Political Equinox

America hasn’t seen a marketing machine similar to the Obama campaign for President in years (if ever), and I would be awful surprised if this well-oiled machine didn’t pull out a victory in November.

While Barack Obama is an exciting person, it is his campaigns unmatched ability to implement an excellent marketing strategy that revolves around creating energy and brand recognition.

Branding

Obama has rolled out the most comprehensive branding strategy of any presidential candidate ever, find me someone who has done a better job and I’ll show you how Obama tops it. No candidate has ever put out a stronger message to America through slogans, logos, websites, and literature.

The branding …

Tags: America, Barack Obama, Branding, candidate, Charlie Gibson, Illinois, Internet, IRS, John McCain, mccain campaign, obama, Oil, president, republican, ron paul, strategy, web

As delegate counting has become the new rage in national Democratic conversation, the idea of looking at how ‘superdelegates’ vote is not something relegated to the political junkies. It is darn near impossible for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to secure the nomination without them so they now become incredibly important in deciding which Dem will square off against McCain this fall.

For those of you who don’t know, ‘superdelegate’ is an informal term for a delegate to the Democratic National Convention not directly chosen through a primary or caucus. They are party officials as well as current and former elected officeholders.

Just whom are these ‘superdelegates’ from …

Tags: Barack Obama, candidate, Congress, evan bayh, Hillary Clinton, Illinois, IRS, obama, president

When in Iowa, Tyler Chris and I took part in an NPR discussion in a museum in downtown Des Moines. While wandering around the museum after the event, we stumbled upon an exhibit which looked at the history of the Iowa caucus. One wall had the campaign posters of everyone in the 2008 race. I had heard of every name on the wall, even those who had dropped out early on - Senator Bayh, Senator Vilsack, former Senator Daschle were just a few of the names on the wall.

There was, however, one candidate I had never heard of - he was a Republican named John Cox.

When i got back to my room, I Youtube’d (hey, we use Google as a …

Tags: candidate, Congress, Illinois, republican, web

The Drive

The ride out to Iowa took a lot longer than I had originally anticipated. Chris, Tyler and I were on the road for over 8 hours, driving around the Chicagoland area then through the flat (and by ‘flat’ I mean nothing as far as the eye could see at times) counties of Western Illinois. By the time we reached the Mississippi River Bridge that took us into Iowa the snow had begun to fall hard. Dump trucks sat poised in the median ready to salt and plow the snow. Even with these trucks, there were a myriad of overturned vehicles in the median, including one semi truck.

I was under the assumption …

Tags: Barack Obama, candidate, Congress, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, huckabee, Illinois, iraq, iraq war, John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, obama, president, republican, ron paul, The Caucus

Back in 2005 Congress quietly passed the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005. Quite a mouthful there. But the real meat comes in Division B entitled “REAL ID Act of 2005.”

The REAL ID Act establishes federal standards for all state-issued drivers license cards. Each card will be issued a national identification number and contain “common machine-readable technology.” According to author and activist Katherine Albrecht these machine-readable technologies, commonly known as RFID chips can be used as tracking devices. While I’m not much for these “Big Brother is watching” conspiracy theories Ron Paul seems to pump out (Yes, he is associated with battling this one.), the law very clearly states what is …

Tags: America, Congress, Democrats, homeland security, Illinois, IRS, michigan, privacy, real id act, ron paul