William and I are heading to Iowa to help Hillary win the Presidency and take this country back from the special interests. This will be our daily Blog. It is our intention to file reports on our activities every single day from 12/28/07 through 1/4/08 . Here you can find out what kind of exciting activities we are up to in Iowa. You can also get our take on how the campaign is fairing in this great state. Our daily posts will start on the evening of December 28th!!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
New Years Eve in North Eastern Iowa…
First, Happy New Year. Today more then all the other days spent in Iowa I miss my family. My daughter Breanna (picture to the left) loves this Holiday and enjoys staying up to see the “ball drop”. Sadly, I will not be there to share this moment with her. However, the work Bill and I are doing out here in Iowa is critically important to the future of our nation, making our sacrifices well worth it.
We now have been assigned three caucus sites Bill and I will be working with. Our effort today was attempting to locate AFSCME Caucus Captains for each site. Each Caucus in the region will have an AFSCME presence symbolized by the famous AFSCME green shirts. Bill and I met for over one hour this morning with Lynn McFadden, a retired union member who has aligned herself with the AFSCME effort and will be one of our Caucus Captains. We went through a full Caucus Captain training session in Lynn’s living room. Like Lynn, we are starting to create one-on-one relationships with Pro-Hillary AFSCME members. The bottom line is that we need to get the Pro-Hillary voters to the caucuses. If that effort is successful, Hillary will win in Iowa.
Tomorrow, Bill and I will be delivering caucus packages to AFSCME members who live in rural areas along the Wisconsin border. These packages will help us to ensure the AFSCME effort will reach into every corner of the state of Iowa.
As Bill so eloquently pointed out in a previous post, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls region has become ground zero in this election. Hillary will be in our area again tonight to help welcome in the New Year with the residents of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls region. As you can surmise at this point, Bill and I will be at the Hillary visit helping out in any manner we can.
Good day friends and God Bless,
- Robert
Articles of note:
'You don?t have to yell and scream,' Clinton says
02 days until the Jan. 3, 2008 Iowa caucuses
72 Hours Out: Where Things Stand
Caucus Countdown: Women Keep One Eye on Iowa, the Other on New Hampshire
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Bill and Robert swing into action!!!!
Clinton leads in Iowa!!!!!!!!
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a narrow lead in Iowa four days before the state opens the presidential nominating race, while Republicans Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are virtually tied, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.
Click here for the whole story....
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Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll:
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Sunday Morning in Iowa
It is 7:30am on Sunday morning (at +6 degrees) and I am getting ready to head out to the Labor Temple. The polls in Iowa remain fluid and tight. The political buzz in Iowa is that anything could happen Thursday night. Bill and I have developed a “fire-in-the belly” commitment to helping the AFSCME Hillary Team win the Iowa caucuses. So friends and readers your prayers and positive thoughts are needed as we head out into the Waterloo – Cedar Falls neighborhoods scratching for every vote we can find.
In an effort to help folks understand what is going on out here in The Hawkeye State, here are some great sources of information:
Iowa Independent - is a collaboration of bloggers and journalists across Iowa with the goal of breaking news and influencing the conversations about issues that face our state. Serving over 70,000 page views per month (based on an average of July, August, and September 2007), they are Iowa's largest online-only news outlet.
The Des Moines Register - This is Iowa's largest newspaper.
Blog for Iowa - The Online Information Resource for Iowa's Progressive Community.
Click Here For HuffPost's 'Round The Clock Iowa Coverage
- Robert
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Iowa: Land of friendly, thoughtful people....
Friday, December 28, 2007
Iowa - Day One
Our boots are on the ground in Iowa. I must say our boots hit the ground running. When we arrived in Waterloo it was amidst a fairly significant snowstorm with temperatures hovering in the high teens to the low twenties. Our first day was mostly travel as we left Rochester about 6am and hit Iowa about noon (getting up at 2am). We procured our vehicles and rooms and we are off. Most of the rest of our first day was talking with folks one on one about Hillary. While we were well received so far, it appears the state of Iowa is still full of undecided voters. I was very surprised by the lack of visible political activity. Very few campaign signs were around the Waterloo - Cedar Falls region of Iowa. The good news is that of all the campaigns, Hillary was the most visible. The other thing that struck me was the ambivalence of many voters towards the caucuses. Organization is obviously the key to an Iowa victory. The candidate that gets their supporters to the caucuses will be victorious. The other good news is that AFSCME has a splendid ground operation in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls region. Both Bill and I are very proud we can play a part in this important effort. Keep an eye on this page as it will be updated daily.
God Bless;
- Robert
Stumped on caucus jargon?
For more information on the Iowa Caucuses click here!
New York Times
Iowa Caucuses - NYT
Get unbiased coverage at CQ
And what actually happens at the caucuses?
The Caucus Step by Step
http://yougogirl.com/
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My report- We traveled for most of the day.
Warm Regards;
- Bill
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Thursday, December 27, 2007
Bill and Robert’s excellent adventure….
Tomorrow morning Bill and I will travel to Waterloo Iowa to help Hillary take this country back from the special interests. I firmly believe that the day Hillary is sworn in as President of the United States of America, Halliburton, Blackwater, the Pharmaceutical conglomerates (etc, etc) will no longer have a strangle hold over the entire government. I am not so naive to believe that everything will change in an instant (Rome was not built in a day, yatta, yatta) however, we will be on the road to taking our country back.
For all the reasons listed below in Representative Jim McGovern's excellent article (Why I Support Hillary Clinton), education issues, experience, etc, I too support Hillary. However, to look deep inside my psyche is the heart and soul of the reason I support Hillary so strongly. The real reason lies in the eyes of my eleven year old daughter Breanna. When I was growing up I was often told any boy in America can grow up to be President. Now we can expand that dream to include “boys and girls”. I want my daughter growing up in an America where anyone can grow up to be President, regardless of race, religion or sex. That is my American Dream!
Stay tuned to this channel my friends for the next week and you will see history in the making.
Good day Friends and God Bless. -Robert
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Why I Support Hillary Clinton
Hillary has made it clear: If George Bush hasn't ended his war by January 2008, then as President she will. I believe her. If I didn't, there is no way in hell that I would endorse her. She has the much-needed skill, ability, strength and standing to bring this sad chapter in our history to an end. It won't be easy, but she will do it.
I am the co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus in the Congress, which is dedicated to implementing policies that will end domestic and world-wide hunger. The fact that in 2007 anyone in America or around the world is hungry is one of the greatest moral failings of our generation. Hunger is a political condition. We have the resources to end it; but we lack the political will. Hillary will change that.
Why I support Hillary Clinton
As soon as I found out that Hillary Clinton was running for president, I immediately went to her Web site to look at her stance on issues.
I looked at every presidential candidate's Web site, both Republican and Democrat, and I narrowed my choice down to two candidates, one being Hillary. I went back and forth for months between the two, and I finally decided that Hillary Clinton is the candidate I believe will make the best president of the United States.
Hillary has fought for children and early childhood development ever since graduating law school and continues to do so. I like Hillary because she has experience reaching across party lines to get legislation passed. I respect the fact that Hillary worked very hard to get the Pentagon to improve health insurance, combat pay and body armor for our troops, and worked with her Republican counterparts to get it done.
I know that Hillary will get us off our dependency on foreign oil, something I believe is long overdue. She is very innovative in the sense that she is considering all types of renewable energy options, whether it's wind or ethanol. I think putting time and money into researching these types of renewable energy sources is a good thing, and she and I agree on that.
One of the most important reasons I am supporting Hillary for president is because of her standing among world leaders. After World War II, America was the hero to the rest of the world. This view has changed drastically since, especially in the past seven years, and I know that Hillary will change the way the rest of the world looks at us. Since she served as first lady, Hillary has befriended many of the leaders of different countries, and she is respected around the globe. I believe Hillary is the only candidate that has what it takes to turn our situation around.
Hillary is very experienced in Washington politics and knows how the game is played. She bore the brunt of the lies and scandals that rocked her husband's presidency, and she knows how these can ruin a politician's career.
As first lady she withstood this type of behavior from her peers. She did it again when she ran for Senate and won by a landslide, and she's doing it again as a presidential candidate.
Every day, she has people slamming her for something and yet she continues to lead in the polls. We need a president who can take criticism and continue to do her job. To me, this is the sign of a great presidential candidate, and I see that in Hillary.
I have had the opportunity to meet Hillary a couple of times, and every time I have, she has been very personable. Hillary is always willing to take a picture or sign something while she is engaged in conversation.
I think that all of the things I mentioned above put her above all of her competition, and that's why I do and will support a Hillary Clinton administration.
- Kris Hasstedt is a senior in liberal studies from Ames.