My first book was just published. It’s called Speaking of Success. There are other authors involved in this book as well - people like Ken Blanchard, Jack Canfield and Stephen Covey. It’s a book about success, just as the title implies. If you are a person who seeks success or looking to overcome obstacles in your way - this is the book for you. If you have an interest in buying the book - Please go here.
By now, anyone who delves into politics has heard this rumor. Chris Lilik at GrassrootsPA posted it on his blog first from an article in the American Spectator.
The comment section on GrassrootsPA has been active with all sorts of comments both positive and negative. I love the idea of floating a rumor like this out there, regardless of who is considering running. First off it gets people talking about it. It doesn’t matter if the chatter is good or bad, it gets people talking about it - which creates credibility.
The other thing it does is that it allows Santorum and his advisors to see what areas he would need to work on. There are still a segment of the conservative base that is ticked off at him for his support of Specter’s re-election. And there are those that are upset at him for what they perceive to be his lack of fiscal conservativism. He’ll never get the support of the first group - that’s a once and done crowd. The problem with holding a grudge like that is pretty soon everyone “screws up” and you are left with no one.
As for the second group - there’s still hope for Santorum. His opportunity is to listen to their concerns and determine if making any changes is worth the return on investment.
Overall, smart move throughing the idea and rumor out there.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard about Moveon.org’s ad in the New York Times. Forget about the content of the ad and what the ad is about - there are some great lessons to be learned from this whole episode.
Lesson 1 - You’ve got to hand it to the Moveon.org people - they succeeded in getting the entire country talking about the issue they care about - that’s not a small feat.
Lesson 2 - They established themselves as the legitimate anti-war voice. How can I say that. How many other organizations out there are able to get the US Senate to do something about an ad that is produced. If the US Senate feels threatened by such an organization enough to pass a resolution, then I’m impressed. Besides, all the US Senate did was give Moveon.org a huge credibility boost. The US Senate committed a huge political error in responding to anything that Moveon.org does. Now the US Senate has an obligation to continue to respond to further Moveon.org ads and antics.
Lesson 3 - Moveon.org was able to get their critics to respond to them. Again, amazing. One of the things I’ve learned from my years of campaigning for underdog campaigns is that the easiest way to gain credibility and be seen as a legitimate candidate is to get your opponent, the incumbent, to respond to you. That’s exactly what conservative commentators did - they legitimized Moveon.org as a force to be dealt with.
Overall, very impressive work. And great lessons in gaining credibility and making sure people will listen to you in the future.
The latest edition of The Keystone Report is now available here. I interviewed Russ Diamond, founder of PA Clean Sweep about the organization’s new campaign for the voters to vote no on all 67 judicial retention races in the Commonwealth. We discussed the reasons for such a campaign and Russ addressed some of the critics’ claims about the campaign. Russ also explained the top 10 list that the organization will be unveiling which gives reasons to vote against retention of judges. They also discussed the general mood of the voters being unsatisfied with the rate of reform in Harrisburg and what could be done about that.
Further discussion surrounded Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph Cappy’s announcement last week that he will retire at the end of the year.
You can learn more about PA Clean Sweep by visiting their website at www.pacleansweep.com
To listen to this podcast click here.
I received an e-mail today about another GOP Presidential debate. This one is sponsored by WorldNetDaily. It’s supposed to be a Values Voters Debate. What’s interesting about this one is the whining that the sponsor is doing because the first-tier candidates are going to be no-shows.
Which leads to a nice concise set of lessons I’ll share with you about how to get candidates to ignore you.
Lesson 1 - Criticize the top-tier candidates. That’s right, that’s the easiest way for candidates to ignore you in the future. Why would anyone in their right mind decide to show up at the last minute after you just called them a “gutless wonder?”
Lesson 2 - Contradict your own values. This is supposed to be a “values voters” debate. Is name-calling now a new family value? Doesn’t that seem a bit childish?
Lesson 3 - Make your debate announcement more about the moderator than the candidates and debate. I’m not stretching it here, but atleast one-third of the debate announcement was about the moderator Joseph Farah - his background, a sales pitch for his latest book, etc. When you include quotes by Mr. Farah, atleast half of the announcement is about Mr. Farah and not about the candidates or the debate.
Lesson 4 - Inadvertently downplay the candidates who decide to participate. The announcement identifies the top-tier candidates, which means the other candidates are what - second-tier at best, or not to be taken seriously at worst. Why not thank the candidates who are deciding to participate and raise them up. I don’t know, maybe something to the effect that “this debate will give the candidates who particpate a platform and an opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowd.”
Lesson 5 - Make the debate into a gameshow. I’m not kidding here. Here’s the quote from the announcement:
Organizers are promising “rapid-fire action” in Round Two of the debate, “where the first of its kind podium design will allow questions to be asked and answered by all seven candidates in under a minute.” They also say “wildcard minutes” will be given to every candidate to use whenever they want, however they want – from challenging another candidate to interrupting a round of questions.
There’s just way too much to comment on there. So I’ll leave it for you to poke holes in it.
Lesson 6 - Make the debate as long as possible. The debate is set to begin at 7:30pm and run for three hours according to the announcement. You saw that correctly, three hours. I pity the candidates who are participating. Debates aren’t supposed be as long as some faster runners take to finish a marathon.
Given all this, is it any wonder that the top-tier candidates decided they had better things to do?
I’m usually all that impressed with polls - especially presidential polls months out from any kind of real election. I came across one poll though that I thought was interesting. It’s a poll that Unity ‘08 put out on our current political selection process. When you look at the demographics, it’s got a pretty good mix of D’s, R’s and I’s. No suprises on the big questions - no one likes any of the candidates. Some surprises though on some of the other questions. It’s worth a few minutes of your time to take a look. Find it here.
I ran the Harrisburg Half-Marathon this morning. I finished in 2:07:09. That’s a 9:42 pace.
I’ve been receiving Richard Viguerie’s e-mails for awhile. I’ve found him to be rather, how should I put it, rigid. I’ve been truly enjoying the last few e-mails over the last couple of months. He’s been attacking Fred Thompson. If I were on the Thompson campaign I’d be rejoicing. Here’s why:
First off, when someone who is either a leader, or self-proclaimed leader, of a movement or part of a movement attacks you, you are a threat and more importantly, a legitimate threat. That means someone who has, or thinks they have credibility thinks you have credibility. Forget what the attack is about - it doesn’t matter. The benefits far outweigh the negatives. In this case, Thompson is the focus and the topic - not what Viguerie’s message is. He should know better, he’s supposedly an expert on messaging.
Secondly, Viguerie is giving Thompson plenty of fundraising material. I can just see the fundraising letters now - I’m being attacked as … Just fill in the blank. It’s the same thing that Hillary Clinton does to boost her fundraising. You think she wants to be loved by everyone - hell no. If you are loved by everyone, then there is no need, in the current state of poilitics to give you money. Politics is about fighting, not love. You have to be up against something or someone. That’s what politics is about. Look at the great leaders - they fought against great odds and great opponents. Reagan against the Evil Empire, FDR against tthe Nazis, Lincoln against teh South and Slavery, Washington against the oppressive British. That’s how it works.
Bush tried this approach, but the problem is that terrorism isn’t restricted to a geographical location with boundaries, unlike the other great enemies we’ve faced.
Here’s a personal example for me of all this in play - When I did Jessica Brewbaker’s District Judge race, I was thrilled when I learned that someone had taken some of our yard signs, ripped them into pieces and shoved them into people’s mailslots on their front doors. Yes, someone actually got that upset - amazing. It thrilled me because it rallied our supporters, helped us raise some last minute, much needed funds to finish the campaign, and showed me that our message was working.
Thompson’s campaign should be loving the criticism - it means he’s doing the right thing.
Today my wife and I attended the funeral of Scott R. Ball. Scott was a Pennsylvania State Trooper and Master Seargent with the National Guard. He was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan on Aug. 27th. It was a moving funeral - more moving than I thought it would be. I’m not going take this opportunity to talk about the funeral - you can get the coverage from the news. What I want to take a few minutes to do is write a few words about Scott. I had the privledge of meeting Scott a few times over the last few years. His wife has worked for several years for my father-in-law at this flower shop.
My impression of Scott can be summed up in a short phrase - gentle humility. Here was a guy who was a state trooper and national guardsman and yet he made everyone around him feel comfortable. Here was a guy who died in the line of duty attempting to save the lives of fellow soldiers. I didn’t know Scott very well since I had only met him a handful of times, but even in those few times, I could tell how devoted he was to his family and his wife.
Another way to sum up who Scott was would be in the phrase “quiet courage.” People are passing away each day on this earth, but this is the first person I’ve taken time to write about on this blog. Scott exemplifies what courage is all about. Courage to face danger head on, courage to risk your life for your fellow man, courage to be comfortable in your own skin and be comfortable with who you are and make others around you feel comfortable. I could tell that Scott was all these things just from the few opportunities I had encounters with him. Here truly was a hero.
Labor Day is one of those interesting holiday’s that no one really understands how to celebrate. We have plenty of holidays that fall into this category. It’s kind of ironic to me that we celebrate our labors by taking the day off from labor.
I’ll be utlizing the time this year to clean the house. We’ve got clutter and it’s time to get rid of it.
How will you be spending your time on Labor Day? I’d love to hear your thoughts.