Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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Announcement Day

Monday February 12, 2007

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Dear Mr. Mullings

From Anchorage, Alaska
Lincoln Day Dinner

While sitting in my hotel room and waiting for the sun to come up (sunrise was at 8:56 AM) I got a call from a reporter for a major New York newspaper asking what I thought about Rudy Giuliani's dance around an official announcement for President.

Hillary had her official announcement. John Edwards had his formal announcement. Obama had his ceremonial coming out party this weekend - which finally got the Anna Nicole Smith story off CNN.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney is scheduled to make his formal announcement for President in Michigan Tuesday. John McCain has formed an exploratory committee but has not made public any plans for an announcement date.

Which leaves � Rudy.

In a speech in California over the weekend, Giuliani said he was "committed" to running in 2008 but, according to Newsweek's Craig Gordon that led to "campaign aides later trying to tone down those statements, insisting a formal announcement was still to come."

So, what's the big deal about a formal announcement? It's a little like formally asking your girlfriend to marry you. Just as becoming betrothed �

Dear Mr. Mullings:

"Betrothed"? What, "affianced" didn't work for you?
Signed,
The DeBeers Brothers

Just as becoming engaged has no official legal meaning - unless someone has been sued for breach of promise since the last Thin Man movie was made - an official announcement has no legal effect, either.

Everyone has filed the appropriate papers with the Federal Election Commission which permits them to raise and spend money "exploring" a Presidential campaign. According to commentator Ron Elving on NPR in December 2005:

"Candidates use an exploratory committee as not only a transitional phase for their bookkeeping but as an extra claim on media attention. Some of the most skillful handlers like to leak word that their candidate is testing the waters, then leak word that he or she is thinking about forming an exploratory committee."

Thus, Giuliani's handlers had to tamp down the notion that Rudy had made an official, if backhanded, announcement by using the word "committed" or risk giving up a whole news cycle.

This was Obama's weekend. His people choreographed an event in Springfield, Illinois - leading (with, no doubt some serious prompting) reporters to make certain everyone got the Abraham Lincoln connection.

SIDEBAR

Romney's choice of Michigan to make his official announcement was probably not made by throwing a dart at a map.
Making his announcement in Massachusetts - where he just completed a term as Governor - would not help to shape the conservative image the Romney campaign needs.
Making his announcement in Utah - bailing out the Salt Lake City Olympics was what caused Romney to become widely known - would focus attention on his being a Mormon.
Thus, home to his roots in Michigan where his father, George, had served three terms as Governor.

END SIDEBAR

The choice of venue didn't mean much to Al Sharpton, however. Sharpton was at a conference called the "State of the Black Union Symposium" in Virginia.

Apparently Sharpton is still miffed that Obama didn't launch a nuclear attack against Joe Biden when Biden forgot, saying Obama was the first "clean" Black candidate, that Jesse Jackson and Sharpton had both been candidates for President.

Sharpton was quoted in the Anchorage Daily News as saying of Obama: "Just because you're our color, doesn't make you our kind."

The reporter, William Douglas using the modern style which allows the term "some people" to have the same effect as a quoted source wrote:

"Some people wonder whether Obama's mixed-race heritage dilutes his effectiveness on black issues. Others complain that he didn't earn his stripes in the 1960's civil rights movement."

This is why Mullings is such a valuable tool: According to Obama's bio, he was born in August 1961. That means he would have been about 3� years old, and would have had to go on a hunger strike - refusing to eat his Cheerios and apple sauce - to have left his mark on the march from Montgomery to Selma in 1965.

The 2008 cycle is going to be even more fun than I thought.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to Obama's bio and the Sharpton article. Another in the extremely popular "When Airlines Go Bankrupt" Mullfoto series; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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