2008 Presidential Campaign Blog

Jimmy Carter 1976 Announcement

Address by Jimmy Carter Announcing his Candidacy for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination to the National Press Club on December 12, 1974.

"We Americans are a great and diverse people. We take full advantage of our right to develop wide-ranging interests and responsibilities. For instance, I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor and a Christian. Each of you is an individual and different from all the others.

Yet we Americans have shared one thing in common: a belief in the greatness of our Country.

Now it is time for this chasm between people and government to be bridged, and for American citizens to join in shaping our Nation's future.

It is now time to stop and to ask ourselves the question which my last commanding officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover, asked me and every other young naval officer who serves or has served in an atomic submarine.

For our Nation - for all of us - that question is: "Why not the best?

Full Speech Text

Dennis Kucinich To Announce Second Run For President

Kucinich to announce for President

‘Deeply concerned’ by failure of Democratic leadership to heed voters’ November call to end war

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 11, 2006

CLEVELAND -- Citing deep concerns over the willingness of his own Party’s leadership to continue funding the war in Iraq, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, (D-OH), will announce his candidacy for President of the United States tomorrow, Tuesday, December 12, at noon, at Cleveland City Hall, 601 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland.

Kucinich, who ran for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination in 2004, said Congress recently appropriated $70 billion that could be used to bring the troops home, and leading Congressional Democrats have voiced approval for an Administration plan to appropriate an additional $160 billion.

“Democrats were swept into power on November 7 because of widespread voter discontent with the war in Iraq,” said Kucinich. “Instead of heeding those concerns and responding with a strong and immediate change in policies and direction, the Democratic Congressional leadership seems inclined to continue funding the perpetuation of the war.”

In a series of speeches on the floor of the House last week, Kucinich (www.kucinich.us) maintained that the $70 billion dollars can be used to bring the troops home now and that approval of another $160 billion will take the war through the end of Bush's term, contrary to the wishes of the voters in last month's General Election.

He said that it is not credible for elected officials to maintain that they are against the war while, at the same time, they are voting in favor of its continuation and possible expansion. Kucinich was re-elected last month to a sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kucinich’s announcement will be in the City Council Committee Room on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. He will be accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth.

Mitt Romney To Form Exploratory Committee

Romney to form presidential exploratory committee in January
Monday, December 11, 2006
CNN Chief National Correspondent John King

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Massachusetts GOP Gov. Mitt Romney will form a presidential exploratory committee in early January, a GOP source tells CNN.

CNN Political Ticker

Exploratory Committees Double Press Coverage

Exploratory Committees Build Buzz
Candidates Drag Out Announcements to Get More Press

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, December 11, 2006; Page A17

"It is the season of exploration.

Everywhere you look, prospective 2008 presidential candidates are forming exploratory committees. Three leading Republicans and one prominent Democrat who have long been pursuing the presidency announced such committees in recent days, saying they are not ready to announce a real presidential committee, and so are taking an intermediate step to raise money and put together a campaign operation just in case they decide to run."

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, and then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas in 2000 created exploratory committees before announcing their candidacies. But the number of candidates creating such committees at this point in the election cycle, a month after the midterm elections, is unusual.

Washington Post Article

2008 GOP Candidates Seek To Emulate Ronald Reagan

Candidates seem to be emulating Reagan
By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writer
Mon Dec 11, 3:24 AM ET

"Ronald Reagan once famously sounded the call to "win one for the Gipper."

Now, potential Republican presidential candidates are hoping that the Gipper will help win one for them.

In these early days of the 2008 presidential campaign, when politicians still are exploring the notion of a run and trying to fill out their political profiles, candidates are trying to glom on to a little of the luster from the Reagan glory days.

They seem to be trying to out-Reagan one another."

Yahoo News Article

Barack Obama Makes First Visit To New Hampshire

Obama fever grips NH
By SCOTT BROOKS
Union Leader Staff

MANCHESTER – The spectacle that is "Obama-mania" swept New Hampshire yesterday as Sen. Barack Obama introduced himself to Democratic voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

The junior senator from Illinois made a whirlwind debut that included a book signing in Portsmouth and an afternoon speech before a crowd of 1,500 at the Radisson hotel in downtown Manchester.

Manchester Union-Leader Article

The Universe Of Candidates Just Keeps Expanding

Hubble politics
The universe of candidates in New Hampshire just keeps expanding
David M. Shribman. Executive editor of the Post-Gazette
Sunday, December 10, 2006

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. -- "Just how many presidential candidates can you shove into one tiny state?    
   
New Hampshire crowded in eight candidates in 1972 (nine, if you count the comedian Pat Paulsen, who got 1,211 votes). There were 10 in 1976 (when President Gerald R. Ford defeated Gov. Ronald Reagan by 1,587 votes). Last time around, in 2004, seven Democrats campaigned in New Hampshire (President Bush had no significant opposition in his drive to renomination that year)."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article

Pat Buchanan 1992 Announcement

Pat Buchanan 1992 Announcement at the New Hampshire State Legislative Office Building, December 10, 1991

"My friends, we come to New Hampshire at a crossroads in our country's history.

So we are taking this campaign not just to Republicans, and not just to conservatives. Every American is invited to join, the middle-class of both parties, and of no party. For the establishment that has dominated Congress for four decades is as ossified and out-of-touch with America as the establishment that resides in the White House.

So, to take my party back and take our country back, I am today declaring my candidacy for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States."

Full Speech Text

Political Legacies In 2008 Presidential Race

All In The Family

Political Legacies in the 2008 Presidential Pool

By NITYA VENKATARAMAN

Dec. 4, 2006 — They may disagree on policies and programs but Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., along with Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., have one thing in common — politics is in their blood.

And come 2008 — while these potential presidential contenders offer different interpretations of what the Founding Fathers intended for the country — Dodd, Bayh and Romney share family histories from the campaigns of their own fathers who all sought to pursue the highest offices in the country.

ABC News Article

Sam Brownback Files Paperwork With The Federal Elections Commission

BROWNBACK FOR PRESIDENT
Filed paperwork to form exploratory committee today

TOPEKA, Kan. – Senator Sam Brownback today filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission establishing a presidential exploratory committee.  Forming an exploratory committee is the first formal step to run for president of the United States.

“I have decided, after much prayerful consideration, to consider a bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency,” said Brownback.  “There is a real need in our country to rebuild the family and renew our culture and there is a need for genuine conservatism and real compassion in the national discussion.  I look forward to traveling the country to listen to Americans about the ideas and issues facing this great nation.  I hope to raise the level of discussion about issues of life at home and abroad; renewed fiscal restraint, tax reform, and economic growth; and a vigorous yet compassionate and consistent foreign policy.”

Sam Brownback is the senior senator from Kansas, having succeeded Bob Dole in 1996 after serving in the House of Representatives.  He was previously the youngest Kansas Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas, a White House Fellow, a broadcaster, a teacher, an attorney, and an author. Brownback was born and raised in Parker, Kansas, where his father and brother still farm and lives in Topeka, Kansas, with his wife Mary and their five children.

Brownback continued, “Ours is an exceptional nation united by our ideals. But we are a great nation because of our goodness. If we ever lose our goodness, we will surely lose our greatness.  We have been given so much and should be hopeful for our future and thankful for the many blessings.  But so much is required; we need a culture that encourages what is right and discourages what is wrong—and has the wisdom to understand the difference.  But we can achieve much if we pick up the torch with courage, generosity, and realism. We must meet and fulfill the job we are called to accomplish and the time to act to insure our future as a nation is now.”

Brownback also announced select members of his exploratory advisory committee: (Organizations are listed for identification purposes only and do not infer organizational endorsement)

Tom Monaghan, Chancellor of Ave Maria University
Bowie Kuhn, former Major League Baseball commissioner

Brownback will travel to ten states over the next month to meet with state and local leaders, visit with voters and share his ideas for the future and build his exploratory team.  He will be in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tomorrow.