Hillary Contest 'Winner' Hand-Picked for 'Views, Backgrounds, and Interests'

     Hillary Clinton is offering a chance for one lucky person and a guest to join her for dinner. The campaign is inviting supporters to "chip in" to be automatically entered in the contest, although no contribution is required:

     However, it's not all luck and "chance." In the end, the Hillary for America (the "Sponsor") campaign will hand-pick the winner from a pool of 100 "potential winners" based on "views, backgrounds, and interests." A look at the contest fine print (which in reality is not that fine, but must be accessed on a separate webpage) reveals the following paragraph:

One hundred (100) potential winners will be selected by a random drawing from all eligible entries received during the Promotion Period to be held at Hillary for America Headquarters no later than August 3, 2015...  Sponsor will, in its sole discretion, then select one winner from the list of eligible potential winners from the Promotion Period on the basis of criteria determined and applied by Sponsor to provide for an appropriate range of views, backgrounds, and interests among the winners selected.

     It is unclear from the rules how the campaign will determine what the "views, backgrounds, and interests" of the potential winners are. The rules do, however, allow for a background check on potential winners, although that check presumably has more to do with security than anything else:

Sponsor may, at its option, conduct a background check on each potential winner. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any potential winner from receiving any prize based on such background check if Sponsor determines, in its sole discretion that awarding any prize to such potential winner could result in a safety or security risk to any person or persons or could result in the disruption of any event associated with the Promotion... Winner must then identify potential guest to Sponsor, and Sponsor may, at its option, conduct the same background check and process applicable to potential winners.

     The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for an explanation of the process to determine the "views, backgrounds, and interests" of the potential winners.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Hillary Clinton Fundraises Off Mother's Day

   Hillary Clinton wants you to wish her a Happy Mother's Day... and maybe send a few dollars her way, as well. Often, organizations that support politicians or candidates (such as the Democrat or Republican National Committees) will solicit such greetings for holidays and special occasions. But in this case, Hillary Clinton's own campaign isn't leaving it to chance. 
     Potential well-wishers are asked to enter their names, email addresses, and zip codes (not optional):

     Once the contact information is submitted, well-wishers are invited to become donors as well:

     Card signers also receive an immediate email asking for a donation. The email doesn't indicate if it's a one-time contact or if card signers are added [*see update below] to a regular mailing list.

     Flowers are apparently optional.


*UPDATE: On Mother's Day, another fundraising email was received at the address used to sign Mrs. Clinton's Mother's Day card.


Note: A version of this post, before the update, first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Clinton Campaign's Highest Suggested Donation Is $2,700 in English, but Only $250 in Spanish [Updated]

    The brand new 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton will "[embrace] small donors in early fundraising," according to a Monday Politico story. The second-time presidential candidate wants to "make even small-dollar donors feel like they are part of the inner circle." Based on the campaign's website, however, expectations for those "small-dollar donors" who speak Spanish are considerably lower than those for their English-speaking counterparts.
    The main donation page for the site includes preset amount buttons for $5, $25, $50, $100, $500, $1,000 and the maximum for the primary election cycle, $2,700. However, the preset amounts for the Spanish language version of the donation page are significantly less: $3, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $250. Both pages includes an "other" button where donors can fill in a different amount. Here are screenshots of the two different versions of the donation page:

    According to the Politico story, "the campaign isn’t asking for big checks... The focus for now, donors say, is to bring in $2,700 checks from individuals, or the maximum contribution for a primary." Based on the two-tier system above, Mrs. Clinton's campaign appears to expect most of those maximum contributions will come from English-speaking donors.
    The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request from comment.

UPDATE: Since this article ran, the Clinton campaign changed the Spanish language donations page to match the English language page. As of now, the latest Google cached version of the page still shows the original lower amounts.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Obama: 'Sometimes People Forget I'm Not Running for Office Again'

    At a stop in San Francisco on a three-day fund raising swing along the West Coast, President Obama said during a speech that "...sometimes people forget I'm not running for office again."  The president was talking about Republicans in Congress and the immigration reform that he is trying to get through the House:

And some of them even forget that I'm -- sometimes people forget I'm not running for office again.  Michelle doesn’t forget.   (Laughter and applause.)  So you don’t have to worry about this somehow being good for me.  This is good for the country.   It's the right thing to do for the American people. 

    A remark the president made at his first stop on the tour, the Seattle home of Jon Shirley, may give some insight into why some forget the president isn't running again:

Well, first of all, let me just thank Jon for the second time for his incredible hospitality.  And I think it’s fair to say that between Nancy and me and Steve Israel, we do a lot of events.  I will say that this particular space is one of the more spectacular venues for an event.

    The president's schedule lists several Democrat party events for Monday alone:

Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

State Department Withdraws Anti-Terror Ad After Pressure From ACLU, CAIR, SEIU, Others

    The State Department yielded to pressure from a coalition of Seattle and Washington State politicians, community groups, and advocacy organizations and agreed to withdraw at least one ad in the department's Metro bus ad campaign in Seattle promoting the “Rewards for Justice” campaign. The program pays rewards to individuals who provides leads about the location of wanted terrorists.
    Congressman Jim McDermott, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski joined forces with others in the community, as well as organizations like the ACLU and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to raise concerns about the ads.  Mayor McGinn reported at least some success in their efforts [emphasis added]:

[Arsalan] Bukhari [of the Council on American-Islamic Relations] worked with the ACLU of Washington State to convene a meeting that included Magdaleno Rose-Avila and Sahar Fathi of our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. After a productive meeting, the lead investigator for the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” program, Tim Corso, acknowledged our concerns with the ad that featured the language “Global Faces of Terrorism” along with photos of men from the Philippines, Somalia, Russia, Sudan and Algeria. He has agreed to take down this particular ad and to work with community advocates in doing outreach in Seattle going forward.

    Mayor McGinn expressed optimism that Seattle's opposition would make a difference elsewhere as "Seattle is the first city to receive these ads and the recommendations provided by the community will drive how the program is implemented in other cities across the country."  In addition to the ACLU and CAIR, the mayor credited a long list of organizations who participated in the efforts which also included the Service Employees International Union:

This was made possible through the collaborative work by the many community advocates who came together on this issue: in particular (and in no specific order), the American Civil Liberties Union – Washington, Council on American-Islamic Relations (Washington Chapter), Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Office of King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski, Office of Congressman Jim McDermott,  Minority Executive Directors Coalition, Mothers for Police Accountability, the Seattle Human Rights Commission, Consejo Counseling and Referral Service, SEIU Healthcare 775NW, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Faith Action Network (Seattle).

Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard. 

Obama Signs Fundraising Email for 'Non-Partisan' Organizing for Action

    Today, President Obama personally became re-involved in his former campaign organization's new incarnation Organizing for Action.  On the same day he is scheduled to appear at two DCCC fundraisers in Chicago, the president of the United States sent the following email to OFA's mailing list, signed "Barack":

Friend --
This is an experiment.
Organizing for Action isn't like any other organization. It's based in Chicago, not Washington, and its task is to help restore the balance of power in government.
We've seen that a bottom-up movement of passionate people can still win an election in the era of big campaign spending. That's not what this is about.
Organizing for Action is about discovering whether ordinary people can reclaim the process of legislating from special-interest groups and lobbyists, and help give your friends and neighbors the voice they deserve in Washington.
This project needs your support -- I'm counting on you to be there for the fights ahead.
Say you're in today:
http://my.barackobama.com/Are-You-In 

Let's finish what we started.
Thanks,
Barack

    The link takes recipients to an email sign up page, after which visitors are invited to donate up to $1,000 to Organizing for Action. OFA, a 504(c)(4) non-profit, has cast itself as a non-partisan advocacy group.

    Although the president and first lady were both heavily involved in OFA's re-launch shortly after President Obama's inauguration in January, more recently OFA has downplayed the president's role in the continuing mission of the group's effort to support his agenda.  Nevertheless, OFA has retained the barackoabam.com website address and @BarackObama Twitter account with its 32 million followers.  OFA's new Twitter account, @OFA, has been rather less successful signing up followers.  It currently stands at 288,000.


Note: This article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Roads and Bridges and Schools, Oh, My!

    Today at the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, MI, President Obama returned to a familiar theme as he pressed Congress to get behind his latest push to raise taxes in order to "invest" in our country's future:

        President Obama, December 10, 2012 - Twitter, Speech Transcript

"I want us to put people back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, and schools."

    A bit of research reveals just exactly how familiar the theme is:


        President Obama, August 12, 2012 - Campaign Event

"I want to take about half of the money that we were spending on war and let’s start investing it here in rebuilding our schools and roads and bridges."

        President Obama, January 25, 2011 - State of the Union Fact Sheet

The President’s Budget will outline a comprehensive, six-year plan to leverage our resources to repair crumbling roads, bridges, and transit.  [The plan also includes] a new initiative to catalyze private sector investment and upgrade commercial buildings such as offices, stores, schools[.]

        President-reelect Obama, January 28, 2010 - Town Hall, Tampa, FL

"I mean, it's important to repave our roads; it's important to repair our bridges... We can give more money to schools -- that's important[.]"

        President-elect Obama, January 3, 2009 - Weekly Radio Address

"To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools."

        President-elect Obama, November 22, 2008 - USA Today

President-elect Barack Obama this morning pledges to "put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools..."

    This is by no means a comprehensive catalog of all of the president's usages of this perennial favorite.   But to find the seeds of the president's "Roads and Bridges and Schools" meme, we must go all the way back to 2004:

        Senator-elect Obama, December 2004 - Chicago Sun Times (Winter Gridiron Dinner)

It is tough, kidded Obama, to live up to all the expectations. There are people in Kenya, his father's homeland, who expect his election to mean the United States will fund new roads, new bridges and new schools.

    So not only didn't Barack Obama's election to the Senate get any roads, bridges, or schools built in Kenya, four years of President Barack Obama didn't even get them built here in America.  To be fair, Obama went on to say this at the Gridiron dinner:

Joked Obama, "I had to explain to them how it works. First comes the invasion, and then billions in aid."

    I guess our roads, bridges and schools should brace for an invasion any day now.  Oh, my!

The Permanent Campaign

    For a president who perfected the permanent campaign, I am surprised that the Obama team didn't come up with this idea sooner.  The White House publishes the public schedules of the president and vice president, though rarely in advance for obvious security reasons.  However, archives of the schedules go all the way back to July 2010.  A cursory review of the archived schedules reveals a fairly dry recitation of the events of the day.  September 8, 2010 is a good example:

9:45 AM - The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing
12:05 PM - The President departs the White House en route Andrews Air Force Base
12:20 PM - The President departs Andrews Air Force Base en route Cleveland, Ohio
1:30 PM - The President arrives in Cleveland, Ohio
2:10 PM - The President delivers remarks on the economy
3:50 PM - The President departs Cleveland, Ohio en route Andrews Air Force Base
5:00 PM - The President arrives at Andrews Air Force Base
5:15 PM - The President arrives at the White House
5:20 PM - The President meets with senior advisors

    However, it appears that last week someone at the White House got tired of the same old-same old and decided the schedule was a missed opportunity.  Here's the new and improved White House schedule:

    So on Tuesday, rather than the boring "11:30 AM - The President and the Vice President attend a meeting with leaders from the labor community and other progressive leaders," the permanent campaign has tacked on "to discuss the actions we need to take to keep our economy growing and find a balanced approach to reduce our deficit."  This looked so good on Tuesday, that entries for Wednesday and Friday were enhanced with a similar message.  Even a visit to inspect storm damage in the North East was billed as "The President views storm damage, talks with citizens who are recovering from the storm and thanks first responders who put their lives at risk to protect their communities."

    Is there anything wrong with these Enhanced Information Techniques?  Nothing that I can see.  But it is instructive to note that even though President Obama often declared over the last several months that "This is my last election," his campaign is likely to continue for another four years... at least.

None of the Above

    I just received my latest email from the Obama campaign.  It begins:

Jerry --  

On November 7th, there are two things you could be feeling: 

1. Elated that President Obama won, OR
2. Regretful that you didn't do everything you could to stop Mitt Romney from winning this election.

 I hate to break it to them, but...

New Obama Campaign Contest: Eastwooding With Barack

    I just received my latest email from the Obama campaign inviting me to enter the final Dinner With Barack drawing.  This one included a helpful seating chart of the dinner that is currently up for grabs:

    The president is in one chair, my guest sits to his left, and I'm on the right.  So... who is in the rest of the chairs?  I mean the empty chairs?

    Seriously, wouldn't you have thought Jim Messina would have issued a NO EMPTY CHAIR REFERENCES, PHOTOS, OR GRAPHICS directive for the remainder of the campaign?

Some Things Speak For Themselves

    Posted today on the Washington state blog of the Obama campaign website:

Who’s In Wednesday - Bernard ABy OFA Washington on August 8, 2012 

It’s Who’s in Wednesday, Young Americans for Obama edition, and this week we’re joined by 11-year old Bernard A. 

Hailing from Vancouver, Bernard helps his mom phone bank every week, and has been a steadfast volunteer. At local phone banks, he makes calls like an old pro and he absolutely knows why he’s in for 2012. 

President Obama has made education a national priority. By investing in K-12 education, President Obama has worked to better prepare kids like Bernard for competing in the global workplace, and by doubling funding for Pell Grants, he has ensured Bernard can get the education he deserves. 

But that's not the only reason why he supports the President this election. 

“I like him because he can get everything he says done,” Bernard said. “I can look forward to the future and going to college [...] I like him because he’s modest.” 

If you, too, like the President and his modesty, then join Bernard in making phone calls, in volunteering, and learn why President Obama stands for and with the youth of this nation.

    I titled my post "Some Things Speak For Themselves," and as difficult as it is, I'm going to stick with that.  For now.

At These Prices, There Had Better Be a Lot on His Plate!

    Today it was reported that the president's Jobs Council has not met publicly for six months, calling into question the laser-like focus on jobs that the president has often professed as his obsession.  Jay Carney, the president's press secretary was asked about this (via RealClearPolitics):

REPORTER: So there's no reason they haven't met publicly?
CARNEY: No, there's no specific reason except that the president's obviously got a lot on his plate. 

Interesting choice of words... in the last six months:

June 28, 2012 - Marc Anthony's $40,000-a-Plate Obama Fundraiser

June 13, 2012 - Obama Fundraiser Nets $40,000 A Ticket In Washington D.C. 

May 10, 2012 - George Clooney Throws Obama A $40,000-A-Plate Party

May 3, 2012 -  Obama attended two private, $40,000-a-plate fundraisers

April 9, 2012 - Lunch: $10,000 a plate. Good seats to hear John Legend sing: $5,000. Dinner: $30,000 per couple.

March 9, 2012 - Barack Obama ... $10,000-per-plate fundraiser in ... Atlanta, Ga. at the Tyler Perry Studios.  

March 1, 2012 - Obama ... at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen... dinner cost $35,800 a plate. 

February 23, 2012 - Obama's Florida trip includes All-Star NBA [$30,000-a-plate] fundraiser 

February 15, 2012 - Actor George Clooney... joined the president for a $35,800-a-plate dinner.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but you get the idea.  However, the president is not the only one with a busy schedule, and I am out of time.  I've got a lot on my plate, too.  Or at least I will as soon as I make dinner.  I'm still working out the per-plate price.

Thanks For the Memoriam

    Lately, I feel that I have belabored the subject of the Obama administration's assault on parody, but they've done it again.  Yesterday, James Taranto closed his Best of the Web column with a piece commenting on the Obama campaign's latest effort to squeeze money out of supporters:

"President Obama is launching an events registry that will allow a birthday boy or a bride-to-be to encourage their friends to give to the campaign--instead of a gift," Politico reports:

"Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?" the campaign wrote in a blog post. "Let your friends know how important this election is to you--register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift."
"It's a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it's a gift that we can all appreciate--and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl," the campaign wrote.

Yes, it's for real. We're proud to say we got into the swing of things. The other day a friend's uncle died, so we bought him a card--"I'm so sorry for your loss," it said--and sent it to the Obama campaign instead.

So just for fun today, I checked out the donation portion of the Obama campaign's website, and low and behold, there it was:

In some respects, it's only right.  The dead have often voted for the Democrats in various parts of the country. It's about time they started paying their fair share.

FAIL: A Twitpic is Worth a Thousand Words

    Breitbart's Big Government is reporting on an embarrassing turnout for President Obama at his first 2012 campaign rally.  (Frankly, the campaign's insistence that this was the "first" 2012 campaign event is itself embarrassing, but that's another story.)  The Romney campaign posted this photo on Twitter taken at the President's Saturday rally at the Ohio State University arena:

Big Government reports:

 According to ABC News, the Obama campaign had expected an "overflow" of people.  Instead, the arena looked half-empty.  The Columbus Dispatch reports that Obama organizers even had people move from the seats to the floor of the gym in order to project a larger crowd on television.
According to the Toledo Blade, the venue for Obama's rally seats 20,000 but "there were a lot of empty seats." Comparatively, Obama drew a crowd of 35,000 at Ohio State when he campaigned for former Governor Ted Strickland in 2010.
The official Barack Obama Tumblr boasts a figure from ThinkProgress that 14,000 attended the event--70% of the stadium's seating capacity.

Big Government goes on to say, "To hold a campaign event in a room that you can't fill is a mistake; to promise the media a more-than-capacity crowd then fall this far short of that promise is utter incompetence."
    As it turns out, it's even worse than that.  Early on Saturday, the Obama campaign's pretentiously named TruthTeam2012 tweeted the following taunt of the Romney campaign:

    What the TruthTeam left out was that this photo is from a February 24, 2012 event in Detroit when Romney was addressing 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club.  The stadium was actually a change in venue because according to the Detroit Free Press, "an initial plan to hold the event at the Westin Book Cadillac [hotel ballroom]... quickly became oversold."  As a matter of fact, according to the headline at mlive.com, "Detroit Economic Club moves Mitt Romney speech to Ford Field after original venue sells out in hours."  Sure, the campaign took some hits from the usual suspects at the time for the unfortunate "optics," but this was an event hosted by an economics club, for Pete's sake, which sounds about as exciting as a CPA convention (I'm an accountant, so I'm allowed to say that.)
    On the other hand, today's Obama event was the kickoff for the reelection campaign for the Greatest President in the History of Great Presidents, organized weeks in advance (if not months) by the Greatest Campaign Team in the History of Great Campaign Teams.  The Obama campaign even promoted the rally incessantly this week on Twitter.  As it turned out, Saturday's rally was the political equivalent of skier Bode Miller at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, or, to put it more bluntly, a face-plant.  Failure is never so awkward as when success is supposed to be a given.  Babe Ruth famously said, "It ain't bragging if you can do it."  But if you can't do it, everyone knows what that's called.