These pictures just came in from Jessica, who's at the Community Meeting on Education with Barack in Florence, South Carolina.
To learn more about Barack's plan to improve our schools, click here. And as always, please use your my.barackobama.com blogs and the comments section on this blog to discuss your thoughts on our educational system.
Barack is committed to making our electoral process fairer for everyone. That's why he co-sponsored an important clean elections bill that, according to The Nation, "would transform the way Congressional races are fought and won, laying down the most significant campaign finance reforms to date."
The bill, which is modeled after "clean election" laws that have been successful at the state and local level, is the first bipartisan plan to publicly fund federal races. For more details on Barack's plan to clean up Washington, click here.
Carol M. of Springfield, Illinois has been working at her "dream job" for the past couple years.
As a child, Carol would frequent the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln with her mother, who Carol says was a "huge Lincoln buff." Soon, Carol became a serious Lincoln enthusiast herself. "I think the biggest thing she told me about Lincoln was how self-made he was," Carol remembers. "He educated himself. She spoke about his honesty, his integrity, and how he tried to preserve the union. She emphasized that he was a local person, a real mid-westerner, but that his interest was in keeping the nation together."
Decades later, after her daughter graduated from college, Carol decided to go back to school and pursue her lifelong passion: history. As Carol was finishing up her masters degree, her mother became quite ill. Carol moved in to take care of her.
Her mother's condition continued to worsen. One day, Carol came across a job listing for a position of as an educator for high school students at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. "I called and called and called, and finally, I got the job," she says. "It was a dream come true."
A few days later, Carol's mother passed away.
"She was really happy I got the job," says Carol. "It was a comfort to me when I first started because she knew I was going to be in a job I loved, and she knew I'd be with Lincoln. Sometimes when I walk into the museum it's almost as though I can hear him saying 'It's gonna be alright' to me."
When Barack announced that he was going to run for president, Carol showed up at the Capitol in Springfield-- the very spot where Lincoln had once delivered his great "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand" address. "It was around seven degrees out," she says, "but you could just feel the energy and hope. It was palpable."
Carol says there are some real similarities between Senator Obama and Lincoln. "Lincoln didn't have things handed to him on a silver platter and he knew what it was like to not completely fit in, and he wrote about it," says Carol. "He moved to a new place, Salem, by himself and he tried to make it on his own. He succeeded, but the road was jagged, it wasn't always easy. But those experiences, each step along the way, each thoughtful choice he made-- this is what helped guide him to become the man he was."
"Like the country was under Lincoln, we are so divided right now," says Carol. "The division between Democrats and Republicans is so hateful. If you're not for the war you're not patriotic-- that whole mindset. And what appeals to me about senator Obama is that he wants to bring us back together. He wants a dialog. He's emphasizing that, and not the hate, and thats what gives me hope."
Barack is running a different kind of campaign -- one that is more open and connected to you. That is why we've launched our new Answer Center, an easy-to-search database of questions and answers that lets you find information on a wide range of subjects from volunteering to policy positions.
For more on the Answer Center, check out Gray Brooks' blog.
Barack led a field of seven Democratic presidential hopefuls in the MoveOn Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Iraq poll on the question “Which candidate do you believe would be best able to lead the country out of Iraq?” Obama received 27.87% of the total votes cast.
A recap of Barack's appearance on Hardball yesterday:
Presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he and other leading congressional Democrats were seeking ways to “ratchet up the pressure” on President Bush to set a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.“The American people have said ‘enough,’” Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, said in an interview with NBC News’ David Gregory on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll indicates that a majority of Americans believed going to war in Iraq was a mistake.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he and other leading congressional Democrats were seeking ways to “ratchet up the pressure” on President Bush to set a timetable to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
“The American people have said ‘enough,’” Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, said in an interview with NBC News’ David Gregory on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll indicates that a majority of Americans believed going to war in Iraq was a mistake.
Read the whole thing here. And to learn more about Barack's consistent position on Iraq, click here.
The latest video from Iowa is up. Check out Barack as he swings through three different cities-- Algona, Dakota City, and Fort Dodge-- in one day.
If you're a member of MoveOn.org, don't forget to vote in their member poll which asks "Which candidate is best able to lead the country out of the war in Iraq?"
And for those of you who haven't listened to MoveOn's Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Iraq, click here for the clip of Barack.
If you live in the Atlanta area (or want to travel there to hear Barack) click on the image below for more information about the rally taking place this Saturday at 10am.
Carole A. is a 47-year-old mom from Allendale, New Jersey. After doing floral work for friends' weddings "here and there," she decided to open her own flower shop. "I love it," she says. "it's a happy business-- it really is, except for the funerals obviously. It brings people a lot of joy. i put my heart and soul into it and I love making people happy."
"I usually don't care that much about politics and elections," she says, "but because of Senator Obama, there's so much enthusiasm and hope in my community this time. Everyone I know is saying 'this is the guy.' He's made us care, he's made me care."
Carole says she doesn't like to categorize herself politically. "Life is so faceted," she says, "how can you allow yourself to lock yourself into being in one category, going one way?" She has complicated feelings about immigration policy. She strongly opposes the war. She has moderate diabetes and pays "180 dollars just for my test strips each month," and she wants to see our health care system reformed.
But Carole says that in this election, for her, it's about more than just the issues. It's about the fact that "Barack has gotten people to give damn again."
"He's the most different person to run in years and he's got the United States really thinking and caring for the first time in many, many years," says Carole. "We're hungry for somebody real. He's true."
Marina E. is a 35-year-old legal assistant from Houston, Texas. She says she only recently began to follow politics and has never been engaged in a campaign like this before.
The first time I saw Barack, well, I'm a woman, and I said, 'Who is this cute guy?' But then I read his book Dreams from My Father and I just felt so strongly that he's so sincere and honest, and completely different.
Marina says that Barack "just talks common sense." The country, she says, is nowhere near as polarized as politicians try and make it out to be.
He understands that most of us are somewhere in the middle And he understands people from all walks of life and cultures. He understands so many points of view-- there's so many experiences wrapped up in one person. And so he just talks about issues in a common sense way, rather than in a partisan way.
I have some friends with small businesses who dont have insurance. These are people who work very hard but they can barely get by. And they just don't go to the doctor as much as they should, because they know they can't afford it.
I wanted a stable job so applied for a position as a firefighter, and I've never looked back. I never regretted a day I was there. The day i retired was the day i regretted. A few things you do in life that turn out to be everything you hope for and more. I think it was the coolest thing-- aside from having a family-- that's happened to me in my whole life. I miss it every time I hear a siren.
Ken describes himself as a "middle-of-the-road" kind of guy. Until recently, he supported John McCain. He says he measures people "not by what they say but how they act. I can see a change in John McCain. But Obama, he's an uncommon person in a sea of typical politicians. He's an uncommon person in today's world.""I vote on issues," Ken says. As a former firefighter, another one of the most important issues to Ken is the decline of unions and the disappearance of the middle class in this country.
Being in the fire department has reinforced my view of the world. In the old days, thanks to unions, there were decent middle class jobs around. People made good money, good benefits, they had good protections. They weren't driving the trucks as much as they do now because they need the clock time. And what happened to the guys in New York on 9/11, that shouldn't have had to happen. They didn't have the communications equipment they needed. Firefighters all across the country don't have the communications equipment they need.
Here's the video blog from the Hope Action Change event at Janet and Jim Sutherland's home in Iowa.
The discussion was remarkably candid, and while people were honest about the many challenges they face, there was an underlying spirit of hopefulness throughout the discussion.
In Part I, we meet the Sutherlands at their home in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As neighbors and friends trickle in, the group watches the Barack Obama introductory DVD. Their discussion begins with the issues of health care and the Iraq war.
In Part II (which was released last week as a sneak peak) the group discusses the importance of education reform and the substance behind Barack's policies.
In Part III, Irene Dodder, whose husband recently retired as a minister, sparks a discussion on the role of faith in politics. The meeting concludes with Janet sharing a poem she wrote after attending Tom Harkin's Steak Fry this past summer.
This is what grassroots democracy is all about-- small groups of friends and neighbors coming together to address common challenges and come up with collective solutions. And remember-- this was one of thousands of similar events in all fifty states across this country.
Be a part of the movement. Give or start a group on my.barackobama.com, or better yet, do both.
Just wanted to remind everyone to tune into the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS tonight.
Tell your friends!
Hi Everyone-
We're going to be taking a little break for the weekend. It's great that everyone's been getting involved in the open thread discussions. Next week, we'll have the full version of the video blog from the Hope Action Change event in Council Bluffs, Iowa and lots of other great stuff.
Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter.
-Sam
Check out our latest video from the road. This comes from the George J. Maxfield VFW post in East Rochester, New Hampshire.
The health care forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was a great example of how this campaign embodies grassroots democracy. For those of you who missed the live webcast, you can view it here. And for a recap of the event, check out this article from the Portsmouth Herald.
Here's a great picture from the event:
And here's a snapshot of Barack later in the day at the George J Maxfield VFW in East Rochester:
