This proves there are a lot of undecided people out there to reach these last few weeks!
A nice video piece focused on Roanoke, which is a good proxy for a lot of places in VA and NC.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/sep/30/roanoke
Debate with a man of the right about Sarah Palin's "credentials," published last week by Richmond.com
http://www.richmond.com/viewpoints/25487
In light of Obama's strong polling in NC, this piece is already a little dated, but this is an essay about Bob Moser's book Blue Dixie arguing that the Democrats can win in the south NOW.
I wrote this for the Independent Weekly in Durham, NC.
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A264916
This was published by the UK magazine New Statesman today. Great speech by Obama last night!
http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2008/08/obama-campaign-state-virginia
Away from the glamour and glitz of the party conventions, a fierce battle for votes is already being waged on doorsteps across America. Thad Williamson reports on Obama efforts to capture the traditional "red" state of Virginia
Barack Obama supporters campaign on the streets of Richmond, Virginia.
Anyone with eyes to see recognizes that Barack Obama is the first African-American nominated for president by a major party, and anyone with ears to hear recognizes that he is a brilliant orator.
But what makes Obama’s candidacy something truly new in American politics is neither of these things, but how he has married his personal charisma to a campaign strategy that gives grassroots organizing a central role.
Virginia, my home state, represents an excellent test case. At the moment Virginia is one of 10 states listed by pollster.com as a “toss up.” Virginia has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, but shifting demographics, an incompetent state Republican party, and an unusually strong batch of youngish Democratic politicians have moved the state sharply in a “purple” direction in recent years.
The remarkable upset of Republican George Allen by upstart Jim Webb in a 2006 U.S. Senate race marked the re-entry of Virginia as a state “in play” at the national level. That development, combined with Obama’s lopsided victory over Hillary Clinton in the February primary and the strong involvement in the campaign of Governor Tim Kaine have raised hopes that an Obama victory is achievable.
Consequently, the Obama campaign is pouring resources into the state. In Richmond, the campaign has established a headquarters near the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, one of over 35 such offices around the state. That office, staffed by a team of full-time organizers, serves as the hub for phone banking and coordination of a massive volunteer canvassing effort (over 600 volunteers in the Richmond area are registered with the campaign website).
Organizers also have recruited local supporters to become “precinct captains,” who pledge to raise money for the campaign in their own neighborhood. Engaged supporters also get occasional perks, such as tickets to an invitation-only “town hall” Obama and Kaine conducted last week in suburban Richmond.
All this, combined with the campaign’s massive presence online (including its embrace of blogs and social networking sites), means that this is probably the easiest presidential campaign in history for supporters to get involved with, at least if you have a computer.
I have been a participant-observer in two neighborhood canvasses this summer. The first canvass, on a sweltering Friday evening in June, consisted of a dozen or so volunteers meeting in the parking lot of a public swimming pool, where an organizer provided us a map telling us which blocks to cover, campaign literature, voter registration forms, and information on how to restore your voting rights if you’re are a convicted felon.
My wife and I were assigned to an African-American, primarily middle class neighborhood of homeowners, and were treated to receptions by the doors we knocked on ranging from polite to enthusiastic (one homeowner went so far as provide us several bottles of water as well as a heartfelt “God bless”). Though most we encountered assured us they planned to vote for Obama, we did succeed in registering one voter (recently moved to the neighborhood). Disturbingly, we also encountered half a dozen young African-American men who told us they did not think they could vote due to their police records.
I headed out again on a canvas Monday night, this time in my own neighborhood (a racially integrated, middle-income neighborhood located near a public park) with a 50-something activist and neighborhood resident Chris Martin. Chris told me he that he usually does not get excited about Presidential candidates, but that after years of going to antiwar rallies and vigils he had concluded that getting re-engaged in electoral politics was essential to changing anything.
We traversed the neighborhood, speaking to several Obama supporters (both white and African-American), two undecided voters, two Republicans (one rather good-natured about our visit, the other less so), and one wary apartment complex resident who gave us 10 seconds of her time before closing the door in our faces.
Chris had not just a street map but a detailed computer printout of addresses, names, and demographic information for each of the houses we were to contact. Whereas in June, the focus was voter registration, here the focus was identifying particular people, noting who had moved and who had moved out, and identifying who is voting for whom. The two voters who told us they were undecided can certainly expect repeat visits from the campaign in weeks to come.
This is labor-intensive work, and one has to be quite motivated (as well as thick-skinned) to keep at it. Romantic moments of genuine democratic engagement involving a reasoned exchange of views among citizens are not easily come by. The hope is, however, that these countless hours will raise turnout in November to historically high levels.
This hope is especially high in the city of Richmond (population roughly 190,000), over half of which is African-American, which has voted roughly 75 percent Democratic in recent statewide races and which Obama carried with nearly 80 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Notably, 35,000 people voted in the Democratic primary here this year, compared to just 15,000 in 2004.
Whether that heightened interest will translate into a substantial increase in turnout this November compared to 2004, when John Kerry racked up a margin of over 30,000 votes in the city, remains to be seen. Obama’s hopes in Virginia—and the hopes of his admirers around the world - may well rest on the answer.
My article today published by Richmond.com:
http://www.richmond.com/news-features/25262
The saying used to go that every man knows how to grill a streak and coach a football team. Perhaps that saying needs to be updated: every liberal, in addition, knows how to run a presidential campaign.
That’s the impression one gets from many recent commentaries about Barack Obama’s campaign from quarters that are desperate for the Illinois senator to win. Those critics are worried that Obama isn’t ahead by more, and fret that the Democrats will once-again let themselves get Swift-boated on the way to yet another narrow electoral defeat.
That said, it would be very wrong for Democrats to hit the panic button.
Second, Obama chose wisely in picking Joe Biden as his running mate. Earlier in this space I endorsed Jim Webb as a good choice. Webb removed his name from consideration, but Biden has the same major plus Webb did: credibility and experience on foreign policy. Beyond this, Biden’s famous sharp tongue and ample sense of self means he won’t be cowed by Republican attacks and worry about trying to be Mr. Nice Guy.
Third, Obama has shown signs last week of moving towards a more direct, populist appeal in his stops in Virginia. I attended the “town hall” at John Tyler Community College in Chester, where Obama and Tim Kaine stressed the issue of economic security and went after McCain hard for being out of touch after the wealthy Arizona senator acknowledged he doesn’t know how many homes he owns. Obama also talked in a very practical way about health care, tax credits for the working poor, investments in green energy and mass transit and shifting resources from Iraq to domestic priorities. Obama needs to keep hammering away at those specifics, and keep raising the issue of whether Americans are better off than they were eight years ago.
Fifth, not to be underestimated is the bounce Obama may get from his Thursday night nomination speech. The sight of an African-American accepting the presidential nomination of a major party will be a hugely emotional, even cathartic experience for many Americans. So far in this campaign, Obama’s speechmaking has been at its best when emotions have been at their peak -- after his victory in the Iowa Caucus, addressing the question of race and Rev. Wright in March, after clinching the nomination in June. Obama has the chance to both define his candidacy and define this race for a truly national audience, and it would be disappointing and surprising if he falls anything short of his compelling best.
Once he’s done all that, he needs to use a firm hand in shaping the day-to-day and hour-to-hour agenda, and not let McCain or the media define the key storylines. Staying on target with the key campaign themes -- the economy, health care, energy, and Iraq -- while simultaneously beating down and beating back attacks from McCain and others on the right will not be easy, and it will be impossible if Obama lets himself (a la John Kerry) get put in the position of playing defense the next two months. Instead, Obama needs to force McCain to try to defend the indefensible, namely the record of George W. Bush and 8 years of Republican leadership in Washington.
Yet even when Obama and Biden slip up this fall, those worried liberals’ best response should not be to whine about their candidates. It should be to get out there and do something to help the ticket win. That’s especially true in a state like Virginia, a state which could plausibly tilt the entire election and where all signs point towards an exceedingly close race, in the manner of Jim Webb’s razor-thin victory over George Allen in 2006.
Notes on seeing Barack Obama, August 21, 2008
This event was held at John Tyler Community College in Chester, VA, about 15 miles south of Richmond, halfway between Richmond and Petersburg. The nearest development is a classic strip mall. We pulled into the campus at about 9:40, showed tickets to security, and parked. There were about 20 or so McCain supporters there with their paraphernalia.
We were required to fill out the tickets (name, address, willingness to help the campaign) to get in. Noah and I were assigned to Table 8, behind where the speakers would be, but ended up at Table 9, with some faculty and staff from John Tyler, someone from the Chesterfield Democratic Party, and with a woman who works for Americorps in Richmond and is a huge volunteer with the campaign.
The event was set up amidst some trees. Two stools with bottles of the water were in the middle, with picnic tables surrounding the speaking area. The speaking area was roped off. The media had a section about 20 yards away from where the speakers were.
About 15 minutes before the event started, volunteers came around and told us what the plan would be, and requested that we stay sitting during the event until afterward.
The event started with a campaign worker giving a brief pep talk encouraging us to get involved and to sign up by cell phone to hear the VP announcement. Then a local minister gave a brief invocation, followed by our friend from Americorps leading a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance (there were two huge flags set up.)
During this time, numerous local politicians poured in—Bobby Scott, Doug Wilder, Dwight Jones—and the campaign bus rolled up as well, drawing applause. Virginia First Lady Anne Holton walked in and took a seat, drawing another round of applause.
The first substantive speaker to talk was someone from the campaign staff (I think) who talked about her experiences fending off homelessness. This opened the key theme, which was going to be economic security. She then introduced Tim Kaine and Barack Obama.
When Kaine and Obama came in, everybody was very excited and got up. Obama came by and shook everyone’s hand (including mine) and continued to do so for about 3-4 minutes. Then he said it was time to settle down, they had business to do.
Kaine spoke first and re-counted why he had been on board with Obama’s campaign from the beginning—famiilar spiel about need to change Washington, the failure of 8 years of Bush’s policies, etc. He said “risky” would be continuing to do same thing we’ve been doing and expecting any better, and electing someone who said they didn’t know much about the economy. Kaine said Obama represented excellence in government and that’s what the American people deserved; they shouldn’t have to settle for mediocrity. Kaine looked very comfortable up there and I thought that was a strong short speech (and that the pair looked good together).
Obama started off making some comments on the scenery and that he wanted to know where the potato salad and chicken were because it felt like a picnic. Then he started off by recounting what it was he had learned from being a presidential candidate for 17 months. He said 3 things:
Then he launched into a pretty strong populist attack on Bush’s economic record. He noted that family income had gone up $6,000 under Clinton, but had gone down $1,000 under Bush. He said the middle class felt sand moving under its feet. He said that people stretching to make ends meet had taken out additional home equity loans, which led to disaster because people in Washington weren’t paying attention. He said ordinary Americans need someone in the White House fighting for them.
Then he turned to an attack on McCain. After noting McCain’s “compelling personal story,” he said that no one disputes that McCain’s economic policies are the same as Bush’s. Then he jumped all over McCain’s comment that he didn’t know how many houses he owned. He said that McCain’s comment that the economy was in good shape made sense only because McCain is so removed from the experience of ordinary people. He also jumped on McCain’s comment defining the “rich” as people making over $5 million a year, as if someone making $3 million a year was simply middle class. And he jumped on Phil Gramm’s comments about economic troubles being simply “mental.”
I was impressed by his delivery of all this, which had a sort of sarcastic indignation to it. In fact, the intonation and delivery reminded me of some of the old Bill Cosby routines—the high pitched “can you believe how ridiculous this is?” tones with which key lines ere delivered.
Obama then turned to specific contrasts with McCain on a number of issues: taxes, health care, energy. He mentioned 95% of families would get tax relief under his plan; they would make health care available to everyone; he would launch an Apollo Project aimed at reducing dependency on foreign oil by 30%.
At some point he also launched into a critique of Republican’s campaign tactics. “The Republicans don’t know how to govern, but they do know how to politick and win elections” was the quote. He said that he was being subjected to negative scare tactics—lying about his religion, making stuff up in the recent book published by the Swift boat author. He said this was nothing new, every recent Democratic candidate had been subjected to it. These tactics work because people distrust the government so much. They see the government hasn’t accomplish much and say “a pox on both your houses.” And he is sympathetic to that point of view. People need a sense that in Washington you have someone who is going to listen to you.
He stressed that instead of making the election a referendum about Barack Obama, it should about the American people. “It’s not about me, it’s about you.”
Obama then took questions from the audience. The first was from a middle-age white woman who identified herself as a technical writer. She asked about Obama’s perceived inexperience on foreign policy and what he would do to overcome any such inexperience. Obama responded pretty straightforwardly: he’d shown good judgment about Iraq and McCain had not; he had excellent advisers (cited Nunn, William Parry) and that he’d be looking to both sides of the aisle for good advice; he would not walk into the White House unprepared.
The second question was from an African-American man who identified himself as a postal worker. He had two questions, one about what would be the top priority his first 120 days in office, the second about where he stood on privatizing the postal service.
Obama said sitting down with the generals and working on a responsible withdrawal plan from Iraq would happen on day one. He said the top domestic priority would be energy policy.
He then launched into a quite interesting explanation of why he opposes privatizing the postal service. Yes the postal service loses money on some transactions. But there is a public role in stitching everyone together, no matter where you live. What has made the postal system great is the idea of universal service. This principle applies to mail, telecommunications, roads. The problem with privatization is that non-profitable places get excluded. This doesn’t mean the postal service shouldn’t be looking at how to be more efficient—in fact he would call for an audit of every government program as President.
The third question came from a white woman identifying as a schoolteacher. The question was about No Child Left Behind. Obama said one of the main problems with No Child Left Behind was that the money to implement it was left behind. He said he supported accountability efforts but that schools that do a good job with poor children should not be punished on the basis of low test scores.
The fourth question was from a white male, 40-ish. After praising Obama’s campaign team He asked a question about what would happen with the grassroots organizations Obama has built if he became president.
Obama said that the organizations would still have a vital role to play in holding him and government accountable. He said it wouldn’t be like “okay, see you in 4 years.” He wants citizens to have an ongoing role. He said he would try to run the most transparent government possible and make information available to citizens and journalists.
The fifth questioner was an African-American woman. She noted Obama had stressed the middle class, but wanted to know, by midway through Obama’s first term, how the poorest voters would benefit from Obama’s presidency.
Obama responded by saying that what most poor people want is the opportunity to rise into the middle class. Most poor people work hard, without sick leave, health insurance, a pension, but they work hard. He cited the tax break plan, a number of things to benefit the elderly poor (such as extending mortgage benefits to those who don’t itemize their taxes), cutting out income taxes on social security. Then he talked about education and offering all high school graduates funding for college via tuition grants in exchange for community or national service. He didn’t really talk about wage raises as such.
Finally, the last questioner was a white bearded guy looking a little bit like a stereotypical academic (that would be me!) I started to talk before the mic came and Obama said “you’re not following the rules!” But then it came and I asked him as follows:
“Your friend Karl Rove recently made some comments about Richmond, to the effect that this wasn’t much of a town and that the fact that Gov. Kaine once led it is of no great significance. Do you have a response to that, and more generally, what would your administration do to make the job of people like Mayor Wilder a little bit easier?”
The question (like several of the others) drew some applause including from Gov. Kaine. Obama addressed the first part, saying that a politics of insult was part of the problem. We have to reject that and the politics of division. He said imagine if everyday life had the same ethics you see in politics and people were constantly being insulted. That’s unacceptable and we shouldn’t accept it.
He then said for cities the federal government first should live up to its stated funding commitments. He then went into a long discussion about the need to rebuild urban infrastructure. This included a pretty funny little rap about airplane travel and how ridiculous it is this country doesn’t have a good high-speed rail system. He said that in Beijing at the Olympics the whole world is getting to say how much they’ve invested in their infrastructure, which is now better than ours.
Then he closed by saying that much in politics is complicated, but some things come down to common sense and basic questions: who are you fighting for, why are you in politics in the first place. He said he would be fighting for the American people, with our help he could win Virginia and the election and change the country and the world.
The crowd then stood and applauded vigorously, and he came around for another long round of handshakes. I got to look him in the eye a little longer this time but couldn’t think of anything to say other than “thanks, Senator.” I then called out to his bodyguard/personal assistant Reggie Love, a former Duke basketball player, that Coach K was getting the job done at the Olympics. He smiled and said “yes, but let’s see how they do against Argentina.”
Obama then signed a bunch of collected items, and he and Kaine gradually disappeared back onto the bus. The crowd filtered away leaving the media behind to file their stories.
