This many people should not be showing up for political rallies. The past few days have been unheard of in a primary election. 18k in Denver. 13k in Albequerque. 18k in Boise (yes, that Boise). 20k in St. Louis. And 20k in Minneapolis, the one I volunteered at.Update: Another 20k in Wilmington, DE today! And I forgot to mention, Hillary will be in the Twin Cities today. Speaking to a crowd of about 1,000. Wow.My job was to man one of the three entrance lines into the Target Center. I had to make sure people were in the right lines with the right tickets. If someone was to come to the General line with VIP tickets, I had to walk them up to the much shorter line. And it took over ten minutes each way. The line stretched through multiple skywalks and malls. I tried to take photos, but it didn't do any justice. I tried to take video, but my camera only takes video for 1 minute at a time, also doing the size of the line no justice. The doors opened at 1:30, and it took until 4:00 for our line to get in. And I was working in the shortest line.As the day went on, people slowly discovered our "short line." One guy tried to describe the line out of the main entrance. It went around the Target Center, out of downtown, and across the Interstate. "Dude, there were people for miles," was his exact quote. Another part of my job was to make sure that the people standing in lines for hours were comfortable. I saw an older lady crying, so I approached here to ask what was wrong and what I could do. Her daughter, probably in her 50's said there was nothing I could do, because it was a good cry. She had never seen anything like this, said the daughter. The mother was so amazed and proud of "the young kids" that she was brought to tears.Once we actually got into the arena, there only but a couple of hundred seats or so still open. Our seats were about as far away from the stage as possible. By the time Obama gave his hour speech, my hands hurt from clapping, and my throat was sore from screaming.
No other politician since Bobby and John Kennedy (hence the Kennedy endorsements) have inspired this many people. If you don't think your vote counts this year, you're kidding yourself. So if you are sick of Mr. 25%, and don't want to see one of the Septugenerian Warmongers in the White House for the next year...VOTE. Because McCain did say afterall that he would be happy with another 100 years in Iraq. And that if he was elected, to be ready for more wars. And lets face it, Hillary vs. McCain is the only contest the Repubs have a prayer of winning.So on Tuesday, take 2 minutes out of your day, and Vote (preferably for Obama). In Grand Forks, go to the second floor of the Union, or the Townhouse Hotel between 2 and 8 PM.If you're in Minot, go to the Public Library between 2 and 8. This truly is a grassroots movement. This campaign is built from the bottom up. Some numbers:
-Well over 500,000 individual donors-177,000 new donors in January alone-$32 Million in January alone-4 offices in ND with paid staff (the only campaign with a presence here)
Rep. Pomeroy will be at the Loading Dock on Mon. at 7 PM to campaign for Obama. Also, look out for Sen. Conrad's commercials on the teevee telling us why he supports Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY Celebrities can be a part of the grassroots too. Watch this video.
Yes.We.Can.
Peace
We all now the high standards that News Corpse holds their "journalists" to. But just in case some of you out there forgot, the newest film from Robert Greenwald serves as a little reminder.
It starts out with Chris Wallace whining about Edwards and Obama not appearing on his show. The film then goes into Orally and Co. smearing Edwards, repeatedly calling him a phony. Oh, and dont forget the Coultergeist calling him the f-word. Classy broad, that one.
Then, its Obama's turn. The repeated reporting of Madrassa-gate. Flag-Pin-on-the-Lapel-Gate. Black Hussein Muslim Obama. Domestic insurgent (whatever that's supposed to mean. Blah blah blah.
You know, for the life of me, I cannot understand why Obama and Edwards don't want to appear on the Faux News Channel.
So after you watch the film, sign the letter letting Barack know that we support him 100% in his decision to not appear on FNC. You can write a little a message as well.
http://bravenewfilms.org/
Oft-cynical and always vulgar Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone is one that is hard to impress. It is not often that he says much positive about politicians. However, his article on Obama is fairly complimentary, even though it may come across as back-handed some of the time. It is still definately worth a look.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/17652931/obamas_moment
Just read a diary over at Daily Kos showing some very heartening numbers. It has Obama up 8 in Iowa, down an insignificant 1 point in New Hampshire, and up 6 in South Carolina. It has been said many times, but I want to say it again: if Obama wins Iowa, he will win the nomination.
Sorry so short, but I really need to be studying for finals. Just wanted to pass on the good news.
Linkys:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/12/9240/5156/1009/421040
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/RCP_PDF/InsiderAdvantage_Majority_Opinion_Early_Dec_SC_Dem_Poll.pdf
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/12/12/obama_huckabee_lead_in_iowa.html
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/12/cnn-nh-poll-obama-clinton-tied-romney-remains-strong/
Howard Fineman of Newsweek, one of the Very.Serious.People. in DC Punditistan, takes Obama to task. He lets his readers know how unmanly it was of Obama to be on a stage with two strong women (Michelle and Obama).
And he's serious.
"The good news for Obama is that Oprah was his lead-in. She is wildly popular, as the banshee screams proved when she strode onto the stage in black slacks and a canary yellow jacket.
But the bad news is that Oprah was his lead-in. She is astonishing, truly. The woman was on her maiden campaign trail voyage, and yet she already she was better—more cogent, more effective, more convincing—than anyone out there. "I'm the third best speaker on the stage," the senator said. Unfortunately, he was right [...]
Whether by instinct or design, the thin-as-a-rail, youthful looking Obama looked somehow innocent as he appeared—a man-child in this setting, doted over and presented by two powerful, commanding women (his wife and his endorser). "
I dropped him an email pointing out his inanity. Maybe you'd like to do the same. Here's his address: mailto:webeditors@newsweek.com
Like Kos said, "[w]hat, would Obama have scored had he strode out in a wife-beater shirt, clocked his wife and pushed Oprah off the stage?"
Barack hasn't even gotten the nomination yet, but that hasn't stopped the buffoonery. It's only gonna get worse once he gets the nod, so I say lets nip this in the bud, see if we cant knock some sense into the Very.Serious.People.
One of Hillary Clinton's former co-chairs from Iowa is now in the Obama camp. He says it is because of her decision to go negative as of late. The Clinton camp says that he left in October. Regardless, he is now with Obama. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend as it appears that Obama will win Iowa.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/06/clinton_losing_some_support_wi.html#more
So I went into this with low expectations. I thought maybe 5 would show up...10 tops. But the people just kept showing up. And showing up. By the time everybody got their drinks and we got the thing started, about 30 were gathered.
We started by going around the room and introducing ourselves and sharing why we support Sen. Obama. There were people from all walks of life; doctors, lawyers, party activists, college students, high school students, a pastor, etc. They was even a Hillary supporter or two.
Our wonderful 'host' for the night, Matt Weinstein, then explained the ND caucus process; fairly simple process. He then went through the standard "what can we do" stuff. Someone suggested Shoveling Snow For Barack. I think this is a very good idea, and I am planning on indepentantly taking this into my own hands. I am going to purchase the Campus Visibility Pack, and when we get a storm, go to the houses of elderly folks in my neighborhood and shovel their driveways courtesy of the Obama Campaign. I will give them a button or sticker or window sign and encourage them to caucus for Obama on Feb. 5. I also got some swag from Matt along with some sign-up sheets. Im going to camp out in the quad on campus over the next couple of weeks and try to 'recruit' my fellow students to the campaign.
All in all it was a very productive and promising meeting. It feels good to back into actively supporting Sen. Obama. Gonna try to make down to Iowa sometime over Christmas Break as well.
We all know that the internet is going to be very important in '08. I would bet money, if it was legal, that Obama has people reading all of these posts in all of these groups. And obviously not all of the messages get passed up to Obama himself, but if enough people start talking about any particular subject, chances are better that it will make its way up.
IMHO, I think it would be much more likely that Obama would come and visit either ND or MN if we let him know how much we want him here. Being that the internet and youth vote go hand in hand, again imho, I think NDSU (more likely) or UND would be the most likely destination.
If we can get enough people on here chatting about it, writing emails, and whatnot, maybe we could get him here. With red states going blue in the '06 midterms, theres no reason why ND can't go blue in '08. Obama would not win ND without visiting, and MN is going to be one of the crucial swings. Let's use Dean's 50 state initiative to let the DLC and MSM that we are helping Obama change the status quo.
Also, another quick suggestion - email Ed Schultz and ask him to use his position and let Obama know how we are supporting him. Ed is a great asset to our area, and we should use his standing to the fullest.
Let me know if you think this is reasonable. Or if I am delusional.
This morning, the campaign released detailed numbers regarding the first quarter, or First Primary as some have called it. Of the $25 million Obama raised, $23.5 million is available for the primaries.
Obama's numbers are ridiculous, and clearly he is clearly the "winner," if you will. Over 100,000 donors, with over 90,000 giving less than $100, and over 25,000 of the 50,000 who gave online, gave less than $25. That means we can repeatedly give and give, opposed to the the other front-runner, who many believe received most of her funds from donors giving the max.
According to those in the know, the second quarter is when we get a better of idea of how things will turn out in the end. This is when the grassroots (or netroots) can truly show our strength. With the big money donors out of the picture, we need to show the difference we can make. So to everybody that has taken part, congratulations, and thank you. But now is when we need to step it up.
Not to be disrespectful of anybody here, because after all, people are obviously taking the initiative to sign up on the site. But I have been fairly discouraged to see that there is not a whole lot of action being taken. For those of us that are already here, it is our job to start seeing results. Organizing, raising funds, discussion, etc... For the time being, check out the link below.
Link
Hey fellow UND-ers. Just curious if anybody is interested in coming up with some ways to raise money for the campaign. I think there a lot of students here on campus who are sick of the direction we have gone as a country in the past six years, and would be more than happy to get involved. If anybody has any ideas, let me know.
RJ
