For Gingrich, Lack of Organization on the Ground May Not Cost Him Caucus Win

For decades, conventional wisdom has held that winning the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses requires a strong, grassroots campaign organization. Yet Newt Gingrich, the current Iowa front-runner, lacks an extensive ground game in Iowa. Can Gingrich win without it?
He just might. Iowa's Republican caucuses are far simpler and more straightforward than their Democratic counterparts and require less organizational savvy. And campaign veterans believe that a candidate with a surge of enthusiastic, highly-motivated supporters need not have an have an extensive get-out-the-vote effort to prevail.
Grassroots organization has gained mythical status in Iowa largely because of the complex, two-round system used by the Democrats. In the Democratic caucuses, voters must stand up to join a candidate preference group, openly expressing their vote. Supporters of a candidate who receives less than 15 percent of the precincts' vote must join the group of another viable candidate (or remain officially "uncommitted"), often after prodding and lobbying from backers of the other candidates. The second round of voting elects delegates to county conventions, and that delegate count is what determines the winner.
That process used by the Democrats puts a premium on campaigns having experienced local precinct leaders who know the rules and can guide their supporters though the complex process.
Iowa Republicans, on the other hand, use a far simpler process. Upon arrival, after showing their voter credentials, Iowa Republicans cast their votes on a paper ballot, and their choices remain confidential. Their votes are counted and reported statewide.
Iowa Republicans do hold precinct meetings but they "tend to be tame affairs," according to Bradley Dyke, a political science professor at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny.
"Candidates will have tables set up and they will try to win your vote," Dyke said, but Republicans don't want voters to feel "pressured" at their caucus. Republicans want "a quick, streamlined process."
Many Iowa campaigns are still touting their organizational prowess as essential to ensuring their supporters make it to one of the state's 1,784 caucus sites.
Michele Bachmann is among them. In a "Path to Victory Strategy Memo" released last week, staff for the Minnesota congresswoman said she will have chairpersons in each of Iowa's 99 counties and 1,000 precinct captains scattered amongst caucus sites.
"We are picking up support on the ground that is lifting us daily toward victory," campaign manager Keith Nahigian said in the video.
But some political veterans question whether Gingrich needs that sort of get-out-the-vote effort to win. Peter Giangreco, a Democratic strategist who served as senior advisor and direct mail consultant to the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and John Edwards in 2004, believes that if Gingrich is "doing well among traditional caucus goers, which all the polling seems to indicate that he is, [field organization] is less of an issue for him."
He points to the example of John Edwards in 2004, when he received only single-digit support in polls conducted in December, but ultimately finished second with 32 percent of the state delegates. According to Giangreco, the Edwards campaign had only identified 18,000 to 19,000 supporters -- nowhere near the number that ultimately supported Edwards on caucus night.
Matthew Dowd, the chief campaign strategist for President George W. Bush in 2004, agrees.
"What is needed in the Iowa Republican caucuses," Dowd wrote in a recent cheap software buy software buy cheap software buy software cheapbuy photoshop cheap photoshop buy adobe photoshop cheap adobe photoshop cheap photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cs5 cheap adobe photoshop cs5 buy adobe photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cheap buy adobe photoshop cs5 cheap buy photoshop cs5 cheap National Journalcolumn, "is energized voters and momentum going into that day. If you have those things, an organization is not a real necessity."
Some argue that traditional field organizations remain critical. Tim Hagle, political science professor at the University of Iowa, argues that having organizers on the ground is essential.
"You have to have those people who are making personal phone calls and asking if supporters will be coming to the caucus," Hagle said. "It's about making connections, getting a little peer pressure to come out and vote."
The Gingrich campaign is "trying to ramp up very quickly," he says, "but they're still behind the curve."
Hagle notes that while a recent Des Moines Register poll shows Gingrich does better among older voters who tend to be traditional caucus goers, their voting habits can be hard to predict. "If the weather is bad, they may be reluctant to go out on a snowy night," Hagle says. "They also may have health issues and other factors to consider which can keep them from the caucus."
Ensuring the turnout of senior voters on caucus night goes back to photoshop tutorialscampaign ground organization in Iowa, Hagle says.
But according to Giangreco, those traditional campaign voting reminders have become less important. He says the "secret sauce" of traditional field organization was the ability to provide voters with information about how and where to participate that was otherwise hard to find. The advent of the internet and social media makes it "pretty easy to go find the information now about how to participate and where to go." It also makes it easier for campaigns to push that information out to their supporters.
Those changes can help Gingrich, Giangreco adds, but they may aid Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) even more. Paul could "change the math," he says, like Barack Obama, who turned out thousands of younger and independent voters to participate in their first caucus. "Paul is going to bring [out] people who are on nobody's list."

Lack of urgency results nets Canucks shootout loss in Columbus

In a game that should have been easily, and handily won by the Canucks turns into a shoot-out loss, thanks to an early lackluster performance by the visiting Canucks. The Blue Jackets were ripe for the picking, considering their inability to score goals was on par with their inability to stop goals in recent games. This coupled with the fact their starting goalie, Steve Mason hadn't played in a game in over a month, the Canucks should have been able to laugh their way through this one, but in the end it was Mason and the Blue Jackets who had the last laugh.
To say the Canucks let this opportunity slip away would be an understatementphotoshop tutorials because instead of taking the game to the home team Jackets, they allowed the Jackets to take the game away from the Canucks, at least early on anyway. But by then, Steve Mason had his confidence back and was playing like the shut down goaltender everyone expects him to be, and ended up making some game saving saves when the Canucks were pressing.
What would be the first thing a team would want to do when facing a goaltender that hasn't seen rubber in over a month? Put the puck on him every chance you got right? Well, the Canucks seemed to have a different strategy tonight as they tried to continue their win streak on the road, and that strategy was, um well to be honest with you it was anything BUT put the puck on Mason to test him. The Canucks managed a paltry five shots on Mason in the first period. Five shots was all the league's second best scoring team could muster? Are you kidding me?
Then at 10:32 of the first period with the Blue Jackets enjoying a 4-on-3 power play with Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler sitting in the penalty box, Jeff Carter manages to eeke his shot between Luongo's right pad and the goal post to give the Jackets the 1-0 lead. Was it a good shot? Not at all. Was it stoppable? Yes, very if Luongo was able to stay in the butterfly instead of assuming his usual face down reverse butterfly position! Seriously! Lou has to find his form from last year if he wants to repeat his goal stopping prowess of a season ago. This face down sprawling technique of his is getting frustrating to watch!
With the Canucks down by a goal, which was by no means insurmountable, thecheap software buy software buy cheap software buy software cheapbuy photoshop cheap photoshop buy adobe photoshop cheap adobe photoshop cheap photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cs5 cheap adobe photoshop cs5 buy adobe photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cheap buy adobe photoshop cs5 cheap buy photoshop cs5 cheap Canucks mounted their comeback bid in the second, but just couldn't beat Mason as he stopped all 14 shots he faced in the second period. Luongo as well was up to the task stopping all 11 of Columbus' shots to keep his team in the game. But with each shot Mason stopped, he looked as if he was getting stronger and more confident. He was unbeatable until 8:03 of the third when Maxim Lapierre beat him with a quick wrister to tie the game.
For the typical third period "comeback Canucks", the table was set for another late game charge, but couldn't quite pull it off partly because of Mason's play, and partly because the Canucks couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with their shots! Even the late period comeback specialist sniper Sami Salo had a difficult time finding the target. With the overtime period unable to solve the tie where the Canucks outshot the Jackets by a whopping 3-2 margin, it was on to the shootout. Yes, the dreaded shootout would decide this game, and even though Luongo was 1-1 in shootouts this year, including an impressive 3-3 effort in Montreal last Thursday, you could literally hear the groans from Canuck Nation as the overtime period ended.
In a nutshell, Luongo wasn't able to stop anything, Nothing, Nil, Nada, Bupkis, as he went 0-3 against Mark Letestu, Rick Nash, and James Wisniewski. Yes, even Wisniewski made him look bad! Alexandre Burrows was the only Canucks shooter to beat Mason, but it wasn't enough.
On the bright side, at least the Canucks get to skulk out of town with a point, but that seems like little consolation when this game was very winnable for the Canucks when anything less than a full complete beat-down of the Blue Jackets would have been acceptable. It's now on to Carolina to face the Hurricanes, another team that should be easy pickins for the Canucks. Let's hope the Nucks find their game and killer instinct in the baggage carousel when they land in Raleigh, N.C.!

Last of ‘most awesome fighter in world’ rolls out Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - End of exciting era Last of ‘most awesome fighter in world’ rolls out

"The most feared fighter in the world." "The baddest bird on the planet." "The most awesome fighter in the world."
All of these phrases were used to describe the F-22 Raptor at a ceremony on Tuesday that Lockheed Martin Aeronautics of Marietta General Manager Shan Cooper called a "graduation, of sorts" for the aircraft as the last F-22 was rolled out of the production line in Marietta and into flight check for final tests and coating.
"On one hand, it represents our transition into a new area," Cooper said after the ceremony inside the Lockheed plant, which hosted more than 1,000 attendees. "We have done an awesome job producing this awesome aircraft. While we're saddened to see the production line stop, we're really excited about the future. We're really excited about the opportunities to be creative and innovative, and we've proven just by looking at this aircraft that we know just how to do that, which is fantastic."
The F-22 went through a tri-city production, Lockheed spokeswoman Stephanie Stinn said, as the Palmdale, Calif., Lockheed facility was essentially the brains behind the aircraft in terms of engineering, initial development and advanced modernization; the Fort Worth, Texas, facility built the center wing; and the Marietta plant assembled the entire aircraft.
Lockheed built 187 F-22s since production began in 1991, as well as eight test airplanes, Stinn said.
Jeff Babione, vice president of Lockheed and general manager of the F-22 program, said after the ceremony that the F-22's history reaches all the way back to the early 1980s, when the first requirement for the fighter jet was put out by the U.S. Department of Defense. By the late '80s, Lockheed's F-22 was competing against Northrop Corporation's YF-23 to be the successor aircraft to the F-15 Eagle. The two companies participated in a series of "fly-offs" in the late '80s, and in 1991, Lockheed won the contract, then worth nearly $11 billion, and began production. The maiden voyage of the F-22 was in Sept. 1997, when the first Raptor was flown out of Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta by then-51-year-old Marietta resident Paul Metz.
Stinn said that in 2005, at peak production, there were 5,600 employees working on the aircraft, 944 of them in Marietta. As of Tuesday, there were 1,650 employees working on the F-22 across the country, 930 of them in Marietta. Stinn said most of those employees have transitioned to work on production of the F-35 Lightning II or other production needs, while other F-22 employees have retired. Lockheed said that 214 employees were laid off earlier in the year, more than 100 of whom volunteered to take retirement.
Lockheed officials found out in April of 2009 that the 195th F-22 would be the last ordered by the U.S. military, Stinn said, and this final F-22, the 4195, will fly out of Marietta in the spring.
Babione said the company has many concerns with its aging workforce — and the knowledge that leaves the company when they retire — so Lockheed employees have been documenting the process of building the final F-22 through both text and film.
"We wanted to make sure, if we need to build them again, that we could pull a tool out of storage and build a part," Babione said. "These men and women who have worked on these aircraft are craftsman … Corporate-wide, we see concerns that we would lose decades of skills to retirement, so we have actively been getting the older employees tocheap software buy software buy cheap software buy software cheapbuy photoshop cheap photoshop buy adobe photoshop cheap adobe photoshop cheap photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cs5 cheap adobe photoshop cs5 buy adobe photoshop cs5 buy photoshop cheap buy adobe photoshop cs5 cheap buy photoshop cs5 cheap
mentor the younger employees and ensure there is a transfer of that vitally important knowledge."
Col. Sean Frisbee of the U.S. Air Force, system program manager for the F-22, said 101 of the F-22s were delivered on-time and 55 have had zero defects, which is the highest zero-defect rate ever achieved in military aviation. Frisbee said the tolerances of the F-22 are tighter than the space shuttle and expressed pride in the successful development of an aircraft he said many doubted could be built.
Babione said about 600 employees will continue working on maintenance and enhanced capabilities, such as outfitting the F-22 for more weapons.
"The Raptor is not dead today," Frisbee said. "This isn't a funeral; this is a transition. For many of you, you will remain on the program and you're going to help us sustain and modify the aircraft for the foreseeable future."
But Frisbee added that a robust modification program is not possible if there are not cost-cutting measures, as the federal government faces mounting fiscal challenges. Still, Frisbee said the military is not expected to meet its aircraft availability rate until 2015.
Frisbee said the F-22 is more optimal than other aircraft at higher altitudesphotoshop tutorials and can reach higher speeds, while the F-35 is optimized for lower altitudes and speeds but can carry more weapons, so the transition of many employees from F-22 production to F-35 production has been a relatively smooth one.
"You should see the view from here," Frisbee said from his platform at the end of the warehouse, just under a large American flag painted on the wall. Nearby, the words "A mistake covered up may cost the life of a brave pilot" were painted in large black letters and loud, upbeat music played before each speaker took the stand. The South Cobb High School marching band eventually led the way, along with Lockheed employees and visiting dignitaries waving small American flags, as the final F-22 was driven out of the plant and onto the Lockheed roadway.
"We've got this beautiful aircraft, I see employees as far as the eye can see, and the line looks lonely. But this line will be filled at some point with other aircraft, and you're going to go on and you're going to continue building fighters for America. That is something that needs to be celebrated."