It Is WINO Season
I feel extra sorry for the mailmen every four years when Christmas and Politics collide. This creates overloaded mailbags with Amazon packages and political postcards for every house.
But there is one thing that is different this year. Winter may have officially arrived today, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. So the mailmen can at least walk around town in above freezing temperatures. Perhaps it will get colder come January, and we can burn the 2 and 1/2 inches of political mailings to keep warm. But for now, this is turning out to be WINO (Winter in Name Only) season.
The mailings really came out of the woodwork this week and we still have a couple days left. We have a new contestant that entered the mailing race today and another returning from a month and a half break.
Let's start with the regulars. The Trump campaign sent another reminder about who can vote and where and when they can vote. This is at least the third one of these mailings. I don't ever recall any other candidate doing these types of mailings ever since we moved to Iowa.
Trump's super PAC then continued it's renewed focus on reminding us that Trump is a conservative. This didn't work so well for Burgum and doesn't usually work for candidates. If you have to tell us you are a conservative, it usually means that people do not see you as a conservative.
These two mailings continue to convince me that Trump's numbers are NOT as rosy as the polls say they are.
Haley's super PAC continued it's attack on DeSantis. Perhaps not a coincidence, but her recent postcards all deal with China again. But now using the topic to attack DeSantis.
I continue to look back at the election eight years ago and see Haley's campaign trying to accomplish a win by attacking others via mail while putting up a less confrontational face in public. This only works in the short term. Perhaps her campaign is hoping that they have waited long enough to allow this to work without blowback at this point in the election cycle, but I am not so sure about this strategy succeeding. Cruz survived this type of attack from several other candidates eight years ago and also defeated Trump in the process.
And then we have AFP getting back into the race. AFP had been attacking Trump with a lot of postcards until the beginning of November at which time they stopped. Now they have returned with a Pro-Haley message. There was some dissension within AFP over their decision to fall into the Pro-Haley camp, but here they are now.
Honestly, their postcard has a much better design than anything the Haley super PAC has ever put out. But it is my opinion at this point that Haley's campaign is only going to help Trump win the nomination. I believe the typical "RINOs" are the ones that are pushing the Haley campaign because they fear DeSantis and despise Trump. I also believe they would rather see Trump than DeSantis win the nomination. So pushing for Haley is a win-win situation for them.
And then we have the biggest surprise of the week. A very large mailing from the Ryan Binkley campaign.
At this point, I just don't understand the purpose behind this mailing. It is money wasted in my opinion if your reason for sending this is to try to win the caucuses. However, if you are just trying to steal votes away from someone else and as a result give someone else a better outcome, then this mailing makes a lot of sense.
What I am trying to say is that there almost seems to be a coordinated effort by several campaigns to do whatever they can to prevent DeSantis from winning the Iowa caucuses. This is the same feeling I had eight years ago when Cruz was taking a massive beating from the other campaigns and super PACs.
Snail Mail Totals So Far in 2024
27 - Stand For America Fund, Inc. (Pro-Haley / Anti-DeSantis)
20 - Never Back Down, Inc. (Pro-DeSantis)
20 - Make America Great Again, Inc. (Anti-DeSantis / Pro-Trump)
13 - AFP Action (Anti-Trump / Pro-Haley)
12 - Best of America PAC (Pro-Burgum)
7 - Opportunity Matters Fund, Inc. (Pro-Scott)
5 - Perry Johnson for President Inc.
4 - Finish the Fight (Anti-Trump)
4 - Donald J Trump for President 2024, Inc
3 - And to the Republic (Anti-Trump)
2 - American Exceptionalism PAC (Pro-Ramaswamy)
2 - Vivek 2024
1 - Doug Burgum for America
1 - Ryan Binkley for President
But there is one thing that is different this year. Winter may have officially arrived today, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. So the mailmen can at least walk around town in above freezing temperatures. Perhaps it will get colder come January, and we can burn the 2 and 1/2 inches of political mailings to keep warm. But for now, this is turning out to be WINO (Winter in Name Only) season.
The mailings really came out of the woodwork this week and we still have a couple days left. We have a new contestant that entered the mailing race today and another returning from a month and a half break.
Let's start with the regulars. The Trump campaign sent another reminder about who can vote and where and when they can vote. This is at least the third one of these mailings. I don't ever recall any other candidate doing these types of mailings ever since we moved to Iowa.
Trump's super PAC then continued it's renewed focus on reminding us that Trump is a conservative. This didn't work so well for Burgum and doesn't usually work for candidates. If you have to tell us you are a conservative, it usually means that people do not see you as a conservative.
These two mailings continue to convince me that Trump's numbers are NOT as rosy as the polls say they are.
Haley's super PAC continued it's attack on DeSantis. Perhaps not a coincidence, but her recent postcards all deal with China again. But now using the topic to attack DeSantis.
I continue to look back at the election eight years ago and see Haley's campaign trying to accomplish a win by attacking others via mail while putting up a less confrontational face in public. This only works in the short term. Perhaps her campaign is hoping that they have waited long enough to allow this to work without blowback at this point in the election cycle, but I am not so sure about this strategy succeeding. Cruz survived this type of attack from several other candidates eight years ago and also defeated Trump in the process.
And then we have AFP getting back into the race. AFP had been attacking Trump with a lot of postcards until the beginning of November at which time they stopped. Now they have returned with a Pro-Haley message. There was some dissension within AFP over their decision to fall into the Pro-Haley camp, but here they are now.
Honestly, their postcard has a much better design than anything the Haley super PAC has ever put out. But it is my opinion at this point that Haley's campaign is only going to help Trump win the nomination. I believe the typical "RINOs" are the ones that are pushing the Haley campaign because they fear DeSantis and despise Trump. I also believe they would rather see Trump than DeSantis win the nomination. So pushing for Haley is a win-win situation for them.
And then we have the biggest surprise of the week. A very large mailing from the Ryan Binkley campaign.
At this point, I just don't understand the purpose behind this mailing. It is money wasted in my opinion if your reason for sending this is to try to win the caucuses. However, if you are just trying to steal votes away from someone else and as a result give someone else a better outcome, then this mailing makes a lot of sense.
What I am trying to say is that there almost seems to be a coordinated effort by several campaigns to do whatever they can to prevent DeSantis from winning the Iowa caucuses. This is the same feeling I had eight years ago when Cruz was taking a massive beating from the other campaigns and super PACs.
Snail Mail Totals So Far in 2024
27 - Stand For America Fund, Inc. (Pro-Haley / Anti-DeSantis)
20 - Never Back Down, Inc. (Pro-DeSantis)
20 - Make America Great Again, Inc. (Anti-DeSantis / Pro-Trump)
13 - AFP Action (Anti-Trump / Pro-Haley)
12 - Best of America PAC (Pro-Burgum)
7 - Opportunity Matters Fund, Inc. (Pro-Scott)
5 - Perry Johnson for President Inc.
4 - Finish the Fight (Anti-Trump)
4 - Donald J Trump for President 2024, Inc
3 - And to the Republic (Anti-Trump)
2 - American Exceptionalism PAC (Pro-Ramaswamy)
2 - Vivek 2024
1 - Doug Burgum for America
1 - Ryan Binkley for President