Volume 5 Issue 3

February 23, 2007

First Man Out

Vilsack bites the dust, why the Oscars could effect the Presidential race, and the website work begins

So in one of those surprise but not really a surprise announcements, Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack became the first candidate to drop out of the 2008 race this afternoon. Vilsack was always a long shot, using a strategy that depended on him winning the Iowa caucus and then getting some momentum. Unfortunately, Vilsack found that he was unable to get enough money to compete with the big guns in the race, and he found himself coming in 4th in early Iowa polls. Vilsack, and his supporter former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, are not out of the race yet though. Iowa is now certainly up for grabs between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, and now Vilsack and Harkin could become kingmakers amongst the corn this summer. And for Vilsack, a favor like that might be worth a #2 spot on the ticket come next summer...

Look Who's NOT Running for President: The first casualty in the mighty 2008 race, Tom Vilsack of Iowa...who wants to start the VP watch?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/ 20070223/NEWS/70223009/1001&lead=1

Look Who's Running for President: Rudi Giuliani is best known for his leadership after 9/11 and as the man who "tamed" New York. But as his Presidential campaign takes off, some are asking if his style of governance fits the Presidency. Note how this article discusses another dark horse candidate who may still steal Rudy's thunder...his successor, Michael Bloomberg -
http://www.slate.com/id/2160285/

Look Who's Running for President 2: Clinton continues to refuse to apologize for her vote for war, perhaps because she's afraid it will make her look week. But William Saletan says her refusal proves she's not presidential material -
http://www.slate.com/id/2160238/

Look Who's Voting for President: Nevada was all excited to become an early caucus state, until they had to put it together. So who do you call to help? Hello, Iowa!
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/ 20070222/NEWS09/702220399

Look Who's Really Voting for President: As Vilsack proved today, votes don't matter right now...just money. So the people really determining the next President are the fundraisers who have access to money. Ana Marie Cox takes a good look at who these folks are -
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1590460,00. html

Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:

Oh man, of all the times for my arm to fall asleep!

You think our elections are bad? Ah...politics, Italian style, where the 61st government since WWII fell this week. Of course, it may just pick up where it left off too...but could the continuing political instability in Italy hurt the rest of the nation? -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/world/europe/23italy.html

Hopefully this Vote Won't Get Messed up by Florida: Al Gore is favored to win an Oscar this weekend for Best Documentary. Will this increase pressure on him to join the 2008 race?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/23/schneider.gore/index. html

American Congestion: One candidate in the Philadelphia Mayor's race is getting hit for suggesting a congestion charge for Center City. It's been quite successful in London though...so perhaps it's time that we take a closer look at it here -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16692405.htm

Of course in London, the biggest scofflaw for the congestion charges...is the United States. At least their diplomats. This article also discusses how London is expanding their charge zone, and brings up a good point of whether that may hurt the effect on traffic since so many more people would live in the zone and therefore be exempt from it -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/world/europe/23cnd-london.html

Winter in Washington: It's been a strange winter in DC this year, with the weather either really hot or really cold. Since we're on the cold side of things, here's one resident's experience with the DC style regulations during the long winter -
http://www.slate.com/id/2159760

Website Updates: The website work is well underway, and the first thing that has come back online is the e-mail. The link at the top of the page now works. It's recommended you use that, because posting the actual address on the site means I get spammed to no end. When I finally got back into it the other night, there were almost 3,000 junk messages!

The Swampmaster is working on getting some other things back on in service, such as the financial scorecard and such. Plus look for some new features as Spring approaches.

Have no idea what I'm talking about? Read the Swamp only in your e-mail? Then make sure you check out the website at http://www.fromtheswamp.com.