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October 31, 2006

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 10

Here's a fast Smither update. There should be a new batch of radio advertisements airing on selected radio stations. Also, a television buy is being negotiated at this time.

Smither signs have been mutilated or cut down all over the district, but we're starting to collect significant photographic evidence of this.

The commercials should bump Smither up a few points in the polls, hopefully both from the 25 percent undecided column as well as from the R and D candidates.

And everyone is so focused on the General Election, they seem to be neglecting the Special Election. The R may be writing it off, as the NY Times reports:

Mr. Lampson, perhaps reluctant to risk a loss for little gain, chose not to run in the special election. If Ms. Sekula-Gibbs takes the interim House seat but loses the general election, she would still be compelled to give up her Council position, a base for future campaigns, which has prompted speculation that she may turn down the interim seat. She declined to say.

I've never seen a campaign with as many sudden turns and surprising twists as this one. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 05:07 PM | Comments (1)

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 9

For the last couple of days, the local buzz in CD-22 has been about a new poll commissioned by KHOU TV and the Houston Chronicle. The bottom line is that Sekula-Gibbs went up and Lampson and Smither dropped from other recent polling.

To begin, we tried to devise a survey which would not reflect voter intent, but what voters might actually do on Election Day. It's an impossible task with a write-in campaign. When KHOU announced the poll results on the evening news, they went through a big disclaimer about how difficult or perhaps impossible it is.

It seems that people are disputing the results already. From a national perspective, Chris Bowers wrote:

But write-ins are not the same as Gibbs. The poll shows that 79% of write-in voters intend to vote for Gibbs. It also shows that only two-thirds of those voters know how to conduct a write-in. With those two factors taken into account, Lampson is actually doubling up Gibbs 36-19. But hey, Zogby wasn't commissioned to make a boring poll.

Local opinion is more important, as these guys are on the ground and actually talk with local voters on a daily basis. One local angle provides a series of items to consider. Here's the first:

So it sounds like Shelley might have 35% of the vote and Nick has 36%, right?

But the actual poll results seem to paint a different picture. Consider:

- Out of 504 voters polled, 184 - 36.5% - said they were not aware anyone is running as a write-in candidate in the CD-22 race.

Here's another local view:

- 26% of Republicans (69 out of 262) and 24% of Independents (19 out of 81) say they're not sure who they're voting for. It's hard to judge what they might eventually do. In a subsequent question that named Sekula Gibbs on the ballot, the 61 "not sure"s were pushed, but only 18 then identified a candidate. No such pushing was done for the Lampson/Smither/Write In question, where there were twice as many (123) "not sure"s. One might surmise that these are the people least likely to vote.

- It's hard to believe that Bob Smither will get only 4% of the vote. Past history suggests that Libertarian candidates, when they share a ballot with only one major party contestant, get 10-15% of the vote. My guess is that Smither will pick up a number of the not-sure voters, probably more Republicans since those are the ones he's specifically targetting.

I tend to take much more stock in longer rolling polls than in one time major polls with lower margins of error. This gives me a view of how events, advertising, media coverage and ground campaign activities are effecting the mood of the voters. I'm treating this poll as just one in a series of polls where Smither and Sekula-Gibbs tend to fluctuate weekly.

This poll happened towards the end of a very major media blitz by Sekula-Gibbs (paid mostly with national money). Lampson dropped a little and Smither dropped even more, that is too be expected.

I'm now seeing more Lampson ads (I assume he made another media buy) and a lot of the Smither advertising begins today. 25 percent of the voters are still undecided, and some leaning towards the Republican will certainly sway as Smither advertsing kicks into high gear this week.

They may have just scored a couple of points, but the fourth quarter just started and we've just gained possession of the football.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 12:56 PM | Comments (4)

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 8

Here are some pictures from the Bob-a-palooza in Sugar Land, TX.

Texas LP Chair and Lago Vista Councilman Pat Dixon

CD-22 candidate Bob Smither listens to LNC Chair Bill Redpath

LP Communications Director Stephen Gordon

Former U.S. Representative Bob Barr

Bill Redpath, Bob Barr and Bob Smither

The man of the hour! In this shot, Smither was thanking Tom DeLay for making this opportunity possible.

Bob Smither, Stephen Gordon and Bob Barr onstage with Bill Redpath standing in front

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 11:10 AM | Comments (2)

October 25, 2006

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 7

Bob Smither is in D.C right now, but we are busy here on the ground. Bob Barr will be stumping for Smither in Sugar Land, TX on Saturday, so we've been busy buying radio advertising for the event and ensuring that the rally will be a success. We've also been buying airtime for two related radio advertisements.

Smither has picked up two more notable endorsements, one from Erick Erickson at RedState.com and one from professional wrestler Glenn Jacobs (AKA Kane).

Polling numbers are all over the place right now. Some of the polls exlude Smither but include the write-in candidate. The campaign has an audio version of the poll here (worth the listen just for the comedy value), and some of the negative press for the Republican can be found here, here and here.

One reason the polling data is all over the place is because of the complexities of surveying on a write-in race. Excluding candidates obviously biases the results. There are reports that the Democratic pollsters are calling Smither the "Liberal" candidate, as opposed to Libertarian.

Despite of of this, the campaign took the last three somewhat credible polls and averaged the data to come up with a snapshot view of Smither's general election chances:

Since Lampson's numbers are expected to remain fairly stable, the key question for this race seems to be how the roughly 60 to 65 percent conservative portion of vote total is to be divided. An average of the last three published polls published on the race indicates:

Nick Lampson 39% (D)
Bob Smither 20% (L)
Key Write-in Candidate 12% (R)
Undecided/Other 29%

The undecided group is very conservative and has voted Republican in recent elections. If he picks up the remaining undecided votes, Smither will not only beat Lampson, but will be within one point of a majority vote total.

The local Internet media is interesting as well. Here's a great issue piece on Smither and here's another failed GOP spelling lesson.

We should be cutting a television advertisement tomorrow and finishing preparation for the Saturday event. I'll try to post an update again tomorrow, but I've got to get back to work right now.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 03:51 PM | Comments (18)

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 6

I've been traveling for the last week and not been able to keep up with the campaign trail updates. I'm back in Texas and here's a picture of what's popping up all over the ground in TX-22:

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 03:38 PM | Comments (6)

October 20, 2006

Another Libertarian Endorsement

The Detroit News just endorsed Libertarian Party candidate Robert Hutchinson for U.S. Congress.

In the open 7th District, the major party choices are the far-right Tim Walberg and the far-left Sharon Marie Renier. We'll shun the extremes and take our chances on the Libertarian candidate, Robert L. Hutchinson , a retired Air Force major from Dexter.

Congratulations, Mr. Hutchinson.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 08:10 PM | Comments (13)

October 18, 2006

Libertarian Candidate Bruce Guthrie Reaches Washington Voters

U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Guthrie jumped a high hurdle recently by loaning his campaign $1.2 million to primarily qualify for the televised debate that aired last night on Seattle's King 5.

Here's KIRO 7's take on the evening:

Inside the studio, Libertarian candidate Bruce Guthrie provided the fireworks and humor, a counterpoint to well-rehearsed soundbites from the two mainline candidates. He staked out left-of-center positions that could erode some of Democrat Cantwell's base, strenuously opposing the war in Iraq, supporting gay marriage and decriminalization of marijuana and blistering both major parties for a variety of ills, including the big federal deficit.

He also drew chuckles when he said "I'm the poorest millionaire up here." Cantwell and McGavick got wealthy in the private sector. Guthrie cashed in all his assets so he could loan his campaign $1.2 million, the bare minimum required by debate organizers to show at least modest support.

After viewing the debate, I can say that Mr. Guthrie made us proud with his performance, not to mention his willingness to go "all in" in order to compete.

You can watch the entire debate by clicking here.

Posted by Shane Cory at 11:02 AM | Comments (11)

Small Business: Another Libertarian Solution

CNN Money/Fortune Small Business just ran an interesting online article about how both major parties try to woo entrepreneurs.

They went after the Elephants for misleading small business owners with tax cuts of which they will likely never benefit:

That "average small business" includes millions of wealthy individuals (including Cheney and President Bush) who derive a portion of their income from consulting or investments in small companies. Most real small-business owners got much less.

And the Bush administration financed its tax cuts with borrowed money that must eventually be paid back via benefit cuts or tax increases. According to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C., more than half of all tax filers with small-business income wind up worse off once the cost of financing the cuts is taken into account.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of small businesses get snared every year by the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The AMT was originally aimed at a couple hundred wealthy taxpayers. But the AMT's guidelines have not been adjusted for inflation since 1986, and today an increasing number of middle-income taxpayers - including thousands of small businesses - are forced to pay it.

The trend was exacerbated by the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which ironically forced even more taxpayers into the AMT by lowering their marginal income tax rates. In speeches President Bush frequently argues that lower income taxes help small-business owners because most entrepreneurs are taxed as individuals. He conveniently fails to mention that the AMT trap negates much of that benefit.

They went after the Donkeys, too:

Most Democrats are no better. As members of a party that has traditionally favored higher taxes, increased regulation and trial lawyers, their efforts to champion entrepreneurship can border on the ridiculous.

Democrats routinely trash the Bush administration for slashing the SBA's budget and attempting (unsuccessfully) to eliminate its loan guarantee programs, which purport to create jobs by helping startup businesses get off the ground.

But in fact SBA loans benefit a tiny number of politically connected entrepreneurs (less than 1 percent of all businesses), along with the banking industry, which earns billions in loan interest and securitization revenues while allowing taxpayers to shoulder some $70 billion in default risk. By creating an uneven playing field, SBA loans in effect hurt the vast majority of U.S. small businesses that must compete without federal help.

In the end, Libertarian wisdom was realized:

In the end, the wisest opinion may come from someone who belongs to neither party. "Democrats claim to appeal to the little guy and Republicans claim to be the champions of businesses," says Mark Schreiber, an Indiana entrepreneur and former national marketing director for the Libertarian Party. "But neither cares about the little guy with a business."

Perhaps people are beginning to wake up to the fact that only one political party is truly the champion of small business: The Libertarian Party.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:38 AM | Comments (4)

October 17, 2006

More Debate Coverage

In addition to the debate coverage we provided a couple of days ago, here's some more video debate coverage of some of our candidates.

Libertarian Phil Maymin is running for Congress in Connecticut's 4th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Chris Shays and Democrat Diane Farrell. The three candidates have held a total of five debates, so far. The first two debates are now available online in video format here and here, respectively.

Maymin pulled off some good laugh lines in his first debate. "If you're in your forties or your fifties or your sixties, like my opponents, then you should be entitled to every retirement benefit that you would get," joked Maymin when discussing Social Security reform in the first debate.

Of course, Iraq is a much more serious topic. "I don't want our guns or our lives or our money in Iraq. I want to come home," Maymin said strongly during the second debate.

We covered the first of the Arizona gubernatorial debates the yesterday and now have video available here from the second debate between Libertarian Barry Hess, incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano and Republican Len Munsil.

There were laugh lines in Arizona, too.

"Right now, Janet [Napolitano] will tell you that she wants to invest in the children, but it's like investing in Enron, at this point," said Hess about the state education system.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 02:26 PM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2006

Conflicting Newspaper Endorsements?

It's not often that a major paper endorses Libertarian Party candidates. Often, they simply ignore the LP. It looks like things may be changing this election cycle -- for good and bad.

The Houston Chronicle has made it clear that it loves a larger and more intrusive government:

On the ballot for the Nov. 7 general election, several candidates have no major-party opponent but face nominees from the Libertarian Party. The Chronicle recommends that both Republican and Democratic voters cast their ballot for the following candidates: [list of Republican and Democrat candidates follows]

In other words, they say to vote for anyone but the Libertarian candidates. At least they spelled our name correctly.

In Oregon, one endorsement was considerably more encouraging. While the StatesmanJournal endorsed Democratic incumbent candidate Ted Kulongoski over Libertarian Richard Morley, they also suggested that Kulongoski should bring Morley on board as some sort of fiscal adviser:

And we want a governor who will capitalize on Oregonians' good ideas.

The Libertarian candidate for governor, Richard Morley, is a sharp financial mind. He probably has the best plan for making agencies more efficient. If you are re-elected as governor, enlist him as a respected adviser.

Perhaps the Chronicle could learn a lesson from the StatesmanJournal. And perhaps next time, the StatesmanJournal will take it one small step further and endorse the Libertarian candidate.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 01:53 PM | Comments (9)

Debating for Small Government in Arizona and Georgia

We've now got the video from a couple of debates which included Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidates.

Barry Hess is the Libertarian running for Governor of Arizona. KAET Channel 8 Studios hosted a debate between Hess, incumbent Democrat Janet Napolitano and Republican Len Munsil. The Hess campaign stated, "According to pundits, Barry was the clear winner of this debate." The Arizona debate video is available here.

In Georgia, Macon's channel WMAZ-13 hosted a debate between the gubernatorial candidates. Libertarian Garrett Michael Hayes, incumbent Republican Governor Sonny Perdue and Democratic Lt. Governor Mark Taylor went round after round competing about which taxes should be eliminated. Zogby had polled Hayes at 8.4 percent before the debate. The Georgia debate video is available here.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 12:58 PM | Comments (11)

October 11, 2006

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 5

Here's the short media advisory we put out for the Smither campaign Monday evening:

According to attendees, the Clear Lake Association of the Retired Teachers Association exhibited heavy applause for Bob Smither while displaying light to no applause for Shelley Sekula-Gibbs today at their forum. Smither and Gibbs are scheduled to appear tomorrow at a forum with the National Association of Pro America. This organization was founded in 1933 by Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt emphasizing the defense and protection of the Constitution. This event is open to the public.

Forum information is provided below:

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - 10AM
Compass Bank Building, corner of Kirby and San Felipe
2001 Kirby Drive, Houston, Texas 77019
Second Floor meeting room.

Although the key Republican write-in candidate didn't show up, the cameras and quite a few other Republican candidates did. Bob Smither did quite well with his presentation and the Q&A session, clearly outperforming another GOP candidate for the CD-22 seat who did attend. Here are a couple of pictures from the candidate forum:

Bob Smither at the podium

Camera view of Smither

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:06 PM | Comments (5)

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 4

Here are a few more pictures from the road in Texas:

Michael Badnarik's campaign office in Austin

Kevin Takenaga had flown in for a few days to assist the Badnarik campaign

U.S. Senate candidate Scott Lanier Jameson, State Representative District 112 candidate Matthew G. Moseley, U.S. House CD-5 candidate Mike Nelson and Stephen Gordon in Dallas

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2006

Bruce Guthrie Makes the Debates!

We just received word that Bruce Guthrie, Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate in Washington, officially received an invitation to debate Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell and Republican challenger Mike McGavick.

The debate will be aired locally on King-TV in Seattle on Tuesday, October, 17th.

Bruce recently loaned his own campaign 1.2 million, meeting the requirements to compete in this debate (just goes to show what our candidates have to do to compete in a closed, two-party system).

Bruce is a GREAT candidate. To see him in action, click here.

Posted by Shane Cory at 04:59 PM | Comments (10)

October 08, 2006

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 3

Sorry, but I've been too busy to post here for a couple of days. However, here are a few pictures from the road:

Jon Airheart (from Badnarik campaign) and a supporter in the Badnarik booth

Michael Badnarik speaking with a potential voter

Kevin Tunstall (from Smither campaign) with Bob Smither

Bob Smither speaking with potential voters

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:11 AM | Comments (9)

October 06, 2006

LPHQ on the Campaign Trail - Update # 2

Texas is a really cool place and everyone has been so wonderful to me since I've been here. I met with (combined with some teleconferencing) several key Libertarian and Republican activists in the area who are working on the Smither campaign. As I expected before I got here, the people, hospitality and the politics are very similar to what I'm used to in my home state of Alabama.

To begin, the level of excitement on the ground was high, especially since our meeting followed Bob Smither's public forum at the Sugarland Country Club with former Democratic Congressman Ted Lampson and the write-in Republican candidate. A good deal of that conversation dealt with comparisons of the ways different Houston television stations presented the story. Perhaps the most complete coverage was from FortBendNow. Here's the portion which applies to Smither:

The three candidates made a rare appearance together at a Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday at Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land. A fourth contender for CD-22, Joe Reasbeck, attended the lunch but said he was denied permission by the chamber to speak at the event.

Libertarian Smither, Republican write-in candidate Sekula-Gibbs and Democratic challenger Lampson spoke in that order. Each was given eight minutes, no rebuttal or audience questions were allowed.
Smither, a Libertarian, and the only candidate beside Lampson whose name will appear on the ballot, compared himself to Republican conservatives of an earlier era, saying he worked as a GOP volunteer for Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.

He criticized Lampson and Sekula-Gibbs, saying both have promised to fund special projects in the district that shouldn't be paid for with tax money from people in the rest of the country, adding "in your heart, you know it's wrong."

Smither said he advocates passage of the so-called Fair Tax Proposal, which would abolish the IRS and replace the income tax with a single-rate federal retail sales tax collected at the point of purchase of new goods and services for personal consumption.

"A write-in candidate has never been elected to the House in Texas. Nick Lampson appeals to those who look to government for solutions," Smither said, adding that he represents the only true conservative alternative.

We spent a lot of time talking about the technical ground issues. Rest assured, there is a good sign team on the ground with a solid plan for their mission between now and Election Day. We also found Smither a cheaper vendor for his campaign signs. Expect to see some 4X8 signs soon, as well as some from a new organization called Republicans for Smither.

The key campaign staffers and I covered radio advertising and this portion of the campaign looks like it will be a go. Internal polling operations are now a go. The first national e-mail fundraiser is not longer a go, it's a "done gone." While I'm not going to disclose how many thousands of dollars it threw into the campaign coffers in just the first few hours after it was distributed, I'll state that the numbers are encouraging enough that I know a national Libertarian base will throw down more serious dollars as the campaign is able to provide donors even more compelling reasons to be excited about the campaign. They are working hard to provide such reasons and have some good ideas going. More importantly, this batch of donations has already paid for more signs on the ground and investment money for a national fundraising letter.

We began preparations for the final 100 hours of the race. In addition to the block walking and telephone campaign already being conducted, a significant GOTV effort is planned for the final days. Also, Election Day plans are being hashed out. While I was there, campaign manager Kevin Tunstall was calling on local county chairs to have their members request a vacation day for November 7 so they can help work at their local polling places.

I'm working on a new BallotBase project related to the campaign, so I expect to be in the area for a couple more days. After then, it looks like I'll be heading in the direction of Austin. For those of you who have worked with me on campaigns before, I'm back in my campaign zone. Cell phone chargers can't keep up with the wear and tear on the batteries and my fingers are tripping over each other from typing so fast. What's a campaign without a few pots of coffee before noon - or wrapping up well after midnight with good folks whom you've just accomplished a lot of work?

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 11:47 AM | Comments (4)

October 05, 2006

LPHQ Hits the Campaign Trail

[This is the first "campaign diary" entry from Stephen Gordon, LPHQ's communications director. Steve has been deployed to Texas to promote and assist federal candidates in the area, specifically, the top candidate in the Candidate Tracker, Bob Smither.]

Since the beginning of this week, I've been down in Texas doing what I can to assist our federal candidates on the ground. I'll attempt to use this blog to keep you up-to-date about what's happening in the field.

I'm currently staying in Katy, Texas at my aunt and uncle's house. The location is very convenient to Bob Smither's congressional district. I met with Bob Smither and Kevin Tunstall (his campaign manager) over at Tunstall's office (and a local Mexican restaurant). While I'd communicated with Smither quite a few times over the phone and by e-mail, I was pleased to learn that he is just as pleasant in person. He's seems like an honest, hard working, caring, intelligent and overall great guy.

What they've accomplished on the ground already is pretty amazing. They are hitting public and non-libertarian events almost every day. For example, Smither is at a local county club in a forum with his primary opponents at this moment. They have already made over 60,000 phone calls to voters and plan to continue placing calls until Election Day. They are placing campaign signs on the ground and are passing out quality printed material wherever they go.

They have organized block walking teams which are spending a lot of time talking to potential voters. The Republicans use their Voter Vault project to develop their local block walking lists. With a little more financial support for Ballot Base, we might be able to outflank their system by the 2007 election cycle.

While the Smither campaign is doing the right things at the local level, the resignation of Tom DeLay combined with the subsequent promotion of this seat as vulnerable by Democrats at a national level has thrust this campaign into the national spotlight. Smither's local team simply doesn't have the resources required to compete with the national support the Republicans and Democrats are providing their candidates in Texas CD-22. This is where I've already been able to be helpful and have already covered considerably more than the cost of a plane ticket with candidate support.

While the Smither campaign has purchased good local voter lists, they don't have access to major national fundraising lists. On day one, they closed one deal to get out a major e-mail fundraiser. They've come to a general verbal agreement and are about ready to close the deal on a major snail-mail letter. We are also beginning talks on a third immediate fundraising opportunity. We've developed a polling plan, one which should begin sometime today (barring last minute technical difficulties).

We began talking about radio and television advertising and should be able to continue this conversation when Smither is free a bit later today. I'm starting to make some local media contacts, as well. I've already got one television commercial storyboarded in my mind.

Jon Airheart and I talked and I learned that he and Michael Badnarik will be in Katy for a campaign event this weekend. While I plan to drop by their campaign headquarters in Austin while I'm here, I'll be able to see my old friends Jon and Mike twice. Right now, I'm trying to coordinate my schedule so I don't miss them in either location. While not more important (but perhaps more fun), I'll also be able to grab a beer or two (well, near beer in Badnarik's case) with them.

While this congressional district was specifically engineered to be a strong GOP district, conservative voters I've talked with here are extremely upset with the Republican Party. Perhaps my uncle (although he lives a couple of miles north of the district boundary) is a classic example of the local voter. For years, he was active with the GOP. I observed him cleaning up his address book and he had personal contact information for George H.W. Bush and Tom DeLay in it. He also has autographed pictures of him with the elder Bush and even Kay Bailey Hutchinson in his office. He said that he quit providing any financial support to GOP candidates five years ago. As we watched the evening news, he wasn't just mildly annoyed with the GOP, he is considerably angry with them. Like my uncle, most people around here seem to desire fiscal responsibility combined with reasonable social tolerance from our congressional representatives.

In this district, there is only one other candidate on the ballot. When he was in Congress before, Democrat Nick Lampson was loved by national liberal organizations because of his spending record. There is no Republican on the ballot.

The leading GOP write-in candidate has indicated that she really likes spending other people's money while disregarding their basic property rights during her time on the Houston City Council. Today's television news is filled with stories of Republican candidates canceling fundraisers and distancing themselves from other Republican leaders. She's so out of touch with mainstream America that she brought in Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay to her publicized fundraiser yesterday. I'm wondering how many other disgraced currently or recently resigned Republican leaders she plans to bring to town. Will she stop at candidates under investigation for financial improprieties or will she start inviting those under investigation for making sexual advances to minors to her fundraisers? It's sort of like inviting arsonists, as opposed to firefighters, to put out a house fire.

Even in his best polls, Lampson can't even get half the voters in Texas CD-22 to support him - despite the anti-GOP fever throughout the country. The Smither campaign provides the only reasonable opportunity for fiscal conservatives in this heavily conservative district.

Posted by Stephen Gordon at 10:56 AM | Comments (4)

October 02, 2006

Woodward Takes on Bush

On last night's broadcast of 60 Minutes, guest Bob Woodward, in an effort to promote his new book, State of Denial, set his sights clearly on the incompetence of the Bush administration.

Many of the revelations from the broadcast could be seen as shocking to the typical political observer. For instance, Woodward accused the Bush administration of covering up the severity of violence in Iraq stating:

The truth is that the assessment by the intelligence experts is that next year - now next year is 2007 - it's going to get worse. And in public you have the President and you have the Pentagon saying "no no - things are going to get better". Now. There's public, and then there's private. But what did they do with the private? They stamped it Secret. No one's supposed to know. Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they're doing - they know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn't know? The American public.

Unfortunately, the typical American either believes that the situation is stabilizing or buys into the Bush line on Iraq, "We're taking the fight to the terrorists so we do not have to face them here at home."

BTW: If you buy the line above, then you must also believe that Afghanistan was just the practice field.

Another surprise is the level of involvement that Henry Kissinger has with the White House and decisions related to Iraq. Woodward, being a smart reporter recorded his conversations with Vice President Cheney. One such conversation revealed this statement by Cheney:

Of the outside people that I talk to in this job I probably talk to Henry Kissinger more than just about anybody else. He just comes by and I guess at least once a month I sit down with him.

According to Woodward, Kissinger's advice is no surprise:

Now, what's Kissinger's advice in Iraq, he declared very simply: Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy. This is so fascinating. Kissinger's fighting the Vietnam War all over again. Because in his view, the problem in Vietnam is we lost our will. That we didn't stick to it.

Now, if only someone from the Bush administration would take an hour or two out of their day to define a successful definition of success.

In case you missed it, pick up the interview on YouTube.

Posted by Shane Cory at 03:54 PM | Comments (11)