This week the UN, by a vote of acclamation, appointed Iran to a four-year term to the Commission on the Status of Women.

As a PR professional, I am shaking my head at the latest move by the UN. This has to go in the category of “what where they thinking.”

This appointment comes on the heals of Iranian clerics blaming earthquakes on the immodesty of women.

Iran was initially pushing for a position on the Human Rights Council, but that bid failed. Thank goodness for that.

At the end of the day this appointment speaks to a larger problem of credibility with any commission at the UN, including the groups like the IPCC.

I had a chance today to attend a workshop with Karl Rove, who was in town promoting his new book: Courage & Consequence.

It was an interesting hour. I was a little disappointed that much of the time was spent on storytelling and not on sharing his thoughts on campaign strategy (which was how the session was branded).

A couple key takeaways for me: 1) the power of influencers in a campaign and 2) data matters.

On a side note, when asked about the senate race, he endorsed Bennett as a “real” conservative. Perhaps that much time in the beltway has altered his view of what a real conservative is. I also wonder if he knows that Bennett’s first real campaign promise was to term-limit himself and if Bennett is willing to break that promise what would hold him back from breaking all his others.

One of the benefits of being a GOP delegate is that I get to see a lot more material from the candidates than the average voter. Over time, the mass amounts of emails, mailers, etc. invariably lead to little nuggets of insight about the “real” candidate.

Today I found one of those nuggets in an email communication from Senator Bob Bennett:

“Obama’s proposal to cancel NASA’s Constellation program and the Ares I rocket booster will not only devastate the economy of northern Utah; it will also weaken our missile defense and our national security.”

So what’s the nugget?

Bennett’s first priority is bringing home the bacon for Utah.  Coming in second is national defense/national security.

Frankly, I agree with Bennett that the Constellation program needs to continue, because it is of prime importance to our national security.

However, the fact that it brings jobs to Utah should not matter, because while it’s nice that Utah has some job benefits, we may find that the most cost efficient model puts those jobs in Texas or Florida, where we currently have launch sites.

Bottom line, “job creation” through congressional deal making is not a conservative leadership, but the prime modus operandi of the DC deal maker.

Campaign time means lots of speeches, promises and catch phrases.  As I watched the 08 presidential race and now as i watch the races shaping up in Utah, I find myself asking a similar question.  What do the words mean?

In 2008, Obama used “hope” and “change” over and over, but what did he really mean? Now I am hearing words like bipartisan or conservative being tossed around. Senator Bennett, for example, has made “conservative” part of his campaign mantra, but if you asked those who consider themselves conservative if Bennett meets the test, many would say “no.”

Again, what do these candidates or pundits really mean or rather what do the words they use really mean?

In any debate, one of the most critical elements is to define the terms of the debate.

So here goes…tomorrow I’ll look at Limited Government.