Hey-
Welcome to the High Country for Barack Obama newsletter! I’m Wayne Braffman, and from now through November 4th you can expect an e-mail from me each week to help keep you up to date about the campaign. Below you’ll find links and attachments to get you started. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions or ideas for the newsletter, or to subscribe to it (HighCountryObama@BellSouth.Net). This is our movement!
Obama/Biden...YES WE CAN!
-Wayne
(ps: e-mail me at HighCountryObama@BellSouth.Net if you want any of the attachments mentioned below.)
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In John McCain's most recent attack ad "The One," he closes with the question: "He may be the one, but is he ready to lead?"
So let's take a moment to answer that question.
Are you going to let a terrorist tell you how to vote?
John McCain thinks you should.
There's a real chance that incumbent Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry will lose his primary...which will give us a golden opportunity to pick up another House seat in November.
He's being charged (and rightfully so) by his opponent with endangering the lives of American soldiers in Iraq by posting a video on YouTube that revealed our positions and may have led to the death of American soldiers.
Here's a link to the tv ad that his opponent is running:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LNsXaXCVg0
And here's a link to a good description of the issue and how to challenge him on it:
http://bluenc.com/an-open-letter-calling-for-the-investigation-of-congressman-patrick-mchenry
Please spread this around and talk it up with your Republican friends (I know you have them!). Opportunities to unseat an incumbent are few and far between.
Let's go for it!
Thanks to John Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo ( http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/188674.php ), we have the video.
Here's the link to his magnificent response to Clinton and McCain attacking him on his "people are bitter" comment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc9PepjyDow
Q: How do you get to 100 years in Iraq?
A: 6 months at a time!
New MoveOn.org ad:
The Acton Institute is a conservative think tank with the goal of “Integrating Judeo-Christian Truths with Free Market Principles (see http://www.acton.org/about/principles.php )
Professor Anthony Bradley (Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, Covenant Theological Seminary) is a research fellow at the Institute and is a favorite of Glenn Beck and other Fox flunkies (HNN video with Beck here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hv1ShidiN2g )
Bradley is the one most likely to be quoted when someone tells you that Wright’s religion is anti-white and anti-American. So that makes it especially powerful for us to cite back to them Bradley’s statement below that Obama does not believe in what Reverend Wright preaches. It will also help with that “he sat there for 20 years so he must believe it” argument.
Here's a Fox News interview with a (white) Catholic priest who supports Rev. Wright by comparing him to Jesus. What if we took 30-second film clips of Jesus overturning tables in the temple? Or saying you must hate your parents in order to love me? We would have thought him a crazy man.
Well worth watching and spreading:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?videoId=1fd1c0cf-5c80-4d75-996f-bd53b2461ae0&sMPlaylistID
(Added bonus: He goes on to compare Wright's patriotism to Bill O'Reilly's!)
My wife and I spent the afternoon registering voters outside the WalMart in Morganton. We weren't allowed to wear buttons or show any campaign material, so shoppers didn't know for sure who we supported.
We did ok registering new voters (maybe 30 in 3 hours). But the problem was the unsolicited response we got from way too many registered voters: "There's no good choices this time."
To be fair, I had no idea what their party affiliation was, but my gut feeling was that this was code for "I won't vote for a woman or an African-American."
First question: Are other people getting this kind of reaction?
Second question: Is it widespread?
Third question: If the answers to the first 2 questions are "yes," then what on earth are we going to do about it?
Hillary sent out an e-mail this morning asking supporters to pose questions that she will answer. Let's bombard her site with the tough ones, like:
Why have you attacked Obama in a way that gives McCain ammunition if Obama is our candidate?
What will it take to convince you that you have lost?
Do you agree that it is essential to have a Democrat in the White House, even if it isn't you?
And that's just for starters!
Here's the link:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/ncask/?sc=2412
Let her know what's really on our minds!
Here's the link to a blog I posted on Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/5/11512/74004/537/490684
Please go over there now and recommend it!
Today's Washington Post praises Obama's organization in North Carolina as far superior to Hillary's and includes this nod to the Hickory office:
THE RACE FOR MONEY
Clinton Camp Feels Spent, and Outspent
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 4, 2008; Page A06
“In North Carolina, which will vote on May 6, the Obama campaign has opened 16 offices, including ones in smaller locales such as Hickory, Elizabeth City and Boone. Obama is spending $800,000 on the airwaves, and his team is making a strong push to register voters, with 22 training and local outreach sessions scheduled for yesterday alone.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040300407.html?nav=hcmodule
Here’s the link and the article. Spread it far. Spread it wide. Spread it fast!!!
Hillary's histrionics got you hysterical?
Frustrated by Fox (Faux) News?
Cringing at the thought that Carville might expose your treachery on national television?
Dodging sniper fire from Republicans got you down?
Wright and Wrong have you overwrought?
Just plain frazzled working your butt off for Obama?
Fortunately, help is just a click away. Here's a 5-minute relaxation video I made a year ago...and 40,000 viewers can attest to how well it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JTyYi6rvEg
So take 5... chill out... refresh and restore... and then back to work!
YES YOU CAN!!!
