Yesterday, I got a snail mail from the MN DFL asking for money... and under normal circumstances, it would be ok, well I'd rather just donate to the candidates, but a small sum makes some sense. The state party does a lot of good things, and it makes sense to support them. I am not so sure about the national party after yesterday.
Apparently, at the convention its very much big money=big influence, esp after the stories of the Peolosi 100, and even worse after the ABC news reporter got arrested for photographing them.... Obviously there must be a lot more to the story than just photos... but it sure points to the need for big changes in campaign finance laws. Barack set the stage with small donors, in addition to his stance on lobbyist money. Otoh, when the national party is going full bore politics as usual, or worse, that is not such a good thing. I do hope that when Barack is elected, he can foster campaign finance reform that really works, and that puts things on a more level playing field. How to deal with 527's and freedom of speech issues indeed will be a sticky wicket, but that too will need to be addressed. There are also the issues of individual financing of campaign ads, ie saysmetv and others. Thats going to be an interesting one for sure.
Wow, so I am so busy with the phone work, I realized I am way behind on sharpening the saw. Thus, its now 3:45AM, and I'm still up.
Here are the notes from the Feb 22 conference call. These are a bit sketchy, as they are an engineers personal notes, not anywhere near refind enough for general publication, however, the bits and pieces presented here may be of help when calling Wyoming and Mississippi over the next few days.
Phone tips1. Most people won't be as knowledgeable about the candidates or issues. Thus, take your time.
2. Talk slowly, we are excited, others may not be, thats ok, it takes time for excitement to build.
3. Dont assume people know Obama is a Democrat, some may think he is running against Hilary in the general election as a Republican. This has happened more than once.
4. Try to find something to connect with the person. I use weather forecasts, or local news. 2 minutes in the morning of local news for the day can pay large dividends in creating a connection, and thus make people more receptive to hearing why we are so excited about Barack.
5. Use the state website of where you are calling find out where Obama is that day, invite folks to a rally etc.
6. Check the commercials by state page to review commercials as potential ice breakers7. Pause after intro to get a feel where they are at.8. The script changes state by state, and in some cases daily review all options first. You can use the previous question button to backup and scroll through options.
9. (not from the conference call, but from my states director that day) Personalize the message. The script is only a framework, and its fine to use for the first few calls, and to see the issues for the day or location, but folks will listen and engage in conversation if its personal, less so, if its the script by itself. However.... feel free to use the script as is, until you are comfortable. The key is to be relaxed and have fun. (smile, yes, the phone could care less, but the process of doing so does change how you sound, and it does make a difference)
10. keep positive
11. lead into a decision, not away from.
The campaign has asked that we do not directly contact superdelegates, unless we have prior connections to them. However, they did add a submission form where we can contribute our stories.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/superdelstory
Here is mine:
In the past, I looked at issues, mostly with a Republican bias and spin... or the spin of various groups mostly conservative. Yet, in the back of my mind, often times things seemed off, but I couldn't put a finger on it as to why. For the most part I was apathetic, excluding the times I'd get a mailer from a PAC or other org to write to congress etc.Then I watched Barack Obama's 2004 speech at the DNC, and I thought wow, too bad this guy isn't running. As time went on, my cynicism and apathy continued... and then I saw Obama again, and things clicked. He sees the potential for a positive future, not the dismal one I had resigned myself to where kids are left in a much worse state than their parents, or even grandparents. Yet, a view of the future and rah rah is a short term thing, it doesn't get one very far, and likely would end up in disappointment, and more cynicism and apathy. I thus had research to do to see where he was coming from. And from an initial read of his platform where I disagreed with most things, I changed my views significantly. In fact, at this point, I'm convinced that supply side economics has failed miserably, as well as a multitude of foreign and domestic policies I previous agreed with. Thus, the next step was to look in depth at the policies of both candidates, as well as their legislative records. For the most part, I find myself very much in agreement. They are indeed 90% or more the same, although the remaining 10% is a huge difference, and is a significant part why I can not support her. Ultimately though I support Barack, not because of Hillary's policy positions, but more so as a function of two very simple words. I and WE.Hillary takes a stance of I, and that she will make things happen. And while divide and conquer is a somewhat proven strategy, it is a slow one, and even then... so much gets cut, what started out as something pretty amazing, ends up being a small fraction of what might have been possible. Secondly in going it alone, the potential for huge mistakes and missteps is just too great.Barack on the other hand, uses the word WE. It doesn't matter which party holds the house and or senate, as even though the legislature will likely swing Democratic, a wide variety of opinions are held by special interests and lobbyists, and that is where the power ultimately resides. (I've seen it, and have been in the midst of it...) when the calls for letters occur, things do happen, in part due to direct lobbying, in part due to many thousands of letters, phone calls, and faxes). To accomplish whats laid out in the plans of either Hillary or Barack, active constituents must rally around an issue, and apply heat as needed to the legislative branch. I'm afraid without active constituent participation, our country likely will continue with the ways of the past until really serious damage occurs, or the secondary consequences of inaction come back to haunt us in a huge way. The subprime mortgage mess is just one of many. The current deadlock over updating FISA is another.Therefore, unless we want to continue down the same path of old, and repeat the errors history tells us will occur, there really is only one candidate, and that is Senator Barack Obama.RespectfullyRon Amundson
Wow, I don't know what sort of magic Maggie Williams brought to the table, but obviously this part of a larger strategy... and its working. Talk about positive spin recovery, the gamble is working... but not quite good enough. The divide and confuse part did not work, and in fact served to rally our throops even more so. This rallying dynamic was an unknown to them and to me, and I must say I am more than pleasantly surprised. We are at 1,000,050 donors at 4:05AM CST. Amazing, really amazing.
Despite loosing, she set a tone, and created a powerful reference frame, all good things for her donor pool, and her future career in politics, but its no where near enough to bypass our momentum. Short of a major happening in the next few days, she is likely finished. Yet, the American Leadership Project (the 527 set up to campaign for her...iffy I know) still could have a lot of cards to play over the next week... thus, we need to keep on the phone, and keep on donating. We must not let our guard down.
If you haven't donated yet, even $5 helps. My initial target is 100 donors of $5 each, and then I'll raise the bar, and keep on breaking the thermometer. My donation page is at
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/RonAmundson
If you haven't made any calls yet, by all means check out the Barack's inspired phone bank army. We had a conference call last friday night, and it was incredibly helpful... and I'm a newbie there.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BaracksInspiredPhoneBankArmy
If any member of the group Beards for Obama donates to my page within the next 72 hours, I'll kick in an extra $50 this weekend, and delay cutting mine until Barack win's the nomination.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BeardsforObama
Yes we can!
I would hope that Obama steers clear of public campaign financing... its a disaster in the making on all sides, unless limits are put in place concerning 527's and PACs. The last thing the country needs is those folks having a field day, as they would effectively take over the campaigns from the candidate. John McCain had some interesting comments in 2004.
http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2004/031004_mccain.htm
Ultimately, as quoted from
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=would_you_make_a_pledge_with_t
A commitment to "preserve a publicly financed election" would have to mean much more than whether both participate in the system. It would require some significant agreement about how to handle outside money, 527s, "Swift Boat"-type attack groups, party money, etc., and other factors that have undermined the last two publicly financed elections, from both sides.
The last thing the country needs is Swift Boats vs Moveon, as effectively, that moves us back towards partisan politics as usual.
Now, if the two campaigns can address the outside money issues, somehow without stepping on free speech concerns (not so easy) I think public campaign financing is a great way to go, but its unlikely to happen anytime in the near future. It will be interesting, thats for sure.
I remember watching this, and saying to my wife.... That is the guy, if only he were running for president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCLomrqIN8
And then, here I am 4 years later, no longer a Republican, but actually calling folks for Barack, and a county delegate. Amazing how things can change. Whats even more interesting, is having walked into the caucus with somewhat neutral feelings, and then a bit of paranoia after being chosen a delegate, now I'm excited about that too. I'm already sign up as a volunteer for Tim Walz, and just signed up for Jack Nelson Pallmeyer's newsletter too. Quite a change from the days, when I was more aligned with the neocon crowd than the liberals.
Yet, I don't really think I've changed a whole lot, but more so, the parties and their ideals have changed, or perhaps my percpetions of what their ideals actually were. I was in state govt many years ago, so I have a sense, albeit a dated one of the internal workings of politics. And somehow or another, so much today is not really what it seems. Ultimately, I think it comes down to vision, more so than a specific ideology. Barack has vision, Coleman used to, Walz does, and I tend to think Nelson Pallmeyer does as well, although it is likely a bit early to make the call on him.
Its going to be a bit uncomfortable telling Norm, and my other republican friends, but alas I an on board, and ready to roll for these folks. It will be interesting for sure.
I've been a Republican since I first started voting. I still remember going to see Ronald Reagan like it was yesterday. I remember my days dabbling with poitics as an appointee. I remember seeing compromise up close and personal.... and than having to deal with the fallout on returning back home.
The Republican party had solutions back then.... and every year it seemed to become more and more aligned with the special interests, and less so with the ideals of the past or a vision of the future. Government has grown and grown, and it appears no end is in sight, excluding of course economic limitations on a world scale.
And with growth, comes a different set of priorities and conflicts of interests. Thus, we find ourselves in the mess we are in today. We do truely lack vision.... and this is where I see Obama making a difference.
I don't agree a whole lot with the issues he is taking a stand on, much less so Hilaries, and even more much much more so the democratic party as a whole. However... Obama has a vision, a vision that transcends party lines, a vision that just might come to pass, a vision with potential for greatness. If some of the issues come along as part of doing so, thats ok. The big picture is what we need, and I firmly believe Obama will bring that to the table.
That being said... a couple issues I do agree with.
Global warming, and green in general: The current path we are on will end in disaster, the Green path likely will not. The difference, one set of investment bankers looses to another set of investment bankers. Economically, either path is viable, although green is likely less expensive in the long term... (and quite possibly in the short term) there is a ton of money to be made and saved in the green world. However, it will cause an economic shift from one group to another, and that is going to cause no small amount of headaches.
Education: The no child left behind deal was good in concept, very bad in implementation. No one wants to spend money on an inefficient, or an educational system which strives for mediocrity. (well, mediocre folks probably do) Yet, teaching to standardize tests does has the unintended consequence of fostering the exact situation it was created to prevent.
Poverty: Obama's plan is on the money. Its a short term heavy duty investment to reap huge long term rewards. It really is a no brainer.... but alas, my Republican cohorts won't see it that way.
Ultimately, I have to ask myself... what if Senator McCain ends up the contender with Obama, who would I side with. I have the utmost respect for Senator McCain, and I agree with many of his views on the issues. What I don't see however, is the vision for the future. It won't be an easy call, but I am likely to side with Obama this time around. It indeed is a huge change!
