This editiorial ran in a several newspapers across South Carolina last week.
Obama will Win SC - Bet a Dinner On It
by Phil Noble
Barack Obama is going to win nationally with over 55% of the vote. He will also carry South Carolina. Bet a lunch on it. In June, I wrote an editorial that appeared in several papers across the state predicting that Obama would carry our state. It was met with the usual derision by many Republicans, and a few Democrats, and resulted in a highly publicized bet of a bar-b-que dinner with Katon Dawson, Chairman of the SC Republican Party. Today, I am even more convinced that Obama is going to win and I'd encourage everyone, Obama and McCain supporters, to find someone who thinks differently and bet a bar-b-que dinner on the election - it will be good for the country. More on the dinner bet later but first why Obama will win. First and foremost, Obama represents real and fundamental change in our country, in how we do our politics and govern ourselves. We all know we need real change in financial regulation, health care and many other areas. McCain essentially offered nothing but four more years of George Bush. Americans and South Carolinians believe that Obama is best to make the fundamental changes we need, Second, Obama has changed the political map and math. Nationwide millions of new voters, mostly young and African Americans, have been added to the roles. In our state, over 304,000 people have been added since January and over 75% of these new votes are expected to vote for Obama. Bush's margin in '04 was only 276,000 votes. These new voters, along with a historic turn out of Democrats, a lot of independents - and more than a few Republicans - will give Obama a big win nationally and a narrow win in South Carolina. And, most of these new voters are here to stay. Having once seen what their voice and involvement could do to change politics, they are not likely to retreat into civic apathy. More likely, we have seen the creation of a whole new generation of people who will re-define politics and will continue to do so for years to come. Most of all, I'm truly excited about the new opportunity we as Democrats in South Carolina will have to change politics as usual. We need this change both within our party and change from the narrowness of the Republican's one party rule that has stifled our state for the last generation.We now have a unique and historic opportunity to elect a new type of Democrat that can win again in South Carolina and change the direction of our state.
Third, this time traditional divisive Republican tactics did not work. McCain is an honorable man but after he won the nomination he allowed his campaign to be taken over by the traditional cadre of Republican operatives / lobbyists / insiders that have run every Republican presidential campaign for a generation. Since the days of Lee Atwater, they have practiced and perfected tactics of the dark arts of character assassination, emotional wedge issues, racist appeals and the politics of fear. This time, it did not work.
Lord knows they tried again and again with their old tactics. They use the 'kitchen sink' strategy and threw every sleazy tactic and charge they could think of at Obama and his wife. They tried guilt by association with Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers; appeals to religious bigotry in calling Obama a Muslim; racist appeals with well known code words and symbols; and attacks on their patriotism by charging that both Michelle and Obama were somehow 'un-American'.
I'd like to think it didn't work because we as a people have learned and will not fall for this type of gutter politics again. Or, perhaps our national concerns about an economic collapse simply overwhelmed the tactics of sleazy politics. I hope we will never go back to the old politics of race and fear - especially here in South Carolina.
Fourth, Obama unleashed the new power of the Internet in politics. The digital revolution has radically changed virtually every segment of our society - music and entertainment, commerce and business, news and information. And now, Obama has done it in politics. He uses technology to empower literally millions of people to give money online, contact and persuade their friends, organize events, register and reach new voters - and on and on it goes.
Obama will be the JFK of the Internet and his online revolution is just beginning. Just as Kennedy used the new medium of television, Obama will use the new digital technology to change how leaders communicate and connect with the people. He will foster new models of e-government, online citizen participation and interaction between citizens and their elected officials.
And, it is not only here in the US but the impact will be global as well. In essence, Obama will be the first new type of truly wired global leaders of the 21st century.
But, back to the Palmetto state and that bar-b-que dinner. Tough elections about big issues are part of what makes us special as South Carolinians and Americans. So, no matter who you support today, find someone that supports the other guy and bet them a bar-b-que dinner on the race. And, when it's all over and the winner is clear, enjoy your dinner, settle your bet, and then talk to your friend about the future and how we can make it better.
Selecting a new president, Obama or McCain, is a chance for a new beginning - a chance to begin anew with new ideas and to begin to work together and focus on the things that unite us and not what divides us.
We are a great and good state and country but we have some very big problems in front of us. We need to all work together, in the renewed spirit of our common heritage and destiny, to overcome these challenges for ourselves and our children.
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Phil Noble, a Charleston businessman, is a member of Sen. Obama's Statewide Steering Committee and President of S.C. New Democrats, an independent reform group founded by former Gov. Richard Riley. phil@SCNewDemocrats.org or www.SCNewDemocrats.org.
I used to come to this web site so often that I got into arguments with my brother and my father who thought I needed to manage my time better. I may have been a little addicted (acceptance is the first step) but as I had nothing better to do, I kept up on everything Obama. I remember when it first started and my father was skeptical about Baracks chances, and my brother wasnt even registered to vote.
Well I havent been to this site in a long time and I havent written a blog in a long time I found the cure. Do you want to know what it is? I replaced my addiction with an addiction to registering voters.
I joined the Obama Fellowship program were I volunteered and became obsessed with registering voters and recruiting volunteers to register new voters.
THIS IS A GARUNTEED CURE FOR YOUR BLOGGING HABIT......I DARE YOU TO TRY IT!!!
I was going to try to write this clever mock news story about Baracks special interest but im not the real clever type. Im the bottom line type so Ill just get right to it.
The American people are the senators Special interest. His campaign is already financed by the Public.
Senator dont be afraid to change your mind about Public Financing. Your being finance by what we call in church a "Free Will Offering" when the people give because they want to and they give whatever they can.
I think your grassroots fundraising is Campaign Finance at its most Ideal. Further more we all know this is a political ploy by McCain to seperate you from or weaken the mighty grassroots base you have developed.
He's not about putting a policy in place over us, but brining us into the the process of developing solutions to the problems that plague our education system. He wants to develop a continuing conversation with parents, teachers, and communities, so we can all take part and have a say in what our education system looks like and values... and that commitment to a conversation, a dialogue, is very different from what we've seen in the past.
All the cynics said students, young people just like us, wouldn't turn out. But we did and we proved the cynics wrong. Those same cynics are hopeful that you won't come out, that you won't make your voices heard, but on January 26th, you can prove them wrong once again.
Kal Penn & Tatyana Ali College Tour Columbia, SC; Aiken, SC; Greenwood, SC Check Events for Times A Conversation with Shelia Johnson Orangeburg, SC 11:00am
9:00 AM - Gov. Tim Kain at the Richland/Lexington County Democratic Party Annual Joint Breakfast (Columbia, SC) 12:00 PM - Canvassing with Jesse Jackson Jr. in Sumter 1:30 PM - Press Conference with Gov. Tim Kaine and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (Columbia, SC) 4:00 PM - Camden Town Hall with Gov. Tim Kaine 5:45 PM - Lancaster Community Meeting with Gov. Tim Kaine 6:00 PM - Darlington Town Hall Meeting with Jesse Jackson Jr.
"The more I achieved, the more I found that I was just as ready, just as qualified, just as capable as those who felt entitled to the seat at the table that I was working so hard for. And I realized that those who had been given the mantle of power in this country didn't have any magic about them. That gnawing sense of self-doubt is a lie. It's just in our heads. Nine times out of ten, we are more ready and more prepared than we could ever know."
"Now, I know folks talk in the barber shops and beauty salons, and I've heard some folks say, "That Barack, he seems like a nice guy, but I'm not sure America's ready for a black President." Well, we've heard those voices before. Voices that say, "maybe we should wait," and "no, you can't do it." And I understand it. I know where it comes from, this sense of doubt and fear about what the future holds. It's the bitter legacy of racism and discrimination and oppression in this country. It's what those who marched in the Civil Rights Movement had to overcome all those decades ago. It's what so many of us have struggled to overcome in our own lives. And it's what we're going to have to overcome as a community if we want to lift ourselves up. We're going to have to dig deep into our souls, confront our own self-doubt, and recognize that our destiny is in our hands - that our future is what we make of it. So let's build the future we all know is possible. Let's prove to our children that they really can reach for their dreams. Let's show them that America is ready for Barack Obama. Right now."
Community Gathering with Barack Clarendon County Courthouse Yard 35 W. Boyce St. Manning, SC RSVP Now: http://sc.barackobama.com/manning
Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families and communities affected by the tragic loss of seven South Carolina students Sunday on the coast of North Carolina. While no words can make sense of this tragedy, these students and their loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers.
I have observed and written about a government that was reluctant to give information to the public, and I worked in a government that was systematically deceiving the people about what was going on in the war in Vietnam. I am convinced that most important freedom we have among all the freedoms in the Bill of Rights is to know what the people in charge... are doing as they make policy for us and for our children... and I couldn't agree more [with Barack's position on improving transparency in government].
[Barack is] a brilliant man with an extraordinary gift for listening to other human beings. He doesn't have the attitude that "I'm the smartest person in the room." He has the attitude that "I need to listen to other people, reason with other people to figure out how we can get out of this mess.
