Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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I-O-W-A

Friday September 7, 2007

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The Mullblog!

Check out the new Mullings Blog.

You really should take a look.
There's some good stuff there.

On the Bus
From Council Bluffs, to Sioux City, Iowa

REMINDER: I am a paid consultant to the campaign of Fred Thompson. I promise not to wear you out with this sort of thing, but the opening day of a major campaign is special whether it's Romney, McCain, Giuliani or (Yikes!) Dennis Kucinich.

Thursday, September 6 was announcement day for Fred Thompson. Actually, he announced his official entry into the race for President on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Wednesday night, but for clarity's sake, let's stipulate that Thursday was the first day.

Dear Mr. Mullings:

Were you at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (as you so properly put it?) or were you left to sit on the curb and cry while the real staff went to Burbank?
Now that you bring it up, I was there. And I have photographic evidence to prove it. Go to the Mullblog.
Nicely done.
Thanks.

One of the hazards of waiting until September to officially enter the race is there has been no exhibition season. On a technical level there have been very few trips which included more than Thompson and one or, rarely, two people.

The Iowa State Fair visit a couple of weeks ago was the equivalent of a national press wave running over us after months of doing interviews with local media. And, as a staff, we were not that terrific at it.

If the Iowa State Fair was a wave, this is a tsunami. We have an entire bus just for the press, separate and apart from the bus for the Thompsons, aides, and senior staff.

Dear Mr. Mullings:

Which bus are you on?
Never mind that now. I'm making a point.
We thought so.

This trip goes from Des Moines to Davenport over the next three days with stops in Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Mason City, and Cedar Rapids in between.

If we don't do this well, we can't explain that we haven't done one of these before and therefore we should get a pass. We chose to wait until after Labor Day so it's like skipping spring training and stepping into the batter's box against major league pitching a third of the way into the season.

If we whiff, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Happily, the people who have put this trip together have done an excellent job. We have started from where we were supposed to, when we were supposed to. We have arrived at the places we were scheduled to visit and when we've gotten there everything has been ready.

I'm certain the other campaigns - Republican or Democrat - have the same types of talented people so that the candidate - Fred Thompson or Hillary Clinton - can be presented to the maximum number of people in the best possible light.

A great deal of what is done in these large campaigns are done solely for the benefit of the traveling press. Were the press not along, an unscheduled stop at a diner would be known only to the dozen-or-so people inside. But if the visit makes a couple of the network evening newscasts, than the number of people who see the candidate smiling and shaking hands goes from 12 to 12 MILLION.

See how this works?

This will be what I'll be doing most of the time over the next few months. I'll keep you up to date.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today:

Also, if you haven't yet, you should check out the Mullblog!. There is interesting stuff there and, you can respond for the whole world to see.

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