Again, nothing will come out of this debate but having all the candidates in one room will spark a national media frenzy.  There will be large promotions leading up to and after the event.  This is a positive thing because it is an opportunity for people to start learning the candidates. 

Most people will not watch but with all the coverage it may spark people to get involved with politics.  That can only be a good thing. 

Expect all candidates to produce heavy grassroots campaigning that week.  They want to show America that they have the largest and most excited base. 

A major drawback of the New Hampshire debate, the more candidates, the less time they will have to speak.  The candidates will push national and party issues.  The Democrats will bash the Republicans on the war.  The Republicans will change the subject and talk about immigration and national security. 

Don’t expect the candidates to come out swinging.  It is way too early for that.  Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have too much to lose so expect broad answers.  Candidates never give detailed plans anyway but the responses will be universal. 

Edwards will say he is for the sciences.  An indirect reminder of his wife’s cancer. 

Barack Obama will talk about foreign policy, mainly the war in Iraq. 

Clinton will highlight health care and the importance of troop care. 

This debate is not going to help the candidates.  In fact, it will give the media to attack their agendas.  The debate is being picked up by NBC so Hard Ball and MSNBC will have a field day with the candidates.  They will get their ”political analyists.” Which network will James Carville be on? 

“There’s one way we can respond: redouble our efforts to win the White House and more seats in the House and Senate. We need a president who understands that the best way to protect women’s health and reduce the number of abortions is to expand access to family planning — not to threaten doctors and patients. We need a Congress that will say no to rolling back the rights of women.” – Hillary Clinton Email 4/19/07

Clinton has the woman vote.  She doesn’t need to vouch for women.  She is not protecting women’s right to choose.  She’s using this as a platform to go after George Bush.  The president has been wounded for months now.  This is a strong victory for him and Clinton is just trying to take away some steam. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, John Edwards is using his wife as political showmanship.  Edwards got a boost in fundraising after his wife was diagnosed because he found a way to get on the front page.  That was a month ago.  Yesterday the couple took advantage of the Virginia Tech shooting.  Edwards did not make a standalone statement.  He included his wife.

A few days ago, Elizabeth unveiled a campaign office in Iowa.  Yes, Iowa.

The campaign is not dumb.  They looked at the results that Elizabeth has brought to her husband’s numbers.  She gets results so she is playing first lady.  Unveiling an office in Kansas would not bring out the media.  Iowa, an important primary state does.  He needs the press in Iowa and Elizabeth gave it to him.

Look for a smear campaign soon.  A wife doing most of the work will not look good to some people.  The campaign will give an impression that John is weak.  He’ll say she is an asset and will make a great first lady.  The problem is she may not be around to play first lady for long.

A black person running for president will of course call for someone who said something about his race.  He has no political downfall from it.  He did wait too long though to go public. 

 Hillary Clinton is banking off of the Imus mistake.  She is going to Rutgers and I’m sure it will be a large topic.  She is spinning it as an opportunity to talk about women.  This is an opportunity for her to gain more women votes but it leaves her open to the women debate.  She doesn’t need that and should shy away.

Clinton may have missed the boat on this one.  She had the perfect opportunity to go after the Bush Administration when Walter Reed happened.  There were firings and she could have been more vocal. 

She needs to point out problems in our military health care.  She hasn’t done that.  In addition, she is using her blog as a way to talk about her appearances on the topic.  She was on Good Morning America.  Good for her but the issue is health care. 

Her response is a standard politician answer.  She wants quality affordable health care for every American.  Haven’t politicians been promising that forever?

 The reason: Clinton is for your parents generation.  Obama is for the younger generation.

Younger people know how to use the internet.  They are more engaged.  There is a benefit for Clinton.  Since her base is older, they probably have made up their minds about her. 

So Obama was $1 million short of the Clinton record.  But he didn’t get anything from lobbyists…who looks better to the media now?  Who wants to be the one for change? Who is talking about the issues? Obama has got the edge. 

The stream was at 62kps.  That means the window has to be open 2 inches to see the quality clearly.  I was dropped multiple times as well.  I understand thousands are probably on there trying to watch…but for the love of God pay the money and get video that someone can watch!

Maybe it is a PR tool.  Tell your supporters that you’re talking to them.  Give them a sense that they can watch it if they want. 

Regardless…the topic of health care was great.  Obama didn’t talk long and took questions from the audience.  He listened and asked questions of his own.  Not many politicians do that. 

The funny thing is even though the video quality was terrible…I still got out of it that Obama does have the charisma that everyone is talking about.

This comes into play because he is going against the government. Federal law says marijuana is illegal and it comes before state law. Now this is a great opportunity to get press if your running for president. But I’m not sure how smart it is. The American people think drugs are bad. Now someone who wants to run America suddenly says it’s alright?

Politicians have taken sides on illegal things like gay marriage and abortion in order to help themselves politically. But drugs? I’m not sure he can gain much from this. I’m sure in the long run it will hurt him. Candidates will pull it out and wave it in his face. They will say medical drugs justifies regular drug abuse.

Now that the media still has Richardson in their rundown…it is time for their campaign to start talking about his presidential future. He needs more recognition. NOW.

Mitt Romney raised $23 million for the first quarter. He was smart to release it when he did. There was a big to-do about how much Hillary Clinton raised. He let that have a day or so and then he shocked the media by releasing his number.

From now until mid-April, the press will be reporting how much each candidate has raised. Everytime the press talks about Clinton, they will now say Romney is not far behind. Since there is plenty of coverage of Clinton, Romney will reap the benefits.

Expect his poll numbers to increase dramatically. He has been in third place, he will definitely climb into the second spot.

John McCain will be hard to knock out. He has the Washington insiders and party loyalty. Rudy Giuliani will slip…too much bad press and low fundraising totals, compared to others.

Now for the yet-to-be-released Barack Obama. If he doesn’t break Clinton’s record then I will be surprised. Reports have speculated that he has raised $23 million. He has plenty of supporters and has done plenty of fundraising events to be trailing anyone. If Obama reports less than $23 million then he is going to take a huge plung in the polls.