Unity08. A people's movement to take our country back.

Last night, President Bush delivered the State of the Union, and Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) offered the Democratic Party’s response. President Bush and Senator Webb had the opportunity with these speeches to usher in real change to Washington and to set the tone for the next two years. Last night’s speeches are a kind of litmus test for the upcoming two years in Washington. Based on the tone and content of last night’s speeches, do you think President Bush and the Republicans are as committed to bipartisanship as the president’s State of the Union presented?

The candidates get in early because they have to raise the money to compete. The media only features the candidates' attacks and mistakes because they want audience and money. The lobbyists give and raise the money because they want to make more money.

Most of the candidates will drop out because they can't raise enough money to compete. The ones who stay in will forego federal matching funds so they will have no limits on the money they can raise and no limits on the money they can spend.

Earlier this week, the Senate approved new disclosure rules for the insertion of earmarks in legislation for "pet projects."

As reported in an AP article on Yahoo:

The Senate voted Tuesday to shine more light on thousands of expensive pet projects buried in legislation every year after the new Democratic majority bowed to a successful push by Republicans to make new disclosure rules even tougher than originally planned.

In an opinion piece in The Hill (a Capitol Hill newspaper) today, Ben Goddard gets it right on when he says that "Since the (Unity08) convention is conducted online it won't require the $100 million war chest required to fight through the early caucus and primary states."

That opens the field to a lot of good candidates, he asserts, who have held back and will be hard-pressed to raise the money to compete. He mentions Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as an example. "Pair him with Barack Obama, in either order, and you have my dream team for the Unity08 nomination," he writes.

It’s official -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is going to run for president. (See the story in the Chicago Tribune here.) His star power will certainly impact the Democratic field … and undoubtedly will make it harder for other candidates to attract the lobbyist dollars that seem so critical to having any chance of winning today, unfortunately. Will he become the ultimate Democratic nominee? If not, might he be someone who would raise his hand and say, “I want to be ½ of the Unity Ticket”?

We’ve never even spoken to Helen Kennedy at the New York Daily News, but she’s speaking our language. Look at her article, "Wanna be prez. First get $100m," from today. The bottom line: pity any qualified candidate for president today who lacks glitz or fundraising prowess. Unity08 intends counter this big money trend by electing a bipartisan ticket to the White House on the strength of small-dollar contributions, setting an example that high-profile office can be won without pandering to corporate lobbyists and special interests.

There are two news stories that caught our attention today amidst the latest presidential candidacy announcements (check out Pulse of America for those links).

A chilling effect on third parties?

We’re a little late coming to the first one, but a big thanks to GEA for posting it in the Shoutbox. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Pennsylvania court ruling that requires Ralph Nader to pay $89,821 for costs incurred by Democrats who challenged his ballot access papers in the 2024 general election. (Read an AP article on the topic here.)