We are now in the final few days, and Barack is essentially tied here in Montana. We can win if we get folks to vote and if we sign up new voters. I'm going to be out knocking on doors and there are lots of other things that need doing here in Missoula. WE NEED YOU!
Laura Warren (laura.jo.warren@gmail.com) is doing a great job of helping to organize our effort in these final days and she tells me that there is a need for volunteers to help Barack NOW. Please contact her for a list of opportunities in Missoula. Here telephone number is 274-2647.
Remember, we got er done for Jon Tester and we can do it again if we stay focused and work hard. So, join me, Laura and other Missoulians to deliver the vote for Barack! Don't put it off. Contact her right now, OK?
Thanks,
Frank
Toni Rehhein sent me this great Amy Martin song and youtube video. I really appreciate it Toni! Give a listen to Montana's own Amy Martin and I think you will too. Thanks so much for your creative and always thoughtful presence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJGJsfIXGt4&feature=email
Like many of you, I've been watching, working and waiting for the day when the answer to our prayers for our country might be lifted up to the next level. This is the evening of the 12th day until America responds to Barack's message to come together for the common good through the mechanism of the voting booth. Both Barack and Michelle have been telling us that we have to run through the tape at the finish line, doing all we can, giving our time and energy to help him win this election as our president.
Here in Montana it may not be easy, but I think it can be done. We elected Jon Tester didn't we? I think we have a good chance to pull this off, but you and I have to really be active in these remaining days. Most importantly, we have to sign up people to vote and let people know why we are supporting Barack Obama, and asking people to support him too.
We each have our own ways of making a difference. One of the most important ways, is by working with the nearest Obama campaign office to where you live. Barackobama.com lists a number of things you can do. And there are lots of ways of helping on a very personal level. I wear my Obama t-shirt when I go out to do things. People often see it, smile and even say they like it. I always ask them if they are a Barack supporter and if they are signed up to vote. If they aren't, I tell then how to get signed up and offer to take them to register. And today, I was sitting in the dentist's office waiting to get some work done and I asked the receptionist if she was excited about the upcoming election. (In other words, always provide an opening for dialogue.) She said yes, but she hadn't registered to vote yet and asked some questions about how to to it. So, I told her, and before we were done, she got permission from her boss to go register tomorrow at a particular time! I suggested she take a friend who might also need to register as well. She said, I will do it! Anyway, it's just an illustration of how easy it is to be active no matter where you are!
For so many years, I've continued to listen to Martin Luther Kings, "I Have a Dream" speech. I really wondered if a time like tonight when Barack accepts the nomination for President could ever come in my lifetime. But I hoped it would. As I write this, and think about tonight I have a lump in my throat, imagining what this evening will be like.
I'm thinking many of my friends who's ancestor's were slaves and what this will mean to them tonight too. I think of other friends of diverse backgrounds who's hope for themselves and our country are being rekindled by this event, a marker on a very long road.
I'm really excited about what's happening this evening. And yet at the same time I know that this is a step along the way. The next step is getting Barack elected.
It's up to us, isn't it? Yes we can!
Have you invited your friends and neighbors to join with you in watching tonights acceptance speech on TV? It's history in the making and I can hardly wait!
I don't know about you, but I was so jacked up when Barack met the nomination number. And today Hillary packed it in as well.
Her speech helped me realize that she was representing many people and the hopes of women and others who are relying on us all to help all of us to move forward together to elect Barack now, and then all Americans during the presidency. Now that the heat of the struggle for the nomination is over, we can begin to heal and come together as democrats.
I've been away for a bit but of course have absentee voted for our guy. It is a thrill isn't it to realize that we as citizens have the power to make change...and this is just for starters! Just wait until we have Barack as our president and our voice!
Thanks to everyone who worked so hard!
You will love this broadcast!
This is one of the most interesting pieces about Barack's minister. One of the most educational pieces on him and the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Really fine. Here's the link from last night's PBS broadcast; note that the link contains two parts:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html
When people ask you what you think about Barack and his minister, you will know more about it.
It was a good night for Barack. PA is a state made for her as a candidate. After a huge gap in the polls, Barack ended up with only losing 8.7% of the popular vote, and Hillary gained only 10 elected delegates. Here's how Barack's campaign manager put it on the net:
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said the loss was expected and did little to change the trajectory of a nomination battle that continues to favor his candidate.
"Some states are stronger for our opponent," he said. "Some are stronger for us. We assumed she had an edge there [in Pennsylvania] and we would try to keep it as close as we could. You have to be clear-eyed about that. We have two contests coming up in two weeks. We'll see where the race is after that. . . . The structure of the delegate contest will not be changed appreciably, and that's the most important factor in the race."
So, Barack will end up with somewhere between 100 and 150 elected delegates at the end of this race if it goes all the way to the end. And he will pick up more and more superdelegates, just as he did today with the announcement that the Gov. of Ok. who was not going to endorse until all the states had voted decided today to make the declaration today. That will continue. Barack is very likely to continue his lead in the popular vote as well.
I think this all means that if he just stays steady as we know he will, he is going to be our nominee for president. But for this to happen, we are going to have to work hard in Montana to make sure that we nominate him with the large majority of elected delegates. To make sure of this we need to work really hard beginning now. Whatever we choose as volunteers to do, it in the final analysis comes down to this:
1. Expanding the list of people who contact the campaign at barackobama.com indicating their willingness to work for and to vote for him; When you talk with people, get their names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses. You can download a sign up sheet from barackobama.com and use that if you want to. Get this info to the campaign at your nearest Obama office.
2. Getting people interested in Barack to register to vote. This is a really big thing!
3. Sign up people for early voting! This dramatically increases the ease of voting for Barack people. The nearest Barack office can get applications for early voting to you. Go get them.
4. Tell everyone you know, family, friends, barack group, and most importantly the public why you support Barack.
5. No matter what, VOTE!!!!!!!!
6. The Montana campaign offices are doing a wonderful job of helping us stay focused on these essential tasks. Work with them; they are good folks!
We are on the path to victory; first the primary, then the presidential election, then working with him to make his presidency a success. The tide isn't turning, it's already turned. If we do what we need to do, Barack will do just fine.
For me, this is the most important message we need to get out there! Ramp up the intensity now and keep it there for the primary as the next successful step in Montana.
Yes we can and yes we will!
I'll be out of Montana for a bit, but I'm going to continue to work for him along with you.
Make it happen.
Overall, I thought Barack did just fine given the horrible job of ABC who were responsible debate. But as you watched it, where were the pressing questions facing our nation?
I sent the following comment to ABC as a result:
The April 16th debate, or should I say circus, was the worst case of shoddy work by Gibson and George S, I've witnessed. It marks a new low in so called news journalism. You wasted my time and that of Clinton and Obama with sideline non-issues. Folks, this was not Bozo the Clown with Charlie Gibson, this was supposed to be a debate about the future of our country! The management of ABC owes an apology to We The People of the United States of America, including me.
Shame on you!
Good grief,
Wow, what a weekend, and what a start to the week! Barack was welcomed in both Missoula and Butte with overwhelming enthusiasm...and if you were at either event, you know just how moving it really was. I talked with many people and had a lot of impressions. I was a volunteer outside before and after Barack spoke in Missoula. I met several folks who were getting ready to vote for the first time. They told me they really looked forward to going to their precinct, lining up to vote and going into the voting booth to register their decision for our Montana nominee and later for president of the United States of America. It was thrilling for me to hear them speak and I shook their hands and congratulated them on their decision not to fill out an early vote application...even though I was there to sign up people to register to vote and apply for early voting! Secondly, I was excited to hear from all those people in that long line inching toward the gate who were not just there to hear Barack, but were there because of their love of our country and because they were there to help our country to get back on track again. Third, after the rally, I talked with a pal who has been a Republican all his life. He told me that he was voting for Obama...because of who he is and what he could do to repair the wounds to our country. While I talked with people and laughed with them, I kept thinking of that phrase that Barack had said, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." And I had the privilege of being in their midst that day...
And yes, I was one of those folks who drove to Butte to hear Barack that night at 6:40pm. Again, what a roar took place in the Civic Center, just like the Adams Center earlier! I really think that the majority of ticket holders were Obama fans, and when we stood to applaud and yell our approval time and time again during his speech, we were all sending a message to the Montana Democratic Party that the time for change had come and would not be denied!
Barack had two quite different speeches for the two settings and each was delivered wonderfully well. They were substantive, deeply personal, and they looked forward to what America was capable of becoming...not backward. They were inclusive...not divisive. And he spoke without notes. He is a terrific American and he personifies the meaning of the term. It meant a lot to me to be there.
And now to know that there are a total of four superdelegates in Montana who have endorsed Barack... Yes. Together, Democrats, Independents and some Republicans. We really are the ones....
