Wednesday, January 4, 2012 306 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 Days ‘Till the New Hampshire Primary!

The Primary Spot

Romney Wins Iowa Caucuses…by 8 votes

Rick Santorum, Ron Paul close behind

Not all votes have been counted

Who watched the Iowa caucus results last night? I stayed up until

9:30pm CST and by then, it was still a horse race between

Romney, Santorum, and Paul.

All through the night they were switching spots, and people said

we wouldn’t know until the bitter end.

Well, the bitter end hasn’t come yet, but Mitt Romney has pulled

ahead of Santorum by 8 votes. Romney has 24.6%, Santorum has

24.5, and 5 counties haven’t finished counting. That means it’s still

anyone’s game. Ron Paul by the way fell in the last hours of the

night. He has 21.4%.

So, what is the aftermath? People have been saying that the Iowa

caucuses won’t matter this year, but it looks like to candidates

(Michele Bachman and Rick Perry) are finished. Also, Sen. John

McCain (R-AZ), the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, is

endorsing Romney today. It is noted that Mike Huckabee won the

Iowa GOP caucuses in 2000. Second place was awarded to none

other than Mitt Romney, who had fought a bitter battle against

John McCain (who got a lowly fourth place.) But in the end,

McCain got the nomination.

The state’s 25 delegates will be awarded by the Republican Party

of Iowa on January 16.

On more thing: the map has not been put up yet because I want to

stress the fact that Romney is really winning Iowa. I’m not just

saying that because no one’s been given the delegates, I’m saying

that because, so far, Santorum is up in some of those counties that

haven’t finished.

The President’s Schedule

Today, the big thing on the schedule is an economy-based trip to

Cleveland, Ohio.

There, he will speak about Ohio’s economy.

This is his 15th

trip to Ohio during his Presidency. He won the state in

2008, and it will be a swing state this time around.

And now, for the first time ever, The Daily Rundown has an exclusive!

The Daily Rundown Exclusive:

A Visit to Obama’s HQ

Most presidential re-election campaigns are run from Washington. Let

me correct that: all presidential re-election campaigns are run from

Washington. Ever since Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the

President (and probably even before that) Presidents have decided to

station their re-elections under the watchful eyes of pols and reporters by

making headquarters by the Potomac River (and yes, some have done it

in Virginia.)

But Barack Obama has decided to break with tradition once again. Since

the Obama for America gears started up again last April, Chicago has

been home to the young volunteers and campaign workers, as well as the

seasoned Democratic campaign hands, that associate themselves with re-

electing President Obama.

But, get ready for this: Obama hasn’t been there! Despite his historic

decision, President Obama has never visited the Chicago HQ. The

President will return to Chicago on January 11, but the question still

remains on whether or not he will go to the headquarters. The Prudential

Building (where the headquarters are) has played host to both Vice

President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama, but not the big man

himself. But one other person’s been there. ME, over winter vacation.

And this was what my visit was like:

Although there are now field offices in most cities in America, Chicago,

as I said, is where the national headquarters are. The real deal. The

headquarters are located in downtown Chicago, in the Prudential Plaza

building. When you first walk in the door of Obama for America’s

space, the thing that caught my eye was sign saying “COUNTDOWN

TO ELECTION DAY 2012”. Below it was a whiteboard saying the days

left until Election Day.

The next room we entered was called the “main room”. The main room

was filled with desks...and desks...and desks. These desks were really

long tables where young, smiling people worked in front of computers.

Together, we were told there were a few hundred people working there.

These people were either talking on the phone, or to each other, or

otherwise working on the computer. They were all working hard, their

minds set on one thing: giving Barack Obama another term.

Each table in the main room is dedicated to a geographic region (e.g. the

Midwest, or the Northeast) and each part of the room is heavily

decorated. All across you can glimpse flags; pictures; posters, some

homemade; and lots and lots of maps. You can also see doors going into

countless offices and conference rooms. Some doors lead to the offices

of top campaign workers and former White House employees. Other

doors are meeting rooms for workers in battleground states such as

Wisconsin, Florida, and Iowa.

After we saw all that, we were led us into a hallway. As we passed the

Barack Obama ping-pong table, we saw rooms that are home to different

parts of the campaign (e.g. Operations staff, Volunteering staff, Digital

staff, Design staff, and Finance staff).

That’s pretty much President Obama’s re-election HQ. As we come into

2012, (2012 elections, that is. The New Year is, of course, already here)

we will see who all those dedicated workers will face and if they can

pull off another victory for the President.