to all of you, for all that you have done for Barack and Joe. This is it...the day we have been working and waiting for. It all comes down to this...my heart is racing, my stomach is doing cartwheels, and i have been on the phone today with family and friends and fellow supporters to make sure everyone has a ride to the polls. i talked with my neighbors and people in my neighborhood, to make sure everyone could get to their polling place.
i have never been so proud to be an American....this country is coming together and unifying in the name of change and it fills me with such hope, i can hardly speak the words.
tonight, i will be attending an Election Night party with my Brother and Sister. we have been on the phone today, filled with excitement and, i have to admit, my nerves are all over the place. i waited up to see the results that came in last night from NH and i saw that as a sign of things to come.
this country and this world will be a better place when Barack and Joe win tonight. i know that nothing is final until all the votes are counted, but i have HOPE! i have so much hope, that my cup is running over!
what a glorious and historic day this is...and we are all a part of it.
Blessings to you all, today and everyday.
Yes We Can!!!!!!!!!
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A record number of West Virginia voters have cast their ballots early this year. According to Secretary of State Betty Ireland's office, more than 153,000 ballots were cast during early voting, which ended Saturday, and more than 13,000 absentee votes have been cast. County clerks throughout the state reported high turnout for early voting. Clerks said they're ready with troubleshooters and extra machines to address any problems that develop on Election Day.
I pray that everything goes smoothly on election day.....
McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee were paying for the calls, according to a "work paper" handed to Cole and her co-workers at the Weston offices of 1.2.1 Direct Response, a company based in Philadelphia.
"I was working at the call center," Cole said. "We got a campaign ad talking about how Obama had been part of terrorist attacks on the Capitol, the Pentagon and a judge's home and had ties with Bill Ayers.
"Last Thursday, I told them I did not want to read it," Cole said. "They said, 'Either you read it or you go home.'
"I told them I wasn't going to read it. They made me go home without pay for the rest of the day."
The "work paper" told callers to say:
"Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers [airs], whose organization bombed the US Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans.
"And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democrat allies lack the judgment to lead our country.
"This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee."
Cole said, "We were just supposed to read that message and hang up. One of my other issues working there was that someone told me it didn't matter who picked up the phone, whether it was a 5-year-old or a 95-year-old. We should read the message."
Cole, who started working at the center a few months earlier, returned to work on Friday.
"I talked to one of our 'coaches,' which is what our supervisors were called. I said I was unhappy with the situation and I quit," she said Tuesday.
Asked about the claims about Ayers and the "extreme leftist agenda," no one from the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C., returned telephone calls on Tuesday. Neither did Gail Gitcho, regional spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, based in Alexandria, Va.
Russell Andrews, a spokesman for 1.2.1 Direct Response, did not return several telephone calls made to his Philadelphia office on Tuesday.
1.2.1 Direct Response helps private companies and other organizations with fundraising, media coverage, advertising, marketing and publicity, according to its Web site.
That Web site reports that the company employs more than 550 people to make telephone calls, including 220 in Weston, 210 in Parkersburg, 170 in Media, Pa., and 150 in Philadelphia.
The McCain-Palin campaign has repeatedly tried to tie Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, to Obama. When Ayers was associated with Weather Underground, Obama was 8 years old.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton released a statement about Obama and Ayers reported by The Washington Post on Feb. 19.
"Sen. Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost 40 years ago is ridiculous," Burton said.
Numerous other publications - including The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The New Yorker and Time magazine - have also noted that Obama and Ayers never had a close relationship.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 348-5164.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A poll out Thursday from American Research Group shows Barack Obama with an 8% lead over John McCain in West Virginia. It's the first poll to show a lead for Obama in the Mountain State.
The poll of 600 likely voters took place from 10/4 to 10/8 and has a margin of error of 4%. Previous polls taken last month showed the Republican McCain with a 4 to 5% lead over Obama in West Virginia.
i drove to Portsmouth to see him speak and he did a fantastic job. i took my teenage daughter with me and she cheered just as loud as i did. she said she wished she was old enough to vote for Barack. i told her to take this moment with her and let it inspire her to do good things in her life. and, i told her, you will be able to vote in the next presidential election when we will be voting for 4 more years of Barack in office!!! it was a memorable night that my daughter and i will never forget.
this is an exerpt from an article regarding McCain's work with council of world freedom. the link to the entire article is at the bottom.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala lit the fire when, during an appearance on Meet the Press, he warned that this relatively obscure detail from McCain's past could draw him into a guilt-by-association game he was bound to regret.
"John McCain sat on the board of...the U.S. Council for World Freedom," said Begala, "The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League - the parent organization - which ADL said 'has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.'"
But McCain's involvement in the U.S. Council for World Freedom, which extended from 1981 through, possibly, 1986 is significant -- not merely because it ties him to unsavory characters but because it firmly associates him with a foreign policy that was, at the time and still, controversial.
"I didn't know that [McCain had] served on the board," said Shannon O'NeilDouglas Dillon Fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It is a little bit surprising to me. But all of those organizations did come from the Republican side mostly. Often the people were tied to the military and they saw the world in black and white terms... My impression is [McCain] still sees the world in back and white."
The USCWF was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in November 1981 as an offshoot of the World Anti-Communist League. The group was, from the onset, saddled with the disreputable reputation of its parent group. The WACL had ties to ultra-right figures and Latin American death squads. Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi organization.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/06/why-mccains-time-with-cou_n_132470.html
If you don't already do it, you really should be checking out the Anchorage Daily News site regularly, for local Palin news, editorials and op-eds, and its excellent Alaska Politics blog (special bonus Ted Stevens coverage there). Today, for example, the paper hits Palin hard in an editorial for abdicating to the McCain campaign on Troopergate.
And here's a brand-new gem on a stunning, overlooked McCain gaffe from David Hulen at the Alaska Politics blog:
Candidates spend a lot of time talking, and they all misspeak sometimes. But did anyone else notice this, from Wednesday's much-covered McCain-Palin Town Hall event in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Palin answered questions from people in the audience? McCain said this as he's talking up Palin's foreign policy/national security credentials: "I also know, if I might remind you, that she is commander of the Alaska National Guard. In fact, you may know that on Sept. 11 a large contingent of the Alaska Guard deployed to Iraq and her son happened to be one of them. So I think she understands our national security challenges..."The ceremony Palin attended at Fort Wainwright last week didn't involve the Alaska National Guard. Palin's son is in the Army, and his unit - 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division - deployed to Iraq. The idea of McCain (or Palin, for that matter) having their finger on the button, completely terrifies me......
"I also know, if I might remind you, that she is commander of the Alaska National Guard. In fact, you may know that on Sept. 11 a large contingent of the Alaska Guard deployed to Iraq and her son happened to be one of them. So I think she understands our national security challenges..."
The ceremony Palin attended at Fort Wainwright last week didn't involve the Alaska National Guard. Palin's son is in the Army, and his unit - 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division - deployed to Iraq.
The idea of McCain (or Palin, for that matter) having their finger on the button, completely terrifies me......
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts plans to hold a press conference in Charleston Monday to discuss what he describes as "attempts by a film crew hired by the National Rifle Association to get miners to distort the record of Barack Obama on guns and the 2nd amendment."
“Our members were approached on company property by this film crew and were peppered with questions regarding Sen. Obama’s positions on guns and the 2nd Amendment,” Cecil Roberts said in a press release issued Saturday. “We’re going to talk about that, because it marks a return of the gutter politics of the past by those of the say-anything, do-anything crowd who believe they can continue to use wedge issues to divide West Virginians. They think we’re not smart enough to figure out what they’re doing.”
Coal miners from the Blacksville #2 mine in northern West Virginia will accompany Roberts at the press conference in Charleston.
this is truly a disturbing and manipulative attack against Barack. I was truly disgusted to hear of this and I am thankful that the President of the UMWA is holding a press conference to expose the despicable acts of the N.R.A.
Remember the last time the number of jobs grew more rapidly under an Republican president? John McCain can't. Because he wasn't born yet. Over the past 75 years, one trend has held constant. Rapid job growth only occurs when there's a Democrat in The White House.
No Republican President -- not Eisenhower, not Nixon, not Reagan, not Bush -- has ever created more jobs, or created jobs at a faster rate, than his Democratic predecessor. It's not even close. The contrast has been especially stark over the past 16 years, when 23.1 million jobs were created under Clinton and less than 5 million were created under Bush. On average, job growth under Democrats is more than twice that under Republicans.
Whatever benchmark you use, the difference is dramatic. Since Truman was elected in 1948, 53.2 million new jobs were created during the 24 years when Democrats held The White House, and 38.3 million were created during the 36 years of Republican administrations. Check it out for yourself:
Millions of Jobs Added
Truman 1949 -1952 5.2 Eisenhower 1953 - 1956 2.7 Eisenhower 1957 - 1960 0.8 Kennedy/Johnson 1961 - 1964 5.7 Johnson 1965 - 1968 9.8 Nixon 1969 - 1972 6.1 Nixon/Ford 1972 - 1976 5.2 Carter 1977 - 1980 10.4 Reagan 1981 - 1984 5.2 Reagan 1985 - 1988 10.8 Bush 1989 - 1992 2.5 Clinton 1993 - 1996 11.6 Clinton 1997 - 2000 11.5 Bush 2001 - 2004 (0.1) Bush 2005 - 2008 5.1
Of course, business cycles aren't timed to coincide with presidential inaugurals. But after 60 years it's hard to argue that the Democratic presidents are just lucky.
Republicans consistently dwell on the outlier of the trend, Reagan's second four-year term, when jobs grew at a robust rate of 2.7 million a year. But that four-year spurt is balanced out by the anemic rate of job expansion during Reagan's first term and during the first Bush Administration. As the financial experts always say, you should never lose sight of the big picture and always think about the long term.
One final point. You also have to wonder if John McCain ever seriously focused on job growth. Since his grandfather owned an oil company, his family seems to have been unaffected by the Great Depression.
Source: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted non-farm payrolls. [Job increases for G.W. Bush are through August 2008. Most economists expect more job losses before the end of this year.]
i was attending funeral services this weekend for my aunt, who lost her battle with cancer. while i was parked and inside the church, someone actually pulled my obama sticker off my car. we returned to our vehicles and were leaving for the cemetery. i was opening my trunk to put some of my sister's things inside (she was staying with me), and i noticed it was gone. it was there when we arrived, because i unloaded food for the church when we got there and it was still on. it made me angry to think that i was inside, mourning with my family and saying our final goodbyes to my aunt and this happened.
it is so sad how low people will stoop. and they had to have known that there were funeral services going on, because the hearse was parked right ahead of me.
how can people be so ignorant and mean?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-bergthold/the-vp-choice-that-lost-t_b_122381.html
from the huffington post. com
McCain just gave up his campaign..... great choice, John. OH HAPPY DAY!!!!!
Obama/Biden '08
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/21/mccain-owns-first-foreign_n_114013.html
Posted this morning. In his statement, he mentions the Iraq/Pakistan border. They DO NOT border each other.
Check out the video.
I was hoping he would have done it before our May primary, but he has finally put his endorsement in for Barack Obama. I guess he was waiting to see if Barack or Hillary would get the delegate majority, and then make his decision.
I'm sure that will tick off alot of HRC supporters in WV. Hopefully, they will work to unite the party in the state and go against McCain in November.
after winning the nomination tonight, i sat and realized that Barack has the biggest fight ahead....the fight against the mccain machine and that will take all of us to get out and keep working for him and do whatever we can to get him the win in november. i cried watching his victory speech tonight, because i was filled with such hope and happiness and after breathing a quick sigh of relief, i called my sister and said that we need to get back out there and canvass more than ever.
we all know the outcome of the primary here in WV, and i know that it will be hard to get votes for him in november, but i hope and pray that we can get supporters here revved up again and get out there and keep canvassing and calling people and continuing to show our support and let people know why they should vote for Obama. i talked to alot of people before the primary and the majority of them said that if HRC was not on the ticket, that they would vote for mccain.
we have so much work ahead to get this party united and i hope that when HRC finally concedes (hopefully this week) that she will rally her supporters to back Obama and help us with the fight against mccain.
One of Sen. Hillary Clinton's top financial supporters offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in which he also pressed for the organization's two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse the New York Democrat, a high-ranking official with YDA told The Huffington Post.
Haim Saban, the billionaire entertainment magnate and longtime Clinton supporter, denied the allegation. But four independent sources said that just before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Saban called YDA President David Hardt and offered what was perceived as a lucrative proposal: $1 million would be made available for the group if Hardt and the organization's other uncommitted superdelegate backed Clinton.
Contacted about the report, Saban, initially very friendly, became curt. "Not true," he said, "it's simply not true." He declined to elaborate. Did he talk to the YDA superdelegate? "I talk to many, many superdelegates. Some I don't even remember their names." Did he propose any financial transaction? "I have never offered them or anybody any money" in exchange for support or a vote, he said. The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment.
source: Huffington Post
WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Monday endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president.
Byrd joins Sen. Jay Rockefeller and U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall as high-profile members of the West Virginia congressional delegation endorsing Obama.
"As people all across this great nation know, I have been one of the most outspoken opponents of the Bush Administration’s misguided war in Iraq and its saber rattling around the globe," Byrd said in a news release. "This Democratic primary campaign has been tough and competitive. I had no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher."
Byrd, who will be a superdelegate at the Democratic Convention, said he would cast his vote for Obama.
"I believe that Barack Obama is a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq, and to lead our nation at this challenging time in history,” Byrd said.
Hopefully Governor Manchin will follow suit and endorse Barack too!
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party's likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
Edwards made a surprise appearance with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as the Illinois senator campaigns in a critical general election battleground state.
The endorsement came a day after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in the West Virginia primary. The loss highlighted Obama's challenge in winning over the "Hillary Democrats" — white, working-class voters who also supported Edwards in significant numbers before he exited the race in late January.
thank you John!
Ann Landers, 48, of New Martinsville came with her “Obama buddy,” another West Virginia woman she met through volunteering.
“I’ve never been involved with politics before, but I think he’s something special,” Landers said. “I think he can really make a difference in this country.”
Landers’ friend, Carolyn Sterns, 68, of Sistersville, used to be an active Republican.
“We reached the end of our rope. It’s a no brainer,” Sterns said. “I haven’t seen a candidate like him for many years.”
Landers said there’s probably never been a candidate like Obama.
“We don’t need any more Clintons or Bushes,” she said.
Sterns said Obama is the candidate who has it all – including plans and the backbone to follow through on those plans.
Susan Harcum traveled from Fredericksburg, Va., to hear Obama with her sisters.
Two of her sisters live in Ohio and one resides in the Charleston area. She said the group has been going door-to-door recently to speak to residents on Obama’s behalf.
“I already helped him win in Virginia. We’re hoping we can push him through in West Virginia,” Harcum said.
People began lining up for Monday’s event before 9:30 a.m. Obama is scheduled to speak around 12:15 p.m.
source: The Herald Dispatch
I just read where the Vice Principal of Huntington High School told WSAZ that Sen. Obama will be at HHS on Monday afternoon.
is this true?? if so, count me in!!!!!! i live in Huntington and i have a daughter that is a sophomore there.
WV Obama mama that baracked the vote for change.
-WEST VIRGINIA LEADERS ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR BARACK OBAMA- Legislators, Sheriffs, County Chairs Say Obama Best Person to Unify and Lead Country CHARLESTON, WV - Days after Barack Obama's decisive win in North Carolina and a tight finish in Indiana, leaders across the Mountain State announced their endorsement of Barack Obama as the best person to unify and lead our country. Today West Virginia state senators, delegates, sheriffs and Democratic party chairs joined Senator Jay Rockefeller and the state's only member of Congress to endorse, Nick Rahall, in supporting Barack Obama. Obama has also received the endorsement of West Virginia State Auditor Glen Gainer III. "I have chosen to endorse Barack Obama because he has inspired our nation and will unify the country," said West Virginia State Senator Jeffrey Kessler (D-Marshall). "We need a leader who will finally deliver on the challenges facing our nation, including affordable health care for all, quality education and restoring our nation's standing in the world. That leader is Barack Obama." "Barack Obama understands the needs of West Virginians," said Delegate John Doyle. "He has a solid plan to revitalize our nation's economy and as a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he has been a strong advocate for our nation's veterans." Below is the list of West Virginia leaders Endorsing Barack Obama today: Sen. Dan Foster (Kanawha County) Sen. Jon Blair Hunter (Mon County) Sen. Jeff Kessler (Marshall) Del. John Doyle (Jefferson County) Del. Ron Fragale (Harrison County) Del. Charlene Marshall (Mon County) Del. Clif Moore (McDowell County) Del. Alex Shook (Mon County) Sheriff John Gruzinskas (Marshall) Jerry Brookover (Chair, Wirt County Exec Committee)The following are West Virginia leaders who have previously announced their endorsement of Barack Obama: Ken Hechler, former Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State Glen B. Gainer III Auditor Del. Tal Hutchins (Ohio County) Sen. Larry Edgell (Wetzel County) Mayor Emmett Pugh (Beckley) Sheriff Tom Burgoyne (Ohio County) Commissioner David Sims (Ohio County) John Saunders (former USW local president, Ohio County Dem co-chair) Frank Slider (Tyler County Chair)Yes We Can West Virginia!!
-WEST VIRGINIA LEADERS ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR BARACK OBAMA-
Legislators, Sheriffs, County Chairs Say Obama Best Person to Unify and Lead Country
CHARLESTON, WV - Days after Barack Obama's decisive win in North Carolina and a tight finish in Indiana, leaders across the Mountain State announced their endorsement of Barack Obama as the best person to unify and lead our country.
Today West Virginia state senators, delegates, sheriffs and Democratic party chairs joined Senator Jay Rockefeller and the state's only member of Congress to endorse, Nick Rahall, in supporting Barack Obama. Obama has also received the endorsement of West Virginia State Auditor Glen Gainer III.
"I have chosen to endorse Barack Obama because he has inspired our nation and will unify the country," said West Virginia State Senator Jeffrey Kessler (D-Marshall). "We need a leader who will finally deliver on the challenges facing our nation, including affordable health care for all, quality education and restoring our nation's standing in the world. That leader is Barack Obama."
"Barack Obama understands the needs of West Virginians," said Delegate John Doyle. "He has a solid plan to revitalize our nation's economy and as a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he has been a strong advocate for our nation's veterans."
Below is the list of West Virginia leaders Endorsing Barack Obama today: Sen. Dan Foster (Kanawha County) Sen. Jon Blair Hunter (Mon County) Sen. Jeff Kessler (Marshall) Del. John Doyle (Jefferson County) Del. Ron Fragale (Harrison County) Del. Charlene Marshall (Mon County) Del. Clif Moore (McDowell County) Del. Alex Shook (Mon County) Sheriff John Gruzinskas (Marshall) Jerry Brookover (Chair, Wirt County Exec Committee)
The following are West Virginia leaders who have previously announced their endorsement of Barack Obama:
Ken Hechler, former Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State Glen B. Gainer III Auditor Del. Tal Hutchins (Ohio County) Sen. Larry Edgell (Wetzel County) Mayor Emmett Pugh (Beckley) Sheriff Tom Burgoyne (Ohio County) Commissioner David Sims (Ohio County) John Saunders (former USW local president, Ohio County Dem co-chair) Frank Slider (Tyler County Chair)
Yes We Can West Virginia!!
