It is unusual for a President to launch a re-election nearly two years before the vote, but this is exactly what Barack Obama is laying the ground work for. Without fanfare Robert Gibbs, David Axelrod, and Jim Messina are leaving the White House, returning to Chicago to form the nucleus of the campaign staff.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama's advisors believe, "the re-election campaign needs an early start to establish Mr. Obama as a formidable candidate and begin raising money for a bid expected to cost each party around $1 billion."
Watch as the wealth spread around to unions, special interest groups, investment bankers and others by the Obama stimulus is called back, in what promises to be the biggest Presidential fundraising blitz in history.
Obama has spent less time in the White House than any president in modern history, and the next two years promise the same: a literal orgy of fundraisers. Spending a billion dollars guarantees we will be flooded with paid media ads until we are all sick of the propaganda.
Across the aisle, the field promises to give Republicans a wide variety of choices.
As Obama began his efforts this week, a Republican from Georgia also launched his committee. While far from a household name, he is a favorite of Tea Party activists. Over the past two years, he has been crisscrossing the country speaking at any Tea Party event he could manage to attend.
His name is Herman Cain. Cain is an African American entrepreneur and the former CEO of Godfather's pizza. He first gained notice as an opponent of Hillarycare, an early version of socialist healthcare legislation that was defeated in the 1990's. According to a Newsweek report at the time, Cain "challenged Clinton at a town meeting in Kansas City, Mo., last April. Cain asked the president what he was supposed to say to the workers he would have to lay off because of the cost of the 'employer mandate.' Clinton responded that there would be plenty of subsidies for small businessmen, but Cain persisted. 'Quite honestly, your calculation is inaccurate,' he told the president. 'In the competitive marketplace it simply doesn't work that way.'"
We met with Cain this week while he was in Arizona celebrating the election of newly sworn-in Tea Party State Senator Lori Klein. Klein and Cain have worked together extensively in the past to simplify America's tax code. Cain believes our government needs more simplification and common sense.
Quite bluntly, we were both impressed by Cain.
When Cain became President and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, Inc., it stood on the brink of bankruptcy. In only 14 months, he turned it to profitability. Couldn't we use this type of business knowhow to help balance the budget in Washington? "I've turned around situations where companies were about to go bankrupt. Now the United States of America is about to go bankrupt. I think my ability to solve problems will appeal to a lot of people."
Girded with an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a Master's degree from Purdue, Cain also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve in Kansas City. He fully understands the great dangers the uncontrolled spending and printing of money will have on the nation's future generations. Cain advocates a return to sound money, and we believe this could be the biggest issue by 2012 as already oil and food prices are soaring. Inflation's nefarious effects are already making it difficult for the most vulnerable Americans to afford groceries. Cain would focus on the economy and national security as president.
But one of the most impressive of Herman Cain's qualifications is his faith in God. He quietly shared with us, how he felt the power of an omniscient God at key junctures of his life. We like to call this the power of God's Providence.
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