What Iowa means

Pacquiao -- Just wanted to make sure you saw this email from Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. He lays out what last night's outcome in Iowa means for the 10 months to come: No matter who wins the Republican nomination, they're going to be running on a Tea Party platform. And when they do, they'll be backed by a barrage of negative ads funded by outside groups -- like the super PACs who already plunked down nearly $13 million into the Iowa caucus alone. We're fighting back by out-organizing the GOP on the ground. If you want to be a part of that, sign up to volunteer for the 2012 campaign here: http://my.democrats.org/After-Iowa Thanks, Patrick Patrick Gaspard Executive Director Democratic National Committee -------------ORIGINAL MESSAGE------------- From: Jim Messina, BarackObama.com Subject: This is not a joke Friend -- These Republican candidates spent in some cases more than a year -- in Mitt Romney's case seven years -- campaigning in Iowa to be the next president. But GOP voters there couldn't decisively get behind anyone. Who exactly leads the Republican race going forward isn't clear, but we do know two things: 1) The extremist Tea Party agenda won a clear victory. No matter who the Republicans nominate, we'll be running against someone who has embraced that agenda in order to win -- vowing to let Wall Street write its own rules, end Medicare as we know it, roll back gay rights, leave the troops in Iraq indefinitely, restrict a woman's right to choose, and gut Social Security to pay for more tax cuts for millionaires and corporations. 2) We'll be facing an onslaught of unprecedented spending from outside groups funded by corporations and anonymous donors. In Iowa alone, so-called "super PACs" spent $12.9 million on almost exclusively negative ads. These groups will turn their fire even more directly on us in the weeks ahead to prove that their candidate is the most anti-Obama. This race is officially on -- and if we want to win, the only way is to out-organize them on the ground. Sign up to volunteer your time now, and one of our organizers in your community will give you a call by the end of next week to talk about how you can help. Many observers still think Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. If he is, we will be prepared. But it's curious that no one can really explain how, when or why the 70-plus percent of Republicans saying in polls and in Iowa that Mitt Romney's not their candidate will suddenly come around. So the path ahead for Romney -- or whichever of the Republican candidates is going to emerge from this process -- is sadly and starkly very clear: to run even further to the extreme right, and make even more dangerous promises that threaten not only the progress we've made but the fundamental fabric of American society. We also know that candidates who take these extreme positions can, in the right circumstances, win not only a primary but also a general election in just about any state. Just ask the Tea Party senators from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and the Tea Party governors in Florida and Wisconsin. Watching the circus on TV, it's tempting to think it's almost funny -- but this is not a joke. We've got to be ready. What you decide to do next will determine which kind of politics wins this election: http://my.barackobama.com/After-Iowa More soon. Messina Jim Messina Campaign Manager Obama for America

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