President Obama can expect an instant surge in poll numbers if and when he gets back on board with the majority of Americans who don't give two figs what Snowe and the Party of No think...
To me the only mystery is why some seem to think there's any mystery. It's not like Republicans, with whom a mere 20% of Americans identify and only 36% still think have a clue about what to do are picking up the numbers.
I can only speak for my own disappointment in this once inspirational president who used to fill us all with so much hope, but I fully expect there are others who feel as I do. The President's approval numbers are inversely proportionate to his tacit approval for the antics of disingeuous Republicans such as Olympia Snowe and Chuck Grassley, support for spineless compromises such as Max Baucus's self-serving gift to the industry who supported and supports his re-election, his willingness to place the groups who elected him on hold, as he's done with the gay community, or to call us"opinionated," as he did when he recently described me and my fellow progressives that way. "Principled," Mr. Obama, and "resolute" are two of the adjectives I'd have chosen.
I don't need a public option, I live in Canada where they've understood for decades that single-payer provides the widest high quality coverage at the lowest cost to tax payers. Like over 80% of Canadians I'm very happy with the way it works, and I know it doesn't shut out private companies that enhance my coverage. I'm worried about my nephew and niece, who live in the States and have no health care. I'm worried about families who are plummeted into bankruptcy and still have to bury their 4-year-old child who dies of cystic-fibrosis, a disease that also claimed my first wife -- at the age of 40. She was Canadian. She was covered. "Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are more than words in Canada.
The so-called "public option" is the compromise. It has the potential of proving to Americans that the health insurance industry will either adapt and put up, as it has all over the globe, or shut up. Without a robust public option health care reform is a sham.
CLICK ON /SAVE IN FAVS - KEEP TRACK OF POLLS.
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/polls/obama.html
Imagine the following situation:
A neighbour in your district whenever you walk in the street he hurls stones on you, sometime tosses stones on your house and breaks your window.
Once upon a day you decided to get rid of this mischievous neighbour once and for all.
You took your gun and went out to the street where the neighbour was standing steady to toss stones on you. Once he sees your gun he runs and hides behind a couple of babies and a woman.
What would you do?
Conditions:
1- free your mind and use imagination and contemplation
2- try to be as honest as you can
3- feel the situation vividly
4- Don’t overload the situation with your political derivations… try to be simple and human.
This poll is opened for 3 days. During these days I will not comment or interfere.
Latest Gallup: 32% of Americans say President-elect Obama is the man they admire most in the world. President Bush wilts in second place with an anemic 5%.
Obama's immense and growing popularity will be a tremendous asset as he joins the political battles to define the next four and eight years. Via his web-based political organization, the President-elect will be able to leverage public support for his proposals more directly and rapidly than any president in history.
These extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We are lucky to follow an extraordinary leader.
Hi, y'all. It has been a while since I posted but I am totally excited about our President and Vice-President Elects Barack Obama and Joe Biden.Had to go through campaign withdrawal syndrome. First, our local group, Barack Team Bessemer registered 2750 new voters in Bessemer, AL. This increased our city's percentage of registered voters by 18%. Our county, Jefferson County, had a clean sweep on November 4. For the first time in history, all Democrats won the seats they sought, including the African Americans. We, in Alabama, picked up one additional House seat. Bobby Bright, of Montgomery, AL is our newly elected US House Representative. State totals are 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats. For years we only had 2 democrats in the House.After our voter registration deadline ended on October 24, my sister and I, Angela, traveled to St. Petersburg, FL to knock on doors and encourage early voting. We stayed there a week and had a very exhilirating experience. Chris Haas (or CJ as he was called) had one of the most organized campaigns that I have ever witnessed. Our hosts, Millie and Bob, were very gracious and fired up. ON Halloween night, Millie had to attend a Halloween Party, and Bob asked me to hand out the treats. My sister and I are lower middle-class African Americans. Bob and Millie are upper income Caucasians. We live in one of the poorest cities in Alabama. They lived on the coast of the Gulf or Mexico in a diverse and upscale community in St. Petersburg. Imagine the looks on the trick or treaters face when I opened the door. I told Bob, "Look, you need to show your face so no one thinks we hijacked your home". We had a ball.My sister and I sneaked out on Wednesday to see and hear Obama speak in Sarasota, FL. I didn't see many African Americans at the rally or in the city, but everyone there welcomed us. Was told later that this was the hometown of Katherine Harris, former Secretary of State and one of the wealthiest cities in Florida. We left on Saturday, after receiving word that Birmingham was sending several volunteers for Saturday until the day after the election. I know that we made a difference in St Petersburg. I was thrilled to finally see the election results from Pinellas County.
On election day, another sister, San, along with her husband, Mitch, and daughter, Devin, had the unique experience of taking a 92 year old couple to the polls to vote. A little background: Before Angela and I left for Florida, I registered Mr. Pitts to vote for the first time in his life. He was 92 years old. I submitted an Absentee ballot application for him and his wife (she was already registered). On Saturday, November 1, he received his voter registration card in the mail. They also received a letter from the Absentee Ballot Election Manager stating that because I submitted their applications in the same envelope, they were not eligible to vote by absentee ballot. Mrs. P was wheel chair bound. Mr. P had a pace maker and was also on an oxygen tank. I felt extremely low because I thought there was no way they could make it to the polls. The couple's son was totally disgusted with us. After talking to the couple, we convinced them to go to the polls. Mr. P went to his doctor on Monday and received additional medication to enable him to wait in long lines if needed.
My sister said they were dressed in their Sunday go to meeting clothes and were thoroughly excited to go to the polls on this historic occasion. Mrs. P's name was on the rolls but originally they could not locate Mr. P's name. Finally, a clerk looked in the supplemental rolls and found his name. Mrs. P told my sister to go over than and help him because he had never voted before in his life. She said, "go help him fill that form out for that boy!" I believe this was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives.
We spent the rest of the day going to Public Housing complexes in Bessemer providing rides to local residents to the polls. There was an elderly woman who had gone to the polls earlier and was told that she had to go to Birmingham to vote even though she has voted at this box for several years. Her son and daughter did not know where the new place was and she had reconciled herself to not voting. Two of our volunteers, natives of Nigeria and the country of India, using their GPS took her to the polls. She was very grateful and excited to be chauffered by these international volunteers.
Grassroots campaigning does work and is totally rewarding.
I am so glad I am alive to see this day.
I have traveled around the world.
I have visited and lived in other countries.
I had the Opportunity to meet many different People in other Countries.
I am Grateful to have experienced the Past Opportunities in LIFE.
It made me who I am today. Pragmatic.
We needed this Election more than some people know.
I see PEACE in the Future.
We are going in the right direction.
*One Snow Flake is weak.
**Thousands of Snow Flakes are strong.
(I'm thinking about all those HARD Snowballs Iv'e been HIT with...OUCH!)
An Avalanche is Powerful.
The USA has the Strength of a Blizzard;
...and the Passion as a Blanket of Snow. (Just Beautiful. Protects Plants, too!)
Today I am glad Barack Obama is OUR PRESIDENT-Elect.
"CONGRATULATIONS Barack Obama!"
The World will be a Better Place to live in.
The United States of America will certainly be a better place to VISIT.
PEACE to All,
Finally
Goodnight My Friends,
Mona Ali
I have not been blogging very much on this particular blog because I have been blogging all over the internet.
We are on the eve of electing our new President Barack Obama. We know he can win because we can feel it in our hearts and minds and we know he can get the job done.
Never before has history been made in this way. Many of us grandparents have dreamt of the possibility of a president being a Black man but did know that we would see it happen in our lifetime.
Thanks to everyone that campaigned and did whatever they could to see this through. For the first time in history the country has come together for a common cause.
We have alot to be proud of. Here in Maryland we do not have early voting so we will be supporting each other tomorrow by passing out water and holding a space in line for each other for bathroom breaks.
God Bless and see you at the polls!
My spiffy t-shirt is on it's way!
I hope that I will win the ticket to the Grant Park-a-palooza / Obamacon. But then my awesome friend who I promised I would go with would feel very unhappy... I dunno. I think it would rock. Front row seats!!!
Anyway, I can't wait for my t-shirt. I hope the size S wasn't an adult Small, but we'll see. Maybe I can make it shrink a lot...
Also, fivethirtyeight.com says that Obama has a 93.7% chance of winning. I guess there is a 93.7% chance I will go to school on Wednesday and not wear black.
Dear God, I hope there isn't a crazy voting scandal like the last two elections.
I watched a great video featured on boingboing.net about how if one controls who votes, then one controls who wins an election. So true. I think it was for videothevote.com? I dunno. But I do know that I am going to skip out on orchestra practice on Tuesday so I can plunk down and watch CNN for 7 hours straight. =D
Signing off, Ms. A
Okay, I live in a decidedly "Blue" state ... not just leaning Blue, but a full-fledged, bright, technicolor solid Blue. So it should not have come as a surprise that when I went shopping for an Obama t-shirt to wear to a recent event (an online order would've taken too long) - I couldn't find ANY! There were plenty of McCain/Palin shirts - but no Obama.
I asked the store clerks (and I went to half a dozen stores!) and was informed that they had sold out of them WEEKs ago! I guess, on the one hand, that's good, but it didn't serve my purpose at all since I needed one fairly soon! The various Democratic field offices (there are three in my county) had run out even weeks before that.
Then I got to thinking: are t-shirts a viable representation of a dem- or GOP- leaning community? It would certainly eliminate the "Bradley Effect" where verbal affirmation for a person-of-color is favored over a white candidate, only to vote for the white candidate at the last second after all. In purchasing a t-shirt a person is, as the saying goes, "puting their money where their mouth is" and making a definite statement who it is they are supporting. If my ascertion is true, then retail sales in my community absolutely favor Senator Obama for President!
What did I do for a t-shirt to wear to my event? I plastered a bumper sticker to a bright blue t-shirt instead. It worked.
I wrote the following for you my fellow citizens who are attending college, and are supporters of Senator Barack Obama. I want to you to think about it while you are waking up on Election Day and while you are standing in line to vote.
A Minute Of Your Time
By Terry Cardwell
On November 4th., 2008, Cpl. Leroy C. Howe is asking you for a minute of your time.
I first became aware of him as a 13 year old girl, the day my mother took me to visit his mother. When we walked in to the house, her sobbing was the first thing I heard, it still echoes in my soul. She was sitting at a table with a picture of her youngest son, propped in front of her. Leroy was such a handsome figure in his military uniform, his face is forever seared on my heart. She was blaming herself for signing the papers that let him join the service. He was only 17 when he begged her to let him go to fight for freedom, in a place called Vietnam, there was no stopping him. Reluctantly she let him go.
She was now facing the nightmare she had feared that day she had signed the permission slip, she was going to have to bury her baby. He had been killed while trying to save the life of a fellow soldier. His heroic action had earned him the Silver Star. And there was a write up in the local paper, in which the headline on the front page screamed, the total number of soldiers killed to that date was 10,000. Their names are etched on a black stone wall.
Leroy instilled in me something I have carried with me through the rest of my life. He had the courage to fight for us all, so we wouldn’t have to use a gun to change things. It was so ironic that he died before he could even vote at the age of 21. Therefore, when the 18 year olds won the right to vote, I honored his sacrifice by exercising it.
Over the course of my life, the amount of time I have spent voting will never add up to the loss of his. He should have turned 60 this year. This year the Leroys of all of our generations are asking you for a minute of your time. Please vote.
Now please take a second to pass this on to every college student you know.
"Pole" for Obama to Get Voters to Polls
On Saturday November 1, for a final push to get out the vote I decided to use an empty flag pole at Lakeland Farmer's and Flea Market in Lakeland Florida to encourage shoppers to vote early.
Some of the photos in the links below demontstrate how I temporarily transformed the empty pole in a high visibility location at the market to an early vote pole - to remind folks to vote after they left the market.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/2994175232
SlideShow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africreations/show
The election is only a few days away! Please do whatever you can to get out the vote and/or make a donation to help raise funds for Obama for America.
Delores
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Afri
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/BlackDesignersCraftersandArtistsforObama
Update for October 31, 4 days to Election Day.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
This was Obama's best week yet in the Chance for Change model, with Barack winning all 10,000 simulated elections with an expected vote total of 366, the highest ever. The fewest votes Barack received in any election was 294, 24 more than the 270 needed to win. The most was 431. But we're not ready to relax yet.
We entered poll results from 45 states this week, of which ten materially affected the outcome. Of these, six were favorable to Obama.
In one of the biggest surprises this week, polls show the race becoming competitive in McCain's home state of Arizona. McCain had a 21 point lead last week, but only a single point lead this week. It does not look like an outlier. This red, red state is now a battleground. Obama is campaigning there, and the Republicans are running robocalls. Imagine that. We think Arizona will likely go for its favorite son, but wouldn't it be delicious?
Obama's one-point lead in Florida last week has grown to four points this week. This crucial state has volleyed back and forth all season but Obama seems to have built a durable lead, either tied or ahead in all of the last twelve polls, leading by as much as seven. Remember, if McCain loses Florida or Ohio, there is almost no possible path to 270 votes.
Obama led by a single point last week in Georgia but trails by three this week. Georgia has had record turnout in the early vote, with more than 1.5 million Georgians casting their ballots as of this week. By most accounts, Democrats have dominated the early voters. If Georgia falls to Obama, it could turn out to be a very long night for the McCain camp.
Indiana remains a squeaker. Obama's four point lead last week evaporated; now the Hoosier state is dead even at 47 all.
Obama had a four point lead in Montana last week but trails by three this week. It's only three votes, but could be highly symbolic. Not as delicious as Arizona, but still sweet.
McCain has hopes for New Hampshire, the state that revived his comatose primary campaign. McCain trailed by one point last week, but trails by eleven in this week's poll. This one is diverging and looks pretty solid for Obama.
New Mexico was tied last week, but Obama has opened up a 17 point lead. This is probably bigger than the actual lead, but it's not out of the question. Another poll this week has him up by ten.
North Carolina will be another state to watch early on election night. Obama trailed by two in last week's poll, but is up by two this week. They've been polling the heck out of the Tarheel state this week, but most of the polls have Obama in the lead.
Obama is hanging onto the lead in our home state of Ohio, up by four this week, down from a twelve point lead last week. It's still close in Ohio, but Obama leads by three to nine points in every poll taken since October 23. That's ten straight polls.
Finally, the surprise development of the election, the movement of the Commonwealth of Virginia from a reliable Republican stronghold to blue-state status appears to be complete. McCain was down by two last week but trails by nine in this week's poll. In what is becoming a familiar pattern, Obama has led in every poll since October 2 - that's 24 straight polls.
We also entered results from 28 senate races this week, of which five showed significant movement. The race in Georgia has opened up a bit, with incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss improving his lead over challenger Jim Martin from two points to five. A recent poll in Louisiana shows incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu's lead over John Kennedy shrinking from ten points last week to a single point this week. It's highly doubtful that the race is actually this close, since other recent polls show Landrieu up ten to twenty points - and the poll showing her up by one was conducted on behalf of the Kennedy campaign. Minnesota continues to entertain, with Al Franken opening up a five point lead over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. The race in Mississippi between Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ronnie Musgrove has taken a turn in Wicker's direction. Wicker's one point lead last week has swollen to eleven. In what is becoming one of the ugliest senate campaigns in the country, North Carolina Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole has fallen behind her Democratic challenger Kay Hagan by six points, after trailing last week by one. Dole ran an ad this week that implied that Kay Hagan, a former Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian church elder, is in fact an atheist. Hagan responded by accusing Dole of "bearing false witness against a fellow Christian." While we've been keeping our eye on the main event, we've forgotten all the entertaining sideshows going on in the senate races. It's a nice break.
The upshot is, there's a much better chance that the Democrats will achieve a 57 seat majority, but less of a chance that they'll get 60 seats.
try the washington post's polls page and some of the conclusions they draw at
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/
some of the conclusions might be very enlightening...
but nobody reads my posts, right?
plusaf in raleigh, nc. www.plusaf.com
Another resource with thanks to UWay and Michigan's Children
Get a Ride to the Polls
Michigan 2-1-1 has partnered with the Michigan Participation Project to provide information about free and low-cost rides to voting sites. MPP surveyed transportation authorities and nonprofits throughout the state to identify free rides for voters. They are available in some areas, but not all. In areas where free rides aren't offered, the 2-1-1 operators can direct folks to other low-cost transportation through their normal protocol.
It's easy. If you are serviced by a regional 2-1-1 call center, that's all folks need to dial. If you don't have local 2-1-1 service you can call the statewide toll-free number for assistance: 1-800-552-1183.
To see if you are serviced by a 2-1-1 call center, click here.
Click link below for more info. on this and children's issues for the election
http://www.michiganschildren.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=137&Itemid=156
