Gingrich met with former Black Hawk County GOP Chairman Russ Knoll following a public speech before about 100 Iowans in Waterloo. (Photo: Lynda Waddington/The Iowa Independent)

“Newt’s a politician,” explained Russ Knoll, a former Black Hawk County Republican chairman. “Most of what he said was taken out of context — he got set-up.”

Knoll was discussing Gingrich’s appearance on “Meet the Press” when Gingrich told host David Gregory that the House Republican plan to overhaul Medicare, authored by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), was “radical,” and ignited a firestorm of controversy within his own party.

“I don’t think right-win social engineering is any more desirable than left-win social engineering,” Gingrich said on the NBC show. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”

The following day, Ryan responded, “With allies like that, who needs the left?”

Gingrich has since attempted to walk back the comments, and has personally phoned Ryan to apologize for the controversy that resulted.

“He should know better. He really should. He’s been around a long time,” said Knoll.

“When he gets set-up like that, he’s going to pay a price for it. But, in the long-term, I don’t see it having any effect at all [on Newt's chances to claim the GOP 2012 nomination or to compete in Iowa].”

Joan Day, a Waterloo Republican who came to hear what Gingrich had to say, also believes the controversy will be short-lived.

“You know, I didn’t even hear about it,” she told The Iowa Independent after the event, while waiting on an opportunity to have a private word with Gingrich. “I mostly watch CNN, Fox and local news stations. So I’m usually pretty up to speed, but I didn’t catch that.”

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Nagle, a Democrat who has a private legal practice in Waterloo, was also in the audience to hear Gingrich’s remarks. The two had served together, Nagle explained to The Iowa Independent, and he “hopes to hear them all speak” in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses.

“These people are running for President of the United States,” Nagle said. “So why in the hell wouldn’t you walk across the street to listen to them?”

The reaction to the comments made by Gingrich, he said, was blown out of proportion.

“No. It isn’t justified. I don’t think so,” said Nagle.

“I think the problem that you run into is that there are those journalists who want to announce the results of the election today. So, they seize on any incident, any misstep by a candidate as a defining moment, therefore deciding who will not be the nominee. You know, we still have a long way to go, and he (Gingrich) needs to remember that Iowa is a long-distance race. I don’t think [the reaction] was fair to him, and I hardly think it was a defining moment.”

Although neither Day or Knoll are ready to place their support behind a single GOP candidate for 2012, both said they are currently leaning toward supporting Gingrich — and both for the same reason.

“He brought up some of his points, but what I remain impressed with is his knowledge of history, how to implement things and how to change our government and country back to the way it should be,” Day said. “He speaks like I think — we are the government.”

Knoll says he has “always liked Newt” and that the two “go back a long time.”

“His knowledge of American history, and what our country was really founded upon, needs to be applied to our government today,” Knoll said. “That’s what we are missing. That’s why we are getting in so much trouble — because we aren’t doing what our founding fathers had in mind. So, I think he can get it done and get it applied. I think he has the knowledge to do that.”

As for Gingrich himself, he acknowledged to Iowans attending his whistle stops that his first week as a candidate hasn’t been everything he expected it to be, but also that he expects to fully overcome the rocky start. But he also forcefully denounced a new web ad created by the Democratic National Committee that documents the dust-up.

“The ad this morning is despicable. The President should withdraw it. He should be ashamed of the work of the national committee that he controls,” Gingrich told members of the press following his public remarks. During public remarks, Gingrich again called Obama “the food stamp president” and upped the ante by referring to the President as an “amateur” while touting his own experience in politics.

Gingrich also appears to have a good understanding of the fact that what makes for political buzz in Washington, D.C. isn’t necessarily what drives political discussion in Iowa. He encouraged supporters to show their approval of his candidacy in an upcoming video so that they can “convince the Washington news media the voters will decide the election.”

Here’s the web ad developed by the DNC:

WordPress.com isn’t a news site. It’s the launch page for WordPress blogging software. And while it’s possible that some blog used the phrase “Obama loses 2.19 million jobs” in the last month, a search for that phrase on WordPress blogs and via Google comes up empty.

This sort of stuff is a bipartisan problem; Terry McAuliffe inverted the meaning of a quote in his final ad during his failed bid for governor of Virginia. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s strange.

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www.willyoujoinus.com

While walking around Washington, it’s hard to miss all the large Chevron ads. They are at bus stops and in metro stations, and they feature “everyday people” promising to conserve energy. “I will carpool to work,” one person in the ad says. “I will take the golf clubs out of the trunk,” promises another. “I will leave the car at home more,” pledges a third.

And, in each one, Chevron vows it will conserve energy, too.

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

Chevron launched its “I will” campaign last month in Washington, Houston and cities throughout California. The new ads continue the oil company’s “Power of Human Energy” ad campaign that began about a year ago. Through TV spots, print ads, billboards and a website called Will You Join Us, Chevron says it seeks to raise awareness about energy conservation and efficiency.

But exactly how green can an oil company claim to be? And will consumers buy its claims?

Chevron, America’s second largest oil company, with profits of $18.7 billion last year, isn’t the only oil producer spending millions to burnish its image. Like other big oil companies, it has switched gears from ignoring or denying climate change to announcing it role in combating this problem, oil experts say.

For example, if you’ve turned on the TV lately, you’ve probably seen a commercial like this from ExxonMobil:

Exxon, the country’s biggest oil company, with profits last year of $39.5 billion, recently launched its environmental-themed ad campaign. BP was perhaps ahead of this curve — for British Petroleum started rebranding itself as “Beyond Petroleum” in 2000.

Some experts say Chevron and all the other oil companies will have to work a lot harder to gain the trust of consumers, who are finally getting some relief at the pumps after gasoline prices hit $4 a gallon this summer. They say the companies will have to transform their actions, not just their images.

Chevron says it differs from the other oil companies because it invests in clean technologies and fuel efficiency. Those who study the oil industry assert that the company’s investment is minor when compared to its large profits.

www.willyoujoinus.com

But Kimberly Beman the Chevron spokeswoman said, “Between 2007 and 2009, Chevron has projected spending of more than $2.5 billion for alternatives, renewables and energy-efficiency services.” *

Beman also pointed out that, since 2000, Chevron Energy Solutions, a Chevron subsidiary that focuses on environmental issues, has developed hundreds of projects in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“CES projects will help to reduce over a billion dollars in energy costs for customers,” Beman told The Washington Independent.

But a billion dollars spent over an unspecified period of time doesn’t exactly seem like a lot of money for a company that made a record $18.7 billion in profits last year alone.

Steve Kretzmann, director of the nonpartisan organization Oil Change International, said that Chevron’s priority is cleaning up its image — and that speaks volumes about its credibility on conservation. “Chevron spends millions and millions on these ad campaigns,” said Kretzmann, “and then doesn’t devote hardly any amount of money to invest in renewable-energy technologies that could make a huge difference.”

Chevron spent $15 million last year on advertising to promote it’s green policies, according to Grist. This seems to be the norm among the big oil companies.

Exxon, for example, spent only 1 percent of its record-breaking annual profit last year on alternative energy, reports ABC News.

www.willyoujoinus.com

But Chevron spokeswoman Beman says her company isn’t like the other oil companies. “We feel we differentiate ourselves from our competitors to say conservation is key to our [mission],” she said. “I think it’s just an overall call to action that all of us are responsible. Chevron is taking the lead in opening this discussion.”Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of Adbusters Magazine, a non-profit that studies consumerism, finds this claim surprising. Until recently, he says, oil companies like Chevron have been “instrumental in delaying the debate we needed to have on climate change.”

“For years,” Lasn said, “[they were] trying to deny climate change and keep the business-as-usual scenario going.” James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the world’s leading climate scientists, agrees with Lasn. In June, he testified before Congress:

Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil fuel companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, just as tobacco companies discredited the link between smoking and cancer.

“Then, just a few short years ago” Lasn said, “when it became quite obvious that they couldn’t deny climate change any longer, one by one they jumped on this [PR] bandwagon…and started painting themselves as the good guys.”

That’s why almost all big oil companies now have ads greenwashing themselves, Lasn said. It started with BP — originally British Petroleum — changing its logo in 2000 to a sun and referring to itself as “Beyond Petroleum.” BP talks about this global branding strategy on its website.

Now, even ExxonMobil — a company known to have given millions of dollars to groups denying global warming — has launched green ads.Are these costly PR campaigns working?

Lasn says they have potential. “A lot of people are totally hoodwinked by this,” he said. “There are millions of people out there who actually do fall for it, who are not aware of some of the history of these big oil companies.”

That’s what Chevron is counting on, Lasn says.

Green advertising can help companies shape their brand, says Lasn, because even large corporations care about public perception.

“[Oil companies] know the next time there is a financial crunch, like now, or if climate change veers out of control even more than it already has, then their survival depends on how the public perceives them,” he said.

TerraChoice, an environmental marketing firm that conducts advertising research, agrees that green advertising can be effective. Media consultant Kate Rusnak says consumers are happy to see so many businesses moving in a more sustainable direction. As a result, she said, “there has certainly been a huge rise in the amount of green advertising.” This could be why even oil companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

Still, not everyone says Chevron is winning on the public-perception front. “I don’t think that [this ad campaign] is particularly effective for consumers,” said Kretzmann of Oil Change International. “The industry knows it has an image problem.”

*Note: This article originally did not say how much Chevron spends on its alternative energy projects. A quote from the oil company detailing its projected budgets was added to the piece after posting.

It’s an unconventional tack, because many “low-information” swing voters assume Republicans are better on taxes — and no one likes pushing a message up a hill.

This tax offensive, however, first started on YouTube.

The Obama campaign launched a video Wednesday that busts out the crayons against McCain’s tax plan.

The online ad, tittled “Color by Numbers: Bush-McCain Tax Plan,” takes a creative approach to criticizing McCain’s “country-club economics.”

PRODUCTION NOTES: Spare strokes on an acoustic guitar accompany this child-like tour of McCain’s tax plan. The plodding pace and “coloring” sound effects probably won’t translate into a viral hit, but the message does not seem tailored to persuade, anyway. But the video is already pleasing some supporters. “LOL McSame is done,” wrote CupofJoJoBeans, a commenter on Youtube.

It’s an old Republican line of attack, but Obama’s latest ad throws it in Sen. John McCain’s face.

Zeroing in on last night’s exchange about McCain’s health-care plan — which taxes employer benefits — the new ad offers a succinct summation from the VP Debate:

PRODUCTION NOTES: Sen. Joseph Biden’s aides promised a prosecutor’s brief for the debate, and this ad carries on that style. Terse messages flash on a black screen, while soundbites from last night are aired. It’s “just the facts,” straight to camera, and Biden looks deadly serious about the health-care choice between the two tickets this year.

It’s a sharp contrast to Alaksa Gov. Sarah Palin — who is depicted as unable to “explain” her own plan.

Dubbed “The Palin Truth Squad,” the mostly-female team consists of dozens of current and former Republican public officials, former Palin staffers and at least one “lifelong friend” of the governor.

From the campaign’s press release:

With today’s Wall Street Journal report that pro-Obama Democrats have “airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage” to dig for dirt on our vice presidential nominee, the McCain-Palin campaign today launched the Palin Truth Squad to counter recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin, her family, her friends and her record of accomplishment. The Palin Truth Squad will set the record straight against Internet and liberal smears of Governor Palin…

In the event of false attacks, rumors and smears against Governor Palin, the Palin Truth Squad will issue alerts and statements to voters and the media to set the record straight. Additionally, the Truth Squad will be available to respond to inquiries from the media.

It’s refreshing to see the McCain campaign is so concerned with ensuring the public has access to the truth that it is willing to create a team expressly for that purpose — and not just another propaganda office with an Orwellian name.

When Republican delegates check-in to their hotel rooms in St. Paul this week, they will receive a “thank you” message on their televisions. An ad called “Thanks For The Memories,” produced by Campaign for America’s Future, will broadcast unforgettable moments from the last eight years that conservatives wish the country would forget. With Hurricane Gustav on the nation’s mind, the ad reminds viewers of the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. It also highlights skyrocketing gas prices, soaring home foreclosures, the infamous “mission accomplished” banner…

The Campaign for America’s Future is a major progressive organization, and this effort is designed not only to cross enemy lines, but draw media attention (like this!) and fire up liberal supporters. The effort has already raised thousands online.

Another liberal group, however, with far less funding and no headquarters, is also running ads in St. Paul this week.

Many activists who criticized Sen. Barack Obama for changing his vote on surveillance have organized an ad campaign targeting the Republican National Convention. Jon Pincus, who helps organize the “Get FISA Right” group — to reform the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act — recently emailed me about their goals. (We came into contact online while both working against the FISA Amendment Act.) Pincus says civil-liberties activists can pivot from criticizing Obama to helping him beat McCain — who is worse on these issues:

We believe we’re much more likely to get meaningful reform with an Obama administration … from a timing perspective, the man’s got an election to win; as Obama supporters, it’s important for us to criticize his opponent as well as him. We think that [running ads during the RNC] is an effective way to take up Obama on his invitation to continue to engage in a dialogue — while simultaneously getting publicity for the FISA issue and starting to lay the groundwork for the battle next year.

One homemade ad invites Republicans to join a “new movement that puts the Constitution above politics.” Like the other effort, the ultimate goal is to leverage a targeted ad buy to reach voters far outside St. Paul