High Ground Underground

CPAC & Campaign Workshop At CPAC, Romney humbly said we need to learn from our & his mistakes, and take back the country.  An interesting contrast to Obama’s arrogance.  Speaking of that learning, on Feb. 9 I attended an all-day campaign workshop given in L.A. by the Leadership Institute of Washington, D.C. ( http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/ ) to sharpen the skills of candidates, campaign managers, staffers & activists (I now count myself in the latter category).  Some very experienced presenters from the recent presidential campaign, and some who’d been in the business for over 30 years.  I took 10 pages of notes, on the modules that were titled:  campaign structure & organization, managing volunteers, strategic research, voter ID and targeting, building coalitions, developing your message, public relations & earned media, keys to precinct organization, door-to-door, phones, basics of online activism, keys to election day,...

I forgot to give a letter grade to Obama’s first week in office, with those horrible executive orders -- D-minus. That’s giving him some benefit for his idea of a honeymoon – schmoozing some Republicans over Super Bowl, etc. But the honeymoon’s over. The Republicans were not consulted in the working mtgs. developing the stimulus package, although a good part of the blame there lies with Pelosi & Reid (Obama could have excercised more leadership). You know it’s not a bipartisan bill when even McCain says it was nowhere near being bipartisan. 3 Republicans went along with it. At least apparently some pork was cut out of it, but still loud complaints (including general opinion polls) over the total price, and ineffective “stimuli.” Obama seemed much more concerned about getting it fast than getting it right, portraying the situation as worse than anything since the Great Depression – which it objectively is not. But a great excuse for a liberal shopping binge that we’ll be paying off ...