I found this on the internet and attribute this to the author, Hollister Knowlton, who posted this in 2005, and I found it so inspiring...
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I just returned last night from an extraordinary trip to Colombia to see Gaviotas, the sustainable community started by Paolo Lugari that has, in the last 20 years, reforested 8000 hectares (about 20,000 acres) of barren savannah and provided a home and jobs for 2,000 Colombians. In the process of planting millions of Caribbean Pine (with seed brought from the heart of the ancient Maya civilization), miraculously, in the under story, 250 species of Amazonian rainforest flora have sprouted and are thriving. The Gaviotans harvest several commercial products from the forest by tapping the pines for their sap (biodiesel and a resin, called colofornia, that is shipped worldwide for use in paints and pigments). Rainfall has increased by 10% over the reforested land, providing a source of pure drinking water that they are now bottling in the former hospital. All of this work is accomplished via solar, wind, and people power. Proceeds from the sale of the water go toward continued reforestation. So by drinking Gaviotas water (the only bottled water in the world for which this is true), one is paying to plant more forest, provide permanent jobs, produce biodiesel, wood (from the thinning process), and sequester CO2. And now, the Colombian military has donated an additional 43,000 hectares of former military land - also in the savannah - to be reforested and on which to create Gaviotas II. The contributions of the ten of us who went on this trip will fund reforestation ($1,000 pays to reforest 1 hectare – 2.4 acres). We were able to visit the new site and hear about the amazing plans (thanks to ZERI and Gunter Pauli, its founder who was with us on the trip) for establishing an integrated biological systems approach there that will produce food (pigs, fish, mushrooms) for 10,000 residents (and export) and where the waste from one process is the food for the next. We were accompanied by extraordinary people of great intellect, true passion, precious talents, who were also tender and thoughtful and warm. For me, it was truly experiencing what “God’s Kingdom on earth” and the “Garden of Eden” are all about. While my way is not yet clear in terms of how to integrate this experience into the rest of my life and work, we are already working on one concrete step: importing the water (by ship) to the US and selling via grass roots organizations, without middlemen. All profits will go back to Gaviotas. I can’t wait to show you the water bottles – they are designed to lock together like Legos, and indeed, the empty bottles have already become the “Legos” of the poor. Once we get the logistics worked out, we will be letting you know how you might become involved. And I will be working on further reports as time allows. Love to you all, Hollister June, 2005
Folks in my community have wondered why I gave up hours and hours of my time organizing for Obama in terms of creating and hosting events, blogging, participating in events, participating in many Saturdays of October and Tuesdays of October phonebanking in a union office, in someone's home, in a condo, in a real estate office, in Century City Plaza hotel, in doorknocking, in dialoguing with folks. Most of my activities were self-driven by my imagination, but mostly my zeal for the candidate. Why did I do what I did?
Creating Events. Most of my events were either done at my home or a nearby bakery. The preparations to host an event include not just cleaning my house, but also making sure that folks have something to eat. And they are eating not popcorn and coke, but something substantial. And each event is created with a them in mind. Why for goodness's sake, no one is grading me? No one is supervising me.
Ah, but my conscience is. All along I wanted my own brand of Obama events to reflect the wholesome goodness that I see in President Elect Obama, the way he respects the crowds, the way he shows his delight at receiving their handshakes and their hugs.
While he is not with me, I am very conscious that I represent him, displaying a full measure of his goodwill and enthusiasm.
Why: Because ever since I have been a citizen of the United States, born and raised in the Philippines for 18 years, my island birthplace has never left my heart. Its people, my people have always exuded their warmths, their affectionate hearts stay open to strangers, friends, and family. That is what I missed the most of my island homeplace and I try to recreate that with every event I had organized for Obama. To some that are not used to seeing that done usually and repeatedly, it left them suspicious, perhaps she herself is running for office, and even taken aback when I introduce myself as a volunteer commissioner. Their suspicion now becomes fullblown, and no longer restrained in others, they approach me and articulate their own inner suspicions " Are you running for office? " And when I say it did not cross my mind as I have no patience for it, they are just left incredulous. Why would that be? Because, we as a nation has been taught and conditioned to be cynical, to be abrupt, to show our darkest selves, to be cold as if James Bond in Quantum of Solace, coldblooded, icequeens and icekings. But, it is not our true selves. It is not who America truly is.
It is why Senator Barack Obama became a shining light for me. I saw his goodness, his goodwill and wherein he regarded folks not as " fat assed consumers of politics, who can be squeezed for every juice of a dollar ", but as smart, thoughtful citizens who he can dialogue with, who he has to earn their respect, who can be educated, who can understand complex issues, as long as all the elements of those political issues are made transparent to the citizens.
I know I am just describing the atmosphere of an event, how did I manage to discuss my origins, my expectations of my political leaders? Because I am not unipolar, nor a unidimensional person. When you consider island folks, we are truly a complex web of intricacies, we are a network of many dimensions, we are a complex array of friendships, family and togetherness, and when we get excited about one thing, we bring in the entire community with that excitement, we talk to them daily, non-stop until they are with us. When we hold a belief, we not only consider ourselves, but each member of our family, each member of our community, where each one is a leader, where each one is a learner, where each one is a teacher, a true full circle and collection of smarts, talents and abilities.
Intellectual Content and Democratic Process. That is what I painstakingly tried to create during the campaign, as soon as I started January 2008. I have not quite stopped doing it. I also wanted the intellectual content to reflect the views of folks who took the time to attend, and more importantly that the process was inclusive and accountable, that each one was thanked for their participation, large or small as contributing to a change in the energy not just in the room, but also in our everyday lives. That we now can smile at each other in the playgrounds, in the parks, in the grocery stores, in the churches, in the movie houses and take the time to talk to our Fedex guy, to our cable guy or even offer a drink to our postman or a banana to our sweating gardener who mows our lawn and we see folks just take the time to be a role model, imitating the goodness they see in the First Family.
So my zeal in the campaign has been transferred to writing daily for a community newspaper, harvesting my fellow community folks' goodness, goodwill and generosity, hoping to immortalize and memorialize them, the unsung, everyday heroes who are rhizomes, whose roots are spread to the thickness of the soil, who stay rooted, yet grow new nodes and stalks that bloom into new flowers, some with fragrance for all of us community folks to enjoy. And my community is becoming larger, no longer just Filpinos, but also amongst my extended family: Chinese, Honduran, Japanese, Blacks and French. Yes, our family is growing since the elections.
Website Shadowed Some, But not ALL. In October, when the website no longer can track my phone banking activities in different field places in Los Angeles, while I searched for who has the best method on the ground floor, I stopped logging as much into the website. And as intense as I got into the campaign, covering even TV programs to explain why Obama, which is not covered in the website, and writing more community newspaper stories, which is also not covered in the website, the irony of all ironies, that is when my ranking of 10 on the mybarackobama.com website declined to 9, one day, and when i asked the basis of that ranking score going down, my score was again diminished to 8. As my ground activities intensified, my website score diminished, which only tells me that scoring kept in the website is no longer reliable and credible. But my conscience reminds me to keep going for my ideals.
Well, guess what folks, my motivation still stayed strong. After all, I did not organize for Obama because of my ego, I self-organized for Obama because I sensed his luminous human spirit, the shine in his character, the shine in how he delights in seeing his family, how he is a very decent person who loves people, how he treats everyone with respect. Of course, he gets testy, and the media writes up about it, particularly when suddenly the children are being included in his media interviews, when he and his wife have not quite precleared and prepared the children. To me, he and his wife are decent parents who do not commercialize their children for their own purposes and respect their privacy and right to say no to public events.
Zeal for Obama not the Democratic Party. And by the way, let it be known to the Obama HQ staff, that Obama inspired me to self-organize, not the Democratic Party who has been recruiting me to get involved for years now, who has yet to have me convinced that the Democratic Party is a genuine, service-oriented party, and it is a party that is beyond multiple selfish agendas of making a candidate win, as that will never be why I will never give up my nights, weekends, days, to simply get someone elected.
I gave up my family time so my family can have a better future, I can now enjoy our holidays this thanksgiving because I know I have installed into office, as 68,900,000 more, a decent man who will put the interests of the American people, the majority of the people first, before his pocketbooks or his future or his legacy, I gave up my precious time to elect a decent MAN OF PRINCIPLES, and let it be known, I am not going to be deceived by pundits, nor taken by decisive instructionns from the top of party leaders who want to use me like I was a piece of merchandise.
You just don't get it, my allegiance and love for this country to reach its American ideals and potentials for inclusive union, and my zeal for principles will not be for sale! For in selling it, I will betray my deepest self and my conscience, who I have to live by and exist with 24/7 all days and all years of my life.
Yes, there are many of us, in fact, perhaps a lot of the more than 68,900,000 voters who pledged them for Obama, you just have to take pause that folks will sacrifice their TIME, TALENTs and TREASUREs to attain an America that has a HEART!!
Yes, it is the heart of a Nation that we are fighting for, not the DEMOCRATIC PARTY and President Elect Barack Obama got it right the first time he ran and because he got it right, we are there for him!
I cannot describe to you how I feel. For last few days, I gave the campaign my all. I did phone banking to Missouri and it was an inspiring hour, 15 for Obama, 2 for McCain and those saying Obama were happy and ecstatic and excited to vote for him. Those who said McCain had anger in their voice and I could not any words, in fact, they wanted to hang up. Then, I blogged and responded to request for information on why I got involved with Obama till 4am, and it was also a period in which we had to write a close-out report for Singgalot, and an initial organizing meeting for Vagina Monologues to bring to our community's awareness the issue of sexual violence is not unlike ravaging Mother's Earth.
And there is pressure connected to becoming a virgin pollworker. I figured the best way to monitor Obama election is to be part of the solution of bringing an orderly election in my neighborhood precinct. So, the day yesterday started at 530am, the power was out in my neighborhood bakery till 10am, so breakfast was at McDonalds, and off to the polls. I bought two breakfasts, a Mcburrito and Egg McMuffin, thinking I would have both to sustain me for the entire day, until I had to brave the traffic to go to KSCI-18. I ended up giving my Mcburrito to a fellow pollworker.
From the moment we set up the polls at 630am ( our poll coordinator came late, of all days he has done this for 15 years ), and we rushed to open the polls at 701am. Before we even opened the polls, at 6am, the first voters in line were over a dozen African American voters, young, middle aged and not so young. It was exhilirating to see this. We started the process of voting. I quickly assessed the strengths of my team, and became an adhoc background leader. I asked folks what they want to do, and deployed folks, I took the most difficult job of street indexing voters, and made that the first task. In prior elections that was the second task and it was counterintuitive as it delayed the process. By getting the street index done early and saying the person is in for voting, all the voter does is sign, get the ballot and then vote. What delayed the voting was LA County provided us only five polling booths for 1700 registered voters. Can you imagine the lines that snaked around the Westside Jewish Community Center in the lobby and quickly infuriated folks who are rushing to go to work? Can you also imagine that it was quite cold as it had just rained? In fact, it was pouring but quickly stopped as soon as polls started. So again, we readjusted and moved the voting to the auditorium, another moving back and forth. Mind you, we were supposed to have 9 pollworkers, but only 5 showed up. So, if you have crowds that were non-stopped from 7am to 2pm, and lines not letting up, you would think that would be enough. Nope. An LA county worker comes at around 1pm and stops the process and tells us we are doing it wrong as we gave folks their ballot and it took them quite sometime before they got to the polling booths. Why, because LA County gave us five polling booths, one did not work as it was made inoperable by the auditing of the LA county worker, and even the official given cell phone did not work. Never mind the drama she created. One voter offered to buy us lunch, I gave my $30 to buy my pollworkers lunch. My response to distress is to give more love, in my old age, this works for me. And each time we got a virgin voter, we clapped our hands, we announced it to the group as if we were winning a game, and then our poll coordinator gave each virgin voter a Krispy Kreme doughnut.But you know what saved me from shaking from low blood sugar was my loving husband who walked to the auditorium of the Westside Jewish Community Center and handed me my P-8 juice ( my power and pee juice of parsley, zucchini, bell pepper, carrots, calamansi, apple, grapes, spinach ). Had he not given my power boosting liquid, I was about to lose it.
And of course my daughter comes in to vote early in the morning and quickly gets into a problem: her name does not show up. In a usual problem-solving mode, she tells us she checked she was registered online and then, spots the supplementary voter roster. Hooray, she was on that list. At about 2pm, our Subway sandwiches arrived, but not enough to feed all pollworkers, so I requested folks to share the foot long with others. It impressed the Russian older worker, Raisa who had been volunteering for twenty years and actually in the last primary delayed the lines snaking so long for she could not find the streets where folks lived or actually could not read the street index. So, I gave her the task of giving folks ballots and she liked that so much because she did not have to read. Then, it was time to run to Kababayan LA show at KSCi-18 TV discussing why Obama, why McCain, what the polls showed, how Filipinos voted, why they voted the way they did, and the show lasted an hour. The show progressed but all I could think of are the long lines of voters that I could not help. Even Jannelle said that I was subdued. Yes, I was so subdued, but it was more of a confident position that Obama had won already, when I experienced first hand the turnout of young, disabled, middle aged, and almost all of the 41 neighbors in my street. I like the one hour show as it gave us a chance to discuss the elections more fully. Jannelle does a heroic job of compressing a Rachel Maddow and CNN type of show compressed in one thirty minute show and she succeeded in getting an hour. The TV management has not quite gotten it that her show is important, and prefers to show a fifteen minute of garbage videos instead of featuring more substantive news. The drive home took me an hour in peak traffic, a distance of less than 10 miles. I went straight to the Westside Jewish Community Center, it was now 6pm. I am hungry but no time to nourish myself, as we still had straggling voters, who had their young children in tow, as they are rushing to vote. No one was turned down to vote. Everyone was given a provisional ballot and in that provisional envelope was a chance to give their identifying and validating information. It took us until 915 pm to finally close out the polls, we had to count all the ballots, voided ballots, absentee ballots, provisional ballots, dismantle the polling booths, pack up all the supplies, sign all the paperwork and ship the election paraphernalia to LA County voting station. Our poll coordinator was getting testy when his wife of thirty years could not read fast enough to him. Of course, you know me, I had to intervene. I told him that his wife is helping him, and if I were in her place, I would not be as patient, and instead would say " stop f......g with me. " Whew, he quickly controlled his tongue, he quickly resorted to laughter and sense of humor. And we got the job done. We gave each other a hug and wrote in the roster we want to be a team again next election. When I got home, my loving husband had eggplant omelet for me, roasted okra and steamed green beans with bagoong and kalamansi. Can you imagine how much I ate? I ate two eggplant omelets and all the green beans and okra I could. I was so hungry and quite happy that he prepared us a most nutritious and easy to digest food. Of course, I wanted to stay up and listen to the speech of Obama, I have not yet heard it, only snippets and my bones are still aching. I know I did not leave any stone unturned in getting him elected and I am crying with joy as I listened to Ermena's wonderful voice mail message of watching the election results in Times Square.
And you know what is so good about this win is WE ALL WORKED TOGETHER to make it happen. In every Obama event I created, I sensed folks' optimism, their desire to change. And I am proud to say in my Delacruz family, which includes my husband, my daughter, my son, my brother and sister in law and their two daughters who are virgin voters, we all voted Obama.
And the sad part for me is that my sisters could not vote Obama and were stuck in voting their religion on anti-abortion. At one point, my eldest sister was mad at me, demanding that I fully accept what she sends me about McCain, as she does with what I send her about Obama. And one evening, I responded with no self-restraint, " What you sent me, Ate demonizes Obama and smeared him as Hitler, Muslim and even a monkey. That is not electioneering, that is racism and it is wrong. " I had to repeat that same message in Kababayan LA as my Filipino American community does not acknowledge their unconscious bias. Well, folks I will savor my hard work this coming Saturday with Progressive Chefs Taking it Ba (ra ) ck!! I cannot wait and I am very proud to be an American of Filipino descent and heritage! Yes, we can!! PS: I was supposed to be at Century Plaza Hotel but chose to be with my hubby who gave me play by play rundown of the election results. It is a great morning in California, sun is out and I am getting ready to go to my favorite bakery, La Maison!! But wait, this email was sent to me and it captured all the goodness I feel at the moment:
Where forty three US presidents have exclusively been Caucasians for the last 172 years in America, almost two centuries later, tomorrow, American voters will create the landslide victory of Senator Barack Obama, as he becomes the first African American president in all of 172 years of US presidency!!
Wow, this is so historic and is giving me goosebumps as I read the last acts of Amanda Jones, in her 109 years, the daughter of a slave, voted for her first African American president, seeing change in her lifetime. But she is not unique, as even Barack's grandmother, affectionately called " Toot" by Barack, her last act was about voting her grandson into office and she is of Caucasian, midwestern roots.
Tomorrow, if Missouri is indicative of the battleground states, one of the states I called today from California's Century Plaza Hotel, I spoke to 15 folks who shared with me they are enthusiastically voting Barack Obama, and only 2 declared their emphatic, almost diminished and in hushed tones, almost ashamed in voting Senator John McCain. But, mostly declaring it out of loyalty and tradition! Well, I respect their choice.
The same way I respect a Republican friend who could not find her polling place, I jokingly called her tonight and told her to skip voting if she is voting McCain, and then, informed her just the same of her new polling place, courtesy of mybarackobama.com website's vote for change feature, and encouraged her to consider voting Barack Obama. I figured that since she is still undecided and she declared moving away from voting McCain, she just might vote Obama tomorrow. Yes, that is how doggedly determined I am!
Tomorrow, I will monitor the polling place, as one of the pollworkers, and then, I will go to KSCI-18 to share with my kababayans why I voted Obama and have a more extended discussion on race and racism.
Yes, it is time to turn away from slavery, Jim Crow's lynching past, and embrace our diversity, starting with voting our first African American President. After all, he surpassed the voters' challenge by fundraising a record amount of $750 million dollars, almost 2/3 of a billion dollars, amassed over 3,000, 000 volunteers and ran an almost flawless, smart, superbly disciplined campaign that was able to mobilize every single volunteer in the ground, and inspired them to no end.
Tomorrow, even my community papers will have feature articles discussing race and racism and why our darker fears had to be transcended to be part of this new American history! Yes, we can, our real history is just beginning to be written, and this time, it includes all Americans of every ethnicity and every age group!!
And, it is a great feeling to be in the frontlines of making of history! And now I just pray I get to become part of the inauguration, after all, I already bought my tickets to DC last month to be there in January 2009, that is how much optimism I have tomorrow in the goodness of the American people, their ability to write their own progressive history, just like in 1860 and 1932!!
I learned so much in self-organizing for the Obama campaign.
I learned hefty dose of imagination. I do not have a boss that will tell me what to do or not. I knew if I organized an event that is meaningful to the voters, I would get them to come, not because of me, but because of Obama, the candidate. So, I learned to imagine what events would draw them: a walk in the park, a world cafe conversations at a bakery, a meeting on the platform on mentoring, a study group on Audacity of Hope. Some that I organized involved serving food, but in others, I did not. Still, the level of enthusiam was unlike I have encountered before: folks had a natural high, as if they had just finished doing yoga or aerobics or pilates, high in serotonin and quite accomodating of everyone. Except in one meeting, where I encountered a person who was not emotionally present, most were serious, thoughtful and inspiring in their own rights.
And in applying my imagination, I got psychic dividends of meeting great folks and consequently, in a nearby bakery, or a grocery store, where I run into them, it makes us all feel safe and secure in our communities. I suppose this is what Senator Obama spoke of: not just belief in him, but belief in the change we can muster and change we can make happen.
I learned that authenticity carries through all events. For most events, being myself got me through as much as for others. Even as nervous as I was while anticipating folks to arrive, I told myself to trust the process and to trust the folks coming to the event. And they did come. And they came prepared, they came ready to participate, ready to engage, ready to share their perspectives. And it did not matter what age group they were, if the event host and process was accomodating and inclusive of their input, they left their footprints and their marks. The youngest participant I had was a ten year old girl and she drew animated figures cartoons to give life to our ideas. And even the oldest participant shared her viewpoints.
At some meetings, it was usually the young teacher, or the retired artist/writer who imagined clearly the blueprint of change and what it would take for our neighborhood to turn around, it was as if they had their own crystal globe. And invariably, the folks who are positive and had no self-doubts contributed a lot to others, and the folks who had anger issues contributed no more than their anger and negativity. That too became a lesson for me, as i knew I had to be clear within, in my sense of purpose and intentions, for me to navigate each meeting and achieve what I wanted to achieve, a collection of perspectives, a synergy, a consensus, a much better understanding, an energized group of participants more fired up than when they arrived. And, to report about each event to the Obama headquarters after each event also required a special diligence for me.
I learned to be gracious and patient when someone's ego is in full bloom. This is particularly challenging for me particularly in the midst of facilitating a group process, as I usually am doing it with strangers and new friends, and have no inkling as to who is a skilled facilitator. Hence, it is a leap of faith, a healthy dose of trust and I remember how Senator Obama extends a full dose of trust in his staff, and because of that, I am also encouraged to follow his example, by examining, by challenging and by asking one question " How would Senator Obama handle this? " On a critical juncture of a hosted meeting on mentoring, an older gentleman interrupted me while I was facilitating and whispered to me in a harsh tone, " You are doing this wrong ". Mind you, he is not the organizer, he did not advertise the event, he did not create the event, but he had the audacity to tell me I am wrong. But, I dare not disrespect him, so I said, " No worries, it will work out. " And it did, as I simply allowed the group process to move forward.
I learned that I am not the final word on any meeting. By allowing the group a choice on how to proceed, by practicing democracy in action, I gained credibility amongst strangers. For example, one Saturday, it had started to drizzle. So, I was poised to cancel the meeting or postpone it for the next Saturday. But, I was wrong, I miscalculated the enthusiasm of folks who came this one gray, drizzling rain morning. They admonished me that the event is so important for me to cancel, and they requested that we proceed. So, I ran to my car, unloaded my dry erase markers, but in hurrying, I left my portable Post-it flip chart. Luckily, my husband was simply a cell phone away and he hurriedly dropped off the flip chart and we proceeded even as the chairs were partially wet. Folks did not mind the traffic on the sidewalk, folks did not mind the slight drizzle, and this turned out to be the best meeting I had organized, called " world cafe conversations. ". Why: because of the synergy created, in the absence of debate or opposition, folks saw more patterns, folks recognized the insights shared, folks heard the wisdom of what was shared. One participant came from San Diego and she shared " My soul was looking for this type of positive meeting", and she drove 200 miles to get to my hosted meeting, and then said " and my soul is now satisfied!"
That says it all, the campaign provided us a medium, a process, a forum, a space for us to be who we are, to develop the potentials in others, and together, we all grew to appreciate our positive spaces of engagement on behalf of democracy.
Senator Barack Obama, we are blessed by your presidential campaign, we rediscovered our strengths as civic participants in public square of discourse. Thank you for this website for without it, I could not have learned these organizing lessons with folks I met for a year and a half! Take care, and we are praying non-stop for a clean elections, a landslide victory and a renaissance administration that will truly serve the majority of Americans, in our beloved country!!
I am determined to influence every single vote I can towards Senator Barack Obama.
Since I had a debate with a Republican on a local TV station in Los Angeles, I recognized that their vote for McCain is based on something false, illusory and mythological. So, I decided wherever I am, I am winning every Republican vote towards Obama.
Each Republican voter has different, special needs. For my close relative who believes in pro-life and also the role of science in education, I decided to have a dialogue with my relative on science. I figured since she is a science and math teacher, she recognizes the role of science.
So our conversation went like this: Do you really want to vote for Gov. Palin who believes in creationism and not the evolutionary science that you teach your students? She was horrified, she did not know that voting for McCain means also voting against her own beliefs, she was narrowly calibrating her vote just on the idea of protecting the fetus.
So, I got even bolder and shared with her " You know I am for the unborn fetus as well. But, I also believe in protecting the rights of the born child, for example, their right to good schools, their right to universal health care, and their right to be globally competitive in the world, and knowing science as well as their counterparts in Japan, India and other countries."
There was a long pause for silence. She then said, " I am not certain on voting McCain and Palin anymore. I have to really examine now why I must vote Obama."
When the conversation ends that way, I leave it alone, I figured that I have sown enough doubts without demonizing the GOP candidates and now, the voter has to examine their conscience and their vote. And of course, I end up saying " You can always vote McCain, but your vote will continue our pain, and will continue the evaporation of our 401Ks ". That usually does the trick for me, I offer to them to continue voting for pain in the names of McCain and Palin or to take an informed, wise, smart choice and vote Obama.
For another Republican, our discussion boiled down to war in Iraq and birth control methods for women with AIDS in Africa. I like this discussion so much, because as they defend their votes for the unborn fetus, I now challenge them if they are so protective of the fetus while in the womb, why are they not protective of women, children and men who are alive and are now fighting the war in Iraq? Would it not make sense to protect their lives and bring home the troops?
That usually stirs them up and now would like to recognize that their belief on the so-called " pro-life culture " is empty when they realize that Pres. Bush disapproved birth control devices to be availed by women with AIDS in Africa, and has resulted in women losing their lives during difficult births, numbering 60,000 and another unintended consequence of over 600,000 abortions. Imagine their horrified look that their GOP party's beliefs and strict constructionist of Bush doctrine on pro-life to protect the unborn has created the opposite effect of killing more fetuses. That really gets them into convulsive shocks about their beliefs.
The last conversation I had was with a Republican looking forward to retire in two years. He made a statement, while playing mahjong, "that Obama is about spreading the wealth, and what did his playmates think about that?"
I intervened and responded that McCain and Bush have been spreading the wealth, except they have done it consistently to industries like oil, agribusiness, and now the mortgage institutions and banking and those making over $1,000,000 a year. And has that GOP policy of spreading the wealth to the top 5% of the population bring more prosperity to the middle and working class families, and usually, I would follow it up and say " What is the value now of your 401K? Do you want to stay inside your caged fears, and vote for your fears? Or would you like to be smart about your choice, take a leap of faith and vote for change and spreading the wealth to ordinary families like you and me"?
And I usually ask, " Do you make $250,000 a year ?" He shook his head and said no. Then, " why would you vote to protect the millionaire's interests and not majority American families' interests ? " He then shook his head and said " I am examining my vote now and for sure, it will not be McCain. I just want to be comfortable about voting Obama. "
This is when I would say, I too was uncomfortable at the beginning, in January of this year. But, as the year went on, I observed him to be more respectful of his opponent. Did you hear him during the Wall Street crisis? Did he retreat from the challenge or was he a voice of reason?
This is usually the clinching statement as they agree that McCain did not do much for the economic crisis and really was grandstanding to see if Obama would also retreat. It is invariably Obama's presidential temperament that I end up with and the womanizing past and mistakes of McCain in downing five planes that I discuss in contrast. And by now, they are just growing weary that they cannot stay comfortable in voting for McCain.
I figure that as long as I am able to influence them to feel uncomfortable about voting McCain and the consequences of their vote not just for them, but for our families and America, then, I have done my job of reaching out to fellow kababayans who have not examined why they are loyal Republicans, when deep down really, their beliefs are more towards Democrats and certainly when I get to convince them about their deep rooted values, they eventually say, " I will look into voting Obama. ". That is enough for me! I figure by explaining the long-term consequences of their votes, they will look into voting Obama eventually.
Well, I have unwavering optmism! But not really, as the the young Filipino - Americans do get it. They are pro-Obama and are non-stop convincing their relatives and families to vote Obama. It is they who inspire me to follow their progressive examples!
By The Associated Press – 6 hours ago
Excerpts from recent newspaper endorsements of the presidential candidates. The Los Angeles Times endorses Democrat Barack Obama, calling him "educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature." The Washington Post calls Obama "the right man for a perilous moment." The Chicago Tribune, endorsing a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time, expresses "tremendous confidence" in Obama's "intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions."
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Los Angeles Times endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Oct. 17:
... We need a leader who demonstrates thoughtful calm and grace under pressure, one not prone to volatile gesture or capricious pronouncement. We need a leader well-grounded in the intellectual and legal foundations of American freedom. Yet we ask that the same person also possess the spark and passion to inspire the best within us: creativity, generosity and a fierce defense of justice and liberty.
The Times without hesitation endorses Barack Obama for president. ...
We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama's critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.
El Diario/La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language daily paper in New York City, endorsed Obama on Oct. 17:
... El Diario/La Prensa endorses Sen. Barack Obama as the leader ready to redirect the United States of America towards its promise.
Sen. Obama wisely opposed Bush's misguided and immoral charge into Iraq...
Sen. Obama has correctly identified that trickle-down economics are not addressing the inequities Americans face...
Sen. Obama has committed to investing in schools and to making higher education more accessible.
... While Sen. John McCain once appeared as a reasonable interlocutor on immigration reform, he gradually pandered to Republican ultra conservatives by promoting a two-step process emphasizing border enforcement. Sen. Obama clearly outlines a far superior plan that will take a smarter approach to immigration, including bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.
The Chicago Tribune endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Oct. 17.
... Many Americans say they're uneasy about Obama... We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.
When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren't a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.
... We are proud to add Barack Obama's name to Lincoln's in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.
The Washington Post endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Oct. 17:
... It is without ambivalence that we endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.
The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race...
Mr. Obama is a man of supple intelligence, with a nuanced grasp of complex issues and evident skill at conciliation and consensus-building...
Mr. Obama's temperament is unlike anything we've seen on the national stage in many years. He is deliberate but not indecisive; eloquent but a master of substance and detail; preternaturally confident but eager to hear opposing points of view. He has inspired millions of voters of diverse ages and races, no small thing in our often divided and cynical country. We think he is the right man for a perilous moment.
The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Friday, Oct. 17.
... The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression gave Americans an opportunity to see the two major-party candidates under heightened stress...
Sen. John McCain magnified the aura of crisis, "suspending" his campaign to return to Washington, where his role in negotiations was at best tangential. Sen. Barack Obama was a portrait of calmness and deliberation, reminding Americans that it is possible for a leader to juggle more than one task at a time...
The Illinois senator was similarly deliberative — in contrast with McCain's quick-draw provocation — when Russia invaded Georgia in August ...
Obama has kept his composure and maintained a vision of optimism that has drawn an unparalleled wave of young people into the political process. His policies and his persona have offered hope to a nation that is deeply polarized, swimming in debt, mired in war and ridden with anxiety. He taps into that treasured American reservoir — patriotism — with his calls for sacrifice and national service.
Barack Obama is the right president for these troubled times.
Good Obama folks in Los Angeles: Yes, you can vote early. Go to the LA County Registrar of Voters Office at 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, and go straight to Room 3002. Bring your sample ballot, they exchange it with an official ballot, go to the polling booth, and submit to clerk. He asks you to seal your voting envelope, and you deposit it in the ballot box in the registrar's office. There are no lines, it is efficient.
How did I get the information? I met Mark, a Field organizer for Obama's Pasadena Office who gave me specific directions to get to Norwalk and specific procedures.
I chose to vote early as I am monitoring the elections on November 4, may drive folks to the polling booth and may even do a TV program to debrief why I voted Obama. And I voted wearing my Obama blue T-shirt, no problem at all! Folks stopped me and said " I like your t-shirt! ", implying they like my candidate, of course in the symbol of rising sun against the horizon, I had an Obama/Biden pictures in a button. So, folks, I am now content, I voted, and I dragged my husband to vote with me also, so now in our household, it is 100% for Obama! And no on Proposition 8!
I wanted to share a post on Proposition 8, which I believe is well-written!
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AAPIs will never advance until we realize that ultimately we are all gay.
US election: Hope for Barack Obama in the south as Republican campaign turns nasty
Down at the municipal offices in Decatur, Georgia, opposite the county jail, more than 200 mainly black voters were lining up patiently to cast their ballots for President of the United States.
By Toby Harnden in Decatur, Georgia Last Updated: 11:51PM BST 10 Oct 2008
There were elderly black men, their backs bent but their pride evident, their wives holding their arms. Youths sporting dreadlocks or afros and wearing low-slung jeans. Frazzled young women clutching children and wearing Barack Obama t-shirts. Middle-aged mechanics and builders on their lunch break.
For 40 days before "election day" - a misnomer in Georgia because a quarter of the ballots might be cast by then - residents of Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, have been voting at a stunning rate of some 2,500 per day.
Less than 10 miles away is Auburn Avenue, site of the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King's birth in 1929 and where he was laid to rest after his assassination in 1968.
Among the early voters, mixed with the hope that Mr Obama, the Democratic nominee, will be elected as America's first black president is a gnawing fear that victory will somehow be snatched away. Despite his widening national poll lead and his clear edge in battleground states, few are taking anything for granted in the final 25 days.
"Most people have a sneaking feeling that something will happen to stop Obama," said Nadine Clarkson, 68. "We know what happened in Ohio last time and Florida the time before that. People who want to find a way are very ingenious."
Her friend Willie Mae Coram interjected: "There are plenty of individuals who will not be voting for John McCain but will vote against Obama because of race. It's hard when it's what you've grown up with all your life. I have a white friend who says she wants to vote for Obama but she can't because her father is still alive."
The fears of black voters in the Deep South has been fuelled by an ugliness creeping into some of the rallies of Mr McCain, the Republican nominee, and his vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin. When Mr McCain posed the question "Who is the real Barack Obama?" in Albuquerque, New Mexico a man in the crowd shouted "terrorist".
There have also been cries of "kill him" - referring to William Ayers, the Weather Underground former terrorist with whom Mr Obama has links - along with "off with his head", "treason" and "he's a bomb", apparently aimed at Mr Obama himself.
Local officials introducing Mr McCain have spoken of "Barack Hussein Obama" - a use of the Democrat's middle name that fuels false internet smears that he is a Muslim.
Mrs Palin has come dangerously close to suggesting that Mr Obama, born and bred in the United States, is somehow un-American, saying she is "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America."
A banner at a McCain-Palin event in Waukesha, Wisconsin read: "Go ahead, let the dogs out." During his debate with Mr Obama in Nashville this week, Mr McCain clumsily called his opponent "that one", a phrasing that was seen by many blacks as dismissive and demeaning.
"When you're losing, there's a thing called desperation that takes over and when one becomes desperate one becomes reckless and tends to resort to lesser instincts," said the Reverend Joseph Lowery, 87, a civil rights leader and comrade of Dr King who had dogs unleashed on him in the Jim Crow segregation era, told "The Daily Telegraph".
"I'm not surprised we've seen racial undertones in the McCain campaign because desperation breeds them."
Few are suggesting that Mr McCain, who has an adopted Bangladeshi daughter, is a racist. Mr Obama's campaign has fired its own shots at his rival, accusing him of being "erratic", "confused" and "out of touch" - coded references to his age (at 72 he is a quarter century older than the Democrat) and irascible temperament.
Mr McCain's negative campaigning, while tough and arguably distorting, is no worse than what was thrown at Michael Dukakis in 1988 or John Kerry in 2004. "If Barack were not African-American, they'd be doing this," said Harold Ford, a black former congressman, who was himself on the receiving end of an attack advertisement in 2006 that played on old taboos about inter-racial sex by portraying a blonde woman asking him to call.
But Mr McCain, who was smeared by George W Bush supporters in South Carolina in 2000 as having sired a black child and who once promised not to "take the low road to the highest office in the land", is in danger not only of losing the election but of tarnishing his reputation for honour.
In Georgia, where Mr Obama is hoping to win by cracking the old formula for a Democrat of winning more than 80 per cent of the black vote and 30 per cent of whites by increasing black turnout and pushing up African-American support to beyond 90 percent, there is open talk of the "Bradley effect".
The Bradley effect is named after Tom Bradley, who appeared to be cruising to victory in race for California governor in 1982 but lost because white voters who had told pollsters they would vote for him either lied or changed their minds on election day.
"We're hopeful, we're thankful, we're excited, we're electrified and we're holding our breath that it will come to pass," said the Rev Lowery. "But we're anxious and frightened as well because of our history. We've lived through turbulent times and we saw Tom Bradley leading in the polls only to come to the post-election reality that it didn't happen."
State senator Robert Brown, Democratic leader in the Georgia senate, said that he and many younger blacks believed the notion of a continued Bradley effect was a myth. 'I feel it's going to happen," he said. "For young people, it's almost an expectation.
"It's the Tiger Woods phenomenon. Tiger broke the barriers in golf and this is our time to break it in the political arena. For this generation of young African Americans, Obama is the Martin [Luther King], the Malcolm [X], the [Nelson] Mandela and Mohammed Ali all rolled into one."
If anything, polls are indicating that Mr Obama's race could help rather than hinder him on November 4th. A Gallup polls found that seven per cent of white admitted that Mr Obama's race would make them less likely to vote for him but six per cent - appalled by racism - said it made it more likely. Among minorities, Mr Obama's race is a significant net plus.
Ultimately, lingering racial fears appear likely to be overwhelmed by the economic fears triggered by the Wall Street meltdown and driving voters towards Mr Obama.
"It's so stark that in this election that I think economic issues will trump the fears among some whites of having a black man as the most powerful man in the world," said Michael Thurmond, Georgia's labour commissioner and one of the few blacks to win statewide office.
"This time, I don't think whites will vote against their economic interests just to keep out a black man." But he added that fear could yet prompt a spike in white turnout on election day.
"This is the ultimate opportunity for a black man and it's just hard for people to digest. Sometimes I have to stop and consider the magnitude of it myself. There are concerns and I wouldn't place bets in any direction. We won't know until the morning of November 5th."
I wrote this open letter tonight to a list serve where over close to two thousand Filipino Americans and Filipino immigrants subscribe to...
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Good folks and kababayans: I normally do not get involved in writing op-editorials or working to host events, phone banking, or door knocking for elections.
But for this election, I made an exception. Because the stakes are too high and 8 years of failed trickle-down economics have left many of our kababayans without homes, foreclosed upon by sub-prime mortgages and many are without a credible health insurance program that they can rely upon while family members get sick from cancers or debilitating illness.
It is because of healthcare and a for -people economics and not just the powerful that made me an Obama supporter. But, aside from this pragmatic view, I also chose Obama because he comes from the poor, imagined a new life out of poverty through higher education at Columbia and Harvard, and also because of his commitment as a community organizer, a lawyer for civil rights, and a legislator who legislated laws to protect women, children and national security that I chose him over Hillary and McCain.
Why did I make this choice? Because I know that some of my kababayans praise McCain's character and judgement! To which I have plenty to speak to which counters his character and plainly shows his bad judgement. For one thing, we are a God-fearing community that believes in the sanctity of marriage, yet we are so quick to give support to John McCain who dated Cindy McCain while still married to his wife, Carol.
Imagine we are a God-fearing community but we are willing to allow a potential bigamist, who already took a marriage license to marry Cindy McCain, while still married to his wife, Carol, and without any inkling of tension or conflict in their marriage managed to deceive others that he was still devoted to Carol, yet all the while, he was carrying on with Cindy McCain. What kind of character are we vouching for when some of us are willing to lower our standards in favor of a man like McCain? Is it because Barack Obama is black? Guess what, he was carried by Ann Dunham, a white woman, for 9 months in her womb, and for 18 years, Barack was raised by three white folks: Ann, and his grandparents. So, really Barack Obama has had a white upbringing. And yes, his father is an African, from Kenya who was educated here in our American universities.
But, some of us are willing to throw our support solidly for Hillary Clinton, accepting her experience and judgement, because she is after all an establishment, white candidate, and of course, she has good experience, but also, does Barack Obama.
Barack has solidly approved and voted for health insurance that extends to 4,000,000 children; and has voted to support women's health programs, including domestic violence legislation. We are a community that values family, community and our women and children. Yet, some of us are willing to throw our support to McCain who has consistently opposed children's insurance legislation and voted against funding women's health programs. Why is that? Are we simply for the unborn, and not the lives of the born?
We are also a faith-loving community, who values the life of the unborn and the born. And so do I, because I believe in the value of the unborn and the born, I am supporting Obama. While we pray for peace in our Sunday masses, voting McCain means we are funding more wars. Fight, fight, fight, says McCain; Bomb, bomb Iran, bomb!
Imagine we pray for peace, yet some of us are willing to vote for wars! And of course, McCain supports the buildup of nuclear plants, and in his website, he knows that they will not generate alternative energies until 22 years from now, 22 years from now, even McCain will be 94 years old by then, do you think he really cares to provide alternative energies to our current generation?
What about what we can do now? Should we not ask the three automakers to make hybrids and give them federal incentives to do so, particularly if they create more domestic jobs in America? Doesn't that make sense to you that our families get taken cared of now, instead of 22 years from now?
By that time, most of us may be gone from this planet to see these changes proposed by John McCain, and are we that willing to gamble the future of our families and our children and grandchildren to elect a president who says he will take care of us, but his senate record of poor judgement shows he has supported 8 years of failed trickle down economics, and in fact opposed legislation to extend health insurance for our children and now, running for president, is not willing to give us a vision that takes care of us now, but 22 years from now. I would like to believe that our community can be a positive force this election, and if we are going to vote based on our faith, I pray that as we pray for peace, we vote to defund the war in Iraq, and we vote not to fund a war-mongering presidential candidate; I pray that as we pray for our families and communities, we vote for the president whose track record is for supporting legislation for women and children and one who will get us out of iraq and will build peace through diplomacy. Lastly, to some that are not voting for Barack Obama, to those sectors who believe in the rhetoric of John McCain that he is a maverick, one who is wildly in opposition of what is popular, but truly one who stands for himself, voting his self-interests to support for example Charles Keating, president of Lincoln Savings who swindled 20,000 consumers of their savings account to the tune of $3 billion and cost the public taxpayers a bill of $120 billion.
Or the character of a man who would choose a vice president who wants to secede from the United States and who attended six years of its unpatriotic, seccesionist conferences, and one who thinks we women must be treated as " dumb " and yes, this is the character of the man some of us believe is maverick. Maverick in looking at women as dumb, maverick in treating his marriage as an opportunity to have an affair and of course, maverick in making sure 20,000,000 of us will lose health care insurance by taxing it. Never before have employer issued health care insurance been taxed, and yet, for those of us whose employers have issued Kaiser, Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield and many more, we stand to lose those when we vote Senator McCain who will tax these health care insurances, and enable him to give the health care insurance industry $2 billion dollars tax credits, and to replace it with issuing us $5,000 tax credit, when the cost of health care insurance per year is $12,000?
Why would we want a maverick who will take away our health care insurance elected into office? Even New York Times reports on this and is wondering why not much attention has been given to McCain's wildly maverick plan to make us all sick and sicker. After all, he cannot see this as he has 7 to 10 homes and 11 cars to shield him from our working class' plights. And some of us maybe supporting him on the basis of seeing him as the white hero? Or the white maverick who will do us good? Think again, as this election, when you simply examine behind your hidden fears, your hidden and unconscious preferences for a white candidate as a president, think of what you will be doing: the consequences of your voting decision that will put America frozen in the headlines of the 1950s, frozen in taking us back to lynchings, frozen in treating us all folks of color, yes, all of us, including those who are brown skinned, into the back of the bus, afraid for who we are; afraid to speak and think. I hope that you will choose instead a vote for the future, a vote for hope, a vote for inspiration, a vote for new ideas, a vote that has inspired over 5,000,000 now newly registered voters as Democrats, including 19,000,000 voters in the primary, and cast your vote with them this November 2008 to carry America forward into the 21st century, for America has experienced so much progress, so much growth, so much forward movement in integrating folks of color, and I pray our community become part of that historic, forward-looking movement towards integrity and inclusion. Yes, please examine your choices, and ask your hearts and minds, as I asked mine, and you will reach the same conclusion as I did, it is not the maverick John McCain whose volatile temperament, which he could not publicly contain which led him to refer to Barack Obama as " that one ", nor did not look towards his direction, as if Barack Obama is an invisible person, nor McCain's rude and condescending behaviors, on display for all to see on primetime television, watched by over 70 million Americans... this man, called John McCain made it plainly clear during the second debate that he did not have world-class temperament, nor the integrity of articulating his positions, and resorted to angry attacks of Obama's character, and allow his dishonorable behaviors proved unworthy of the presidential position he is running for. Please join me in rejecting his unpresidential temperament, lack of good character and poor judgment!! After all, we Filipinos appreciate pakikisama and kagandahang-loob, traits that Obama display in private and public, and traits that are absent from McCain.
The Earth is Square, Really, Senator John McCain!!
Senator John McCain's choice of Governor Sarah Palin is like a choice of a person who has lost all his smart marbles! Gov. Palin's contention that man's practices do not contribute to global warming is not unlike a layperson saying the earth is not round, it is square, for documentary upon documentary, including eyewitnesses report that the accumulation of CO2 gases in the air are due to man's increasing carbon footprints. And what does Senator John McCain tell us? He wants to tax our health care plans. Gee, many crickets, this is not just a bad Disney movie, this is like living in earth that is square, but when in fact it is round. It is what Senator McCain wants us to do, to keep bearing the economic burdens from those who must carry their fair shares, to become globally responsible citizens. Senator McCain, let us exchange positions at the moment. Suppose you have an elderly family member, and you need to care for her, and all her available dollars are spent for her meals and rent, with not a single penny to spare, and now the federal government under your administration wants to impose taxes on those? Just so, the federal government can continue to give you and your friends another chunky tax cuts, hefty millions for you and your friends, just plenty enough that you can afford to buy another loft for Meghan, or another Jaguar for your wife, Cindy. Oops, actually, for Cindy to afford another $300,000 outfit for another public event, while my relative has to make a choice between buying her prescription medications or buy her shampoo. Truly Senator McCain, for a person who is aggressive in asserting his faith in God, how unconscionable is it to keep insisting on tax cuts for you and your families and your friends, while those overburdened already are still being asked to carry more? Are you nuts? Or are we nuts in even considering you as our next President? I do not think so, and come November, we will come to our senses and vote common sense into the highest position in US, and elect someone who will extend universal health care, and not tax our health care benefits, the little that we have already!
It was Tuesday afternoon last week, and I was heading back from San Diego to the East Coast when I caught a piece of a speech on the economy by Barack Obama. I almost missed my flight because I couldn't walk away from it. My immediate response: This was a game-changer, and we ought to see a five-point shift in the polls if he keeps this up for the rest of the week.
I was wrong. The shift was bigger. He leapt from 2 points behind John McCain to 6 points ahead at one point by the end of the week. His newfound voice in fact yielded dividends. The question is whether he and his campaign will draw the right conclusions about why he earned those dividends or whether they do what they have done so many times before: drop their gloves and start getting beaten up again after having their opponent down on the canvas.
Indicting McCain
Mark Sept 16, 2008 as the date Obama may have turned the election around. What he did in that speech in Colorado was something he had only done once before, in his convention address: not just to inspire voters about himself and his vision for the future, but to make the case against John McCain. The truth, he stated with the razor sharpness of a good prosecutor making his closing statement, is that what McCain was saying in response to the extraordinary financial crisis that was unfolding "fits with the same economic philosophy that he's had for 26 years...It's the philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise. It's a philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people...We've had this philosophy for eight years. We know the results. You feel it in your own lives. Jobs have disappeared, and peoples' life savings have been put at risk. Millions of families face foreclosure, and millions more have seen their home values plummet. The cost of everything from gas to groceries to health care has gone up, while the dream of a college education for our kids and a secure and dignified retirement for our seniors is slipping away. These are the struggles that Americans are facing. This is the pain that has now trickled up."
What had he just done? He had said implicitly, as he later made explicit, that the economic pain Americans are experiencing isn't accidental. It isn't an act of God. It is an act of ideology and incompetence, and it reflects the failed ideology of the Republican Party and the conservative movement whose standard bearer in this election is John McCain. And he had spoken in evocative ways about what is happening in real people's lives, not just about how McCain wants to privatize Social Security or seems indifferent to big businesses that are increasingly considering their obligations to their retiring workers optional, but about how the dream of a "dignified retirement" is slipping away. His terms were evocative, up close, and personal.
He went on to compare and contrast what he and McCain had done that might have prevented the collapse of the housing market (and with it the largest asset most middle class Americans have, the equity in their homes) and the tumbling of seemingly rock-solid financial giants like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. He took his listeners back two years, to February 2006, when he introduced legislation to prevent fraudulent or abusive mortgage practices. "A year later," he went on, "before the crisis hit, I warned Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke about the risks of mounting foreclosures and urged them to bring together all the stakeholders to find solutions to the subprime mortgage meltdown. Senator McCain did nothing." After walking his listeners through a timeline of events that transformed a topic that could so easily have seemed dull and lifeless into a riveting whodunit, he made clear that the mystery had been solved: "This is what happens when you confuse the free market with a free license to let special interests take whatever they can get, however they can get it. This is what happens when you see seven years of incomes falling for the average worker while Wall Street is booming...Americans have always pursued our dreams within a free market that has been the engine of our progress. It's a market that has created a prosperity that is the envy of the world, and rewarded the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon of science, and technology, and discovery. But the American economy has worked in large part because we have guided the market's invisible hand with a higher principle-that America prospers when all Americans can prosper. That is why we have put in place rules of the road to make competition fair, and open, and honest."
This is the language of the heart, not the cerebrum. It raises not just the pocketbook issues that have Americans so worried but the values of honesty, fairness, and community that are central to what parents teach their children. It speaks of "rules of the road" rather than just "regulations." Sure, his words reflect a grasp of the issues that shines through, giving voters the sense that this is a man and a mind who understands what's wrong and how it needs to be righted. But what was present in this speech was precisely what has been absent from his campaign from the start: a sense of outrage at what Bush and those such as McCain who have been complicit in his malfeasance and mismanagement have done, and a willingness to put aside the campfire songs to tell a campfire story about his opponent as someone who is not the right person to lead.
It is no accident that his poll numbers jumped after his convention address, when commentator after commentator said something along the lines of, "Hey, he can throw a punch." And it is no accident that his numbers jumped again after a speech -- and several days of continued attack on McCain's ability to lead the nation out of the economic wilderness -- with words like these: "Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn't offering them more tax cuts. His call for fiscal responsibility would be believable if he wasn't for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and more of a trillion dollar war in Iraq paid for with deficit spending and borrowing from foreign creditors like China. His newfound support for regulation bears no resemblance to his scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement. John McCain cannot be trusted to reestablish proper oversight of our financial markets for one simple reason: he has shown time and again that he does not believe in it."
But what was different about this speech wasn't just the words. It was the way he delivered them. Obama has always been a brilliantly inspiring orator, at least when he chooses to turn on the electricity. But he has always seemed to shy away from a fight, and you don't beat an incumbent party on the ropes by making the election a referendum on the challenger. This time Obama spoke with a dignified but aggressive air of authority that screamed the words, "Commander-in-Chief." He made people feel comfortable with the thought of putting their families' economic security in his hands. He stood tall, with his tall visage framed between two flags, in a way that seemed both presidential and unwavering. And he did not waver the rest of the week, as he peppered his speeches -- and McCain -- with the kind of tough humor we have not seen from him, as when he taunted, "If you think the fundamentals are sound, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you," and "The old boy network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting."
I hope he and his advisors do not take away the wrong message from this speech, that it was his six-point policy prescription at the end that turned things around. Sure, that prescription was good to hear, just as the meat he put on the bones of change in his convention address was important in spelling out what change it is we are supposed to believe in. But I left for the East Coast before he ever got to those policy prescriptions, and I already knew this speech was a game-changer.
What Obama Needs to Do in the Debates
Unfortunately, with a four-point lead that means little, especially for a black candidate who needs to be up by 10 points in battleground states to be safe, the game isn't over yet. The next potential game-changer is his first debate with John McCain, and what he needs to do in the debates is precisely what he has not done thus far in that format, and what no Democrat other than Bill Clinton has done effectively in decades: to connect with voters in a way that makes them feel like they know and share his values, feel confident that he will keep them and their families safe, and will do right by people like them.
How does he do that? By following some basic principles, many of which Democrats would do well to follow in every debate at every level of government:
1. Think of your answers as sandwiches, with emotionally evocative and values-driven language at the beginning and end and with the "meat" in the middle. Emotionally evocative opening and closing statements serve three functions: they draw voters' attention (one of the major function of emotions from an evolutionary standpoint), they signal voters what you are passionate about, and they provide the sound bites that will be replayed over and over on television. The emotional "bread and butter" at the beginning and end can elicit or address voters' anger, hope, concerns, sense of patriotism, faith, or whatever informs your position and moves voters, or it can be a story from your own life or the lives you've encountered on the campaign trail. That is the bread and butter of what voters will remember. Follow it with the "meat": first, how we got here (indicting the GOP for what it has done and making the causal link to the pain people are experiencing and our moral standing in the world), and second, a very brief bulleted description of what you plan to do (no more than three points, which is the most voters will remember). For example, on health care, start with something like, "I believe in a family doctor for every family. Right now, 50 million working Americans and their families can't take their kids to the doctor, and the rest of us are watching our co-pays shoot through the roof and our security disappear as insurance companies are raking in record profits." Then compare McCain's "you're on your own, pal" plan that would knock 150 million people off their employer-provided insurance (which would scare the hell out of most voters if they only knew about it -- and for good reason) with your own, emphasizing the most central points of your plan: if you're happy with your doctor or health plan, you will be able to stay with what you have; if you're not, you'll have choices, including not only an array of private plans that will have to compete for your dollar but the same plan members of Congress get. End with something that again inspires emotion, "If that plan is good enough for people like me in the Senate, it's good enough for the people who pay my salary -- the American taxpayer."
2. Clearly enunciate your principles in virtually every response. Why do you take the position you do, and how does that principle reflect mainstream American values? Get to the specifics after you've established the principle, because it cues voters that you're a person of conviction. The usual Democratic statements such as "I'm for the Second Amendment but for limited regulation of x,y,z" is not a principle, any more than was Al Gore's debate response in 2004, that he supported regulation of new handguns but not old ones. (What's the principle? That old guns are rusty? Voters saw through it and thought he wanted to support gun control but didn't want to say it.) Here's a principle, and one that distinguishes him clearly from McCain and the GOP: "My basic principle on guns is this: I believe in the rights of law-abiding Americans. That's why I support the rights of law-abiding Americans to own firearms to hunt and protect their families, and why I support the rights of parents to send their kids to school in the morning and know they'll come home safely." That sets the framework for a principled position, for example, against assault weapons (e.g., "If you're hunting with an M-16, you're not bringing that meat home for dinner").
3. Look at the audience and know where the camera is at all times. In his Saddleback performance, Obama split his eye contact between his interviewer, Rick Warren, and his shoelaces. He rarely turned to the camera and his broader television audience. Eye contact and body posture are crucial nonverbal cues in primates including humans, and voters unconsciously process those cues about dominance, sincerity, and so forth. Downcast eyes readily suggest shame, low status, or evasiveness. McCain had been coached by a good media coach to respond to his interview with direct eye contact, often using his name, and then to pivot away toward the audience within one to two seconds. Democrats routinely fail to make use of people who can help them enunciate their positions with strength, conviction, and humor.
4. Avoid dispassionate, meandering, intellectualized answers. Nuance and emotional appeal are not mutually exclusive. Sure, it's harder to enunciate a principle that recognizes ambiguity than one that emanates from a Manichean worldview of the good guys vs. the bad guys. But people are often relieved when someone speaks to their ambivalence. It isn't hard to say that business is the engine of our prosperity but that leadership is about keeping that engine on the right track. Nor is it hard to say what most people feel in their gut, that government shouldn't be in the business of forcing one person to live by another person's faith, which is why Sarah Palin has no right to plan our families for us, but that you ought to have a very good reason (e.g., the mother's life or health is seriously in danger) to abort a late-term fetus.
5. Inspire and indict. As I argued in The Political Brain, and in multiple posts here, you can't win a campaign with one story (about why you should be elected), and no one has ever won the presidency by saying only nice things about himself and his opponent. You have to control the dominant story of who you are (and answer attacks on that story directly and immediately) and the story of who your opponent is and why he's not the right person for the job or the times.
6. Don't run from any issue. State your principles clearly and with conviction, and if you worry that the public isn't with you, turn that into a virtue (by making it a mark of genuineness and courage). The failure to state a clear position on hot-button issues has been a standard Democratic error for decades. Republicans never make this mistake. They've been running on a position on abortion that's at 30% in the polls for years--that life begins at conception, and there's no room for compromise--and this year they've even taken the more extreme position that every rapist has the right to choose the mother of his child. If Democrats don't run on abortion and contraception this year, when Republicans have governed or threaten to govern with positions so far to the right that you can't find them on a map of America (e.g., forcing teenagers to have their rapists' babies, perpetuating the cycle of poverty by making contraceptives unavailable to poor women, teaching only abstinence when it's nearly impossible to name a Republican who ever practiced it--they deserve another 3 Alitos and a Scalia for good measure.
7. Don't run from any attack. Answer it with an attack on the attacker. The two biggest mistakes Democrats repeatedly make are to fail to answer an attack and to get on their heels and try to answer every charge. Answer the weakest link in your opponent's attack and go after him for making it. For example, Obama could easily have addressed the "elitist" charged by simply saying, "Let me get this straight. The guy who has to ask his staff how many homes he has, whose wife says you just can't get around Arizona without a private jet, and who's worth over a hundred million dollars is calling the black guy who just recently paid off his student loans elitist? That dog ain't gonna hunt."
8. Don't worry about looking like the angry black man. People don't see you that way. Your bigger worry is that you don't look masculine, muscular, and aggressive enough. Don't let grandpa push you around. (And Joe, that goes for soon-to-be Grandma Palin.)
9. Remember your first mission: to convey, particularly to white voters who are on the fence, that you share their values and understand and care about people like them. Speak their language, talk about what you want and fear for your kids (which is likely the same as what they want and fear for theirs), and don't hide your values in the fine print of your policy prescriptions. Speak from the gut about what matters to you. A campaign isn't a debate on the issues. One strong values statement (e.g., "It's time we had an economy that works again for people who work for a living") or one strong metaphor (okay, something other than lipstick on a pig) is worth a thousand ten-point plans.
10. Remember your second mission: to make people worry about what would happen if they vote for McCain and Palin. Do you really want to lose your employer-based health insurance and be left on your own to fend for yourself? Do you really want a return to coat-hanger abortions and increase the rate of unwanted pregnancies among poor women and teenagers? Do you really want your teenage son drafted (since there's no other way to maintain our security while keeping tens of thousands of troops in Iraq and deterring people with "the right stuff" from signing up and staying in the military)? Stress your theme of unity, and contrast it with the hate-fest in Minneapolis and the divide-and-conquer tactics the Republicans have been using since Lee Atwater and Karl Rove came on the scene.
11. Use humor, especially when throwing a punch. Humor is disarming, and well-timed lines will be replayed on cable over and over and will be the only thing people who didn't watch the debate will know about your performance.
12. Don't "dumb down" your language, but use words that connect with people and don't make them feel ignorant. They don't need to hear about "marginal tax rates." They need to hear what's going to happen to their paychecks if you're in charge of the tax code. Avoid all acronyms and Washington inside baseball. If you're about to say "S-CHIP," try instead, "I believe people who work for a living ought to be able to take their kids to the doctor when they're sick. Plain and simple. My opponent thinks that if your kid has asthma or you have a bad back and can't get health insurance because of a 'pre-existing condition,' tough break."
13. Keep in mind at all times what stories the other side has effectively told about you (you're an empty celebrity, uppity, elitist, weak, and outside the mainstream) and counter them at every turn. Keep in mind at all times what stories you want voters to be telling the next day about your opponent (that he's out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans; that if you like how things are going now, vote for him; and that he claims to be a straight-talking maverick, but it's hard to know which McCain would show up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because he's been on virtually every side of every issue), and reinforce them at every turn.
14. Remember who your two audiences are: the people who support you already who you want to show up at the polls, and the people who are on the fence who you want to get off on your side. Don't worry about offending people who already detest you and everything you stand for.
15. Be genuine. Don't take any position you don't really believe in. People can tell. And you don't need to be anything but genuine. The American people agree with you on about 80% of the issues, and as Stan Greenberg and I recently found in polling 10,000 likely voters and putting together a Handbook for Progressive Messaging, Democrats can win on every one of the major issues, from economics, to abortion, to national security, to the role of government, with well crafted, emotionally evocative messages.
This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a start. Personally, I'd throw away the briefing books and study this list. The debates won't be won or lost on who jams the most facts into 90 minutes. McCain can't tell a Sunni from a Shiite. If you don't know your position and the reasons for it on every issue after two years of campaigning, you're not going to learn it this week, so don't bother trying. There are more important things to get right--like making eye contact with your audience.
People want to know who their potential President is, and they want to like, trust, and be able to identify with him.
That's what Obama needs to accomplish in the debates.
Drew Westen, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University, founder of Westen Strategies, and author of "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation," recently released in paperback with a new postscript on the 2008 election.
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system?
"McCain is going after my friend with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, my family members with diabetes and my grandfather with health problems."
These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.
A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.
There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”
For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.
“It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs.
According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”
The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”
Under the McCain plan (now the McCain-Palin plan) employees who continue to receive employer-paid health benefits would look at their pay stubs each week or each month and find that additional money had been withheld to cover the taxes on the value of their benefits.
While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That’s because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family — to be used “to help pay for your health care.”
You may think this is a good move or a bad one — but it’s a monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?
The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)
Taxing employer-paid health benefits is the first step in this transition, the equivalent of injecting poison into the system. It’s the beginning of the end.
When younger, healthier workers start seeing additional taxes taken out of their paychecks, some (perhaps many) will opt out of the employer-based plans — either to buy cheaper insurance on their own or to go without coverage.
That will leave employers with a pool of older, less healthy workers to cover. That coverage will necessarily be more expensive, which will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all.
The upshot is that many more Americans — millions more — will find themselves on their own in the bewildering and often treacherous health insurance marketplace. As Senator McCain has said: “I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.”
Yet another radical element of McCain’s plan is his proposal to undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless.
In a refrain we’ve heard many times in recent years, Mr. McCain said he is committed to ridding the market of these “needless and costly” insurance regulations.
This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.
You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.
But we’re not even paying much attention.
Search term Page last updated at 16:59 GMT, Thursday, 18 September 2008 17:59 UK
Top Republican
says Palin unready Senator Chuck Hagel could be influential with independent voters
Senior Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has voiced doubts about Sarah Palin's qualifications for the vice-presidency.
John McCain's running mate "doesn't have any foreign policy credentials", Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald.
Mr Hagel was a prominent supporter of Mr McCain during his 2000 bid for the US presidency, but has declined to endorse either candidate this year.
He was opposed to the Iraq War, and recently joined Mr McCain's rival Barack Obama on a Middle East trip.
'Stop the nonsense'
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Mr Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
And he was dismissive of the fact that Mrs Palin, the governor of Alaska, has made few trips abroad.
"You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."
"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia'," he said.
"That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
BBC North America editor Justin Webb says Mr Hagel's opinion of Mrs Palin will have an effect on independent voters.
A senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Hagel was a close ally of Mr McCain, but the two men parted company over the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Mr Hagel skipped this year's Republican National Convention in favour of a visit to Latin America.
Mr Hagel's decision to accompany Mr Obama this summer on a trip to Iraq and Israel, as part of a US Congressional delegation, led to speculation that he would throw his support behind the Democratic nominee.
However, a spokesman for the Nebraska senator insisted in August that "Senator Hagel has no intention of getting involved in any of the campaigns and is not planning to endorse either candidate".
