Saturday, February 14, 2004

Joe Trippi: "I am unable to provide details on the spending." We know that the Dean campaign spent just over $7 million on television...but that raises the question of where the rest of the $45 million raised was spent. I asked Joe Trippi where the other $38 million went. His response via email, in its entirety. "I had no hiring or firing authority in the campaign, nor did I have authority or control of the budget or checkbook.  I had no check writing authority at all.  Governor Dean placed all of this in the hands of his former Chief of Staff Bob Rogan."   "This means that not only could I not have had a conflict of interest, it also means that I am unable to provide details on the spending, as I was never in charge of it."   "This was the single biggest mistake I made -- not demanding to be in absolute control of the budget and spending as a condition of running the campaign, something you must have if you are really running the campaign."      "But frankly when I joined the campaign we only had a few thousand dollars in the bank, and the Governor wanted Bob in charge of the money -- it did not seem to me at the time that it mattered much who had control of a few thousand dollars or that it was something worth having a huge fight over so early in the campaign.  I should have fought it -- I didn't -- that is my fault and my mistake."   "We raised over $41 million and put something like $7 million on TV in 2003  -- something like 17% of our 2003 budget went to TV.  Look at all the other competitive campaigns -- Kerry, Gephardt, Edwards etc -- their percentages were much higher -- so so much for being a media consultant working in overdrive to get as much money on TV as possible -- the facts show clearly that that did not happen."   Dean's large campaign staff and consultants have reportedly been the biggest costs. Isn't the Web supposed to lower the price of doing business? Lots more to learn here. 4:18:46 PM    comment []

Jay Rosen takes a close look at the Reuter's article on Trippi's speech. Some highlights from a long analysis: "Wrong...Wrong again...wrong and Trippi didn't say it...simply an incorrect paraphrase...all wrong." 11:17:06 AM    comment []

Decembrist: How John Edwards has Changed the Democrats "He's making a moral claim about what our country owes to those who have the least, not promising something to everyone who 'works hard and plays by the rules.' And, shocking as it is, that's a big deal. And it matters that it comes from a candidate who is generally perceived as a moderate -- if only because he's a southerner -- rather than the leftmost candidate in the race." (Thanks to Lance Knobel for the pointer.) 10:52:38 AM    comment []

Cheney + Halliburton = (contracts - bids) X $$$ It's a reductive formula, and belaboring it makes it too easy for see-no-evil types to brush off the whole issue. So it's good to have a thorough article on the subject by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker. 10:39:55 AM    comment []