From Jim Eskin, Public Affairs Stratagist ....................... .................... January 2008

Happy New and ElectionYear! You probably don't know the name, but his is truly an inspiring story of a genuine American hero.

Chuck Feeney is a classic example of the millionaire next door (except he became a billionaire), living far below his means. Born in New Jersey during the Depression, through hard work and extraordinary entrepreneurial creativity and daring, he made a fortune building Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain.

In 1988 Forbes magazine ranked him as the 23rd richest person in the world, with assets in the billions.

Today, Feeney is a man on a mission-giving his money away.
He transferred all of his wealth to his foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies. He plans to donate about $400 million per year over the next 10 years in four chosen areas-aging, disadvantaged children and youth, population health, and reconciliation and human rights.

Feeney's bold leadership by example is challenging philanthropists to spend their time and money to ensure that their generosity makes a difference during their lifetimes rather than leaving large legacies to their children or a foundation.

MEANING OF IOWA
Once upon a time, the Iowa caucus was the first step in a long process leading to the presidential nomination. Now, for some (if not many) candidates, it may be their first and final step.

The purpose of all those other states in moving up their primaries and caucuses was to dilute the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, it has had the opposite effect. Never before has what happens in Iowa been so important, even if the delegates at stake (45 Democratic, 37 Republican) are minimal.

For many candidates who have invested so much time and money in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City, finishing well back in the pack could prove to be their Waterloo.

CANDIDATE WHO?
You might know the major contenders in the New Hampshire primary, but keep in mind there are more than 200 candidates who have registered their Presidential campaigns with the Federal Election Commission. Of those, 43 will appear on the Republican or Democratic ballots of the nation's first primary, having paid the $1,000 it took to qualify.
Most of them run lonely campaigns and struggle to get noticed at all. Call them long shots. Call them crazy. But you have to admit they're citizens who dare to make a difference.

POLITICAL MILK
Campaign strategists in both parties say the unprecedented amount of money flowing to Presidential candidates-and their ability to raise more cash quickly via the Internet-could give longer life to those contenders who lose the early contests, and would in past elections have been too strapped for money to continue their campaigns.

Both Clinton and Obama have raised record amounts of cash and are expected to have enough funds to continue well beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, no matter how they finish.

On the Republican side, Giuliani, who is lagging in polls in early states, is already stockpiling money for later contests and is campaigning hard in Florida, scheduled to hold its primary January 29. Mitt Romney is well-heeled and positioned for the long run as well.

With at least four campaigns financially secure beyond the early states, the race could remain more competitive than usual beyond the traditional testing grounds of Iowa and New Hampshire.

A BETTER MOUSETRAP
The 2008 nominating schedule is the most front-loaded ever. Thirty-four states (plus D.C.) vote in Janusary or February-more than three times the number that did so in 2000. Twenty-one states alone are slated to vote on February 5th.

The National Association of Secretaries of States continues to promote a healthy plan grouping party primaries/caucuses by region beginning in 2012:

• A lottery would be held to determine which region would begin the sequence the first year of the plan. The next presidential election year, the region that held the first position would move to the end and the other regions would move forward.

• Iowa and New Hampshire would retain their leading positions based upon their tradition of encouraging retail politics.

• Primaries/caucuses in each state of a given region would be scheduled on or soon after the first Tuesday in March, April, May or June of presidential election years.

ADVANTAGE DEMOCRATS
Gallup finds the Democrats holding a considerable advantage over the Republicans in public perceptions of which party can handle a variety of national issues.

Overall, the Democratic Party is perceived as better able to handle 6 of 10 issues that are likely to be heavily debated in the 2008 campaigns, and they roughly tie with the Republican Party on another two. The Republicans lead on illegal immigration and terrorism, but their previously substantial advantage on terrorism has been cut by two-thirds since 2004.

The Democrats' strongest issue areas include healthcare, the housing market, protecting Americans' rights and freedoms, fighting corruption in government, the economy, and Iraq.
The two parties are roughly tied on moral values and taxes.

MADAME PRESIDENT
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was recently inaugurated as Argentina's first female President. She joined 11 other women who currently serve as their countries' presidents or prime ministers, including Michelle Bachelet in neighboring Chile.

But while women worldwide are making gains in all levels of government, the Pew Global Attitudes survey of 46 countries and the Palestinian territories finds that publics around the world express mixed opinions about women and political leadership.

The countries of Western Europe, North America and Latin America generally include the highest proportions of respondents who rate men and women as equally good political leaders.

In the U.S., fully three-quarters say men and women make equally good political leaders, and that opinion is even more widespread in Western Europe.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS
Democratic Rep. Tom Udall is running for an open Senate seat in New Mexico. He was first elected to the House in 1998-as was his cousin, Mark Udall, who represents Colorado's 2nd District, and is also running for the Senate in his state.

Do their last names ring a bell?

Tom's father, Stewart Udall, represented Arizona in the House from 1955 to 1961, when he became Secretary of the Interior under JFK. Mark Udall's father, Morris "Mo" Udall, succeeded Stewart in the House and was a force there for decades and possessed one of Washington's best wits.

BOOM IN THE GLOOM
Even as economic discontent cast a pall on the holiday shopping season, there may be a bright spot in one area of the retailing world-online. More than a third of Americans now say they buy holiday gifts over the Internet, a new high in ABC News polling.

Use of the Internet for holiday shopping grew sharply earlier this decade-from just 18%in 1999 to 31% in 2003-but then flattened. This year it's broken out of that range: 36% of Americans now indicate they're buying holiday gifts online.

FANS AND STEROIDS
A new MSN-Zogby poll shows. that more than half of American sports fans (58%) say they enjoy watching sports less knowing that athletes might be using performance enhancing drugs.

An overwhelming percentage of sports fans (92%) say they are aware of the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes. Eighty-five percent say governing bodies and leagues should do whatever is necessary to rid sports of performance enhancing drugs, including imposing lengthy suspensions and other forms of discipline for athletes caught using.

But some sports fans won't let the controversy over performance enhancing drugs in sports stop them from getting into the game. Slightly more than one in three sports fans (38%) say the possibility that athletes may be using performance-enhancing drugs does little to change how much they enjoy watching sports.

PETS QUIZ
There are approximately 90 million owned cats in the U.S. compared to approximately 74.8 million dogs. More households (39%) have at least one dog than one cat (36%) but on average cat owners have more four-legged friends (2.3) than dog owners (1.7).

Match the following states (and districts) with their percentage of pet-owning households. Answers presented below. See you next month.

Stratagems is a copyright-free publication. Readers may duplicate and/or redistribute the information in each issue. Comments and suggestions are welcome! Email your feedback to Jim Eskin at jeskin@aol.com or write to him at 10410 Pelican Oak Drive, San Antonio, TX 78254-6727. Phone/FAX 210-523-8499. Read Stratagems online at: www.stratagems.org.

Answers: 1=a, 2=c, 3=b, 4=e, 5=d.

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