Line Change! (Macaca)

We were going to change the line just following "macaca" but instead decided to give it a few days and see how it played in the national media. It turns out that it couldn't have played any worse for George Allen. EVERYBODY covered macaca, and it's effecting people's opinions across the country.

• Charlie Cook said Allen's "not a real contender" any longer.;
• The margin in his Senate race tightened to 3;
• The Washington Post is in Day 10 of their macaca coverage;
• Don't forget that before this even started, George Allen had a "race problem"
• Mitt Romney is looking more and more like the "McCain alternative" people wanted Allen to be.
• He's got a 10 week bloodbath in front of him while Romney, McCain, Pataki, Huckabee and gang pick up chits and supporters.

Allen has left this incident battered, bloodied, bruised, and his crisis management abilities are being seriously questioned.

With that in mind George Allen has officially plummetted down the Cooler Line. 1 day after the macaca quote, or 3 days after, he would have just taken a little hit in our mind; but this thing is playing out worse and worse every day. He's in serious trouble. And now he's 18-1. Huckabee and "Field" are the beneficiaries.

Are we overreacting (underreacting?)... What do the Cooler minions think?

The Cooler Mill

OK OK, so we didn't live up to our "Cooler Mill Friday" promise. Instead the "Cooler Mill" will be a recurring feature that comes around when we have rumors fit for posting.

Well we haven't confirmed this, but it sounds like America's Mayor, Rudy Giuliani will be the featured speaker at the Reagan Dinner in Des Moines this fall. This is not the only reason that the buzz around the Cooler indicates Rudy's running.

But if he doesn't jump in soon, many of the prime fundraisers, strategists, and activists will be scooped up. It will be interesting to see how Rudy navigates that.

Feel free to chime in with any rumors you've heard in your neck of the woods in the comments.

Draft Branstad!

Great Question.

This article just made us laugh so hard that we had to post. Jim Gilmore "will not rule out a Presidential bid," according to the Daily Communist err Progress. After a quick conversation with the Cooler staff you would be suprised to know that none of us are ruling out a bid either.

The best part is that they have a website. draftgilmore.com. They have a flier titled "America needs Gilmore." America needs Gilmore like the Cooler staff needs hemroids. Seriously, if you are going to start a Draft Gilmore site, we might as well get a Draft Branstad or Draft Ray site going. Maybe Jim Nicholson or Bill Brock want to run.

This is great comedy. We really hope the Gilmore folks come into the Cooler and argue for their guy. That would be great.

For clarity's sake, we don't hate Jim- he's not a bad guy.. but President. Give it a rest.

The Doctor is Back

Frist will be in Western Iowa at the end of the month to campaign for Rep. Chuck Soderberg. He's sure gotten busy since the Kennedy/Branstad hires. Click here for link

Worthless Polls

We at the Cooler are considering a policy of only posting on polls that are interesting for some specific reason, because if we have to keep posting everytime a new poll comes out, this place is going to be snoozeville. With that said, here are two polls to chew on.

Giuliani leads a poll of likely Iowa Caucus goers as done by Mr. Steve Grubbs. Rudy with 30%, McCain 2nd with 17% everybody else not registering much. Seriously if we have to post any more polls that have Rudy, McCain or Condi in the lead and everyone else at 3%- with maybe a Newt wildcard- we're going to die of boredum. It's all name ID. The only thing this shows you is that Rudy will a contender if he jumps in.

George Allen's lead is down to three in the Virginia Senate race. Everybody say hello to Senator Macaca over in Richmond. (Editors note: Trust a SurveyUSA poll at your own risk)

UPDATE: State 29's take on the poll is the only entertaining thing about it.

"Remember, Iowa is the state where Pat Robertson got nearly 25% in 1988. Pat Buchanan got over 23% in 1996. And both Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer received 14% each in 2000. Without a poll showing 25% to 30% of Iowa Republicans going for some religious nut or fringe wacko, I consider it null and void."

Don't be offended SoCo's, the Cooler is one of you, but if you can't laugh at yourself...

Follow up on Salt Lake Newspapers

Kristine made an interesting post below about the different papers in Utah's view on Mormonism. While looking at the Salt Lake Tribune's website (not Salt Lake City Tribune), we noticed that there is an entire section on "polygamy." This fact makes it clear that we had no idea what we were talking about when we said it was "strange" that this article would come from the Tribune.

To be clear we didn't intend to say that it was strange that a Utah paper would say something negative about Mormonism, we were alluding to the fact that hometown papers tend to be favorable to their favorite son this early in the Presidential cycle (see: Vilsack, Tom/Register, Des Moines). While this isn't always the case, there has clearly been a lot of interest in the Romney campaign from Utah, much of it positive. But Kristine's claim is that the Deseret News gives more favorable coverage to Mormon's. We have no idea if this is the case. The fact is though the SLT has had some of the best MSM 08 coverage to this point, much of it centered around Romney as you can see here.

With Utah playing an key role in the Presidential cycle, it's one of 3 Western states that will likely vote just after South Carolina, we'll be keeping tabs on the Salt Lake coverage of Romney and the rest of the 08ers.

We at the Cooler find this newspaper chatter very interesting, if you don't we're sorry and will be back with some Iowa gossip tomorrow.

Pictures are working again! Websites are so much more fun with pictures!

Update: The Deseret News is owned by the Mormon Church, thus the coverage is more favorable, obviously. The SLT is in a newspaper chain that includes the Denver Post and San Jose Mecury News.

Meet my wife, and my other wife, and her too

We found this article from the Salt Lake Tribune with some facts that were new to us at the cooler. We understand that the "mormon" thing should not be an issue in a perfect world, but it is- and this kind of writing is NOT going to help Mitt. (And in the SL Trib of all places, strange).


Romney, of course, didn't mention that about the time The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy in 1890, his great-grandfather was among those Mormons who fled to Mexico to start their own community where plural marriage continued to be practiced...
Romney is a confirmed monogamist of nearly four decades and polygamy has been absent from his family going back two generations. But, like many Mormons whose pioneer ancestors trekked the Midwest to settle in Utah, Romney's family tree is rife with polygamists on the paternal side. Two great-great grandfathers, for example, had more than 10 wives each.

Criticizing Mitt for his ancestors "sins" would almost never work, but in this case... we at the Cooler are not so sure. Mexico? 10 wives? That's some serious stuff.

The Frontrunner

While the "Cooler Line" shows Mitt Romney at the top of the pack in Iowa, most observers indicate that the man pictured above is the frontrunner.

The New Moscow Times delivered a must-read article today on the McCain Machine and let me tell you friends- the machine is gaudy.

His still-informal network includes Richard L. Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state; John A. Thain, chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange; and Sig Rogich, who directed the advertising for the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns of Mr. Bush’s father.
He is reaching out to Christian conservatives, who helped sink his 2000 presidential bid, by enlisting the aid of figures like Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah and former Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, both of whom have strong evangelical followings.

His growing kitchen cabinet spans an array of issues and backgrounds, and includes James Jay Baker, a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association; Niall Ferguson, a historian at Harvard; and Barry McCaffrey, who was the drug czar under President Bill Clinton.

Among the more prominent members of the Bush team who said they expected to play a role in Mr. McCain’s candidacy, if he chooses to run, are Mark McKinnon, a Texas political media consultant who has worked for Mr. Bush for years; Terry Nelson, political director of the Bush 2004 re-election campaign; Nicolle Wallace, that campaign’s communications director; Wayne L. Berman, a Washington lobbyist, friend of Mr. Bush’s and prolific fund-raiser; and F. Philip Handy, chairman of Jeb Bush’s two races for governor in Florida and a major supporter of the president.

Someone will have to emerge as the alternative, but only Gov. Romney has lined up an organization that can compare and the longer Rudy waits the more trouble he will be in. How can the McCain machine be overcome? And where will the other pieces fall?

sorry for the late post...we're having some technical difficulties in the Cooler.