HQ you guys have lost touch with the Obama campaign fundraising base over the last 2 months since the primaries ended.
First, you stop putting up the counter which generated the most excitement - people want to see the counter "adding up" the donations.
The Hillary "pay off" also did not help you but that is another story I won't even get into because it's a touchy issue, still is crippling fundraising efforts overall.
Second, you have to come up with a BIG NUMBER. Don't do some 150,000 by July 4th deal (that number should be 1,000,000 donors not 150,000). DO A HUGE NUMBER - $100 Million!
At the average rate of $90, 1,000,000 donors would add $90 Million. We need a big score and this can happen. It doesn't matter WHEN it happens it just needs to happen. So what if it takes more than one reporting cycle, more than 30 days, who cares? We need to make this number.
Stop thinking SMALL HQ.
What happened to the Obama Mojo??? (i.e. "Yes We Can" ??? - where did that go?)
I can't believe HQ has let this happen. What are you guys thinking? Get Real and get back to the roots of what has been proven to work - THE COUNTER.
Every since you hid it donations have plummeted substantially.
Doing these "high dollar" fundraisers will make the core online contributor feel left out and is you don't need "our money" especially since most of us will never ever attend these events.
And PLEASE lay off the trickster donation crap (send in $5 to get a chance to be 1 of 10 for the Arena in Denver). This is below our intelligence here. Sure we would like to attend this and would give $5. But don't talk down to us and use trickery to entice a donation. We are not stupid.
Get back to your roots.
Come up with a HUGE NUMBER, put the counter back up. Go back to what has worked and GET REAL. Come down a notch from the "corporate" mindset, please.
Do this and you will see more donations come in.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_finances;_ylt=Ap83rKPIGPcWdQwSVpCP94Zh24cA
Obama outdoes Clinton in finance game
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton upped the tempo of her fundraising and her spending last month, only to be eclipsed by rival Barack Obama. At month's end, with debts of nearly $9 million, her money was nearly spent and he was sitting atop $30 million in available cash.
Obama's campaign spent at a rate of nearly $1.5 million a day in February, a crucial month that began with the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday and ended with both candidates marching to a showdown March 4 in Texas and Ohio. Clinton, riding her best fundraising period yet, spent about $1 million a day on average.
But reports filed with the Federal Election commission late Thursday showed that Obama set a single-month fundraising record, with more than $55 million in contributions.
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 26 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama raised a record $55 million in February for his presidential campaign, eclipsing rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's own substantial fundraising for the month. All told, Obama has raised $193 million during his yearlong bid for the White House.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080306/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_money
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/focus_group_clintons_3_am_ad_d.html
Watch all the way to the end (I know, it's hard) and watch the opinions fall off a cliff when Hillary comes onscreen!
Political malpractice indeed.
A picture of Barack Obama trying on rural Wajir attire on a trip to Kenya was released to stir fears among conservatives and Christians. The link below shows the same picture incorporated into a collage which neutralizes the shot by pairing it with images this same group finds attractive.
A President Wears Many Hats
Obama Overtakes Clinton, Tied With McCain, Poll Says (Update2)
By Heidi Przybyla
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama www.barackobama.com moved ahead of Hillary Clinton in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, and is in a dead heat in a general-election fight against Republican John McCain, who enjoys an advantage on national-security issues
A new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times survey shows Obama is preferred by Democratic primary voters 48 percent to 42 percent, the first time he has overtaken Clinton in a Bloomberg/Times poll. In a general-election match-up among registered voters, McCain is 2 points ahead of Obama, within the margin of error; he beats Clinton by 6 points.
McCain runs ahead of Obama on every issue except health care. The Arizona senator has a 13-point advantage on Iraq and a 37-point lead on terrorism. He also does better on managing the economy. One area where Obama has a clear edge is on the question of who would bring the most change in Washington; the Illinois senator has an almost 3-to-1 lead.
``Obama has moved decisively ahead of Clinton, but as a general-election candidate he has a tougher road to travel in a campaign against John McCain,'' says Susan Pinkus, the Los Angeles Times polling director. McCain is seen as having the right experience and is ``the person people think could be the strongest leader.''
General Election
Clinton's 9-point lead over Obama in January has vanished. Obama, 46, is increasingly viewed as the Democrat best equipped to beat McCain, 71, in the general election, leading Clinton, a New York senator, by an 18-point margin on that question among Democratic primary voters. The poll was taken before yesterday's debate between Clinton and Obama in Ohio, which along with Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont holds a presidential primary on March 4.
Obama appears to have garnered some of the voters who supported former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who dropped out of the Democratic race last month, Pinkus says.
By a more than 2-to-1 margin, registered voters say they favor Obama's plan to use tax credits and a fund for refinancing to address the subprime-mortgage crisis. Only 20 percent support Clinton's proposal to impose a moratorium on foreclosures, when informed of Obama's criticism that the plan would raise interest rates.
Clinton splits the vote with Obama among registered Democrats, while in January she had a 10-point advantage with this group. Independents support Obama 52 percent to Clinton's 31 percent.
Women Voters
Her base of support with women, less-educated and lower- income voters is also ebbing. Last month, she had a 12-point lead with women, compared with a 1-point advantage in the latest survey.
``I'm a woman and I'm a Democrat, but I don't automatically support women,'' says Cathy Dobbs, a 52-year-old real-estate agent from Covington, Georgia, who voted for Obama in her state's Feb. 5 primary. ``I'm tired of the establishment, and I don't look at him as the establishment.''
Clinton also had a 10-point lead last month with voters who don't have a college education. That has narrowed to a 1-point lead in this survey. Obama has solid support from male voters, at 52 percent, compared with 40 percent for Clinton.
Clinton, 60, would face a tougher road than Obama as her party's nominee, with almost a third of voters saying the nation isn't ready to elect a female president. That compares with just 20 percent who say the country isn't ready to elect an African- American.
Illegal Immigration
At the same time, Clinton leads McCain on the issues where the Republican has an advantage over Obama, including the economy and illegal immigration, and she beats McCain by a wider margin than Obama on health care.
When it comes to who has the right experience to lead the nation, McCain has a 12-point lead over Clinton, compared with a 31-point advantage over Obama. Clinton leads McCain 45 percent to 23 percent when it comes to the question of who will change Washington, while Obama leads McCain 55 percent to 20 percent on that issue.
Jim Gallo, a 61-year-old business owner from Santa Clarita, California, says he was initially ``entranced'' by Obama's oratory on the stump.
Now, says Gallo, an independent voter, ``I question strongly his credentials, his experience.''
``The direction McCain wants to take this country will be far outlasting,'' he adds.
The poll of 1,246 registered voters was conducted Feb. 21- 25 and has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points. For the Democratic primary voters, the margin is 5 points.
Republican Satisfaction
In another sign of strength for McCain, more than half of Republican voters say they are happy with him as their nominee, including a majority of conservatives.
Still, just one in 10 says they are enthusiastic about the Arizona senator. Almost 3 in 10 conservatives and almost 40 percent who say they belong to the religious right say McCain isn't a true conservative.
Among Republican voters who say they aren't happy with McCain, half say they would either stay home or vote for another candidate. A plurality of Republicans, 42 percent, says Obama would be the more difficult Democratic candidate for McCain to beat in November, compared with 14 percent who choose Clinton.
Independents appear to be a significant problem for Clinton in a general election. While she has strong favorable ratings from Democrats, at 82 percent, just 48 percent of independents agree. Obama has a 63 percent favorable rating among independents, while McCain has a 65 percent positive rating.
Those preferences buttress Obama's more competitive position against McCain in a general election.
The poll also shows some potential signs of trouble for McCain, who has closely aligned himself with President George W. Bush on the Iraq war.
Just 35 percent of U.S. voters approve of the job Bush is doing as president, with only 16 percent strongly approving; 46 percent say they disapprove strongly. Three-fifths of voters say the situation in Iraq wasn't worth going to war over.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net .
By Edward Luce in Washington
Published: February 20 2008 20:17 | Last updated: February 21 2008 01:21
This time last year a video featuring Hillary Clinton rapidly ascended to the top spot in YouTube’s rankings. In a parody of an Apple advertisement based on George Orwell’s “Big Brother” from 1984, Mrs Clinton was depicted as Big Brother. Again and again it replayed a clip culled from her own campaign website in which she said: “Let the conversation begin”.
Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, which examines how technology affects US campaigns, says the Big Brother video perfectly encapsulated the difference between Barack Obama’s www.barackobama.com campaign and that of Mrs Clinton. Mr Obama, he says, has run the model new technology campaign, in which staff and volunteers have the autonomy to make their own decisions and in which potential supporters who visit his website are offered multiple online materials.
The Obama website offers almost instant video replays of his speeches, which are also packaged by Obama officials for YouTube. A few mouse clicks from each webcast provides a simple procedure to make online donations. Users can set up blogs, join the Obama Facebook group and even download ring tones featuring recordings of his speeches.
The contrast with Mrs Clinton’s relatively conventional website is instructive. In one of her first webcasts Mrs Clinton offered to “have a conversation with America”. But the questions she received were obviously screened. The fact these “conversations” took place online could not disguise the fact they were controlled.
“Even businesses find it hard to change their organisational structure to fit the demands of new technology,” says Mr Leyden. “But for political campaigns, which are classic command-and-control operations, it is particularly difficult. Mrs Clinton maintains a competent and solid website but Mr Obama has made it the central organising tool of his campaign.”
As Mrs Clinton wages an uphill battle towards the must-win primaries of Ohio and Texas on March 4 following her 10th straight defeat to Mr Obama on Tuesday, criticisms about her organisational structure are becoming increasingly noisy.
Some blame the recent failures on her campaign’s original launch premise, which billed her as the inevitable candidate and as the candidate of experience at a stage in US history when there is an overwhelming desire for “change”. Others blame it on last month’s irascible interventions by Bill Clinton, who reminded US voters of how a “co- presidency” might function were Mrs Clinton to take the White House.
But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Mrs Clinton has maintained a much less flexible campaign than her surging opponent, in which technology has been treated as an add-on rather than a central tool. She has also relied on a small coterie of family loyalists rather than recruiting far and wide like Mr Obama. Early on, Mr Obama hired Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, the social networking site, to advise his campaign.
“Candidates get the campaigns they deserve,” says Bill Galston, a veteran of Democratic contests. “The media needs a narrative and Mrs Clinton did not provide one. It is too late now to come up with one. All she can hope to do is to sharpen her message and hope something unexpected happens to Mr Obama.”
Clinton insiders privately concede that her campaign has proved inflexible in the face of Mr Obama’s early successes. Instead of recalibrating their strategy following Mr Obama’s emphatic win in Iowa on January 3, the Clinton campaign continued to operate on the assumption the race would conclude with her victory in the “Super Tuesday” primaries on February 5.
That is why the Clinton campaign ran out of money after “Super Tuesday” and why she had to lend herself $5m to keep it going. It is also why the Clinton camp was hopelessly out-organised in the post-Super Tuesday states, such as Virginia, Nebraska, Maryland and now Wisconsin – all of which Mr Obama won.
And it explains why it is only now that the Clinton campaign is getting to grips with the hybrid caucus-primary structure of the Texas nominating vote in less than two weeks, in spite of the fact that the Lone Star state’s high Latino population ought to have made it a comfortable win for her.
Mr Obama’s better use of technology has enabled him to raise funds at more than twice the rate of Mrs Clinton in the past six weeks from an expanding universe of online donors. She, in contrast, has had to divert valuable time to attend traditional “offline” fundraising events. “Once you have your online fundraising network in place it operates at virtually zero cost – in time and overheads,” says Mr Leyden. “Mr Obama has built a kind of online ATM. Mrs Clinton doesn’t have that.”
● Mr Obama was on Wednesday endorsed by the 1.4m International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union announced its support after a vote by its executive board
By Leslie Wayne
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/anti-obama-film-on-the-way/
A conservative group -– Citizens United -– that has produced a film now in distribution attacking Hillary Clinton called “Hillary, the Movie,” has its sights set on a new target: Barack Obama. The group has budgeted about $1 million to produce a documentary film about Mr. Obama that is set to be distributed this summer. At the moment, Citizens United has its researchers poring over Mr. Obama’s records as a community organizer, state legislator and United States senator in the same way that it scoured Mrs. Clinton’s record with a highly critical eye and a sharply conservative point of view.
“Obama is a completely clean slate,” said David Bossie, president of the group. “We will develop the image that we want the people to see. We’re doing the hard work of the research right now. The American people don’t know much about Obama, except that they like his speaking style.”If the Obama movie is anything like the one about Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama had better prepare himself. “Hillary, the Movie,” and promotional ads for it, present statements from Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Robert Novak, Jeff Gerth (a former New York Times reporter), Newt Gingrich and others in which she is called everything from a liar, to a European socialist to being more devious than Richard Nixon.
“If you want to hear about the Clinton scandals of the past and present, you have it here,” said the movie’s promotional materials. “Hillary the Movie is the first and last word in what the Clintons want America to forget!”
The Obama movie would be the sixth long-form documentary film made by the group, which says it is dedicated to “restoring our government to citizen control.” While some of the movies have been in theatrical release, most are distributed as DVDs on-line and in bookstores.
Does GOP have an edge over the Democrats?
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/07/does-gop-have-an-edge-over-democrats/
Here are my "awaiting moderation" comments:Absolutely not. Especially with McCain as the nominee, because his Bush Redux positions are not getting any fresher. Moreover, I had no idea, but it appears he's the Hillary Clinton of the Republican party.
In the meantime Barack Obama gets a chance to go state by state across the country. He's already proven that when voters see him, they vote for him. So yes, by all means, let's hit all fifty on the way to the nomination. What's more, he's bringing in money hand over fist, so he can be building and battle-testing his grassroots organization in each of fifty states. By the time he's the nominee (cue the shrillbots) he will have a formidible lead in mindshare. There is absolutely no way McCain can compete with the Obama juggernaught if he has to go to the wire to get the nomination.
I honestly think Hillary sees this, and is staying to help Barack win. See guys, she isn't all bad!
Michael
Fourth Quarter 2007: $26,776,409.41
2007 Total: 107,056,585.66
Barack Obama's numbers should be up shortly. Here is a link to HRC numbers: http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/YE/C00431569.html
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $32 million in the single month of January, a whopping figure that has permitted the campaign to boost staff and extend advertising to states beyond the sweeping Feb. 5 contests, aides said Thursday.
Obama is now advertising in 20 of the 22 states in play for next week's Super Tuesday and plans to begin advertising in seven more states that hold primaries or caucuses later in February. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is advertising in 12 Super Tuesday states, including her own home state of New York.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080131/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_money
Tune into the debate tonight on MSNBC. The event will be broadcast live from Cashman Center in Las Vegas, Nev., from 6-8 p.m. PST.
One of the innuendos spread about Obama recently is that he "took down" the speech he made in 2002. Which is true, but not for the reason implied, that he no longer stands by those sentiments. It's still a public record, and can be found relatively easily. I'm an Obamaholic, so I've been looking around youtube for a video of it. I finally found the text of the speech, and I see now why he took it down: it's calling out the "Masters of War" by name, making it a bit more "partisan red meat" and not in line with the tone of the campaign today. He routinely uses the less partisan segments of it in campaign videos. Anyway, here's the link I found, judge for yourself:
http://usliberals.about.com/od/extraordinaryspeeches/a/Obama2002War.htm
Some thoughts of late:
1. Barack kind of backed off in my opinion in NH. Not taking questions after rallies was mentioned by several NH people on CSPAN at other candidates meetings as a negative. I understand what may have been the thought of not taking chances with such poll leads. But this whole thing is a chance. Always press honestly on with the fact that you are the people listening to the people. Not to LEAD them but to STAND FOR THEM.
2. I hope the strategists at Obama stick to creating a MANDATE of change the system and the administration. The change message is getting used by everyone GOP included. Therefore, it is up to Barack to re-frame the change to where it orginated, not where James Carvelle is trying to frame it for HRC.
3. Don't get drawn into a battle by HRC Machine. Fight for a mandate, not to be another candidate.
4. Change message must be layered on. It may be difficult to sustain for 10 months. Therefore, let's start getting people's COMMITTMENTS TO CHANGE. IE After you leave Iowa, New Hampshire, etc. Treat the constiuents and the energy (after all, only 7,000 fewer votes there and still an important state in general election) with respect.
A. Get people who supported Barack in early states involved in getting out suport to other states
B. Start recording (and promoting) impact that Barack has had on people who've gotten involved. He has inspired me to reengage, get people telling their story out loud, so that they are empowered. A huge number of empowered people is a lot better than any "support" HRC can drum through the machine. AN IDEA FOR FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN: Have a I am BARACK campaign - Have people on facebook change their profile pictures to a picture of Barack (same one would be powerful), goes back to what I learned in Obama Boot Camp, "its not enough to support Barack or talk up Barack, you have to BE LIKE BARACK - taking action, being positive influence, and striving to make everyone's life better." This will help drive the mandate.
C. Start collecting people's commitment to work not just for the election but for when the country has taken itself back. "When the people replace business as usual I am COMMITED TO CHANGE...." As I've posted before, I am a small business owner and could be seen as having concerns about some policies that would come up in a Barack Administration. I say I trust Barack to make the hard choices and commit to doing the hard work ahead in full support of knowing that whatever hardship my business faces, I am alongside Barack who I trust and the other COMMITTED TO CHANGE constituents who are ready to do the hard work and excellent things we can, as soon as we trust, respect, and are inspired by our leader. Politics as usual will not inspire people during the administration of HRC and the counry will suffer as a result. Don't let this happen by forgetting the mandate and becoming another candidate.
I am FIRED UP! I am READY TO GO!
YES WE CAN.
Back to the HQ this week for me for sure.
Everyone, now is the time to get involved more and more.
Here's an article that raises the issues I spoke about in my last post - issues that Barack Obama will have to confront in the campaign days ahead.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/did_nh_polls_miss_effect_of_ra.html
How can Barack Obama deal with the so-called "Tom Bradley" effect? We need to talk about some possible strategies.
