Today, Obama for America Campaign Manager David Plouffe sent out a message to supporters, asking them to share their feedback and help answer the question, "Where we go from here."
Please take a few minutes and help shape the future of this movement.Share your campaign experience and your thoughts on the best way to keep supporting our agenda for change.The inauguration is just 63 days away, and as President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden prepare to take office, they'll need your support more than ever.You've built an organization in your community and across the country that will continue to work for change -- whether it's by building grassroots support for legislation, backing state and local candidates, or sharing organizing techniques to effect change in your neighborhood.Your hard work built this movement. Now it's up to you to decide how we move forward.Take this short survey and share your ideas.Thanks to you, this country has an historic opportunity. Electing Barack was the first big step, but there's a lot of challenging and important work ahead.Together, we can keep making history,DavidDavid PlouffeCampaign ManagerObama for America
From the beginning of the general election, strategically, we tried to have as wide of a map as possible. Our belief was we wanted to, on the morning of Nov. 4th, have as many possible avenues to as many electoral votes as possible. And we think we've been able to create that dynamic and have a lot of competitive states in play here. - David Plouffe
national polling averages as of 10/25/08 via pollster.com
With only ten days left, it's become apparent just how wide the election map is. But as the number of competitive states grows larger, so to does the universe of voters that we have to identify, persuade and get to the polls. Now more than ever, we are relying on volunteers in every corner of the country to help execute the field plan we've built over the last 20 months.
Jen O'Malley Dillon, the battleground states director, explained:
We have expected all along that this race is going to tighten up, especially in the battlegrounds states. So we have spent a lot of time building our organizational strengths, building capacity and really focusing on our voter contact and our neighborhood organizations. We really feel that in a number of these states, this election is going to come down to our ground organization and what happens in the final days of the campaign.
In almost two dozen key states, the outcome is very much still up in the air. Over the next ten days, you have an unprecedented opportunity to be part of this effort and to contribute directly to the outcome of this election.
If you live in or near one of the many battleground states, you can connect with a local office and help our field operation on the ground. Face-to-face contact is the most powerful way to get out the vote or persuade undecided voters in battleground states. Sign up today -- state staff are waiting for your help.
This weekend, we're counting on our grassroots phonebankers to make an additional 300,000 calls to voters in key states. As of 7:00 PM Central tonight, you've already made 113,762 calls. Right from your own home, on your own schedule, you can do your part in just an hour or two by calling voters in one of these crucial states. We'll give you the phone numbers and the talking points. It couldn't be easier. You can get your list of targeted voters to call right now.
Finally, supporters will be coming together on Wednesday, October 29th, to watch Barack's national TV appearance and call voters in battleground states. Talking one-on-one with potential fellow voters is one of the easiest and most effective ways for you to make an impact in this election. Find a Last Call for Change house party near you or sign up to host one.
As National Field Director Jon Carson said in an email sent out to supporters tonight, each passing day is an opportunity we'll never have again to change America. You hold this election in your hands.
Polls close in 10 days.
In the early hours of February 10th, 2007, New Media Director Joe Rospars posted the second ever HQ Blog post:
Coming to Life...By Joe Rospars - Feb 10th, 2007 at 2:18 am ESTAbout two hours after a midnight beta launch, the site is already coming to life. ... The site is already brimming with groups, blogs, fundraising pages, and events. Getting started early are Idahoans for Obama and South Carolinians for Obama, just to name a few of the many newly-created groups.
Coming to Life...By Joe Rospars - Feb 10th, 2007 at 2:18 am ESTAbout two hours after a midnight beta launch, the site is already coming to life.
... The site is already brimming with groups, blogs, fundraising pages, and events. Getting started early are Idahoans for Obama and South Carolinians for Obama, just to name a few of the many newly-created groups.
Some of the first blog posts that night included Nathan in Quincy, Illinois, writing from his dorm room before leaving for Springfield to watch Barack's announcement speech, and William in Maryland who admitted he had not voted in a presidential election since 1992 and described himself as "never [having] been this motivated or energized about a political campaign."
Since that night, over one million people have joined the MyBO community. They've formed groups, worked together to host over 150,000 events, written countless blog posts, made phone calls, knocked on doors, and been the heart of a grassroots movement that has evolved into what may be the most impressive field organization in the history of American politics.
Many of our earliest HQ Blog posts received only a handful of comments each. Over the next twenty months, the comments section exploded into a community of its own, and has become an essential part of the site itself. It is often the first place where readers turn to share stories, get answers to questions, find motivation and support, or simply vent their frustrations among friends. At times, discussions on the HQ Blog have reached over 2,000 comments on a single post, and we sometimes see as many as 10,000 new comments in a single day.
Throughout the primaries and now into the general election, supporters have used the community here on the HQ Blog to inspire and to motivate one another time and again to make that next phone call, knock that last door, or donate one more time.
Now as we near the end of this long journey, we thought that it was only fitting to take stock of what the community here on the HQ Blog has accomplished. With that in mind, we've created a MyBO group called the "Obama HQ Blog Community," and we're inviting all of you who have been with us here, whether for 20 months or 20 days, to join.
It's an imperfect measure of what you've accomplished, but it's also a symbol of what can happen when people join together to work for a common cause.
As Joe explained in that late-night post nearly two years ago:
This site will always be a work in progress, but everyone here is excited to see what we can do together.
