Over the last few days the McCain camp has started to get desperate with all the good news for Obama. So what does a campaign run by the architect of negative campaigning do?
Do some good 'ole negative campaigning of course. Here's a recap.
Environmentalism is not an upper-income issue, it's not a white issue, it's not a black issue, it's not a South or a North or an East or a West issue. It's an issue that all of us have a stake in - Barack Obama
Contrary to reports of my untimely demise I am still here I just have been having problems coming up with stuff to write about. I've written a lot of diaries on Obama's platform but there is one issue that I have not written about much. And it's a very, very important issue. A little something called our environment. Barack Obama has been a champion of the environment for a long time. In this diary I will take a look at his background on this issue and plans for moving our country and environment forward.
Last night I posted a call to action after one of the most unfair and uninformative debates ever. It got a overwhelming response and tons of donations poured in. But we can't just do that for one night. We have primaries to win still and we need to keep the focus on action up. We still need to be taking action. Calling voters in PA. Traveling to PA for GOTV. Donating to the campaign so they have the resources to win. Doing whatever you can. And so I bring you the third day of Obama Action Week.
"I think you'll be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say," she [Clinton] said. "He’s never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."
The question I've been asking myself is a simple one: how many Democratic primary voters have actually read Obama's 2002 Iraq speech in full? Have you, kind reader, read his speech in full? Have you passed on the full text of his speech to others? Have you printed it out and passed it along? In this diary I present a flashback to Obama's Iraq speech from 2002, and dissect his speech into parts to see how his campaign philosophy and platform can be traced to his 926 words from October 2, 2002. If you haven't read Obama's Iraq war speech before, or haven't read it recently, please take two minutes and read it now (below).
8 weeks ago today in a blog on DailyKos and many other sites I posted a proposal for a Obamathon fundraising drive to help Barack Obama win in the first Super Tuesday (February 5th). Since then 896 people have donated $48,771 dollars via that page and Obama has gone from a underdog to a clear front runner within reach of the nomination.
But there is still work to do to get there. Obama has to run two campaigns at once. He still has to win the Democratic nomination and also he has to run against Senator McCain. He is facing a two front battle. It is still a uphill fight but it can be won.
So I'm relaunching the Obamathon as the Obamathon 2.0 (real original name I know) and setting a new goal of $100,000 by April 22, the day of the next primary.
Bill Richardson's announcement this morning that he is endorsing Barack Obama for President has, understandably, generated a lot of discussion this morning. Richardson has been criticized over the past six weeks for not weighing in on the nomination. His choice of words in the endorsement statement, however, indicate he may have held off in order to break a perceived stalemate.
The Patriot-News is reporting that Lou Thieblemont, mayor of Camp Hill and lifelong Republican has switched parties so he can vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
"I'm sick and tired of the politics of fear in this country. He's the only one who doesn't do that," Thieblemont said of Obama. "He's the only candidate who's said he'd talk to our enemies and try to get some common ground."
I think this is quite notable. Why? Because it is part of a trend. Obama has been growing the Democratic Party all over the country by honestly appealing to people's hopes and not relying on fear.
Fear is a effective tool and for too long the Republicans have been able to exploit it for political gain. But this time people are saying "Enough!"
All around the country people have had enough of the politics of fear. Fear doesn't help the economy. Fear won't bring our troops home. Fear won't get anyone health care. It won't fix our education system.
Fear has never done anything but elect bad leaders.
No matter what the end result of this campaign is I think it is clear that Barack Obama's campaign will have transformed the way political campaigning is done forever. Obama has done this by combining the internet organizing revolutionized by Joe Trippi the Howard Dean campaign and the community organizing tactics of Saul Alinsky that he learned on the South Side of Chicago.
The latest cover story of the Rolling Stone magazine covers this phenomena. In this essay I am going to examine that article, The Machinery of Hope.
There were troubling aspects to this 90-page document. While slanted toward the conclusion that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction stored or produced at 550 sites, it contained vigorous dissents on key parts of the information, especially by the departments of State and Energy. Particular skepticism was raised about aluminum tubes that were offered as evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. As to Hussein's will to use whatever weapons he might have, the estimate indicated he would not do so unless he was first attacked.
That's what Senator Bob Graham, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2002 wrote his Washington Post OpEd regarding the classified 90-page National Intelligence Estimate on Saddam's Iraq that was presented by Bush administration's CIA as evidential basis for a war with Iraq:
My father once ran for state office, and that was my first experience in perceiving politics as something with personal influence as well as something influenced by personality. You see- one can't help but be influenced as a young teen when a mob of well-meaning donors descends upon your home and sanctuary for a fundraiser, or when a pile of letters lies strewn underfoot across the living room waiting to be licked and stamped. Moreover, I was the most competent computer operator in the house.
...I was also the most politically disaffected in the house, having little reason to be that way, given that I couldn't even vote for a lost cause yet. I asked my father, once, whether he couldn't have greater influence as a teacher than as a solitary member of the state legislature. Over time, I've become somewhat more inclined to believe his answer...
I am fairly sick today and I have a painfully stiff neck so typing up a long diary will have to wait until later days. However I want to do a shorter diary about taking action for Obama. The most important thing you can do right now if you're for Obama isn't to hover in the comments arguing with people who have already voted. It just isn't. The best thing you can do right now is take action! Barack has won 20 out of 31 states so far and the delegate battle is close. We've got DC, Maryland and Virgina voting on Tuesday then Wisconsin and Hawaii a week later. Then two weeks later is the Super Tuesday (Not to be confused with Super Super Tuesday) in which Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas will vote. The party nominee might become clear at that point and every win before then and every vote then will help Obama. So now is the time to take action! Keep reading to find out how.
That is what I entitled my blog of my thoughts on Iowa. Now I guess I better give some thoughts again seeing as my state, Minnesota, voted yesterday.
I was a co-precinct captain (or helper or something) for my precinct in the inner suburbs of Minnesota. A whole Senate District (28 precincts) met at one highschool.
Bob Howard, a Chicago resident, was there on October 2, 2002 in Federal Plaza when a young State Senator with an unusual name stood up before a crowd and declared, "I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war."
In fact, Bob can be seen among the crowd in the thirteen seconds of video that exist from the rally...
Five years later, when we finished editing the video from Barack's speech outlining his plan to end the war at DePaul University, we noticed a familiar face in the audience...
And today, we caught up with Bob on his way to the polls...
Note: I am the campaign blogger for BarackObama.com and this is crossposted on Daily Kos.
Since I have came onto the little place we call the "netroots" I have written 63 blog posts. Many of them have been in favor of Barack Obama's candidacy for president. So I thought it would be fitting the day before most of the nation votes, to write a sort of closing case for Obama. I have thought about many different ways I could explain my support. I could offer a wrap up of all the diaries I have written for him, I could make a new case, I could attack the other canidate. There were lots of ways I was thinking of doing this. But then this morning I read a article that pretty much summed up why I believe Obama is a better choice, a better choice for our party, our nation and our world.
The article is entitled "The Year of the Organizer" and it appeared on the American Prospect's website. I'd like to explore that article and what it means to me.
Barack Obama raised a record setting $32 million dollars in January. That is impressive. But not as impressive as the fact that $28 million of it was raised online. To put it in context that is more money then Howard Dean raised online in his entire campaign. That's more then Ron Paul raised online. Ninety percent of the online donations were $100 or less; forty percent were $25 or less. In January, more than 10,000 people gave between $5 and $10 on the Internet.
kid oakland just wrote a great essay about GOTV and Obama. I'd like to add onto that with my personal experiences. But first I want to quote part of his diary.
I've done Democratic politics and GOTV for a long time, and I been thinking about how to convey the nature of this weekend in simple terms, and here's what I'd say. You want to be involved in this. This is Woodstock. This is Florida 2000. This is Ohio 2004. This is a singular moment like 1968. And with a record turnout and the participation of so many young volunteers, this is a chance to truly mosh the vote.
Unlike k/o I have not done GOTV before. I am years younger then him and will be doing GOTV for the first time. But like him and thousands of others I have the same urgency.
The Washington Post is normally what I consider a paper full of insider political crap. However today they ran a good article about the impressive ground game that Barack Obama is building in Super Tuesday states. The Obama campaign now reports over 75,000 "active volunteers" making telephone calls, knocking on doors and otherwise helping out. Not only that they have more than 500 paid staffers in the Feb. 5 states. That is unheard of. And that isn't cheap.
