Just before President Obama's speech at Springfield, IL for the legacy of Lincoln,
Sen Gregg (Commerce Secretary) pulled out the job.
I felt Republicans are not fair. President had generousty to include him in cabinet with
such a critical job.
Meanwhile, President's speech for Lincoln was so calm and he had no emotions against
Sen.Gregg and he called the union of the state.
It was a crying speech again. I will support President Obama. Yes !
He is my President, your President, our President.
I can not believe how could Republicans, Sen Gregg etc can be against.
Republican Politicians may have disagreements with ideas but still they should
remember we voted him.
Sooner or later Republican politicians will find themselves be eliminated from
us public if they continue.
I can show such anger but our President is so calm and great.
I call everyone to support our President, more.
I stand for President Obama whatsoever.
http://progressivesforobama.net/discussion-on-our-future/
Discussion on Our FutureWhat Next for P4O?An Organizing Proposal fora Left-Progressive NationalNetwork and Clearinghouse
By Carl Davidson and Bill Fletcher, Jr.
How can the people brought together by the ‘Progressives for Obama’ project make a transition into a broader and ongoing post-election nationwide network? How can that network continue to serve as a left-progressive pole within the broader alliance of Obama activists and voters, while contributing to the organization of the instruments for popular political power? What follows is an outline of the organizing tasks and components of such an effort, with an invitation to wider discussion among our community of supporters and activists.
Starting Points
The most important node on the new network is the base community. This is a grassroots group of left-progressive voter-activists situated where people live, work or go to school.
1. Where people live can be a neighborhood, a township, precinct, church parish, temple or mosque, a ward, town or city, state legislative districts or congressional districts. It can be any combination or variation of these, but the main point is that they have a set of elected officials or governmental body as a target.2. Where people work is important because of the potential power of organized labor, whether their workplace is currently organized or not. That power is multiplied by the direct engagement of the rank-and-file in base organizations, committees and such.3. Where people go to school is important because of the powerful role of youth as a critical force, often serving to awaken the wider society to injustices, local and global. School is the most common place they come together, but faith, culture and sports venues are also important here.
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
1. Universal single payer healthcare system, just as the rest of the world. It'l be less expensive, support the economy and the country, and it wont violate human rights just as current "system" does. Have concurrently private plans also.
2. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. No eastern push in Europe, no radar defense. Provide security and peace by mutual accords. Engage the region economically and politically, not with new weapons.
3. Cut defence budget by 30%. Eliminate all waste. Keep the deterrent, keep Usa the strongest in the world. Immediately stop the torture practices, immediately shut down Guantanamo base camp.
4. Eliminate tremendous waste in Medicare system.
5. Prevent monopolies to corrupt the market, especially in the oil industry. Prevent the usage of dangerous, out-of-control financial tools in the finance industry - lead, regulate sensibly. Defend the healthy market conditions.
6. Deal with 911 openly. Investigate. Say what it really was - a controlled demolition. We have seen it live on tv.
7. Car industry - invest in this country, build factories (not only car factories) and manufacture here, not in China. Support the car industry, also redistribute the robbery profits from oil monopolies to car industry.
8. Raise minimum wage to a reasonable level.
9. Eliminate the Dept of Homeland Security, immediately after the last unfortunate war security fallout is settled (the endles war of civilizations and occupations).
10. Completely reevaluate the relationship with Cuba - install normal relations, promote free enterprise, American interests while respecting that local system - let Cubans themselves establish their own system.
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've just posted a new Group, "Mililani for Obama GOTV" and a Sign Waving Event for residents in Mililani, HI. For those who have friends and relatives in Mililani, please encourage them to sign-up for Sign Waving. Mahalo!
Login to my.barackobama.com, sign-up and bring family & friends. The person who registers for the event AND brings the largest number of sign-wavers to this event, wins one of my Obama Ohana T-shirts (up to $29.99 value, plus shipping)! www.cafepress.com/obamaohana
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.
For too long, the Asian American & Pacific Islander vote has been forgotten or ignored. Sen. Obama is committed to real change and giving AAPIs a real voice in this election. Join the Oregon Obama campaign's AAPI Action Team and help organize efforts in the Oregon AAPI community to:
1) Register as many new voters as possible by the Oct. 14th deadline; 2) Reaching out to undecided AAPI voters; & 3) Make sure everyone votes once ballots drop on Oct. 17th.
Sign up today on MyBarackObama.com: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gshcd2
We have had a wonderful response from greatful new voters for making it convenient for them to register. I'm on Oahu, and we still need volunteers who have time to work with our Deputized Registrars at college campuses and community events. Details are on our Hawaii Events page on this website: LinkIf you know of a venue where we could hold a Voter Registration and have a willing contact person to work with (property manager, business owner, administrator, etc.,) please message me, and I will forward the information to our Coordinator. If you have unregistered family and friends in Hawai`i, please remind them of the October 6th deadline, and encourage them to register.
Wherever you are, please check your Events list and volunteer, even if you can only spare an hour, to give another volunteer a break in a long day. The more, the merrier! Mahalo (thank you)!
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.
Last night I fell asleep as I was watching C-Span. This morning very early, about 4 a.m., Obama's voice entered my hearing. It was very pleasant listening to his plans for a new economy. I appreciate it that he's about solutions and not about blaming others for their mistakes.
Today I was in Trader Joes', buying almonds and wearing one of my Obama hats. The man behind me in line struck up a conversation about Barack that was very empowering to us both. It's best to wear some kind of indication of our preference for Obama so that people can communicate with us one way or another. If they are for Barack, it's easy. If they are not, it's an opportunity to be like Barack. He respects everyone.
Tomorrow I'm phonebanking to Nevada with CD30, my caucus group.
Have a productive Sunday!
Reagan’s America is dead.
If not dead, it lies fallen on a US economy near ruin. The recent collapse of several financial giants and the extreme concentration of wealth in a few hands have reached levels unmatched since the 1930’s Great Depression Era. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who witnessed firsthand the Great Depression, declared “This is the worst economy I’ve ever seen.”
Like Oscar Wilde’s tragic protagonist Dorian Gray whose beauty gives way to his true ugliness once his portrait is destroyed, the inheritors of the Reagan mantle, McCain-Palin are revealed for what they are—pallbearers of a legacy best left to die and be buried.
We should be cheering at the funeral.
On September 17th, I drove 4 hours to Las Vegas to attend the rally. It was awesome. I met alot great Obama supporters and had a chance to see Barack in person. To hear him speak and connect with the thousands of people who attended was a treat. It was worth standing in line for 2 1/2 hours, sit in the 90 degree sun for 3 hours and the 8 hour round trip drive.
On the 26th, I going back to help canvas in Las Vegas. Fired up and ready to go!!!!
US Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama speaks during a rally at Cashman Field
Full coverage »
3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama topped two key national polls Thursday which showed the financial crisis reverberating through the White House race and "Palin power" fading for the Republican ticket.
The Democratic hopeful, who has been lacerating rival John McCain over his capacity to rescue the US economy, led 49 to 45 percent in a new poll of likely voters nationwide by Quinnipiac University.
In a CBS/New York Times survey, Obama was up by 48 percent to 43 percent, with the race apparently reverting to the narrow Democratic ascendency seen before two presidential nominating conventions.
McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate had rocked the race and electrified the conservative base, pushing the Republican into the lead in polls and spreading panic among some Democrats.
But recent opinion snapshots polls appear to show Palin's injection of momentum for McCain diminishing.
"Senator Obama is right back where he was before the so-called convention bounces with a four-point lead," said Maurice Carroll, director the Quinnipiac University polling institute.
"The Democratic discombobulation after the selection of Governor Palin as GOP running mate seems to be steadying."
The Quinnipiac survey suggested that economic arguments may be swaying support towards Obama.
In the poll, 51 percent said that McCain's proposed tax cut will help the rich while only nine percent say it will aid the middle class.
Thirty-three percent say Obama's tax plans will help the middle class and only nine percent say it will benefit the rich.
The Quinnipiac poll showed that Obama led 54-40 percent among women voters, the key demographic which Palin is targeting for Republicans.
He had a 91 percent lead among African-Americans and was the favorite of young voters and those over 55, while independents were split 46 to 45 percent.
McCain did best among men, 50-43 percent and led 71 percent to 21 percent among white evangelical Christians -- a figure reflecting Palin's impact on core Republican voters.
The survey was conducted between September 11 and Tuesday, so is likely to have been influenced by the latest US financial crisis which erupted at the weekend.
The CBS survey found that independents who favored Obama in late August moved to McCain in days following the Republican convention, then returned to Obama in the last week, the survey showed.
Independents favored Obama over McCain by 46 percent to 41 percent in the survey conducted between September 12 and 16 with a margin of error of three percent.
The CBS poll also showed that despite McCain's attempts to seize the mantle of "change" from Obama, voters were more likely to see the Democratic candidate as an agent of reform -- by 65 to 37 percent.
The poll also found that women have returned to Obama after favoring McCain by five points just two weeks ago. Obama now leads McCain by 54 percent to 38 percent among all women.
Though Obama has the edge on the national stage, another fresh survey by CNN/Time magazine/Opinion Research Corp. had the two candidates virtually tied in five pivotal states: Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Obama and McCain were expected to renew their battle over the global credit crisis, after central banks injected more than 300 billion dollars into the markets and pressure mounted on Morgan Stanley and Swiss bank UBS.
Obama was campaigning in the key western battleground of New Mexico, while McCain and Palin were due to stump in midwestern Iowa, which polls show is trending towards the Democrats and battleground Wisconsin.
On Wednesday, the candidates traded stinging blows over the crisis as Obama ridiculed McCain as a lifelong member of the "old boys' network" that the Republican said had driven the US economy into crisis.
McCain vowed to take on Wall Street's "casino culture" after the US government's 85-billion-dollar bailout of giant insurer American International Group, the latest shock of a horrific fortnight for the financial industry.
Both candidates indicated the Federal Reserve's lifeline was regrettable but necessary to prevent AIG's troubles engulfing the wider economy.
Ahead of the November 4 election, Obama is driving home his polling edge on the economy to hammer his Republican adversary as out of touch with voters' anxieties in the face of rising job losses and home seizures.
