Hi everyone,
This day has finally come! After all this time, we are just one day away from election day. Many of us are busy working for Barack in one way or another, but I am hopeful that many of us can touch base here on election night.
If you're out there, I hope you'll check in and share as we make it over the finish line, one way or another!
I will be working in Indianapolis on election day, but I will return home in the evening, and will check in as soon as I return. In the meantime, love to all!
Barack's position on the recent bill has been a real blow to me, and I am struggling with it, so I will appreciate it if you guys will share your thinking on this.
I do believe Barack believes in our civil liberties. But we also have to look at the choices people make. This particular choice appears to fly in the face of who I thought Barack was at the core, which is why I am not able to dismiss this as just an area where we agree to disagree.
On one hand we have who we thought Barack was and what he stood for. On the other hand we have an action on a very serious matter that is in complete opposition to what we thought Barack stood for. It's well documented that people cannot live in a state of cognitive dissonance - which is when there is a discrepancy between what a person believes (or knows or values) and persuasive information that calls the beliefs or values into question. When that occurs, you basically have to either give up what you believed or you find a way to dismiss the persuasive information in some way. For me, this started on Thursday when Barack "went silent" on the recent bill at a time when he would normally have taken a stand. It got worse on Friday when he continued his silence for most of the day and then came out with his (I thought) lame statement on the bill that seems to fly in the face of who he is and what he stands for. It didn't get any better when Barack failed to post his statement on the Obama blogs - when normally every statement Barack makes ends up on a blog. I's been 4 days of cognitive dissonance for many of us, and it hasn't been fun. I have been unable to either completely give up my former view of Barack OR dismiss his position on the recent bill as not that important or not indicative of who Barack is. The best I have been able to figure out is that I will still vote for him, but I cannot give heart and soul and money because I no longer trust Barack the way I have since I first met him in the summer of 2004. I do not want to give up on Barack but am unable to let this go. UPDATE: I am going to remove any posts from this blog that come from "unknown user" or people we do not know. This is intended as a forum for conversation between people who I have come to know and respect over the past year. Any newcomers will likely have worthy opinions, and I hope they share them on the wider Barack Obama website.
A few of us have been trying to think about how to turn the blogs back toward good.
This blog can be a starting point for how we might do that.
DNC Meeting.
Puerto Rico.
South Dakota.
Montana.
Pelosi, Reid and Dean asking SDs to declare.
We have a big week ahead!
Update: Sunday, 8:15 am Now that the DNC has ruled on FL and MI, I think it's fair to take the question mark off of the blog title, which had been "Back Together - The Last Week of the Primary?".
I am trying to figure out how we can make a positive impact on the regular blog and help turn the tide. It seems that the blogs have picked up on the pattern from the media, which is to mostly talk about the horse race instead of the issues.
So it occurred to me that perhaps we (collectively) could make a blog collection of really great articles about Barack. Not articles about whether he can win, or the delegate count, or how he compares to Hillary. Just articles about Barack.
If we posted the links on this blog, along with a one-line description, then any of us who want to participate in the "Want to Learn More About Barack" series on the regular blogs could just come here and snatch a couple of favorites and start posting them as new threads. Maybe this way we could help turn the discussion to Barack instead of to Hillary or McCain, or the horse race?
I'm thinking we all have great articles bookmarked.
What do you guys think?
Are you game to give this a try?
Twas the night before Oregon, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Just one more day until Oregon & Kentucky ... And June 3rd is just 2 weeks away!
After hearing Keith Olbermann say this on his show tonight about campaign coverage for WV tomorrow night, I decided I had to make a special blog just for WV:
"I'm not exactly sure what we're going to talk about after the polls close, but we will continue to open our mouths and join in your surprise at what emerges. Chris Matthews and I with MSNBC's coverage tomorrow night with the West Virginia primary at 6 o'clock eastern. Senator Clinton is favored by 25 to 30 points. Bring your popcorn. And we'll do it live!"
