News and Commentary Archive for February, 2005

February 1, 2005: Events are moving quickly! We have had more than a few responses to our plea for "activists". These highly motivated individuals, especially in the early primary states, are going to be key to building the momentum that we need. They bring much needed political experience and local party contacts. (And those that lack experience, make up for it with enthusiasm.) We have had the pleasure of meeting some face to face. Without "giving away the store", let's just say that you shouldn't be surprised to see the fruits of their labor here on the website, on multiple local, regional and national media outlets, and serious fundraising activities. Welcome aboard! With the additional man (and woman) power, maybe we'll finally get caught up on our correspondence. We imagine that there are a a lot more "activists" out there that we just haven't contacted yet.

February 2, 2005: Right Wing News' John Hawkins has posted a brief but insightful interview with Dick Morris of Vote.com. A brief quotation: "Nominate Rice. Otherwise Hillary will win." Click here to read the entire article.

An anonymous satirical submission, the "Kennedy Wanted Poster" -- please feel free to distribute it freely. Click on the image for a printable the high resolution image. (You may have to adjust your printer margins for it to fit on a 8.5 x 11 sheet..)

February 3, 2005: Our Guestbook is up and running again. However, we hope to move up to a more sophisticated database program that will be easier to manage. After we catalog the current Guestbook, we are going to switch our software to take advantage of our new webserver's capabilities. Thank you for your patience.

February 6, 2005: Have the Democrats shot themselves in the foot?  With Howard Dean ready to become the DNC Chairman it sure looks like it!  What's next, a comeback for Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich in 2008?  And who said that the Democrats don't have a sense of humor?
 

February 8, 2005: We have been victims of our own success!  We really do not like to make excuses for our not keeping the website "fresh", but the increasing work load -- especially with the several volumes of reading (no kidding!) we got from the Federal Election Commission --  has been keeping us busy, along with the day to day order filling.  We have also gotten to meet several of the website "regulars" as they come to Florida to escape the snow, and we now have several acting state chairpersons.  Hopefully, we'll have a gallery of all of our state chairpersons posted in the not too distant future.  We have been paying attention to Dr. Rice's confirmation, which we'll have more to say about soon, the Iraqi elections, the State of the Union and Dr. Rice's first overseas trip as Secretary of State.  If you have any contributions to make on these subjects, please e-mail the webmaster.  WE NEED YOUR INPUT!

February 8, 2005: CPAC anyone? Several of us are anticipating a "road trip" (well, "airplane trip") to Washington, DC, for the CPAC conference February 17-19. Visit their site for details. It would be great for as many of us to show up with "Draft Condi" buttons as possible. Let us know if you plan to attend.

February 8, 2005: If you are displaying your Condi bumper sticker, please send us a photo.  We'll block out your tag number, if its visible, to protect your privacy.  We'd like to have all 50 states, PR and Guam posted on the website.

February 9, 2005: We are on the ground in New Hampshire!  Shari Demers is our acting NH chairperson and brings a lot of experience to our growing organization in this critical early primary state.  She is hitting the ground running, coordinating our early media exposure and covering the state with "Condi" bumper stickers.  This is an exciting development for all of us!  Our "go-to" person for research is Crystal Dueker of North Dakota shown in our photo gallery proudly displaying her new bumper sticker.  She travels extensively throughout the US and overseas and is an encyclopedia of presidential election knowledge.

February 10, 2005:  Blogger, legal scholar, citizen-soldier, former Republican student activist Charles Garman joins us as our Nebraska chairperson.  Look for great things to start happening in the Midwest.  Visit his blog here.  If you live in Nebraska, or the Midwest; he is a great resource.
 

February 10, 2005: Our NH Chairperson, Shari Demers, was interviewed today on Kansas City's KMBZ by Jerry Agar who hosts the AM talk show.  Not one to rest on her laurels, she has also done several print interviews with major market newspapers -- look in this Sunday's NY Daily News.  She has been receiving statewide support from people across New Hampshire and interest from local media, such as New Hampshire Insider.  Once these are published we'll post the links.

February 10, 2005: Dick Morris wrote in The Hill yesterday that Dr. Rice is achieving "rock star" status.  After her European tour, we couldn't agree more.  He again reiterates the importance of a "Condi candidacy" for 2008.

February 11, 2005: SOLD OUT AGAIN!!!  Our new campaign button design has been SO popular that the initial production of 1000 has been sold, not given away, or used for promotional activities, but sold to fellow Condistas.  We think this speaks volumes about the support out there for Dr. Rice.  Those of you who have ordered the new campaign buttons in the last week, may have to wait until after we return from the CPAC conference before we can ship out the buttons from the new order that should arrive while we are in Washington.  Some of the bumper stickers are in short supply too, and have been reordered.  Fortunately, the turn around time for bumper stickers is less than that for the campaign buttons.  We hope to finalize the t-shirt designs while we are in Washington.  Check back in 10-14 days for the newly posted designs.

February 11, 2005: Some cosmetic changes have been made to the website and more of the website functions are back up after switching webservers at the end of January to meet increased traffic.  We will resume online polling this week and a new guestbook will be installed after that.  If you have previously signed our guestbook, you do not have to re-enter your personal data -- we still have it in our private database, but we want to find out more about you to facilitate organizing efforts in the future.  If you don't receive an e-mail about this in the next 2 weeks, "re-sign" the guestbook.  With an e-mail distribution list of close to 3000 now, we are sure that we made an error, or two.  Please realize that a lot of our "data entry" work is done by volunteers, all of whom have to learn the database software.  As they learn the details of our database system, some errors could have been made.  Thank you for your patience.  If you find any website errors, please e-mail the webmaster.

February 13, 2005: A New York Daily News article Condi's got prez-ence by Helen Kennedy, from the paper's Washington Bureau, came out today in their Sunday edition.

February 15, 2005: Americans for Dr. Rice is ON THE AIR in Iowa just in time to coincide with CPAC.  Starting Friday, February 18, 2005, morning and afternoon drivers across Iowa will hear our first radio spots.  Click here to listen.

February 16, 2005: In the past we have been reticent to ask for your contributions until our 527 status, etc. had been finalized.  Well, those barriers have been removed.  Show us the money!  Our activities are starting to cost real money -- air time, travel, professional website programming, etc.  Make no mistake, your money is not being used for frivolous expenses.  All of us attending CPAC are doing so at our own expense.  Your donations are used directly for the growing expenses of a serious political organization and effort.  If you are a Condista it is time to put your money on the table.  You need to show your support for a Dr. Rice candidacy and show it NOW.

February 17, 2005: CPAC - Washington, DC. "Condi in 2008" was a hot topic in the conference halls as domestic and foreign media were mesmerized by the idea of Dr. Rice's candidacy. Hundreds (if not thousands) of campaign buttons and bumper stickers were distributed to attendees eager to support Dr. Rice. The opening of CPAC, Conservative Political Action Conference, this morning began 3-days of meetings, speeches, seminars and exhibits at the largest conservative grassroots conference in the country. Karl Rove and Vice-President Dick Cheney along with many other conservative leaders spoke to an estimated crowd of approximately 5000 conservatives from across the country.

February 18, 2005: CNN Doubleheader!!! Today at CPAC our researcher and acting North Dakota chairperson, Crystal Dueker, appeared on Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics and Lou Dobbs Tonight after being interviewed by CNN reporter Ed Henry at CPAC (see below) in Washington, DC. "Condi" bumper stickers, campaign buttons and lapel stickers were displayed by many of the attendees. Tan Sleeve's song Condoleezza Will Lead Us was featured in both segments along with poll numbers showing Dr. Rice with a lead over Senator Hillary Clinton in a head to head CNN Poll. We'll see if we can post the video next week.

February 18, 2005: T-shirts ordered.  While at CPAC we had the opportunity to order our "Condi" t-shirts that often have been requested by our supporters.  Please realize that the delay in offering "Condi" t-shirts is due to the fact that we wanted:
     1.  A quality product made in the US -- at least the printing.
     2.  Inexpensive, but not cheap
     3.  A product that would support companies that are conservative-friendly. 

Several companies approached us with "comprehensive" services that would involve us merely selling their "drop-shipped" products to our supporters.  They would send us a check every month for our "percentage" of the sales (typically a very small percentage)  Although convenient, ALL of the proposals made to us were by companies who would make t-shirts for Genghis Khan (or Hillary) if they would sell.

Please be aware that by finding suppliers who share many of our values and doing a lot of comparison, "hands-on" shopping; we feel that we are offering you a quality product, reasonable price (about $10) with a sizeable portion, over half, going to the organization's efforts.  Our primary goal is to get Dr. Rice elected, NOT sell t-shirts, and other items, except as a way to make sure that she gets to move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after the 2008 election.

February 21, 2005: Dick Cheney to Step Down.  Condi is New VP.  That is the RUMOR that has been mentioned by a guest on Fox and Friends, this Saturday, February 19, 2005, and now on the internet by Dr. Jack Wheeler's To the Point website article.  We have heard this RUMOR in the past, but with no way to confirm it have never posted it.  While we certainly hope that the RUMOR is true (without wishing for any health problems for the VP), no credible sources have confirmed the validity of this RUMOR -- yet!

February 22, 2005: Americans for Dr. Rice welcomes the addition of Matt May to our team.  He'll be our "blogmaster" and acting Michigan chairperson.  He brings his excellent writing and research skills to the organization along with a resume that includes working as a C-SPAN archivist and project manager for the acclaimed 3rd edition of The Presidents: A Reference History.  He'll make our online presence much more interactive and enable Condistas throughout the nation to form an online community to trade ideas, coordinate activities, and respond rapidly to Dr. Rice-related news events.  Watch for our online community to be up and running in the next few days with Matt at the helm.

February 23, 2005: Hacked? For unclear reasons our site went down for several hours last night. Fortunately, when a backup was uploaded to the server the problem resolved. Sorry for the inconvenience.

February 24, 2005: It's been a busy day for those of us at Americans for Dr. Rice! Several of us were interviewed by domestic, Swiss, and Japanese press. Barring any technical glitches, an ABC News segment should appear tomorrow. Our video server is finally online (see above) and our "apparel" page with the first available t-shirts and polo shirts is up and running. Matt May, acting Michigan chairperson, scored an interview with Jay Nordlinger of National Review and was informed by his wife that he would be a father! (He will continue to contribute here on the website, in Michigan as time allows after new family obligations, and will continue as a professional writer on a variety of topics.) Congratulations to the May family! Matt's online forum duties are going to be assumed by Floridian, Chris Jefferson, blogger and proud member of the "vast right-wing conspiracy". We'll post his picture and a brief "bio" when we launch the online forum hopefully early next week -- sorry for yet another delay. But that's why we started "so early" preparing for 2008.

February 25, 2005: The Washington Times columnist John McCaslin  wrote about Americans for Dr. Rice in his column, Inside the Beltway, yesterday .  Included was a brief interview with Crystal Dueker of AFR and mention of the Siena College Research Institute poll showing 81% of Americans would vote for a woman.

February 25, 2005: The Washington Post Staff Writer Robin Givhan's  article, Condoleezza's Commanding Clothes, was page 1, not of the political section, but the fashion section.  Dr. Rice was visiting the troops in Weisbaden, Germany, "dressed to the nines".  While we usually limit our comments to the political realm, this caught our attention.  We imagine that it will catch yours too, and we've included the link to the article above.
 

February 27, 2005: Dale Switzer, a software engineer from Denver, Colorado, joins Americans for Dr. Rice as the acting Colorado Chairperson.  His past political experience includes serving as a Presidential elector in 1996 from Oklahoma, and a term as a city councilperson.




February, 28, 2005: Thank you to all of our supporters!  We had NO idea of just how popular our "Condi" t-shirts and polo shirts were going to be.  They were all gone after 48 hours of their initial posting.  That's more than 200 shirts!  We have reordered and will be filling your orders as soon as possible.  Same goes for the bumper stickers.  After CPAC in Washington, DC; they, too, were all gone.  We have re-ordered and should have your bumper stickers in the mail by next week.

February 28, 2005: Chris Jefferson (no relationship to Thomas) will be our TEAM CONDI® online forum/community moderator.  Please visit our new online forum.  It is designed to make our website and organization much more responsive to our supporters.  Look for the TEAM CONDI® link on the website -- and in the not too distant future -- TEAM CONDI® shirts and other items.  Please be patient as Chris works out the administration of the forum.  All of the features may not be functional for several days.

February 26, 2005: Julie Mason (no relation to your humble webmaster) of the Houston Chronicle's Washington Bureau wrote an article that appeared on that paper's front page mentioning Americans for Dr. Rice and our success.  She quotes  pollster Bob Stein, "Having someone like her being seriously discussed makes it hard for Brownback, Hagel and Frist to openly start campaigning."