Anyone Else?

So, does anyone else out there want to run for president?! Why not, as it seems everyone else is! It's the cool thing to do, I guess. Today two more Republican candidates joined the race.

Former Wisconsin Governor and Former Health and Human Services Secretary during Bush's first term, Tommy Thompson announed he is the "reliable conservative." He said his Iraq strategy would be "tremendously" different from Bush's and said he opposed the Democratic approach in Congress to start withdrawing U.S. troops based on timelines.

Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo also threw his name into the ring, declaring that he is unhappy with all of the current Republican candidates because they are too soft on immigration. His staunch stance against immigration has garnered publicity in recent years, and he has said that will be the focus of his campaign.

Tancredo, I've got news for you: there are greater concerns in our country right now than immigration reform. Sure, it's an issue, but the most important? C'mon. And with a name like Tancredo, can you oppose it?! And I don't understand these people who don't want to set a withdrawl from Iraq timeline. I guess they'd like us to stay permanently or until all of our soliders are dead?!

I also have to wonder with all of these people so busy campaigning nearly two years before the election if anything is being accomplished in Washington. Clearly they're never there, spending half of their time in Iowa and the other half everywhere else, so when do they vote on bills, represent the people of their state (where they now have no time to visit or make a priority) and make great things happen? We know the answer to that.

Fundraising Deadline

As the quarterly fundraising deadline approaches (its midnight March 31), the Obama campaign is increasing its e-mails encouraging donation support. (I get ALL of their e-mails, so I know). They said they're more concerned with reaching their goal of 75,000 donors than the dollar amount. Let's be honest, no campaign is concerned more with people donating than with the amount donated, but that's a good spin in encouraging more people. It seems they surpassed their goal, as here's part of the e-mail I received today.

The 75,000th person who decided to own a piece of this campaign did it with just $5.
It happened late last night, as we hit our goal of 75,000 people donating to the campaign more than two full days in advance of the March 31st quarterly reporting deadline.

His name is Rashed. He's a Navy veteran and this was his first donation ever to a political campaign. We gave him a call from headquarters here in Chicago last night to thank him, and he told us that the reason he decided to give had a lot to do with his young daughter, Yasemin:

"Being an African American male, to have that positive role model in Senator Obama, it's given me so much hope. To be able to look at my daughter one day and tell her, 'You can be anything you want in the world" ... In the past I might have said, 'You could be anything you want to be. But president? No' ... But now, he's given me that light. Now, I can tell her, 'You really can be anything you want in the world.'"