2008 Presidential Campaign Blog

Governor Tom Vilsack Creates Presidential Campaign Videoblog On Blip.tv

Governor Tom Vilsack Creates Presidential Campaign Videoblog on blip.tv

Iowa Governor Uses Video on the Internet to Connect Directly With Voters

NEW YORK, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Videoblogging is poised to have a major impact on the next Presidential election. Today, Iowa Governor and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Vilsack announced he is creating a weekly videoblog to highlight his vision for America. Governor Vilsack's show will be hosted by blip.tv, a service that hosts and distributes videoblogs and Web-based TV shows.
Vilsack's campaign videos will provide a comprehensive, behind the scenes look at life on the presidential campaign trail, chronicling the experiences and insights of Governor Vilsack, top campaign staff and the candidate's family. The show will enable Vilsack to communicate directly with voters about his campaign platform and to speak about the top issues of the day, while humanizing the governor without the filters of traditional media.

Governor Vilsack has already posted his first episodes, available at http://www.tomvilsack08.com and at tomvilsack.blip.tv. The day before officially announcing his run for President, Vilsack posted a personal video with his thoughts on the presidential campaign and his upcoming announcement speech.

Presidential candidate Tom Vilsack said, "Blip.tv is an innovative way to introduce myself to the American people and present my ideas to create change here in the U.S. It's time to change course and rebuild our sense of community. With the help of blip.tv, I will work to find real solutions to everyday problems we face here and abroad."

"In the past, presidential candidates who wanted to communicate with voters had to buy a 30-second television spot or speak in carefully crafted sound bites in the hope the evening news would pick them up," said blip.tv COO Dina Kaplan. "Blip.tv's unique services allow Governor Vilsack to create his own television show: a regularly updated series of videoblogs which voters can regularly tune into for personal, unfiltered news and information directly from the campaign. The curtain is being pulled back, and this can only be good for the democratic process."

Blip.tv will distribute Governor Vilsack's show to his website, at http://www.tomvilsack08.com, to iTunes and to MySpace. The videoblog will also be featured on blip.tv's destination site at http://www.blip.tv.

Dennis Kucinich 2008 Announcement Speech

Announcement of Candidacy
Democratic Nomination for President of the United States
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Cleveland City Hall

"I am announcing my candidacy for President of the United States, with the intention of rallying the American people to the cause of the troops in the field, to the cause of stopping more American families from suffering, to the cause of ending a deepening tragedy in Iraq, to the cause of repairing America’s reputation in the world, to the cause of the dreams of people in my own neighborhood and my own city.

I fully expect to be win, because when the American people hear this clarion call for a new and true direction, this call to confirm their intent, their power, I am confident that they will respond as powerfully, as they did just one month ago, to demand that America quickly change course in Iraq and to demand a leader who will make it happen...

My campaign will be about the truth in action. It will be about the power of decisiveness, and the power of compassion which comes from an understanding of the imperative of human unity, the imperative of human security, the imperative of peace...

I ran for President in 2004, not just to challenge the war and Democratic Party policy, but to bring forth a message: Fear ends. Hope begins. My candidacy will call forth the courage of the American people to meet the challenge of terrorism without sacrificing our liberties and everything that is near and dear to us. My candidacy will inspire hope for a new America, where social, economic and political progress is grounded in work for peace...

This is a moment that we need to call our Democratic leaders to courage. This is about leadership, clear vision and integrity. The people were behind us in November. They are behind us now. We must stand by our word and bring the troops home now.

I am the only member of the House and the Senate running for President who has consistently voted against funding for the war, based on a principled opposition.

I was against the war then. I am against it now. A leader must have not just hindsight, but foresight. The prophet Isaiah said “Without vision, a people perish.” I am stepping forth at this moment because I believe, as did Lincoln that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”. Thank you."

Full Speech Text

Jimmy Carter 1976 Announcement

Address by Jimmy Carter Announcing his Candidacy for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination to the National Press Club on December 12, 1974.

"We Americans are a great and diverse people. We take full advantage of our right to develop wide-ranging interests and responsibilities. For instance, I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor and a Christian. Each of you is an individual and different from all the others.

Yet we Americans have shared one thing in common: a belief in the greatness of our Country.

Now it is time for this chasm between people and government to be bridged, and for American citizens to join in shaping our Nation's future.

It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine.

For our Nation - for all of us - that question is: "Why not the best?

Full Speech Text

Dennis Kucinich To Announce Second Run For President

Kucinich to announce for President

‘Deeply concerned’ by failure of Democratic leadership to heed voters’ November call to end war

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 11, 2006

CLEVELAND -- Citing deep concerns over the willingness of his own Party’s leadership to continue funding the war in Iraq, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, (D-OH), will announce his candidacy for President of the United States tomorrow, Tuesday, December 12, at noon, at Cleveland City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland.

Kucinich, who ran for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination in 2004, said Congress recently appropriated $70 billion that could be used to bring the troops home, and leading Congressional Democrats have voiced approval for an Administration plan to appropriate an additional $160 billion.

“Democrats were swept into power on November 7 because of widespread voter discontent with the war in Iraq,” said Kucinich. “Instead of heeding those concerns and responding with a strong and immediate change in policies and direction, the Democratic Congressional leadership seems inclined to continue funding the perpetuation of the war.”

In a series of speeches on the floor of the House last week, Kucinich (www.kucinich.us) maintained that the $70 billion dollars can be used to bring the troops home now and that approval of another $160 billion will take the war through the end of Bush's term, contrary to the wishes of the voters in last month's General Election.

He said that it is not credible for elected officials to maintain that they are against the war while, at the same time, they are voting in favor of its continuation and possible expansion. Kucinich was re-elected last month to a sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kucinich’s announcement will be in the City Council Committee Room on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. He will be accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth.

Mitt Romney To Form Exploratory Committee

Romney to form presidential exploratory committee in January
Monday, December 11, 2006
CNN Chief National Correspondent John King

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney will form a presidential exploratory committee in early January, a GOP source tells CNN.

CNN Political Ticker

Exploratory Committees Double Press Coverage

Exploratory Committees Build Buzz
Candidates Drag Out Announcements to Get More Press

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, December 11, 2006; Page A17

"It is the season of exploration.

Everywhere you look, prospective 2008 presidential candidates are forming exploratory committees. Three leading Republicans and one prominent Democrat who have long been pursuing the presidency announced such committees in recent days, saying they are not ready to announce a real presidential committee, and so are taking an intermediate step to raise money and put together a campaign operation just in case they decide to run."

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, and then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas in 2000 created exploratory committees before announcing their candidacies. But the number of candidates creating such committees at this point in the election cycle, a month after the midterm elections, is unusual.

Washington Post Article

2008 GOP Candidates Seek To Emulate Ronald Reagan

Candidates seem to be emulating Reagan
By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 11, 3:24 AM ET

"Ronald Reagan once famously sounded the call to "win one for the Gipper."

Now, potential Republican presidential candidates are hoping that the Gipper will help win one for them.

In these early days of the 2008 presidential campaign, when politicians still are exploring the notion of a run and trying to fill out their political profiles, candidates are trying to glom on to a little of the luster from the Reagan glory days.

They seem to be trying to out-Reagan one another."

Yahoo News Article

Barack Obama Makes First Visit To New Hampshire

Obama fever grips NH
By SCOTT BROOKS
Union Leader Staff

MANCHESTER – The spectacle that is "Obama-mania" swept New Hampshire yesterday as Sen. Barack Obama introduced himself to Democratic voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

The junior senator from Illinois made a whirlwind debut that included a book signing in Portsmouth and an afternoon speech before a crowd of 1,500 at the Radisson hotel in downtown Manchester.

Manchester Union-Leader Article

The Universe Of Candidates Just Keeps Expanding

Hubble politics
The universe of candidates in New Hampshire just keeps expanding
David M. Shribman. Executive editor of the Post-Gazette
Sunday, December 10, 2006

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. -- "Just how many presidential candidates can you shove into one tiny state?    
   
New Hampshire crowded in eight candidates in 1972 (nine, if you count the comedian Pat Paulsen, who got 1,211 votes). There were 10 in 1976 (when President Gerald R. Ford defeated Gov. Ronald Reagan by 1,587 votes). Last time around, in 2004, seven Democrats campaigned in New Hampshire (President Bush had no significant opposition in his drive to renomination that year)."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article

Pat Buchanan 1992 Announcement

Pat Buchanan 1992 Announcement at the New Hampshire State Legislative Office Building, December 10, 1991

"My friends, we come to New Hampshire at a crossroads in our country's history.

So we are taking this campaign not just to Republicans, and not just to conservatives. Every American is invited to join, the middle-class of both parties, and of no party. For the establishment that has dominated Congress for four decades is as ossified and out-of-touch with America as the establishment that resides in the White House.

So, to take my party back and take our country back, I am today declaring my candidacy for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States."

Full Speech Text