This post is a summary of how to make calls for Obama (especially for men calling women), written by an insightful Obama supporter. His "script" which differs a bit from the standard phone script we're given, is at the bottom.
By Dave C.:
Hi Eli, all,I'll start off by saying that I'm a guy, so I obviously can't speak from a woman's point of view. I too would love to get some perspective. That said, when I was making calls in my precinct this Sunday I noticed the same thing. Here's how I noticed it, what I did about it, and the result that I got. I have my own script at this point that I just kind of vamp with when calling. On Sunday I had thrown in a line saying that "Obama has the right kind of experience to address the challenges we have at home and abroad. Challenges like our economy, our health care system ... etc." I wanted to get at the heart of Clinton's argument. Out of six or seven women, five that I spoke with were polite and were totally with me until I said that bit about experience, and then interrupted me and said they didn't want to talk with me and hung up. It wasn't happening with the guys. I wondered if it was the new line? So I tried calls without it. I replaced it by saying that "I'm spending my time reaching out to my neighbors on Obama's behalf because I believe that he's the only candidate running in either party who can genuinely bring us together to get things done at home and abroad. I'm calling because I believe in him" It was a total 180. Suddenly, the women I was talking weren't hanging up on me, and some were asking "why do you say that?" Boom. I was in. So there's my anecdote. Here's my theory about what was happening. The Clintons are excellent politicians, and they understand how to campaign at a very deep level, as does Obama. There's a technique that they use called" framing," in which a speaker uses rhetoric to encourage certain perceptions and interpretations and to discourage others ( here's more on framing on wikipedia, and here's an incredible book on the subject that many of you probably know). These frames can be activated, literally turned on, and will affect the way that we perceive things. The classic example is a phrase like "Don't think of an elephant!" It's impossible to not think of an elephant.I believe that the Clintons have been very successful at framing the "experience" portion of the conversation in terms of "realism vs. idealism," and by linking it very strongly to "woman" - just because she is who she is (she's certainly a historic figure in her own right). This is very savvy of them. I think that culturally, we have strong notions of female insight (to wit: a "women's intuition"), and this frame also resonates against the Bush frame (aggressive, "father knows best," etc.). I think this is where that "intangible" that you described is coming into play. I suspect that when I was trying to go "over" or "past" the gender issue by using the phrase "the right kind of experience", I was unintentionally challenging a frame that was already was activated in them and connected to the concept of a woman president. That angered them, made them feel attacked, made them feel righteous ... I don't know. All I know is they were hanging up on me! So when I totally dropped the concept of "experience" and talked about unity, I reframed the conversation. Now, we were talking about something light, hopeful, inspirational, and idealistic that was also firmly grounded in practical solutions (the economy, health care, the war). And no one hung up on me. I believe that this is, quite literally, what Obama is talking about when he asks us to transcend the "politics of fear" and embrace the "politics of hope." My advice, reframe the conversation and see where it takes you. Then the conversation starts out in the strongest of the frames that Obama is activating: hope.
Dave's script:
1. Hi, is _____ there?2. I'm Dave, the precinct captain here in Burlingame for Barack Obama. How are you today? 3. Good. Listen, I'll be really brief with you. I'm calling people in our neighborhood in support of Barak Obama's campaign for the presidency because I believe in him. I think we need to come together as a country to work on our challenges at home and abroad, and I think he's the only candidate that can reach across the lines that divide us to do so. 4. We're voting here in California on the 5th. Are you planning to vote? Would you mind sharing whom you're voting for?I've found that when I ask ppl how they are, they'll listen ... they don't want to be total jerks and hang up on someone who's asking after their well being! Then I charge through some variation of this and get to the question as quickly as I can.
To help tell voters what Obama stands for, but in a way that isn't burdensome, I've put together two new 1-page flyers. (Open these PDFs in the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader, especially on a Mac - otherwise they may appear garbled.) The first is on Obama's government reform work (i.e. real change) and his unique bipartisan work.:http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-reform-bipartisanship.pdfThe second is a printable version of a NY Times summary of Obama's state senate work:http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-state-senate.pdfI've combined them to make a single sheet handout (when printed double sided):http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-reform-and-record.pdfBy the way, for those who didn't see them before, I made several other 1-page flyers. The first is a nicely formatted version of Obama's 2002 speech on the Iraq war, and lets Obama's own words make clear his judgment on Iraq and his deep understanding of foreign policy:http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/iraq/obama-iraq-2002-and-plan.pdfI also made a condensed version of his Iraq plan by itself, the last part of which details how Obama was clear about his opposition to the war the entire time:
http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/iraq/IraqFactSheet-2x2.pdf
The second is a flyer I made for the Iowa caucuses, to get 2nd choice supporters:http://manchester.ucsd.edu/misc/obama-caucus-handout-version-3.pdf
Arguments to win over (former) supporters of Biden, Dodd, Richardson, or Kucinich: I've prepared a 1 page sheet that provides information for Biden, Richardson, Dodd, and Kucinich supporters, who may need to choose a second choice candidate during the caucus. (Mac users, be sure to open the PDF in Acrobat Reader rather than the ordinary Mac viewer app.) Let me know via email if you have questions, comments or suggestions. Feel free to pass the PDF along to other Obama supporters who might find it useful.
I don't just want someone who will not be like the Republicans. I want someone who will make it so a George Bush administration and a Tom Delay Congress can never, ever happen again. That doesn't just mean partisan victory, it means changing the hard-and-fast rules and shoring up our defenses against abuse of power.
I have posted a substantially revised version of this diary, available at Daily Kos - please go there and read that version instead. (It has more details and additional examples.)
Today witnessed the launch of USAspending.gov, which was created by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act by Tom Coburn and Barack Obama. The site enables tracking of $1 trillion in federal spending on contracts, grants, earmarks, and loans. The bill faced serious opposition, including anonymous holds by some of the biggest porkbarrel spenders (including Ted Stevens), but in the end, Coburn and Obama prevailed. So what kind of data does this site give us? Well, how about the top 100 recipients of federal money, or say which congresspeople rake in the most pork. And that's just scratching the surface. And, to my surprise (especially for a government site), an API is available to make it easy to extract data. Read on for more examples and some implications.
I'd like to clarify Ron Paul's positions on various issues, and consider them from the perspective of a progressive voter. I think there are many who only know a little about Ron Paul and are not yet aware of many of his positions; if informed about them, they may readily support Sen. Obama instead. Feel free to point any folks that are interested in Ron Paul vs. Barack Obama to this post.
While Ron Paul is anti-war and pro-openness, two issues he and Sen. Obama are in agreement on, he also abides by ultra-conservative fiscal and social principles. The sampling of his views presented below can be verified by reading his website and interviews he's conducted.
Ron Paul:
Ron Paul talks about eliminating much of the federal government in favor of letting the market or states handle things. (He has spoken about eliminating, for example, the Dept. of Education, the FBI and CIA, the IRS, the Dept. of Energy, the Federal Reserve, and Medicare.) What he ignores is that in reality, if the federal government were cut down in the drastic way he's talking about, the state governments would simply recreate the bureaucracy at the state level, simply moving problems around rather than solving them.
He talks about how "the market" will provide for the people better than government does, but doesn't mention that the market is really just comprised of big corporations and businesses. Do we expect Big Oil to deal with climate change and protect the environment for us? Do we expect Big Pharma and insurance companies to make sure that no American is left without affordable health care?
This is just Ron Paul on the issues. There are then more questionable ties to racist organizations and racist articles in the "Ron Paul Political Report" that he used to put out during the 90s. (The Ron Paul campaign claims that his staff, and not Ron Paul himself, wrote the racist articles in the periodical that bears his name, that said such things as "only 5% of blacks have sensible political views" and "95% of black males in Washington DC are criminals" and "our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin." Nevertheless, these were not isolated incidents.)
Other folks have documented Ron Paul as well. Check out Ron Paul on religion in government, and another.
And read about his views in general and some of his writings.
While Ron Paul is anti-war and pro-openness, two issues he and Sen. Obama are in agreement on, he also abides by libertarian fiscal principles and conservative social principles. The sampling of his views presented below can be verified by reading his website and interviews he's conducted.
The biggest general question about Ron Paul's views is that he always talks about eliminating much of the federal government in favor of letting the market or states handle things. What he ignores is that in reality, if the federal government were cut down in the way he's talking about, the state governments would simply recreate the bureaucracy at the state level, simply moving problems around rather than solving them.
This is just Ron Paul on the issues. There are then more questionable ties to racist organizations and racist articles in the "Ron Paul Political Report" that he used to put out during the 90s. (The Ron Paul campaign claims that his staff, and not Ron Paul himself, wrote the racist articles in the periodical that bears his name, that said such things as "only 5% of blacks has sensible political views" or "95% of black males in Washington DC are criminals". Nevertheless, he over the years has seemed to associate with such folks.)
I'd like to get an idea out there that I think can greatly increase the student vote: working the polls.
Yes, I mean that students should volunteer to be poll workers for the primary election in their home state. No, this doesn't mean volunteering for Sen. Obama's campaign, but rather for the county, but it's only on election day so it won't conflict with volunteer work for Sen. Obama. Specifically, I think that students should volunteer to be poll workers (of any type, including the "precinct inspector" or other similar fancy sounding positions), but they should only volunteer to work in student-heavy areas. The goal here is to benefit students.
Why might this be a good idea? I have volunteered as a poll worker here in San Diego for the past several elections and have found that there are several peculiarities about the process:
Here are some of the benefits of getting students to work the polls:
Of course, unstated in all of this is that I believe students understand Sen. Obama's message and will come out in force to support him.
So...what do you think? How can we make it happen?
