And now the democrats are really dreaming! Desperation can cause one to lose touch with all reality you know. With the image of the 2008 election slowly slipping away as each day produces more dirt on either Hillary or Obama, thought drift into a dream state of “what if”. What if we could have both Hillary and Obama on the same ticket and make peace? That’s a what if that’s not going to happen!

Obama-Hillary no way. Hillary-Obama. No way!

Obama-Richardson? Maybe!

Gore-Obama? GORE?

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney is hoping he won’t have to attend the Democratic convention but if he does go, that will mean the Democrats still haven’t decided a nominee for the presidential election. And if neither Sen. Hillary Clinton nor Sen. Barack Obama has clinched the nomination by August, Mahoney says we may see a brokered convention, meaning the nominee could emerge from a negotiated settlement.

“If it (the nomination process) goes into the convention, don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket,” Mahoney said. A compromise candidate could be someone such as former vice president Al Gore, Mahoney said last week during a meeting with this news organization’s editorial board. If either Clinton or Obama suggested to a deadlocked convention a ticket of Gore-Clinton or Gore-Obama, the Democratic Party would accept it, Mahoney said.

Now that’s WILD thinking for sure! But, it is a wild election season and Gore has remained very quiet so far.

But, back to reality, aka Hillary wasn’t under sniper fire in Bosnia!

What are the odds Democrats will field a “dream team ticket” with Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton combining forces? London bookmaker Ladbrokes is taking bets at 8-1, but leading Democratic insiders aren’t ready to put down their money yet.

Growing alarm among some Democrats that the rancor could squander what had seemed like a near-certain win in November makes them yearn for a ticket with both Obama and Clinton, in either order. A nomination contest that continues to the August convention could split the party in two just as the general election begins in earnest.

“Nastier things have been said in other primaries,” says Matt Bennett, a veteran of retired general Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential bid and co-founder of a think tank called Third Way. “The difference is there’s something that is truly at risk here — this incredible excitement that both candidates have generated. My concern is the level of acrimony could rise to such a point that the people both candidates are bringing out could become disillusioned and stay home in the fall.”

In an understatement of the year, Donna Brazile said, “It ain’t a match made in heaven anymore,” noting increasingly bitter statements made in recent weeks by each campaign’s staff and supporters toward the other. Monday’s back-and-forth centered on charges of McCarthyism and “gutter politics.” The politics of destruction can also destroy the bomb throwers.

No dream ticket for Democrats in ‘08! Maybe not even a victory in November.

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ernie@lrchouston.com

Whether you are democrat or republican, there is an important lesson to take away from how national political conventions are handled.

The lesson is about “messaging” and “image.”

As an observer of these conventions you can see how much the parties try to control their message and image. These conventions are very carefully designed and choreographed. The participants are given scripts, rehearse their parts, send their scripts to the media, have professionals help with wardrobe, hair, makeup, and how to present. They even have someone help them know the best ways to get to and from the speakers’ platform. This is an Event with a capital “E” and that is exactly how it’s treated.

In one of the conventions I watched, the particular reporter I heard said that one of the speakers had tried on five different suits to determine which one would show up most favorably on television. FIVE suits!

They, rightly so, know that with millions of potential voters (translate “customers”) the message and image they communicate about their candidate (translate “your company”) is critical to getting people to vote (translate “buy from you”).

Basically, these conventions are one big commercial or ad for their respective parties and the candidates they promote.

So, how about you? Do you carefully plan and choreograph your message and image to your customers? Do you take care to have your customers see only the very best you and your “party” have to offer. Or do you simply go along and let your competition or the marketplace haphazardly define who you are and what your value is?

As you observe these conventions (and other similar events) you should be asking yourself:

* Would your current and potential constituents vote for you over other similar candidates? In other words are you their candidate of choice? (Do your customers think you are the best and most knowledgeable salesperson they talk to?)

* Do your customers know who you are and what value you bring to them?

* Is there a clear distinction between you and your competition?

* Do they know what you stand for (what is your expertise)?

* Do you communicate your experiences and how you have helped other customers?

Elections are a great analogy for the business world. Every day you are in competition against yourself, the marketplace, and other providers of technology solutions. So every day you have to ask yourself: Am I the candidate of choice for my customers? Or am I one of the candidates who lost in the primary and the names of whom people can’t even remember?

It’s up to you; you decide who you’re going to vote for just as your customers decide who to vote for every time they make a purchase.

About Author

Ramon provides more marketing information, especially created for the IT VAR industry but also applies to everyone who wants to improve their sales. Stay up-to-date at StreetSmartVAR.com and while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for Ramon’s popular, no-cost online marketing course!

Deal-cutting and compromise are essential arts in legislating, and the health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate is no exception.

But on abortion, which has become perhaps the biggest threat to the $848 billion overhaul of the health insurance system, middle ground is hard to come by.

That’s not stopping Sen. Bob Casey Jr. from trying.

The Pennsylvania Democrat has emerged as one of two anti-abortion voices in the Senate Democratic caucus. The other, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has said he won’t vote for the bill without abortion language that mimics its cousin in the House of Representatives. A last-minute push from the Conference of Catholic Bishops and a bloc of anti-abortion Democrats secured House language preventing anyone who receives a government health insurance subsidy from buying a plan that covers abortions.

Mr. Casey, however, repeatedly has said he won’t draw a line in the sand on the issue, making him a sure supporter of the bill regardless of the abortion language.

“You have to weigh that against the urgency, or I think necessity, of getting a bill passed,” Mr. Casey said.

It becomes harder to pass without Mr. Nelson’s vote, but an amendment modeled on the House bill — which was viciously denounced by abortion rights groups — will have a tough time passing the Senate, where anti-abortion Democrats are rare.

So Mr. Casey has become a central figure in talking to Democratic leadership, the White House and others about how to navigate the potential impasse.

“Sen. Casey from the start has been one of the most constructive players in the health care debate,” said Jim Kessler, of the progressive think tank Third Way and a former staffer for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“He’s one of the few pro-life Democrats who can talk to all sides, and it puts him in a very unique position. I don’t think it’s just someone that provides cover. I think he can search for language that not every side will love, but they will support.”

Rick Santorum, a conservative and outspoken anti-abortion Catholic whom Mr. Casey unseated in 2006, said the search for a compromise on abortion is futile.

“You’re either going to fund abortions or you’re not going to fund abortions,” Mr. Santorum said.

“There are not a lot of places to compromise. This is a zero-sum game. … It doesn’t matter if Casey is behind it or not. What matters is whether National Right to Life or the Council of Catholic Bishops put their imprimatur on it.”

Those two groups oppose the current Senate bill’s abortion stance as vociferously as NARAL Pro-Choice America rejects the House amendment, drafted by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and co-sponsored by Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie.

At issue is whether taxpayer money funds abortions, something not permitted under current federal law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill specifies that no federal money would go to abortions, but it mandates that at least one insurance plan in the newly created health insurance exchanges cover abortions and at least one not offer the coverage.

Anti-abortion groups argue that this amounts to a back-door public funding of abortions, since participants in the exchange could use federal subsidies to buy abortion coverage. Abortion rights groups argue that preventing any health insurance company in the exchanges from offering abortion coverage would severely restrict access to abortions, especially for poor women.

Mr. Casey said the current language, in his opinion, still amounts to federal abortion funding and he will work with Mr. Nelson to change it.

The debate puts the first-term senator in an uncomfortable place. His father, former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, challenged Roe v. Wade to the Supreme Court and was infamously denied a chance to speak at the 1992 Democratic convention because of his anti-abortion views.

The mild-mannered son de-emphasizes the issue and does not adopt the bellicose language of the interest groups, but his name alone gives him a bigger profile.

“Simply because of [his father] his reputation carries a lot of power in Washington, and I think he’ll get more of an ear than … a young senator in Washington might otherwise have on a big issue like this,” said Christopher Borick, a political scientist and pollster at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

Last week, Mr. Casey worked with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., after an amendment she proposed about expanding preventive care for women raised concerns that it could cover abortions. Mr. Casey and Ms. Mikulski added language specifying clearly that the amendment did not apply to abortions.

“That was one instance where we can work together,” Mr. Casey said. “I would admit that’s rare, but it’s achievable, even in Washington.”

It’s still not his favorite topic.

On Friday, Mr. Casey spoke at a news conference to push a plan to extend unemployment benefits. Afterward, he was quickly surrounded by a group of reporters and peppered with abortion questions.

Mr. Casey repeated his well-worn positions and his desire for a compromise, then was off to his next appointment. As he walked out, he was asked whether he was sick of answering abortion questions every day.

“Part of being a legislator,” he replied.

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And, he wins BIG! Looking at individual voter segments he won the women, groups under 65, ALL educational levels, voters without a college degree, Democrats, whites, white men, urban, suburban, and rural voters! Does that about cover the basis? The Wisconsin primary was a total WIPE OUT. The last numbers that I saw was a 57-42% (15%) victory.

It was Obama’s ninth straight victory over the past three weeks, as the Obama tsunami keeps rolling on. The former first lady is in a desperate need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front-runner. Hawaii has not checked in yet, but my bet is that when we awaken Wednesday morning, Obama will hve ten in a row.

Where are the Clinton delegates?

“The change we seek is still months and miles away,” Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston in a speech in which he also pledged to end the war in Iraq in his first year in office. “I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009,” he declared.

In a race growing increasingly negative, Obama cut deeply into Clinton’s political bedrock in Wisconsin, splitting the support of white women there almost evenly with her. According to polling place interviews, he also ran well among working class voters in the blue collar battleground that was prelude to primaries in the larger industrial states of Ohio and Pennsylvania

If Obama can take Texas in two weeks, there may not be a Democratic convention deadlock after all. But Hill and Bubba have two weeks to really get down and dirty. And did I mention that there’s a debate in Austin, Rexas this Thursday. It will not be for the meek of heart.

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ernie@lrchouston.com

“The presidential primary March 4th in Texas may decide which Democrat faces the likely Republican Party nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the final two Democrats left, face off in a tough, high-profile showdown in the Lone Star State.

The Democratic candidates are almost in a dead heat in the state, according to a Houston Chronicle poll. Texas voters in the Democratic Party primary are diverse, with just more than half either Hispanic or African-American. The 228 delegates will be split according to vote totals in the 31 state senate districts, with precinct conventions and a state caucus deciding the rest. Also, voter participation in the 2004 and 2006 elections for each district decides how delegates each senate district receives. For example, a heavily Hispanic district in south Texas with low voter turnout in the last two statewide elections could receive 7 delegates, while a high-turnout district in Houston gets 10 delegates, according to Chronicle. This complicated system of choosing delegates has some Democrats unhappy and calling for a change.

The estimated cost to campaign in Texas’ diverse markets is an expensive million dollars a week, and Senator Obama has been raising that much per day, collecting $32 million in January, while Senator Clinton just loaned her campaign $5 million, and some of her senior aides are working without salaries this month. After raising $13.5 million in January, Clinton announced Feb. 7th that her campaign raised $7.5 million in just one week; Obama’s campaign then went out and raised that much in 36 hours. That’s why Mrs. Clinton wants to debate Senator Obama once a week on television, since such publicity is free. So far, Mr. Obama has agreed to only one debate, and that’s in Cleveland, Ohio, February 26th on NBC. There’s also talk about one Texas debate.

Former White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove proclaimed on Fox News Feb. 7th that the Democratic nominee will come out of the Texas Primary, and that may be the case.

If Senator Obama momentum continues and he wins the most of the contests Feb. 19th, as polling suggests, he will come into Texas ahead of Mrs. Clinton. Already in big trouble, if Hillary then loses Texas, she would come into the Democratic Convention an underdog, if not outright loser. If Obama loses in Texas, Hillary may still win the nomination. With Ohio also voting March 4th, Texas may decide which Democrat faces Mr. McCain November 4th.”

Watch the video related to Democratic Convention

Chelsea Clinton Speaking at the Texas Democratic Convention 2008.

Help answer the question about Democratic Convention

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Eric Bramlett is the Broker and co-owner of One Source Realty in Austin Texas. Visit Eric’s Austin Texas Real Estate Guide, visit his Austin Texas Real Estate company’s website, & his Austin Condos Guide. He has seen considerable success in real estate, and looks forward to many more years in the business. Eric currently invests, renovates, and develops real estate in the Greater Austin Texas Market. He spends his time working with select clients, helps his new agents get started in their real estate careers, helps his experienced agents progress their careers to the next level, & when he has time…he takes his dogs to the lake.