The Fast Track Campaign
Today marks the debut of a new Washingtonpost.com project called the "Fast Track Campaign." It begins with a piece penned by me and Capitol Briefing author Paul Kane.
The Fast Track Campaign is the name we are giving to the incredible compression of the presidential nominating calendar in 2008. More than two dozen states are set to vote between Jan. 14 and Feb. 5 -- an electoral barrage that not even the best known and best funded campaigns can withstand.
The calendar is already forcing frontrunning campaigns into sensitive strategic choices about how best to spend their limited time and resources. The decisions by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain to skip the Ames (Ia.) Straw poll in August is simply the latest sign of the strain of the Fast Track Campaign.
We'll be doing a series of stories that seek to address the unique challenges created by the Fast Track Campaign over the next months. In the meantime, the staff at washingtonpost.com has built an outstanding interactive map that allows you to drill down on a particular state or states.
Try it out and let us know about your ideas for future stories for the Fast Track Campaign project. The comments section awaits.
By Chris Cillizza |
June 14, 2007; 5:19 PM ET
| Category:
Eye on 2008
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Posted by: Rudy G, New York, NY | June 22, 2007 5:46 PM
Our whole Nation is on a fast-track towards destruction because we are going around the world-'nation building'--when we should be building a stronger more transparent and trustworthy government body over here. A government body that does not allow our roads and bridges to be sold to the King of Spain and does not have closed door energy meetings and closed door 9-11 meetings and closed door immigration meetings and on and on and on-the ones who say we need cheap labor are the same people who double our gas prices and privatize health-like a health clinic in Walmart-we need an accounting like we should have an accounting for all the money that has been spent in Iraq but count on international bankers like the Rothschilds with the help of the neocon PNAC Bush group to make sure no real accounting is done-only creative fascist accounting like the creative 2% inflation they say we have had over the last six years when actual inflation has been well over 5 maybe even well over 10% a year for the last 6 years and we know the energy cost have shot up over 100% in just 2 years-creative-- Rothschilds/Bush,Cheney/Haliburton fascist accounting.
Posted by: khooper_jack | June 18, 2007 1:04 PM
If voters don't like EITHER presumptive nominee after February 5, there are still 9 months for a third party to respond
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Posted by: Captain Beefheart | June 16, 2007 10:40 AM
Ethanol Just First Wave of Decade of Biofuels Development, Researchers Say
Interest in ethanol has skyrocketed, and biofuels has become a key focus of new energy legislation currently under debate on Capitol Hill. But today's biofuels are only the beginning, according to key researchers speaking in Washington.
http://onthehillblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/ethanol-just-first-wave-of-decade-of.html
Posted by: | June 15, 2007 4:50 PM
The answer to this new challenge is the use of technology... the campaign that executes best wins the Fast Track.
Posted by: James O'Brien | June 15, 2007 12:28 PM
On the one hand, I agree with Razorback's early assessment that the front-loaded primaries tend to put too much emphasis on money. But on the other, part of me holds out for the idea that having an early mondo-tuesday will deemphasize the NH & IA events - which, really, are rather silly. Why do two tiny states have such an outsized influence on the parties' Presidential candidates? I dare say - they've done a rather crappy job of it, lately, don't you think? So, while the big money race is rather distasteful, perhaps some change will do us some good.
Posted by: bsimon | June 15, 2007 10:34 AM
1. ELVIS IS IN THE WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
Most people know about Elvis' famous meeting with President Nixon. What they don't know is that during this meeting Nixon issued Elvis Presley a DEA badge, a clue that Elvis was helping investigators with amajor case and later had to enter the federal witness protection program. It's ludicrous to believe that the DEA would have issued a badge to someone not working for them, even Elvis Presley.
2. ELVIS' NAME IS MISSPELLED ON HIS TOMB.
Elvis' father, Vernon, misspelled Elvis' middle name on the grave--Aaron instead of Aron, as his mother named him. This is a sign that Vernon Presley knew that it was not his son in the tomb.
3. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CORPSE DON'T RESEMBLE ELVIS
In 1977, the National Enquirer paid a third cousin of Elvis to smuggle a mini-camera in to the viewing of Elvis' body. The resulting picture was published in the Enquirer, and caused shock waves among fans around the world. The eyebrows, chin, and fingers all looked unlike Elvis.
4. THE COFFIN WAS TOO HEAVY
The coffin weighed 900 pounds: Elvis is known to have been overweight at the time of his death...but not that much. The only plausible account for that weight would be if the body was a wax dummy and there was an air conditioner inside the coffin to keep the wax dummy from melting.
5. COL. PARKER'S STRANGE QUOTE
Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, said in a press conference shortly after Elvis' death: 'Elvis didn't die.The body did. We're keeping up the good spirits. We're keeping Elvis alive. I talked to him this morning and he told me to 'carry on.' Is it possible that there was a double entendre to those words: that they had literal truth to them that no one suspected at the time?
6. INCONSISTENCIES IN THE STORY
The circumstances of death are described in conflicting ways. Witnesses disagree as to how the body was found and what Elvis was wearing, when the body was found, whether it was dead already, when death was declared, and whether AR was tried.
7. THE BOOK DID NOT EXIST THEN
The book about the Shroud of Turin he is supposed to have been reading when he died was not published until a year later.
8. EVIDENCE THAT ELVIS WAS PLANNING ON THE END
There seems to be evidence that Elvis was preparing for the end:
--Why, for instance, did he order no new costumes for a new tour due to start on August 16th, 1977?
--Why did he fire several old friends shortly before his death?
--During his last tour he sang 'Blue Christmas' although it was summer: was he warning his fans?
--Five months before hand, family members were suddenly cut out of his will. Did he realize he would need that money for his new life?
9. MYSTERIOUS FIGURE LEAVING MEMPHIS THE DAY AFTER
On August 17th, 1977, one day after Elvis' death, a ticket to Buenos Aires was bought at Memphis airport by a man looking like Elvis and using the name John Burrows, a code name Elvis frequently used when making hotel reservations for the Elvis entourage.
10. NEW ELVIS RECORDING EMERGES WITH SONGS FROM THE 90'S
In 2002, an independent label released a CD entitled Kingtinued featuring Elvis' voice singing at least fourteen well known songs which were not written and did not exist prior to August 16th, 1977.
(See our current news item for more information!)
Posted by: Col. Tom Parker | June 15, 2007 9:01 AM
1. ELVIS IS IN THE WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
Most people know about Elvis' famous meeting with President Nixon. What they don't know is that during this meeting Nixon issued Elvis Presley a DEA badge, a clue that Elvis was helping investigators with amajor case and later had to enter the federal witness protection program. It's ludicrous to believe that the DEA would have issued a badge to someone not working for them, even Elvis Presley.
2. ELVIS' NAME IS MISSPELLED ON HIS TOMB.
Elvis' father, Vernon, misspelled Elvis' middle name on the grave--Aaron instead of Aron, as his mother named him. This is a sign that Vernon Presley knew that it was not his son in the tomb.
3. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CORPSE DON'T RESEMBLE ELVIS
In 1977, the National Enquirer paid a third cousin of Elvis to smuggle a mini-camera in to the viewing of Elvis' body. The resulting picture was published in the Enquirer, and caused shock waves among fans around the world. The eyebrows, chin, and fingers all looked unlike Elvis.
4. THE COFFIN WAS TOO HEAVY
The coffin weighed 900 pounds: Elvis is known to have been overweight at the time of his death...but not that much. The only plausible account for that weight would be if the body was a wax dummy and there was an air conditioner inside the coffin to keep the wax dummy from melting.
5. COL. PARKER'S STRANGE QUOTE
Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, said in a press conference shortly after Elvis' death: 'Elvis didn't die.The body did. We're keeping up the good spirits. We're keeping Elvis alive. I talked to him this morning and he told me to 'carry on.' Is it possible that there was a double entendre to those words: that they had literal truth to them that no one suspected at the time?
6. INCONSISTENCIES IN THE STORY
The circumstances of death are described in conflicting ways. Witnesses disagree as to how the body was found and what Elvis was wearing, when the body was found, whether it was dead already, when death was declared, and whether AR was tried.
7. THE BOOK DID NOT EXIST THEN
The book about the Shroud of Turin he is supposed to have been reading when he died was not published until a year later.
8. EVIDENCE THAT ELVIS WAS PLANNING ON THE END
There seems to be evidence that Elvis was preparing for the end:
--Why, for instance, did he order no new costumes for a new tour due to start on August 16th, 1977?
--Why did he fire several old friends shortly before his death?
--During his last tour he sang 'Blue Christmas' although it was summer: was he warning his fans?
--Five months before hand, family members were suddenly cut out of his will. Did he realize he would need that money for his new life?
9. MYSTERIOUS FIGURE LEAVING MEMPHIS THE DAY AFTER
On August 17th, 1977, one day after Elvis' death, a ticket to Buenos Aires was bought at Memphis airport by a man looking like Elvis and using the name John Burrows, a code name Elvis frequently used when making hotel reservations for the Elvis entourage.
10. NEW ELVIS RECORDING EMERGES WITH SONGS FROM THE 90'S
In 2002, an independent label released a CD entitled Kingtinued featuring Elvis' voice singing at least fourteen well known songs which were not written and did not exist prior to August 16th, 1977.
(See our current news item for more information!)
Posted by: che | June 15, 2007 9:00 AM
Thirty-five years after the Kennedy assassination and speculation about a conspiracy, "grassy knoll" has become a generic term connoting hidden plots and subterfuge. But who coined the phrase? Until now the answer has remained elusive, yet newly-discovered information identifies the source as a member of the news media. Here's how it happened.
The Kennedy motorcade from Love Field through Dallas included a news "pool car" loaned by the telephone company. It was the fifth car behind President Kennedy. Riding in the right front was Malcolm Kilduff, Mr. Kennedy's acting press secretary. In the middle sat senior White House correspondent Merriman Smith of United Press International (UPI). Thanks to a long-standing agreement to alternate seats with the competing wire service, Associated Press (AP), Mr. Smith sat directly in front of the car's only radio telephone. In the back seat sat the AP's Jack Bell, Robert Baskin of The Dallas Morning News and Bob Clark of ABC News.
When the shots were fired, Mr. Smith's car rode several hundred feet behind the president. The reporter had time to hear and see reactions from the crowd and police escorts, one of whom, Bobby Hargis, immediately stopped, jumped off his Harley-Davidson and raced up the nearby hill to a low concrete wall, passing horrified spectators lying on the ground.
As officer Hargis ran, the pool car picked up speed entering the Triple Underpass to Stemmons Freeway and the wild race to Parkland Hospital. Mr. Smith grabbed the radio telephone and called the Dallas UPI office, which sent out his dispatch at 12:34, four minutes after the shooting. "Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade today in downtown Dallas," he reported, and news bulletins around the world began with that short statement.
Meanwhile, in Anna, Illinois, WRAJ-AM owner and manager Don Michel responded to the UPI teletype warning bells and relayed those early reports to his startled listeners. Fortunately, Mr. Michel did something few others had presence of mind to do. He saved the UPI dispatches and filed them away, figuring someday they would be valuable for history. He was right. Mr. Michel placed those rare pages on loan to The Sixth Floor Museum, where several have been on display since opening day in 1989.
One of the pages in our archive reveals that in a dispatch sent almost exactly 25 minutes after the assassination, Mr. Smith reported "Some of the Secret Service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the president's car, probably from a grassy knoll to which police rushed."
No other news reports or witness interviews are known to contain the phrase "grassy knoll" at that time. In fact, tapes of local news coverage reveal that "grassy knoll" was later repeated by a few other reporters for several hours until investigators became convinced the shots originated from the old Texas School Book Depository. Yet it remains an historical fact that police and spectators immediately ran to the grassy knoll, not to the Depository building. And UPI's Merriman Smith reported it first.
So that's the story, as best as can be determined so many years later. Some researchers like to credit witness Bill Newman with the phrase, but the video tape shows he wasn't the one. Newman appeared on WFAA-TV in Dallas about 15-20 minutes after the shooting. He said the shots came from behind him, "up on the mall," or "up on the knoll."
Careful study of the tape shows him forming his lips to make the "mmm" sound, not "nnn." And he did not say "grassy" at any time.
Posted by: che | June 15, 2007 8:58 AM
Until we have "hard caps" on campaign spending, we will continue to muddle along through money-fueled chaos.
We need a simpler system, like a hard cap on campaign spending equal to the average of the NBA and NFL salary caps, with no soft money at all. I realize this is a small amount of money compared to present spending levels - that is the point.
Until we starve the cancer, we will continue to flounder as a country and WASTE our position in the world...continuing the downward spiral that has accelerated the past six and a half years.
Make solid ideas count, not media generated manipulation.
Posted by: Jeff | June 15, 2007 5:03 AM
I think in the end, we have enough time to consider the candidates, as long as we put enough pressure on the candidates to lay their cards on the table early and often. That's up to you, Chris, and your colleagues. Every bone in my body wants to vote Democrat, though I'm not all that happy with the top 3. I'd like to see Joe Biden emerge as the top second tier candidate, over Richardson, to see how he does. Oh, and I was disappointed in Wesley Clark's performance in the lead up to 2004, but I still like him. I wish he'd give it another go.
Posted by: jon | June 14, 2007 11:51 PM
Razorback:If the 2004 primary were this front-loaded, Kerry would have been nominated easier. His victory in Iowa was a come-from-behind win, but it pushed him throughout the rest of the states for victory. Had it been front-loaded, Edwards wouldn't have even seemed like a threat after Iowa.
Had '96 been front-loaded, Dole might have not had to worry about Pat Buchanan.
When it comes down to it, the front-loaded primary changes NOTHING. The importance of Iowa and NH comes from media attention and always has.
It seems that primaries have favored frontrunners since 1996. The lack of a single opponent helped Dole, then Ames solidified Bush's lead in 2000. McCain's abstinence from Iowa ensured he'd have no chance of recovering from his SC loss.
Basically, the inordinate amount of attention on IA and NH ensured those two states would be all that mattered........now the cluster of other states ensure IA and NH (possibly also SC, maybe NV) will be all that matter.
Posted by: Justin Perez | June 14, 2007 8:26 PM
At 11:59A and 12:11P on the Richardson thread one of the anonymous posters provided useful web pages which complement the WaPo map CC cited above. Thanks.
-------------------------------------
For your convenience:
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/D-Alloc.phtml
and Wikipedia's entry: Democratic Rules
and RepublicanSource.com: RepublicanRules
Posted by: Mark in Austin | June 14, 2007 7:56 PM
Some thoughts on this:
http://ipol-2008.blogspot.com/2007/06/town-hall-envy.html
Posted by: iPol | June 14, 2007 7:25 PM
Razorback, I agree, and for that reason support public funding of elections. What if we could really choose between the candidates based on the quality of their ideas, rather than based on their ability to raise enough money to compete coast-to-coast on the same day?
Posted by: Bokonon | June 14, 2007 7:22 PM
omigod -- the EVIL TERRORISTS. hide under the bed! wet your pant's! what sniveling simple-minded cowards you cons are.
rudy will drag this country straight into fascist hell.
Posted by: | June 14, 2007 6:59 PM
Rudy's the best - he'll save our country - See www.JoinRudyG2008.com - fight the EVIL TERRORISTS!
Posted by: Rudy G | June 14, 2007 6:54 PM
There was a plan proposed to recast the primaries into four or five regional election dates over three or four months. The object was to make travel and expense for the candidates reasonable by limiting exposure for three or four weeks to one geographic region.
Every 4 years the regional primaries would be shuffled as to dates.
I do not remember who posited the plan and would like to hear more about it from someone whose memory still functions at a high level.
If the State parties are running the show, there is no hope for change - unfortunately, primaries will have to be the subject of federal legislation if something like the regional plan is to work.
Razor's criticism is painfully correct, I think. Even the regional plan I mentioned might be improved if small states in a region were separated from big states so that there was some opportunity for shoeleather campaigning. Example -
taking the northeast as a "region", NH, VT,
RI,ME, and DE would get two weeks and then vote, then NY, NJ, CT, MA, PA, and MD would get two weeks and then vote. Do 4 regions, divided into "smalls" and "bigs", and it takes 16 weeks to run the primaries. Do no draw the regions for dates until August 1 of the previous year, and the campaign gets shorter and cheaper and more bearable.
Posted by: Mark in Austin | June 14, 2007 6:26 PM
CC, "che" is the assumed name of a poster who cuts-and-pastes incredibly long sagas. Some of us have asked him/her to merely describe the subject matter and cite to web-links, but s/he hijacked the "Governator" blog, and threatens to single-handedly destroy what has been an enjoyable political give-and-take for many others.
See the 4:21P post.
Posted by: Mark in Austin | June 14, 2007 6:09 PM
Republicans who think the Dole nomination was great, and Democrats who think that the Kerry nomination was great should support the front loaded "fast track" campaign.
All others should be opposed.
A front loaded primary system puts too much emphasis on money and makes it more difficult for a back of the back candidate that is good at retail politics to emerge. This is bad for the system.
Posted by: Razorback | June 14, 2007 5:58 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
![[Iowa map]](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/images/primaries_45x35.gif)
![[Quiz]](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/images/quiz_45x35.gif)








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