Take it to em Mitt

Romney hammered Horseface Kerry in the Boston Globe this morning.

"I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of the kind of enemy that we're facing," said Romney, a Republican. "This is not a small group of wackos in the hills that all we have to do is go find one person and it suddenly goes away."

In turn, Kerry's communications director, David Wade, questioned the governor's knowledge of issues related to Iraq and terrorism.
"Mitt Romney's command of national security is about as real as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Wade said.


We at the Cooler are happy with Mitt for not taking any sh** from Horseface. Maybe John Kerry had devised a coherent national security message 2 years ago, his Communications Director wouldn't be making cheeky comments to the Boston Globe for a lame-duck wannabe President right now.

Who's the tall Hungarian anyway?

The Cedar Rapids Gazette and Des Moines Register cover Pataki's stop at the State Fair. They both noted that many fair visitors were wondering who the tall guy in the pressed pants was.

• "Several passers-by inquired of media who Pataki was, but he took it in stride as he worked to bolster his name identification among voters who make the first choices in the presidential selection process"(Gazette)
• At well over 6 feet tall and dressed in a long-sleeved dress shirt and pressed khaki pants, Pataki stood out. "It's one of those guys," said Buck Noah of Des Moines. "Now which one is he?" (Register)

Both papers also covered Pataki talking about the foiled terror plot, and what New York was doing to bolster security.

• "We did bring in some more National Guard and focus some more attention on the airports" (Gazette)

That's funny, we didn't see him discussing that on Fox News. Get on it Team Pataki.

Hodgepodge

We have been so far behind the ball at the Cooler this week that we're embarassed. Everybody gets 3 free Dixie Cups and our sincerest apologies. Here's a recap of some of the things we missed.

• We already know how to win the caucus at the Cooler. But Mark Halperin has a book about how to win the Presidency in '08. Check it out. Not likely to be as good as "What it Takes" (Hat tip Burton Rider for making us take this off the shelf again.)
• Lots of Presidentials in town this weekend. Newt was with Nussle last night, Lamberti today, and does the Fair thing tomorrow. Pataki will attend 3 events for GOP candidats on Saturday Aug 12th. 9:00, he headlines an event for Larry Noble, who is running to fill Lamberti's Senate seat in Ankeny. He will headline an event for Tim Morgan at 2:30 and then head to Cerro Gordo County for a fundraiser for the Cerro Gordo Republicans. If anyone wants to be a Cooler Columnist for these events email caucuscoolertipjar@gmail.com
• Add Mark Warner to the Lamont column. Leaving just Biden, Clinton, and Vilsack unaffiliated.
• Romney whores himself to Hardball, Fox News and Fox and Friends on the thwarted terror plot. Get some Governor!
• Around the Rumor Mill- John Cox apparently had a confrontation with RPI staffers at the GOP Booth at the fair. Well Done.

That should leave you with plenty to chat about over the weekend.

CC

I love the fair, you love the fair, everyone loves the fair

First, we'd like to apologize for our like of content the past two days, the Cooler staff has been busy with their real jobs. Don't be discouraged, we'll be running with the most Caucus Content soon enough....

To this point John Cox has been the Fair All-Star, showing up at the Parade last night and the fair itself this morning.

Beaumont writes about all of the fair visitors in the next week or so. We'll try to get a Cooler report from some of those stops.

Back with more later

Mitt Revere Rides Again

Due to the busted terror plot in the UK, surprise, surprise, Governor Romney was the first to get his mug on the TV. He called up the National Guard on placed them on state duty. Romney says it relates to both visible deterrents (machine guns) and to assist with searches.

While I understand his role as Governor and ensuring the protection of the citizens of Massachusetts, but can he be more blatantly playing the media?

Is it really necessary to call up the National Guard in MA? I wonder if any other Governors will be following suit…New York, Arkansas??

The Lieberproblem

It will be interesting to see where the Democratic Presidential wannabees line-up in what will become the "Lieberproblem." With Lieberman sure to run as an independent, who the Democrat Presidential contenders side with will be very telling. We already know that Kerry and Feingold will side with Lamont. They are taking the far left anti war, Bush is the devil tack. But what about Hillary, Biden, Edwards, Travelin Tommy, Warner etc.. Do they stay out of it all together? Do they actively campaign for one or the other. An early tactical decision for the D's.

Feel free to comment about any other ramifications of the Lamont victory last night.

Ello Govnah

Broder delivers a must read on the Governor's running for President.

Here's a clip:

The sense that voters see Washington as gridlocked is one factor fueling the hopes of the governors eyeing the presidency in 2008 -- men such as Romney, Richardson, Huckabee, Iowa Democrat Tom Vilsack and New York Republican George Pataki. All of them are gambling that a frustrated electorate will turn to an outsider for help.

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McCain's upcoming Iowa schedule includes:

Fundraisers for Reps Danny Carroll, Bill Schickel and Doug Struyk and some time at the State Fair. He'll be here on the 15th and 16th of August. Thanks for both email tips on this one!

Update: Here's a link to an article on the Struyk event, apparently it's with candidate Scott Belt as well.

Update 2: McCain endorses Crist in Florida. Mccain sure likes playing in Primaries. Does this help you more with the Crist folks or hurt you more with Gallagher people? Crist does have a big lead in the polls

Update 3: Pataki releases an energy plan. New York Times headline writer gets snarky.

Cooler Column- Apu

The Caucus Cooler is happy to have a columnist reporting on a recent campaign stop by Joe Biden here in Iowa. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon Phd is the proprietor of the KWIK-E-MART. While, he’s been losing some market share to Kum and Go, the KWIK-E-MART continues to thrive. His report from the Biden event is below.


I come to do a guest blog on Caucus Cooler. I said no to Krusty because he has not been buying his pornographic magazines at the QWIK-E-MART recently. This blog is about a visit I had this week from a Senator from Delaware named Joe Biden. He said he was running for President. I was interested to find out that in Delaware you cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts, QWIK-E-MART or 7-11 without meeting an Indian. There seem to be a lot of people from my country in Delaware. Interesting. Mr. Biden then flipped through my Playdudes, ate some raw bacon and complimented my people on their entrepreneurship. After offering Vishnu a peanut, Mr. Biden asked why I did not have a dot on my head. He then gave a short speech that was similar to something British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock once told me. After giving me well wishes he departed. “Thank you, come again.” I said. He replied, “I’m in Iowa for 15 days, I’ll probably have time to come back.”

Best Wishes,
Apu

Update: If you don't understand this click here or here.

Extreme Interview

The Cooler did an interview about blogging, the Caucus, and other topics over at Extreme Mortman. Below is a clip from the interview, click here to read the whole thing.

Mortman: Will blogs follow the mainstream media or will the mainstream media follow the blogs?

Caucus Cooler: Chicken or the Egg. MSM reporters all read the blogs religiously. Since bloggers have the advantage of not having to have sources for their info, they are much more conducive to rumors and innuendo. Oftentimes these rumors turn into facts and so the MSM has to catch up to a story that’s been in the blogs for a couple of weeks. On the flip side, most bloggers have other jobs, so the MSM reporters can do much more detailed research. They also have more resources in most cases. For that reason, we post a lot of MSM stories on the Cooler (particularly from smaller papers) and those stories drive the conversation we have on the blog. It’s a give and take.

We encourage you to check out extrememortman.com Great blog.

B is for Baby

We've alluded a couple of times to George Allen's nuanced position on abortion. He doesn't believe that life begins at conception, which allows him to support the morning after bill (Plan B). He did vote with the President on stem cells, which was either an election year epiphany or we don't quite understand all the nuances in his position. VA readers please chime in with input on that.

Here's a link to an article on this topic from Augusta County VA.


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Additionally, the Romney blog has a schedule of upcoming Romney Iowa events.

We are stupid

A post below by Maverick made us reevaluate our odds line. The math was way off. Go figure, we were government majors.

Mathematically if you have a 10% chance to win your odds are 9/1. The basic formula is as follows. (100/Percent chance)-1= x/1. or 9-1 (see George Allen). Or(100/Percent)/Percent=X/1 Same thing. If you don't understand that, email your 8th grade pre-algebra teacher.

The line has been adjusted accordingly. And the description has been changed to reflect our newfound mathematical accuracy. We've also added a field bet, coming in at 8% or 25/2. The field represents anybody besides the listed candidates.

You learned something today readers. Off to Vegas!

Thanks to Mav for pointing out our mistake.

Novak reads the Cooler

Romney has "lead the early organizing in Iowa." He also confirms Rudy as a candidate.

You can read the article here

Back with more later today.