Congratualtion Presedent Barack Obama, and all of you who gave of your time, money, strength.
We have made history. I am so proud of this movement and of America.
Pensilvania could slip away from Obama, and take away our future with it. We need this state to keep the dream alive. McCain is gaining in polls people. Please come to barackobama.com and make a few calls. You don't have to worry what to say, the lines are there to read. Call voters and tell them where their voting station is. Call some and ask them to call some. You have free nights and weekends on your cell.
This is it!
We're coming down to the final stretch and Barack Obama needs your help now, more than ever before!
Please bring your cell phone, a charger and a few fun friends who care about change and join with thousands of your neighbors in the largest ever-attempted phone bank effort in New York state history. The Obama campaign is hosting several of these "mega call centers" all over New York, so invite your friends and family to make calls to voters in key battleground states and change America for years to come.
Visit http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/nylastcall to find a location near you.
http://ny.barackobama.com/NYlastcall
I was surprised to hear Barack state on Bill O’Reily’s show, “the surge worked beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.” This is a mistake. If the invasion of Iraq were carried out using the appropriate number of troops from the beginning, the need for a surge would not have been necessary.
In a New York Times article dated Feb 28, 2003, Eric Schmitt outlines Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki’s estimate that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to secure post war Iraq. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz criticized General Shinseki, and called his estimate wildly “off- the- mark.” The reason Gen. Shinseki was “shouted down” is that the Bush administration wanted to hide the cost of the Iraq war from Congress until after the war had begun. The Bush administration won. The war begun with too few troops, continued with too few troops, so that created the need for a “surge” (bringing troop levels closer to the general’s estimate). This "surge" masked the initial blunder of not taking the advice of the Army Chief of Staff.
I hope that the campaign “cleans up” Barack’s mistake, or at least puts the following information out there.
As I worked to persuade voters this past week, their key sticking point in not supporting Barack is the belief that he plans to RAISE TAXES. When pressed, these people could not say which taxes they believed Barack would raise. This is signifies that the McCain campaign’s rhetoric is not specific, so we can defeat it. The reason this argument has traction is because of the Bush administration’s lack of fiscal responsibility.
Potential voters realize how much the government has spent on wars over the past 8 years, and they get as angry at the spending, as the misguided war. The strategy to defeat the “raise taxes” argument is simple: highlight Barack’s fiscal policies, and make the case that spending tax dollars wisely will prevent the need to raise taxes. We have to become familiar with the fiscal policies and tell everyone who asks what those policies are:
It's very unlikely that Senator McCain knew about the pregnancy of Gov. Palin's daughter. I think McCain's maverick personna is what led to him not fully "vett" his choice for VP, but instead go with his "gut" instinct. This reckless lack of judgment ties McCain to the failed policies of Bush, particularly in regard to foreign policy. Recall the "Mission Accomplished" fiasco. As a consequence, we are afforded an opportunity with a short "window." Barack must outline his policies in detail, illustrate how those policies will be financed, and use the word JUDGMENT as much as possible. Let the audience draw the comparison.
I just saw a video blog of Diddy aka Sean Combs criticizing John McCain for choosing Sarah Palin. While this is not a bad thing, the WAY he chose to express himself will cause our campaign some bad press. Diddy's expletive filled rant is airing on right-wing blogs and YouTube as an example of a TYPICAL OBAMA SUPPORTER. Now we know that the other side is going to twist and spin the words we use, so it's important to choose our words CAREFULLY. Our actions should be "ready for primetime," (meaning no foul language or threats). At this stage of the game, we don't want to say nor do things that will make our supporters feel like they are on the wrong side.
We all know Hillary is awesome. I do admire her, she's truly a great person and a living-legend. But, as she has said, this is a new day in America and anyone who wants the office should have the opportunity; it just so happens, that we now have a more perfect person that is fully prepared to lead us from these last eight years of hell to a new and happier, more prosperous nation - United as One.
Yes We Can!
Sen. Barack Obama waded deep into Clinton territory Thursday evening at a private LGBT fund-raiser in New York City where the price of admission was $2,300 per person.
Held at the apartment of GLSEN founder and executive director Kevin Jennings and his partner, Jeff Davis, the event drew about 125 people and raised $170,000. No press were admitted, but based on several accounts, attendees were struck by the Illinois senator’s candor as well as his fluency with LGBT issues.
“I’ve been to many events over the past 10 years of candidates running for office,” said Corey Johnson, one of the hosts, “This was the most forthright, eloquent, and detailed stuff I’ve heard from a politician [regarding gay issues].”
Molly Lenore, 43, compared Obama’s discussion of the LGBT community to the speech he gave about race in America last week. “During his race speech, everybody said afterward that he treated the American people like adults, and I felt like that’s what he did,” said Lenore, who is transgender and an Obama supporter. “I might not agree 100%, but I want to have an intelligent conversation with somebody.”
According to those present, Obama spoke for about 30 to 35 minutes about queer issues and then fielded questions, most of which were not LGBT-specific.
Johnson, who is 25, has supported Obama for about a year but prefaced his remarks by saying he has never been an “Obama-phile.” He said the senator addressed some of the most contentious LGBT issues without prompting, such as same-sex marriage and the inclusion of transgender people in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In fact, those were the two issues Sen. Obama singled out as being potential disappointments to the LGBT community right now, while he signaled that a hate-crimes bill could likely be passed and signed into law and that repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” might be on the horizon.
According to several sources, including Johnson and Lenore, Obama said he did not think it was “politically feasible” to secure marriage rights for same-sex couples in the country at this point. Sen. Obama acknowledged that the community wanted full marriage rights but said that he favored civil unions for now while leaving open the possibility that his position might evolve in the future.
In terms of ENDA, Obama said he supported an ENDA that included transgender protections but that he didn’t believe a fully inclusive bill had enough votes to pass the Senate at this time.
“I don’t agree -- I think we’re much stronger united as a community,” Lenore said of keeping transgender protections in the bill. “But I do understand the politics and I do appreciate the fact that he said, hey, it’s not going to pass in this political climate. Many other politicians haven’t really done that. They make decisions but they never really address the trans community.”
Should he become president, Obama said his first three priorities would be designing a safe exit strategy for Iraq, working on affordable health care, and addressing greenhouse gases and the environment.
As Sen. Obama made his way to the door, Johnson said he asked the senator directly to do more interviews with the gay press, citing the fact that he has conducted only one interview with an LGBT outlet during his presidential campaign. “I said, ‘Your speech tonight was so moving to all of us, the way you spoke about our community. You need to do more [interviews],” recalled Johnson. “And he said, ‘You’re right, absolutely. We do need to do more with the LGBT press.’” (Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate)
Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills By: Kenneth P. Vogel April 1, 2008 09:05 AM EST
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles. A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter. Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer, highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton’s inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton's campaign did not respond to recent, specific questions about its transactions with vendors. But Clinton spokesman Jay Carson pointed on Saturday to an earlier statement the campaign issued to Politico, asserting: "The campaign pays its bills regularly and in the normal course of business, and pays all of its bills." Just like with other businesses, it’s common for campaigns to carry unpaid bills from month to month, but in Clinton’s case, it also could serve a strategic purpose. The New York senator’s presidential campaign ended February with $33 million in the bank, according to a report filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, but only $11 million of that can be spent on her battle with Obama.
The rest can be spent only in the general election, if she makes it that far, and must be returned if she doesn’t. If she had paid off the $8.7 million in unpaid bills she reported as debt and had not loaned her campaign $5 million, she would have been nearly $3 million in the red at the end of February.
By contrast, if you subtract Obama’s $625,000 in debts and his general-election-only money from his total cash on hand at the end of last month, he’d still be left with $31 million. The presidential campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain reported $4.3 million in debt at the end of February, but only $1.3 million of that was in the form of unpaid bills to a dozen vendors. The rest was a bank loan, which the campaign says it paid off last week. It’s not just the size of Clinton’s debts that’s noteworthy. It’s also that her unpaid bills extend beyond the realm of high-priced consultants who typically let bills slide as part of the cost of doing business with powerful clientele whose success is linked to their own. Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000. Clinton also reported debts more than one month old to a slew of apolitical businesses and organizations, large and small, in the states through which this historically expensive Democratic primary campaign has raged.
She owed Iowa’s Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees $3,500 for catering and venue costs, New Hampshire’s Winnacunnet Cooperative School District $4,400 in event costs, Qwest $24,000 for phone service, various branches of the Iowa-based supermarket chain Hy-Vee $15,000 for food, beverages and catering, and $7,700 to Ohio and Massachusetts branches of the theatrical stage employees’ union, for equipment costs. In fact, about a third of the nearly 700 individual debts Clinton reported at the end of February were for various types of “event expenses,” including $319,000 for catering and venue costs, $420,000 for equipment, $11,000 for photography and $9,000 for security. Event production is important to big-time presidential campaigns. It shapes how candidates look and sound, not just to the thousands of people who turn out to campaign speeches and rallies but also to the millions who catch snippets of them on television. And word is getting around that Clinton’s campaign does not promptly pay those who labor to make her events look good, said an employee of the event production company Forty Two of Youngstown, Ohio. “I feel insulted by the way that the campaign treated this company and treated us personally,” said the employee, who did not want to be named talking about a client. The Clinton campaign paid the company $16,500 to set up a stage, press riser, sound system and backdrops at a Youngstown high school last month for a raucous union rally, where an aggressive Clinton stump speech drew thunderous applause. But the Clinton campaign has yet to pay Forty Two for two other February events, and the employee said the campaign has stopped returning phone calls, e-mails and didn’t respond to a certified letter. “We worked very hard to put together these events on a moment’s notice and do absolutely everything to a ‘t’ to make it look perfect on television for her and for her campaign,” said the employee. “Sen. Clinton talks about helping working families, people in unions and small businesses. But when it comes down to actually doing something that shows that she can back up her words with action, she fails.”
Forty Two also has done events for Obama’s campaign, which has paid its bills promptly, according to the employee. FEC records show Obama’s campaign paid the company $18,500. Show Tyme Exhibits, another Youngstown event production company, has produced political events for years and had never had problems getting paid before Clinton, according to owner Jim Phillips. He said he’s still waiting for a payment for setting up the sound system and stage for Clinton’s February tour of a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. “It was only $607, but I’m a small guy; I could use that,” said Phillips, adding, “Everyone I can tell, I do tell about it. You tell somebody something bad about somebody, they tell 10 other people.” Both Phillips and the Forty Two employee said they voted for Clinton in Ohio’s March 4 primary, which she won handily, but regret their votes and are reluctant to work for her campaign again. Their sentiments aren’t universal in the event production world, though. At the end of January, Clinton owed $38,000 to ACS Sound and Lighting of Columbia, S.C. But the company was paid in full last month and is planning to do events for Clinton in other states, according to manager Troy Gwin. “We don’t have any problem with them,” he said. “I’d continue to do business after the primaries if she is the nominee. I would love to.” And Tony Galarza, director of the Missoula, Mont., branch of a national event production company, remained committed to staging an April 6 Clinton fundraising brunch at a local hotel even after a colleague in his company e-mailed a list of Clinton’s campaign debts. Galarza said he’s confident Clinton will pay his company but admitted he was surprised to see so many event production companies among the campaign’s creditors. “Once I looked at those numbers, I realized how important to our economy nationally these elections are,” he said. “Just the sheer numbers listed there were immense.”
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect figure for the Clinton campaign's cash on hand at the end of February.
© 2007 Capitol News Company, LLC
So, Mississippi is ours and Pennsylvania is next!
Slowly but surely house holds across America are realizing that the best candidate for the job of president is no other than Barack Obama. People are seeing all that Obama has to offer as a leader. They know that our country is in the midst of a spiral downfall and the best candidate to stop this decline and begin the process of moving our nation forward is Obama. I watch election coverage daily and believe that the media is doing a decent job of covering the candidates and analyzing the polls. What I would like to hope is that the American people are also watching this coverage and realize that the best way to move forward is to elect a candidate that wants this country to move forward.
Lets keep our momentum high. Lets keep getting the word out on Obama. Lets not forget that a change is fast approaching and that we are the biggest influences of this change. Our strong wills are going to make this campaign the success that we believe it to be, and we've come a long way, but have not crossed the finish line yet. April 22nd is the next hurdle and we must be prepared to jump over.
