Howard Dean is a genius! Well, the folks running his campaign are, anyway! I have been trolling around his web site and blog recently because the more I read about him, and the more I connect with other Dean supporters, the more I know he is the one for me right now!! I participated in the Adopt an Iowan campaign...a brilliant idea! I wrote letters to three Iowans asking them to consider supporting Dean in the Iowa caucuses early next year. I wrote the letters on Independence Day. It seemed fitting somehow. And I loved feeling part of the campaign. The Dean campaign has a legitimate grassroots movement propelling it forward. I love that!

I took notice of Howard Dean when I read an article in the New York Times about his campaign's use of MeetUp.com. I was intrigued. Here was a candidate who, strictly by using the Internet, managed to attract 4,000 (presumablly young) people to a campaign event for a little known Northeastern former Governor! Of course, I immediately checked out the MeetUp site. But before I could sign up for Dean, I had to check out his site. That's when I saw his extensive web presence - his deep site, his blog, other blogs dedicated to supporting him...And I have been reading about him there. And I read other articles about him. And I like him. And I voted for him in the MoveOn "primary" a few weeks ago. I haven't made the leap to donating money to him yet. But let me tell you, it's not because he isn't making it easy to do!

The latest brilliance of this campaign, in my opinion, is its use of the Internet for fundraising. Much ado was made about this at the end of last month, the close of the second quarter fundraising deadline. Cowboy in Chief raised about $30 million or so and everyone marveled that Dean raised about $9 million. And marvelous it was - he raised several million of that in the closing days of the quarter ONLINE! Today, as I was perusing the Dean campaign site, I started to giggle at what I consider to be one of the most innovative things I have seen in a long long time...

The Dean campaign has created a mechanism by which anyone can create their own web page, as part of the Dean site, and use it to raise money for the candidate! So, I could go and get my own page on the Dean For America site, send the URL out to everyone I know and try to drive traffic to the site and raise money. Imagine this - thousands of independent fundraisers enlisting the help of their friends and families to give money to the Dean campaign! IT IS SHEER GENIUS and I love it! It seriously made me giggle out loud...I sent P___ L___ an email demanding that he call me as soon as possible so we can discuss this!

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Started my GMAT prep class tonight. The teacher was okay but there was one woman in the class who will drive me nuts, I know it. She asks too many questions...and many of them seem to be irrelevant! I know they split up the classes after the first one and I am hoping she and I do not end up in the same one. I know I will not be able to survive a class with her.

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I would like to write a book.