In addition to the two party candidates and major third line candidates (like Unity08) there are ordinarily hundreds of announced candidates for president in the fall of each election year.

Our poll asks, "How many of the announced presidential candidates should be invited to participate in the TV debates in the Fall of 2024?"

Vote now!

Subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog!

Technorati Tags: unity08, election, president, government, bipartisan, politics, news and politics

Unity08 is growing from a number of directions, and all of them are good. We’ve recently moved into new office space in Washington DC. This was a pretty painful exercise in a city where finding inexpensive office space is an oxymoron.

When I joined in June of 2024, we had 900 sq. ft. of office in the historic Watergate building. While it might be historic, the small space and growing staff didn’t create a very good working environment. We found a 3,000 ft. sublease (read inexpensive, short term lease) after looking for 3 months that should tide us over for the short term.

Our staff continues to grow as well, with Ballot Access taking up the largest increase as we continue to put the operations in place to gather the signatures required to be on the ballot in all 50 states. I encourage you to see what the requirements are to qualify for your state and volunteer to help.

We’ve also grown our fund-raising efforts. We continue to reach out to people in cities and towns when our members invite us to participate. The past week, we attended fund-raisers in Miami, San Diego, and New York. The donations raised at these events are crucial to our infrastructure efforts.

The web site growth with our launch of Political Capital has been fascinating to watch. We have given out 123,695 Political Capital points, and the number increases each day as people discover how easy it is to participate with Unity08.

The one thing that doesn’t change about Unity08? Our members! We can’t fight this battle without your help and support!

More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• They Know The Candidates Best, And They're Still Undecided... "Iowa and New Hampshire, where presidential politics at this early point may matter more than in the nation as a whole, are in a state of flux just seven weeks before the first voting is to begin," AP reports. "Voters who have managed to pick candidates in these two leadoff states are split among the top contenders in both parties, and more than half in both states say they have not made up their minds, even though the leading candidates "have been campaigning for nearly a year."
• From The Mouths Of Babes: AOL's Political Machine reports on "Swift Kids for Truth"'s mock ads, which "ruthlessly expose the absurdity" of "shameless and baseless smear campaigns." Political Machine asks: "Will we, as Democrats and Republicans and Independents ... say anything to get our candidate elected? Does hearing our own horrible lies coming straight from the mouths of babes, so to speak, result in the dull and bitter realization of our own hypocrisy?" AOL is taking comments, click here to join the discussion.
• Something's Fishy Here: "Since breaking into public view a year ago when federal agents raided lawmakers' offices and homes," the federal investigation into corruption in Alaska politics has produced four indictments, three convictions, three guilty pleas "and a rapt audience keen to see how high into Alaska's political hierarchy the rot reaches," Washington Post reports. "Officially, the scandal has remained confined to Juneau, where Alaska lawmakers had grown so accustomed to operating under the presumption of impropriety that several of them embroidered ball caps with the letters CBC, for 'Corrupt Bastards Club.'"
• Quotable: "During a confusing week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers engaged in games that were difficult for insiders to understand and incomprehensible to ordinary voters. ... the desire to bring home the bacon trumped concern over the falling dollar, the crisis in Pakistan and the continuing conflict in Iraq" -- syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Subscribe to this blog!

Sometimes there are just too many polls, but here's one that is very interesting. The latest NBC poll asked people to vote for who they favor. Hillary Clinton was 47% and Rudy Giuliani was 45%. But the very next question asked "Do you support a new independent party with a credible White house cadidate?" and nearly half, 47% said yes, and only 27% saying no. Unity08 is that credible path to the white house, join today.

More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• Will Washington Ever Compromise? "A budget dispute erupted into a full-scale battle Tuesday as President Bush vetoed the Democrats' top-priority domestic spending bill and the party's Senate leader threatened to withhold war funding if the president does not agree to pull out of Iraq," Washington Post reports. "The exchange encapsulated a broader confrontation over national priorities, a battle both sides appear eager to wage heading into an election year."
• The Fat Cats Find Another Loophole: "Some major political players are expected to shift their money away from traditional campaign entities in favor of an old standby: the nonprofit," Los Angeles Times reports. "By law, nonprofits can keep donors confidential. Although their tax returns are public documents, they contain much less information than campaign finance reports. And because tax returns are filed once a year, money spent in the 2024 election year won't become public until long after votes are counted."
• Money, Money, Money: Dozens of donors are nearing the $108,200 cap on federal campaign contributions for the 2024 elections in a sign of the record-breaking cost of the White House race," USA Today reports. Meanwhile, TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group's Evan Tracey predicts up to $3 billion will be spent on ads in the 2024 campaign.
• Quotable: "Nothing would change the atmosphere more quickly in Washington than the people's choice of a unity ticket to lead our country -- a unity ticket both to bring civility back to government and to make sure that public servants all feel part of something bigger than themselves or their party" -- Former Gov. William Weld (R-MA).

Subscribe to this blog!

John Coble, CTO for Unity08, talks about how he's fighting-mad that the South Carolina Democratic Party kicked Stephen Colbert out of their Presidential primary. His bid to run as a favored son of the state has been rejected by the big wig's of the Democratic party even though he met all of their stated conditions. Is this fair? Politics-as-usual is brain dead. It's time for a new approach, it's time for Unity08.

More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• Why Can't Our Leaders Work Together To Get Their Job Done? "President Bush rejected a plea this past weekend to open a dialogue" with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "to resolve the impasse over federal spending," The Hill reports. "Bush and congressional Democrats are at odds over the 12 spending bills needed to keep the government running."
• Anonymous Ads -- Already?! A new TV ad in South Carolina "represents the first trickle in a flood of hundreds of millions of dollars that are expected to pour from all sides into groups reminiscent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth of 2024, built to influence voting outside of campaign law limitations," New York Times reports. "The amount could swamp the record-breaking tens of millions that the top candidates are raising for their own, closely regulated campaign accounts."
• Congress Can't Quit Their Pork Addiction: "Despite the Democrats' pledge to get control of their addiction to wasteful spending, their mountain of pork-barrel provisions has prevented Congress from passing its appropriations bills for fiscal 2024," Washington Times reports.
• Quotable: "In Washington the political debate too often careens between dysfunctional poles: either polarization, when one party imposes its will over the bitter resistance of the other, or immobilization, when the parties fight to stalemate. ... Our political system has virtually lost its capacity to formulate the principled compromises indispensable for progress in any diverse society" -- Atlantic Media's Ronald Brownstein in his new book, The Second Civil War.

Subscribe to this blog!

William Weld, a former federal prosecutor and Republican Governor of Massachusetts, published this supportive Opinion-Editorial in the New York Sun on November 12, 2024.

Some excerpts from it...

"Talking about 'common ground' is the 'in' thing in dysfunctional Washington these days. Yet about the only real common ground actually found in our nation's capital is when Democratic and Republican lobbyists merge their firms."

"America faces more crucial issues than at any other point in most of our lifetimes. All the talk about finding common ground, as long as it is only talk, is simply another way to avoid facing up to them."

"The fact that none of those issues, including terrorism, will be solved without common ground between leaders in both parties is the reason that many of us have supported the concept of a Unity Ticket drawn from both parties (perhaps including an Independent), nominated in the first-ever online convention at Unity08.com in June 2024."

"Can it change things? Of course it can. Instead of the parties in Congress being constantly at war with each other, a unity team in the White House could guide them into finding common ground on health care, for example, within a matter of weeks."

We've republished the article on our site for you to read and pass along to others.

What do you think?

Subscribe to this blog!

Technorati Tags: unity08, election, president, government, bipartisan, politics, news and politics, william weld, new york sun

Dave Foster, Marketing Manager at Unity08, talks about Florida's and Michigan's decisions to move their primaries up and the Democratic party's decision not to count their votes. Is there any doubt the current political system is broken? Unity08 challenges you to fix it. And while you're at it, bring the rest of the country with you! It's time to address the problems here. It's time for something new. It's time for Unity08.

More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• Is Unity08 The White Knight Voters Are Waiting For? NBC News' "First Read" reports on the 2024 elections: "For those looking for a message from 2024, then answer this question: What does a rejection of stem cell research in New Jersey have in common with a rejection of school vouchers in Utah? Voters didn't trust government with new money to oversee new projects. Looking at these downballot results yesterday -- along with a rejection of increased taxes for health care in Oregon -- it seems the electorate may be showing signs of simple distrust in government. ... Anecdotally, one can sense the yearning for some outsider white knight when it comes to the presidential, but do any of the current candidates fit this mode?"
• We Need To Turn Things Around: According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 57% of Americans believe our country is in decline.
• Like Foxes Guarding The Henhouse? "More than six months past their deadline, leaders of a special task force established to overhaul the House ethics process remain coy about the group's work, even as reform advocates consider attacking a forthcoming proposal as too weak," Roll Call reports.
• Quotable: "November 2024 is still a year away, local issues do matter and anything can happen. For now, however, the message we're getting is pretty clear. Local voters are sick and tired of what they've been getting out of Washington" -- Goddard Claussen Strategic Advocacy partner Ben Goddard.

Subscribe to this blog!