Vilsack to run in '08

President Obama does sound weird as well... An awful lot like Osama... Not that I'm comparing the two on any level...

I've never had it adequately explained to me why two states like Iowa and New Hampshire play such a huge role in determining who gets the nomination... I've been told that the bigger states all tend to lean one direction like California almost always goes Democrat and Texas almost always goes Republican so on and so forth...

 

Part of the idea is that they're out of the way places.

Candidates have to negotiate issues they might not be familiar with (ethanol tax credits, anyone) and, back in the day, could do so away from the bright lights and the press crush.

Not so much anymore, but I think that was part of the original idea. Now they just have them because they refuse to give them up.

I know the caucuses are an economic boon to Iowa.

 

President Obama. Like it was stated here, sounds a lot like Osama, not that it has anything to do with it. Vilsack just doesn't have a good ring to it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Is there a "bad" name on that list?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilsack

"Tom Vilsack was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1987, following the murder of mayor Edd King by a disgruntled citizen."

 

That's what They want you to believe.

 

Hey, that's how Diane Feinstein got her start.

 

Here's my rule of thumb. If a news story has to include the phonetic pronunciation of the presidential candidate's last name (i.e. the current gov of Illinois, whose last name looks like someone took a Serbian city and mixed the letters together in a Scrabble bag), the candidate is doomed. We have never had a President whose last name did not sound just like it was spelled.

Eisenhower is probably the most unique last name on the list and he had the benefit of being a worldwide celebrity when he ran.

 

Since he cut his political reputation close by, I can say this — he has the personality of a cardboard box.

He also intervened every time businesses were considering closing factories in the area. All of them closed.

The money he will spend might as well be thrown in the toilet.

 

By running, he raises his profile to become the veep. All he has to do is better than expected and he goes up the list....

 

I remember that night when it happened down in Mt. Pleasant when news broke. It was surreal. Edd King was upset over his water bill being raised. After airing his complaints several times with the council in the past, he decided to take it out on the council. Prior to the meeting, he loads his gun and heads over to City Hall. He walks into the chambers during the meeting and starts firing at the council, in front of a stunned crowd. He hits the mayor point blank range, killing him instantly, and seriously wounded another council member before walking out and being apprehended.

Another tidbit is that his father-in-law was a big Dem supporter and would have done anything to see a Democrat be governor before he died. So Vilsack runs for mayor after the shootings, then when the state senator dies, he runs and wins state senate seat. Then running for governor, his opponent's mother is killed in a car accident, and then Vilsack's dad-in-law dies, without ever seeing his dream become reality when Tommy wins the election.

He has taken a surreal path to get to where he is at. I just hope no one keels over if he runs as Veep or Prez.

 

That's kind of how Dianne Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco, IIRC.