan Brewer, was sworn in as the new Governor today in an inaugural ceremony at the State Capital.  The standing-room-only crowd heard an interesting contrast between President Obama’s inaugural address yesterday, and Gov. Brewer’s address today. 

Obama’s laid out how bad it was, who was to blame, that we needed to have a “government that works” and that our faith and hope in government will get us through the troubled times.  Brewer laid out the budget problems we face in Arizona, said that “government is going to get smaller” and it is through personal creativity, determination and entrepreneurial spirit that will get us through troubled times.

In her speech, Gov. Brewer echoed Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan – she talked about freedom.  The best part of the speech for me was this:

“I’m therefore pleased to report that the legislative leadership, my transition team and I are not sitting idle while the new government in Washington plans another trillion dollars in deficit spending. No, we are planning a massive stimulus package of our own, to make Arizona the most economically vibrant place in the world. And just like the clever folks in Washington, we have a catchy name for it: It’s called “freedom.””

Now there is something we can cheer about.

Today the market gained almost as much as it lost yesterday.  Maybe since Obama and Chief Justice Roberts met last night and “re-did” the whole swearing-in thing, Obama will take credit for the bounce today.  I still think Gov. Brewer should take some credit.

After shedding 332 points upon Obama’s swearing-in yesterday, the market opened up just over 100 points today.  Not certain that it’s an Obama Bounce, or a Brewer Bounce, since Arizona’s Governor-since-yesterday-afternoon Jan Brewer has her inauguration today.