Hail to the Chiefly Coiffeured

His hair could be "too perfect", voters worry about the Mormon thing and he needs to differentiate himself from the Prez with "intelligence". Those all come from an internal PowerPoint presentation connected to the Mitt Romney campaign, according to today's story in The Boston Globe. The Globe already published a story on the Romney polygamist family tree.

Check out his hair, what he thinks of "non-believers" and find out just how smart he is...Tuesday night at 10 on tv. We air a 1-on-1 interview with Romney. Good planning, eh?

P-U-S-H

A nice neighbor named Tiffany snapped this. The snow storm got us stuck in the Merle Hay Neighborhood in Des Moines. But neighbors helped push us out. I'm in the back with the rest.
But...that's not quite the side of me I like to show on camera.

Debate, Part 23

This comes from our cable cousin. Here's the release from ISU...

MSNBC to telecast presidential debate at Iowa State

AMES, Iowa/SECAUCUS, N.J. – MSNBC will telecast a Republican presidential candidates debate live from Iowa State University Nov. 6, 2007, university and network officials announced today. The debate also will be streamed live on MSNBC.com.

"We’re pleased to partner with Iowa State University to provide this important forum for the candidates prior to the first-in-the-nation Iowa presidential nominating caucuses," said Dan Abrams, general manager of MSNBC.

The evening debate will be held at Stephens Auditorium, a 2,700-seat performing arts theater that has hosted a number of nationally broadcast political and news programs. Details of the debate, including start time and the moderator, have not been finalized.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for our students and the people of Iowa to be involved in the presidential race, and we’re glad the nation will be watching on MSNBC," said Gregory Geoffroy, president of Iowa State.

In September 2006, Geoffroy announced that Iowa State would hold Democratic and Republican debates prior to the Iowa caucuses. Iowa State continues to plan a debate for Democratic candidates, but other announced debates may affect those plans.

Lights, Camera, Smokes

What a whirlwind trip to L.A. Everyone here's giving me crap about the glorious trip to the West Coast. Sure, the weather was good. O.K., it was really good. But unfortunately, there wasn't much time to check out the city (it was my first trip there). I never even got to see the Hollywood sign.

Tom Vilsack told me several times he wasn't nervous about being on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, even though about six million people watch that show each night (There were far fewer likely watching when Vilsack actually appeared since they buried him deep into the show) If he wasn't nervous, he was a little "different", it seemed to me. He's not usually the most outgoing guy, but, at the least, he was very focused on his appearance.

What did you think of it? His six minutes of fame were full of self-deprecation. He mentioned how the margin of error in the polls are higher than his numbers. Leno and Jim Carrey got some digs in on him, too. Leno got on him about his small traveling staff with him (I think Leno said it was two guys and a Hertz rental car). I'm curious what the masses thought of it. Did they think Vilsack came off humble or did they think he came off as a guy who accepts that he has no chance to win?

Speaking of governors...I asked Chet Culver what happened after he "outed" his wife as a smoker last week. Apparently, he's not been confined to the Terrace Hill doghouse. But when I asked whether his wife would quit, all he could say was, "we'll see."

Here's...Vilsack

Man, is it nice here in L.A. The sun, the palm trees, the fact that it's not below zero! My officemates were none too kind to me when they found out I was headed out here.

Last night, we got to walk around the set of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Damn, it's cool! We had weather delays in Chicago flying here, so we got here later than we wanted. But it's been worth the wait.

Vilsack will get here late this afternoon (They tape the show at 4:30 L.A. time). He's flying in from northern California for the show. After his big energy speech in San Fran earlier this week, he's been doing fundraising across the state. He'll obviously have to do a ton of that just to even raise a fraction of the big dems in his party like Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

Vilsack's staff says it's been prepping him for Leno tonight. Staffmembers pulled old Leno jokes to get Vilsack ready. Here are a few of them...

"IOWA GOVERNOR TOM VILSACK ANNOUNCED HE'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT
IN 2008. WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THAT? VILSACK? DOESN'T THAT SOUND
LIKE SOME KIND OF MEDICAL PROBLEM OLD GUYS GET? 'I'M WILFORD BRIMLEY.
HAVE YOU GOT AN ENLARGED VILSACK? SEE YOUR DOCTOR.'

EARLIER TODAY IN IOWA, IOWA GOVERNOR TOM VILSACK OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED HE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT. HE SAID HIS #1 PRIORITY FORAMERICA-TO GET
PEOPLE TO STOP GIGGLING AT THE NAME 'VILSACK.'

FORMER GOVERNOR MIKE HUCKABEE, OF ARKANSAS, IS ALSO RUNNING
FOR PRESIDENT. SEE, WITH HUCKABEE IN THE RACE, THIS WILL GIVE TOM VILSACK
A CHANCE TO MOVE UP THE LIST OF UNKNOWN CANDIDATES."

You'll remember Vilsack brought out the Aflac duck for his appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I'm told he'll be prop-less tonight. But Jim Carrey's on the show. That should beat a duck any day.

Obamarama

Hillarymania vs. Obamamania. Crowdwise, give the edge to Obama in Round 1. I'm told the 5-6,000 people in Ames surpassed nearly everyone's expectations (the crowd doubled Hillary's turnout for her big announcement rally in Des Moines).

Obama didn't, however, cover much new ground. I seem to remember many of his lines from his appearance at the Harkin Steak Fry last fall. Ironically, Obama chastised the media before his speech at Hilton Coliseum for reporting only about his skills as a public speaker (and he mentioned doing stories about how he looks in a swimsuit), instead of focusing on the substance of his speeches.

For you music lovers, Obama entered Hilton to the sounds of "Give the People What They Want " (The O'Jays). And following his speech's last word, the crowd enjoyed "Your Love Keeps Lifting Me" (Jackie Wilson).

Here's Tommy...Tom Vilsack makes his debut on The Tonight Show this Thursday. Jim Carrey's also a guest. Wonder if they'll sit on the couch next to each other?

Caucus to Roll Out the Red Cape?

Don't get your panties in a wad, but the Gov's not a big fan of bringing Britney Spears' to town. Local organizers (including Blank Park Zoo head honcho Terry Rich) are trying to put together a Kennedy Center Honors-type show filmed in the metro to kick off next year's caucuses.

Rich floated Britney's name a few months ago as a possibility to headline the event that would be taped about a month before the Caucuses and then aired nationwide the night before the Caucuses begin. National press wasn't all that kind to the idea of bringing in the pantiless pop star.

Gov Culver told me he does like the idea of a national show. He thinks it adds to the excitement of the event, could hopefully get more people involved and could show off Iowa to a national audience at a time when other states are really working to steal the state's first-in-the-nation honor of starting the prez picking process.

But the Gov says he'd like organizers to focus their efforts on Iowa talent. He mentioned Superman (Brandon Routh, the man who's now playing him in the movies, is a Norwalk native) as a possibility. What about Tom Arnold? He's a friend of the Gov. Terry Rich says he hopes to know more about who's in, if there's an event at all, by June or July.

Hotel and Room

John McCain's headed to Des Moines for his first visit to the state of the year on Feb 17th. McCain's holding a town hall meeting at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines. Former prez candidate Phil Gramm will share the stage. I'm told this won't be "the" announcement. That's still supposed to happen in the spring.

Barack Obama's peeps say they're running out of room. They booked Beyer Hall on the Iowa State Univ. campus for Obama's official prez announcement Sunday (holds about 1500 or so). Now, they're moving the event to Hilton Coliseum (that place holds 14,500 or so). They say they've already given away too many tickets, so they needed the bigger venue. Makes a nice set of stories to counter Hillary Clinton's overflowing gym event at East High in Des Moines last month, eh?