Personally, I thought Barack was brilliant last on night on Letterman and as always I watched with a critical eye from the standpoint of a "typical undecided voter."
Everything he covered was spectacular and the crowd response was excellent. The one aspect of the interview that I was most impressed was Letterman's seriousness about Barack's campaign. On several occasions, Letterman insinuated in so may words that it is not out of the question that Barack would be sitting in the White House in 2009. I think it was also very apparent where Letterman stands in his choice. The only jokes and jabs he made was really "with" the Senator and not about him... Which as we know, is not how Ol' Dave generally rolls! I'm noticing reports from all the various news agencies this morning stating things like "Obama not interested in running for VP." Of course he isn't, as he clearly indicated, coming in second really doesn't mean a whole lot in a Presidential race. Or as he phrased it, "It's not horse shoes."
The blogs I have been looking over this morning are for the most part very favorable with the exception of those who take the opportunity to point out everything but his ideology, vision and stance on the issues... I read comments on his tie, hair and one blog even asked if he was "politically potty-trained." LOL - Ah the creative bloggers....
But hey, if that's all they can come up with after a nationally televised, high profile outing... We're looking exceptionally well! As we continue to live in an American idol society, where 30 million vote each week on their favorite Idol star - we should certainly expect meaningless comments on clothing or hair styles.
As we all know, appearing on a talk show can always be a trick bag and many quotes can be taken out of context - Certainly not the case with the Senator and I personally applaud his decision to make himself available for this kind of entertainment programing. By granting these non-political interviews, the American people get a taste and true sense of the man we already know and support. His character, vision, sense of humor and intellect certainly speaks for itself.... Overall a job well done!!!
Our New member Committee Chair - Jennie Calvin hit me on an email this morning saying, "My opinion of him last night was "easy, breezy." He was hilarious, easygoing, confident, fun, fantastic!"
I agree with her comments wholeheartedly. I know many of us get caught up inside our bubble as we put in a minimum of 25+ hours a week working on this campaign... But with every passing day, it is becoming very apparent that America is finally waking up and realizing that Barack Obama is in it to win it, has massive support and brings forth a vision that our country has not seen in decades! I also love the fact that Barack himself indicated that America in general is also becoming more interested in our political process than in recent decades.
The momentum is seriously gaining folks! Hold on to your hats because this ride will continue to be wild! We are gpoised to make a difference along with millions of other people ready to usher in the much needed change in our country under the leadership of a Barack Obama Administration!!!!!
In case you missed it... Below is the link from YouTube - there are parts one and two. Enjoy!Link
See you all on the campaign trail!
Gayland Morris, Co-ChairSacramento for Obamasacramentoforobama.com
If you haven't already watched this speech, please do. We must make sure that Barack Obama is the next President of the United States. (Click on the following youtube Link. If necessary, wait for downloading.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=siSe8Qb91wQ
Many people have been asking in the various email groups where they can get a large banner sign for their Obama group. Others have mentioned that they have spent several hundred dollars on one. One of our Sacramento for Obama group members is a very clever person. (He's also an engineer and figured out how to do this without a lot of trial and error.) Want proof? Here's a photo of the banner he made for our group.Want to know how he did it so you can make one for your own group? I told Vaughn about everyone being curious about such banners and suggested he write up the instructions and put it on his blog. He did! You will find it here on Vaughn's blog.
Now you can save yourselves a lot of money and get a well-made, beautifully customized banner for your group. Here's a bit of a cost comparison on a ready-made sign versus the materials costs for a self-made one by someone with an excellent graphics program, an ink-jet printer, a large work surface and a hot iron. Vaughn even has a few pdf files of the graphics for you to use. All you'll need to do is substitute the lettering for your own group.
Pre-made Banners at some campaign stuff type store that don't mention your group's name = $150 (you still have to provide the poles and rope!)
T-shirt Transfer paper, 24 sheets of 8.5x11" for ink jet printer = $25-$30
cotton broadcloth or canvas fabric at in white or navy, 48" wide, $6.99 a yard = $14.00 for 6'x4.5' banner fabric
Grommets, 25' nylon rope, 2 closet rod poles with 2 eye hooks each = $50
Your own, customized Obama group banner you can be proud of = priceless!
We're proud of ours and very proud of Vaughn's ingenuity!
To all 100,000 of us, the first to contribute to One Million Strong:
Rise like Lionsafter slumberIn unvanquishable number -Shake your chainsto earth like dewWhich in sleephad fallen on you -Ye are many -they are few." ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Someone from your group came to our Marin County house party Saturday and told us you have materials for us to pick up to sell at our tabling events here and perhaps even some print up tips on action work. I can come into SF to pick up, if I can arrange to do so.
I was also told you might need some assistance with social networking or writing/editing ....? I am a veteran journalist who began working on web communications with Magellan and then Excite in the mid90's. Since then Ive produced two web projects, worked for a range of companies as content developer, course developer, online news manager. My most recent position was as managing editor at Jeteye, a social networking communication 'sidebar' where I worked under numerous aliases to create the launch community tags. (big focus on politics and environment).... anyway, if you need some help of this sort, let me know. Just joined your group and hope we can begin bringing Marin in synch with what you are so aptly undertaking.
Let me know. Thanks
Deborah
SEIU Sponsored First Presidential Forum on Health Care
I read about the SEIU sponsored first Presidential Forum on Health Care in the Sunday New York Times, and after doing some research online, my conclusion is that all that all the candidates had great rhetoric about support for universal health care, but only one had a common sense plan that can win American’s will respect and support.
UPI Story:
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said his plan is forthcoming -- but he laid out principles for coverage, calling for bold reform that will cover all Americans by the end of the next president's first term.
A successful plan, he said, would cover everyone, increase efficiency through care coordination and health information technology, and phase out employer-based insurance through alternative methods of risk pooling.
Obama did not rule out a tax increase, but argued that better use of the money already spent on healthcare could mitigate the costs of universal coverage.
"Everybody's going to have some good ideas," he said. "The question is, 'Are we going to be able to bring a majority of people together?'"
New York Times Story:
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois appeared less conversant with the details of health policy and sometimes found himself on the defensive, trying to explain why he had yet to offer a detailed plan to cover all Americans.
“The most important challenge is to build a political consensus around the need to solve this problem,” Mr. Obama said.
Also from the New York Times story:
Among the candidates at the forum, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio offered the most sweeping proposal, to create “a universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care system providing Medicare for all.”
IN MY OPINION KUCINICH WON THE DAY WITH A CLEAR STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM. Check out his presentation at the forum on You Tube.
Link
Of course Kucinich can’t win the Presidency, but he has a winning position and attitude on healthcare. As a Obama supporter, I urge the Senator to take a position that clearly supports the single payer system that every other industrialized country has. Support for what is called Universal Healthcare is meaningless and everyone knows it. I urge the campaign to come out in support of single payer or “Medicare for everyone” as the AFL-CIO Executive Council did on March 6th.
See this news article:
AFL-CIO Executive Council: Universal Health Care Should be Built on Medicare Blueprint.
“In building on Medicare to move toward a universal program, we can find a practical, achievable and affordable solution to our country’s health care crisis. We call on congressional leaders to unite behind such a plan.”
What do you think?
I want the Obama campaign and supporters to get behind this Bill.
A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.
My maternal grand aunt had ovarian cancer, my paternal aunt has breast cancer, two of my paternal cousins have breast cancer (one of them is fighting a return of it in a stage similar to Elizabeth Edwards) , my maternal uncle has non Hodgkin's lymphoma. To say the least, my family needs all the medical help they can get. Insurance companies need to just get out of our way. There are lives at stake here!
Please urge Congress to pass the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S 910/HR1849). The bill would allow a woman and her doctor to decide whether she should recuperate for at least 48 hours in the hospital or whether she has enough support to get quality care at home following this emotionally and physically difficult surgery.
This act would ensure a minimum hospital stay of 48 hours to any woman following a mastectomy. It does not mandate a 48 hour hospital stay nor does it set 48 hours as a maximum amount of time a woman can stay in the hospital. It simply ensures that any decision in favor of a shorter or longer hospital stay will be made by the patient and her doctor.
Anti-Clinton and Anti-Edwards merchandise is bothering me. Anti-Clinton and Anti-Edwards merchandise worn, created, or propagated by so-called-Obama-supporters is pissing me off. While malicious attacks have found fertile breeding ground in America’s political conversation, the whole point of Senator Obama’s message and the engine driving genuine supporters is a desire to redirect the conversation’s ethical compass. True supporters have got to think outside of the box.
Get outta the box and onto a memory stick.
I caught the live SEIU Health Care Forum in Las Vegas webcast on thinkprogress.org and I must admit that Clinton and Edwards were both quite impressive. I’m still full on pulling for Obama but I think all three of them are exceptional Americans. Everyone from exceptional Americans to ordinary folks from other countries deserves respect. I waited tables at a Mexican restaurant in Tribeca my first semester at Columbia, and contrary to popular belief, even waiters speaking sub par Spanish deserve respect. The candidates are claiming to be here to serve us. It is nearly impossible to effectively serve someone when respect has turned its back.
During the forum, Obama got hit with the toughest questions but it was a blessing because he came across as the most thoughtful and intelligent as a result. As I watched, I felt as though Obama was being attacked while other candidates were being handed silver platters on which to pontificate. Then I got excited: we all know that animals attack when they feel threatened. There was one young lady in particular who nervously critiqued Obama’s site before asking her question which was in truth a statement with a question mark added to the end. This nervous young lady was on the attack because her interests were threatened. And this is why we grassroots Obama supporters must not wear, create, or propagate any merchandise that is anti-anyone; first and foremost because we mustn’t let them see us sweat. There are some vile anti-Clinton shirts out there that in actuality do little more than admit fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Any Obama supporter wearing malicious merchandise is admitting fear, uncertainty, and doubt. We should sweat courage, confidence, and conviction. Secondly, our party must not arrive at the general election as a bloody mass of battered barracuda. We must arrive at the general election with the swagger of an NBA first-round draft pick.
I’m cutting and pasting an excerpt from a blogger named Sven on the Health Care Forum
Who do you think would be the BEST president on the issue of health care?Hillary Clinton 34%John Edwards 16%Barack Obama 9%Bill Richardson 4%Dennis Kucinich 0%Chris Dodd 2%Joe Biden 0%Mike Gravel 0%Now, please note that they're just asking who would be best on health care. Clearly, Hillary has an edge here both because of name recognition and because of her work on health care during the Clinton presidency.What I found really disturbing about these numbers though, was that 50% of the respondents were 65 or older. How representative are numbers when you have a sample of only 5% below 40 years of age? And it really made me wonder how representative other poll numbers are that do not publish the age range of respondents.
One of my goals within the grassroots effort has been to get more Generation X & Generation Y voters out to the polls because this country’s political goliaths have been sleeping on us. We are the ones whose Social Security benefits are in the gravest danger. We are the one’s who will pay through the nose for this war (many of us with our lives). Remember that line in the movie Troy, “War is old men talking and young men dying”? Goliath has been sleeping on us because we have been sleeping on him.
It usually takes a massive shift in the global consciousness to move young voters to get out to the polls. Vietnam was a shift that gave rise to an increase in voter turnout amongst younger voters. So guess what? This is our shift. Anyone who has waited tables knows that if the shift before you had a rough time, you have got to be on top of your game. So guess what? This is our shift.
This is our shift.
Akin
www.atthatdrop.com
Hi all - I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from the SF sign making party up on flickr. They're here...
I'm using "sf4obama" and "ca4obama" as the tags so far, but I'm open to suggestions. Hope tabling went well yesterday - I'm really looking forward to getting out there but my schedule is a mess of ugly until after the convention most likely.
I'm sure you have all read or heard the news, but John Edwards will be holding a press conference with his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, later today in North Carolina. This comes after John Edwards cancelled a campaign event in Iowa to escort Mrs. Edwards to a follow-up doctors appointment.
Link thoughts and prayers are with the Edwards family, and I hope that the press conference is just a breif explaniation of what's going on and that everything is ok. I do not want to see him forced to leave the campaign under circumstances uncontrollable to him.
