We've all seen the callous political smears put forward by John McCain and his cronies this week. We know it's only going to get worse in the days ahead, and unless we act, we risk surrendering this election to the fear-mongering and divisive Bush/McCain politics of the past. That's why hundreds of people throughout your community are standing up this week to say, "Not this time, not this election." Together, we're reaching out to voters in battlegroud states to let them know the truth. But with only days left, and with thousands of voters left to contact, we can't do it alone; we need your help. Will you join us? Don't worry, making a difference is easy. All you need to do is come to the nearest Call for Changeevent (listed below) with your cell phone and charger. Our team will welcome you at the door, and set you up with everything else you need to be a force for change in this election.
Please find phone banks labeled "Phone Bank for Change" or "Big Phone Bank for Change" on your group MyBo pages. We are hosting these in San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga. In your area, we are hosting these events Saturday the 1st of November through election day, the 4th. Please use the following Mybarackobama.com links below to sign up:at:
South County Democratic Headquarters. 380 Third Ave., Suite 205, Chula Vista, CA 91910
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gprzsy
Unite Here Union Hall - 3737 Camino Del Rio South, suite 300, San Diego 92108
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gprzs8
San Diego Obama for America Headquarters - 1744 Euclid Avenue San Diego, CA 92103
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gshjdj
Making a difference is easy, and you can do it right in your own neighborhood. All you need to do is come to the nearest Call for Change event (listed below) with your cell phone and charger. Feel free to bring with your friends, family or anyone else that is willing to make calls. If you would like to bring potluck style food for everyone to share, that would also be much appreciated. Our team will welcome you at the door, and set you up with everything else you need to be a force for change in this election.
We hope you will join us. With only days to go, this is our last chance to make a difference in this election and to turn the tide against the Bush/McCain politics of division. Together, yes we can.
Best Always,
Rick Sheinin
Deputy Field Director, Region 7 California (volunteer)
This election process has been tough...
I am no longer a member of the Democratic party - and I am now officially an Independent voter.
I participated in the Democratic primaries. When Obama won, I automatically backed him up as the presidential nominee. However, as I spoke to McCain supporters - I began to have some doubts and decided to step back and make sure I was on the right path. For a few months I was on the fence and seriously considered McCain as our next president.
But this past week I made my final choice.
There is a lot to admire about McCain. Absolutley. What he did as a soldier during Vietnam is beyond anything I could imagine. It blows my mind.
However, it is clear to me that McCain does not represent my value system. It was only after Sarah Palin came into the picture that I was really able to put this in perspective.
Although I stepped away from the Obama campaign because I had some doubts along the way - the truth is, I definitely do not want McCain and Palin in office. In many ways, I have respect for both these individuals - however I don't think they would lead this country in the right direction.
I can elaborate more later.
For now, I will start do my part to talk to other Independent voters who have yet to make a decision.
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008
(06-25) 18:35 PDT -- There are dramatic signs that the fabled "sleeping giant" of the American electorate, the Latino vote, has awoken for the 2008 presidential race - putting Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama in heated competition for what could be a game-changing prize.
And the candidates' reaction to that awakening explains this week's flurry of activity: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., will address the nation's largest association of Latino officials today in Washington, D.C., the day before her much-ballyhooed joint appearance with Obama in New Hampshire. Both the candidates plan to cross paths before the same group, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, this weekend.
In California next month, their head-to-head competition is expected to continue: Both candidates have been invited to appear before the National Council of La Raza at its national convention in San Diego. McCain has even invited Obama to hold a "town hall" debate before the influential Latino advocacy group - Obama hasn't yet accepted.
With just weeks until the major party nominating conventions, both McCain and Obama have their eyes on the support of Latinos, America's largest minority group with about 9 percent of the national electorate - that's up from 5.5 percent in the 2000 election - according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Obama's campaign appears eager to seize the moment: It is marshaling Latino leaders such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to stump for the candidate.
McCain's campaign, which has launched early Spanish-language ads and a Spanish Web site called "Estamos Unidos Con McCain," also has made aggressive efforts to reach Spanish-language media through such elected officials as Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.
Pollster Mark Baldassare, executive director of the Public Policy Institute of California, said the most recent PPIC study of the California Latino vote, which was conducted last month, presented a challenging picture for the GOP candidate: Obama beat McCain by more than 3-1, or 69 to 20 percent, among Latinos.
That's particularly good news for Obama "because Hillary was running so strongly with Latinos, and there was a question on how much it would carry over," Baldassare said.
And with less than one-quarter of Latinos registered as Republican in California, Baldassare said they are still divided "largely along party lines."
Obama supporter and Democratic Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Latino voters want someone who can address the "kitchen table" issues once considered strong GOP turf. "They're saying, educate my kids, keep them safe and prepare them for the workplace when they graduate from school," Delgadillo said Wednesday.
In his city - where upward of 70 percent of the public school students are Latino - Delgadillo cited an example of the kind of political action that resonates with today's Latino voters. An experimental school safety program his office instituted at Markham Middle School in Watts, a territory controlled by four different gangs, included such improvements as parent and child identification cards and school uniforms, along with better police cooperation. The result: dramatically lower violence and gang crime - and increased parental participation in the school.
"Sen. Obama understands these urban issues," said Delgadillo, who is a member of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council. "Chicago has one of the largest Latino populations in the country ... and these are front-and-center strike points." Obama is from Chicago.
However, Republicans argue that McCain has also shown strengths with Latino voters as a Westerner who has enjoyed strong Hispanic support in his home state of Arizona.
"In California, McCain is the best-positioned Republican of anyone we've had as a nominee since Reagan" to win the Latino vote, said GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, former spokesman for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
"Because of what McCain has tried to do in seeking a sensible immigration reform, Latinos will be more open-minded to him," he said. "He has not committed the sin that so many Republicans have, which is to demagogue on the issue, and it's one of the great advantages of having him as a nominee."
But at Washington's New Democrat Network, President Simon Rosenberg argues that that there's increasing evidence McCain will never be able to match George W. Bush's ability to win 40 percent of the Latino voter bloc. He insists McCain will be viewed as a flip-flopper who "threw Latinos over the side" and abandoned them when he sponsored - and then walked away from - his own immigration reform bill.
Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party and son of Mexican immigrants, says Latinos appreciate McCain's work on that issue and have taken notice of McCain's commitment to their values and concerns.
"We have a candidate that has a long record of talking about the issues important to Latinos, who has reached across the aisle in doing things in the best interest of America, as opposed to doing things in the best interest of his political career," said Barajas. In addition to immigration reform, he said, McCain has won Latino backing by talking about his pro-life record and "the importance of military service - all things important to Latinos."
GOP strategist and blogger Patrick Dorinson adds, "If the Democrats are just going to count them because they 'lean' Democratic, they're making a mistake. Both parties are going to have to address the economic anxiety that is out there."
Pollster Baldassare agrees, saying that "the top priorities right now for California voters - and it applies to Latinos - is the economy, gas prices, health care reform, Iraq and immigration, in that order. And those are the issues that Latino voters will look to the candidates for in order to make their decision."
-- About 1 in 3 Californians is Latino.
-- Latinos make up 31 percent of the state's adult population but only 14 percent of those voters most likely to turn out in elections.
-- 55 percent of likely Latino voters are younger than 45.
-- 35 percent of likely Latino voters have a college education, compared with 67 percent of Asians, 58 percent of whites and 44 percent of African Americans.
-- Two-thirds of likely Latino voters live in Southern California.
-- 61 percent of likely Latino voters are Democrats, 20 percent are Republicans and 19 percent are registered as independent.
-- 36 percent of likely Latino voters identify themselves as conservative, 31 percent as liberal and 33 percent as moderate.
Source: Public Policy Institute of California
E-mail Carla Marinucci at cmarinucci@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/26/MN2R11EUAU.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Hi!!
Do you know about the new discussion group for people around the world?
Democrats_Worldwide - has members in Afghanistan, Thailand, Serbia, Korea, England, France....Virgin Islands, etc.
If you are an American away from the U.S., please come talk.
This is not a typical chatlist. It's for intelligent conversation with Democrats. No personal attacks are allowed. Not too many messages, we have 57 members.
Democrats_Worldwide-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
If you are outside the U.S., please come talk to other Democrats out of the U.S.
Looking forward to meeting you!
Carole
www.Americans-Away-From-Home.com
Latinos voted for Clinton over Obama by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to an analysis of exit polls throughout the primary season by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Now that the Illinois senator has clinched the nomination, many Clinton loyalists have shifted their allegiance to Obama.
Obama enjoys a 33 percentage point advantage over McCain among Latino registered voters nationwide, according to a Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May.
"To me, he's head and shoulders above McCain," said Felix Diaz, a 73-year-old Victorville resident. "I think the rest of the Hispanic community feels the same way."
While many Latinos expressed great admiration for McCain's accomplishments as a decorated veteran, several voiced reservations about his ability to lead the country during a time of domestic and international turmoil.
"McCain is an awesome person. He's a former POW," said Irma Escobar, a 52-year-old special-education teacher who lives in Fontana. "But when I look at him, I look at four more years of Bush."
Escobar, a Republican most of her life, said she is crossing party lines to support Obama.
Even though she was a child at the time, Escobar said Obama's candidacy reminds her of the hope and idealism embodied in the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
"Obama is lighting the fire in the youth of today," Escobar said. "That's what reminds me of Kennedy. And it reminds me of Camelot."
Blanca Ortega, an 18-year-old student at Cal State San Bernardino, is fired up about seeing a minority become commander in chief.
"I think it's great that this country is starting to evolve and have different races in higher positions," Ortega said. "That will help us grow as a country."
But it hasn't been easy for some die-hard Clinton supporters to embrace Obama.
Business owner Lynda Gonzalez said she is disturbed by Obama's long-term relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose racially charged sermons have been criticized as unpatriotic and offensive.
Even though Obama has severed ties with Wright, Gonzalez is irked by the candidate's association with the controversial preacher.
"How can you sit there for 20 years and hear this stuff and not get up and walk away?" Gonzalez said.
Still, Gonzalez can't bring herself to vote for McCain.
"I don't want a war anymore, and I blame the Republicans for this economy," the 46-year-old Bloomington resident said.
McCain supporters admit they will have a tough time pulling Latinos into the Republican column in November.
Fifty-seven percent of Latino registered voters call themselves Democrats or say they lean to the Democratic Party, while 23 percent align with the Republican Party, according to a recent Pew nationwide survey.
"Latinos are not a group that Senator McCain will concede to the Democrats," said Hector Barajas, spokesman for the McCain campaign in California.
McCain has a strong military background and a record of leadership on issues such as immigration reform, Barajas said.
McCain was a chief proponent of legislation to create a path to citizenship for most of the nation's estimated 12million illegal immigrants. But right-wing criticism during the primary campaign led the Arizona senator to harden his views on illegal immigration.
He now talks about securing the U.S-Mexico border before helping illegal immigrants already in the country.
4am, June 4th, finally went to sleep. What I missed: Supersmart Strategy. In a choreographed coup de grace, endorsement after endorsement, and still, Obama released a jetée of 26.5 more superdelegates endorsing him the moment polls closed; the crescendo reached the magic number for nomination. 26.5 delegates, all in a row, from every region and leadership level. List follows.
Read more.
