I volunteered at the Campaign's phone bank in Manchester, NH last weekend (Sunday, the 22nd). It was a great time --the phone bank was very well organized and VERY well attended by volunteers from MA, VT, ME and NH.
Everyone I met was as excited about the campaign as I am. I’m definitely going back and hope to find others to join me!
Phone banks are being held at the Campaign's Manchester headquarters (located at 60 Rogers Street in Manchester) every Thursday thru Sunday evening from 4 pm to 8:30 pm.
Door-to-door canvassing will begin once the summer starts.
Visit the Campaign's New Hampshire website at Link more information and to sign up for the phone bank.
I hope to see you there!
Edwards Calls For Wolfowitz To Resign
John Edwards for President Apr 13, 2007
Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Senator John Edwards released the following statement today calling for World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to step down.
"Fighting global poverty is the moral thing to do - and it's also the smart thing to do for America, because it will make us safer and more secure. Poor and failing states too often become incubators for terrorism. Taking bold steps to reduce global poverty, like those in the plan I introduced last month, can help to replace radicalism with education, opportunity, and democracy.
"The World Bank should be at the forefront of this effort. Unfortunately, Wolfowitz's tenure at the World Bank has been marked by some of the same failures as his term managing the war in Iraq -- cronyism and rhetoric that does not match reality -- and now serious questions of financial integrity that have alarmed our allies.
"America's ability to lead in the fight against global poverty is undermined with Paul Wolfowitz at the helm of the World Bank. He should resign. We have to restore America's credibility and moral leadership in order to convincingly make the case for global anti-poverty investments that are both strategically smart and morally correct."
To read about Edwards' plan for restoring America's moral leadership by fighting worldwide poverty, go to: Link ON JOHN EDWARDS IDEAS:
Senator John Edwards Hardball with Chris Matthews Mar 16, 2006
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Margaret Brennan. Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Today the U.S. military launched the largest air assault in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. The attack targeted an Iraqi insurgency camp north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" Poll shows declining support for the president`s handling of Iraq. Only 35 percent approve now, while 61 percent of the country disapproves.
But first, direct from New Orleans, former Democratic senator and vice presidential candidate, John Edwards is down there helping with the Katrina recovery. Senator, thank you very much for joining us from down there. What`s it like down there? Is there a sense that things are working again or is this still a long way off?
JOHN EDWARDS (D), FMR. NC SENATOR: Long way off. I mean, where we are, I`ve got 700 college kids who`ve come with me to work during their spring break instead of going to the beach, which is an amazing thing. They`re from like 80 plus schools across the country.
And from what we`ve seen here -- we`re in St. Bernard`s Parish, and we`ve spent the day today, for example, gutting houses but there`s enormous work left to be done here. And, in fact, we could have brought more kids who wanted to come and participate in this, but it`s hard to find places for them to stay.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about these houses. We were watching down there on the ground and we watched all those houses being flooded in St. Bernard`s Parish. Are those houses any good anymore, or you got to give them up for good or what? Or can you dig the muck up around them and get them sanitary again?
EDWARDS: Well, what you have to do is, you have to go in, dig out all the mess, shovel out all the mess. You can see some of it piled up behind me. We`ve done that on 50 different locations here in St. Bernard`s Parish all day long today. And once you get out the mess, then you can make a determination about whether the house could be rehabilitated. But I think a lot of these houses can be rehabilitated.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about the situation in Iraq right now. You know the hell that`s going on over there. This day we launched a major initiative, Operation Swarmer -- you know, 1,500 troops, 50 helicopters, 200 land vehicles, an assault involving the United States and Iraqi forces, some who have mixed loyalties perhaps between the militia of the Shia and also the -- their commanders and our outfits were put together. Are you optimistic we can, quote, "win that war" or are we better off just gradually reducing our commitment?
EDWARDS: Well, my view is it`s extraordinarily unstable. I`m worried about it, my own personal feeling that the thing may be slipping away from us and I think ultimately it`s not going to be determined by the United States. I think it`s going to be determined by Iraq and the Iraqi people.
You know, they`ve got to decide if they`re going to actually have a representative government, whether they`re going to be able to protect themselves, and we can`t -- we can`t take responsibility for this over the long haul.
So -- and my own view is, we need to reduce our size, our footprint there and send an absolutely clear signal that we`re not going to stay there forever, that we`re going to let them govern themselves and protect themselves and that we`re not there for oil.
MATTHEWS: When is the point at which you think we ought to just say this is going to be a civil war, these people don`t want to form a common government, we`re not going to stay in the cross-fire? When would you know that would be the time to make that call?
EDWARDS: I can`t tell you today when that is. What I think we ought to do is we ought to start getting our presence much lower there. We ought to make them start taking responsibility for themselves and their own country and their own government.
And at some point in the future, if it`s clear they`re not going to do that, so be it. We can`t do this for them over the long haul. And we need to make it absolutely clear we have no intention of doing it over the long haul.
MATTHEWS: You know, Senator, before you and the others who were in the United States Senate at the time voted to authorize a use of force in that very tricky time right before the 2002 election, you were told a lot of things.
You were told that there were weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein, including a nuclear potential against us in this country, that our arrival in that country would be greeted -- we would be greeted as liberators. You were told by Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, that the Iraqi oil would pay for a mission which is now costing $1 trillion.
You were given all kinds of commitments over there. None of them turned out to be true. None of them. Do you feel it`s something that the Democratic Party as a whole should say, we were lied to, we were misled, we were B.S.`d, if you will, if that`s somewhere in the middle and that we ought to just say so, yet you`re one of the few who has said so.
EDWARDS: Well, here`s -- what I honestly think is that Bush, the administration, members of his administration, grossly misled the country, I think made an effort to mislead members of Congress.
But I think the other truth is, and I believe this very strongly, Chris, those of us who voted for this war -- and as you know, I`ve now said my vote was a mistake. Those of us who voted for this war, we had our own responsibility and we need to take responsibility for what it is we did.
Speaking for myself, you know, I was on the Intelligence Committee, I went to many hours of hearings and briefings, I talked to member -- former members of the Clinton administration and I made a judgment and it turns out that judgment was wrong.
Well, I`m responsible for that, but Bush and the administration are responsible for misleading the country, and making -- and just being absolutely incompetent in the way they`ve administered this war.
MATTHEWS: You know, Hillary Clinton, the senator from New York, will not say what you just said. She has a way of skirting the issue. We had her spokesman, Mr. Wolfson, on last night who said there wouldn`t have been a vote to allow force if the administration hadn`t made the case it made.
But she won`t say that she made a mistake. Is she hemmed in by the fact that she`s a woman and can`t admit a mistake, or else the Republicans will say oh, that`s a woman`s prerogative to change her mind, or another fickle woman? Is her gender a problem in her ability to change her mind?
EDWARDS: Oh, I don`t think her gender has anything to do with this. I think this is an individual, personal ...
MATTHEWS: I mean because how it would be used by the other side. Not objectively, obviously ...
EDWARDS: Right. Right.
MATTHEWS: ... but how the other side would use it.
EDWARDS: No, I wouldn`t -- I don`t think she`s concerned about that. I don`t think any woman leader in this country should be concerned about that. This is a difficult, independent judgment that people have to make about what they`re going to say.
For me, you know, I`ve been going around the country and the world talking about poverty and our moral responsibility. And I didn`t feel like I could do that if I didn`t tell the truth about what had happened with this war in Iraq, at least as it relates to me.
MATTHEWS: You`re very young.
EDWARDS: It`s also, I might add -- can I add, Chris?
MATTHEWS: Sure.
EDWARDS: It`s also -- in fairness to everybody, it`s very hard because, you know, I made a mistake, a serious mistake. So did lots of other people. President Bush made an enormous mistake. But the people who didn`t make a mistake are the men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq, and who have served in Iraq. And that makes it very hard to talk about these things. But I still think it`s the right and honest thing to do.
MATTHEWS: You know, like yourself, Jack Kennedy, when he ran for vice president in 1956 and lost, learned something about party politics. And he said afterwards, I`m going to be a full-time professional politician now, no more just showing up and giving a nice speech, I am going to be a great political leader. I`m going to build an organization and win the presidency. Does that sound like something you`ve gone through?
EDWARDS: Well, part of it is what I`ve gone through. I mean, you learn -- when you`re involved in a national campaign, you learn a great deal. You know, one of the things that I have seen and I have believed very strongly now is I don`t think the country is looking for politicians that are like the politicians they`ve seen all their lives.
I think they`re hooking for leaders. I think they`re looking for people who will tell them the truth, even when the truth is harsh and difficult to hear. And they`re hooking for leaders that have back bone and strength and conviction and will actually stand up and fight for what they believe, whether it`s popular or not.
I think the politics actually, the politics as usual as people say, is what people are sick of, and they see that all the time. They`re looking for something different. They ought to be looking for something different.
MATTHEWS: Do you feel that anyone has more of a right to run for president on the Democratic side than you do?
EDWARDS: No, but I don`t think I have any more right than anybody else. I think...
MATTHEWS: ... In other words, you don`t feel you have to wait in line behind John Kerry or Hillary Clinton or anybody else and wait your turn again?
EDWARDS: If I decide to do this, I`m not going to wait in line behind anybody. And I suspect nobody else will either.
MATTHEWS: Do you think you`ll be running?
EDWARDS: Him who?
MATTHEWS: Do you think you`ll be running, I`m sorry, Senator, you misheard me. Do you think John Edwards of North Carolina, now working in New Orleans, will be running for president, six months from now?
EDWARDS: I`m thinking about it, but I haven`t decided yet.
MATTHEWS: Well let us know, will you Sir? Thank you, thank you for coming on and good luck with that good work down there in New Orleans. It`s a great thing for kids to do rather than go to south of Florida, to the Gulf Coast and help rebuild. What a great thing, thank you.
EDWARDS: These kids are amazing.
MATTHEWS: By the way today -- it sounds like it. Anyway, thank you, Senator.
We have had an exciting week! I know all of us are so proud and so happy with the $ amount our candidate was able to raise! Great job, everyone!
I have certainly enjoyed the events that I've been able to attend, but most of all I love meeting all of you!
Join in the fun! Here are some reminders plus other ideas from our group, Obama in the Heart, Peoria, IL!
Tuesday, April 10th: Organizational training, hosted by Peoria County democrats at the ITOO Hall in Bellevue, IL. (4909 W. Farmington Rd.) If you can't find this event by searching by the zipcode 61604, you can sign up on my profile page (freedom4u_n_me) under events near me or events I'm attending!
APRIL 20TH: PEORIA AND BLOOMINGTON ATTENDEES FOR THE CHICAGO TOUR-OBAMA STYLE: MONEY DUE!!!! ( tour is June 9th!)
Saturday, April 21st: Earth Day festival at Forest Park Nature Center, Peoria, IL;This has been updated! This is a family event that we will be having a booth at. You may volunteer to spread the word and answer questions for 1hr up to 5hrs. There will be a lot going on at this festival!
We have many festivals locally that I will be mentioning in a later blog! We have chances to volunteer in our communities, wearing our Obama gear, so that others can see the change that's coming, starting with us! Plus other events already planned that you can sign up for!
We will add group meetings, because they are truly fun and when we invite friends and family we have and will continue to see more and more people get involved with us, and this history making campaign!
Gail/freedom4u_n_me/Obama in the Heart, Peoria, IL
This event is tentative. MINIMUM OF 35 PEOPLE NEEDED! We need everyone's money by APRIL 20TH! The amount due would be $60; checks or money order made out to me: Gail Newtson.The tickets have to be paid for at the time they are ordered and we will pre-pay the limo service, as well! THIS AMOUNT COVERS TICKETS AND TRANSPORTATION ONLY. We will be stopping for lunch at a restaurant in Chicago, before attending the game. BYO-snacks and drinks for the drive.Anyone from the Chicago area that is interested in meeting us at the game....please contact me to coordinate seating, if possible!June 9th is National Obama Day, a day to show support to the public. What better way than to have groups from all over attend a White Sox game (the Senator's favorite team) Of course, we would all wear our Obama gear. If there were enough of us, I'm sure we could get some media coverage. From Peoria, IL we will be taking Deluxe Limo, leaving Peoria at 9am. We would then travel to Normal to pick up fellow supporters and then on to Chicago! We will depart from US Cellular Field at 6:30pm to arrive back in Peoria at about 10:30pm. So, spread the word and confirm ASAP.
As soon as the minimum # of people is confirmed, and the money turned in, I will order the tickets and have them sent to my home. The reason the money is needed so far in advance is because of group sales procedures.
RAIN-OUT. Yes, that's possible. We will still tour Chicago, your tickets will be given to you to attend at another time. After all there's plenty to do in Chicago!
Come on Chicago! Contact me, even if you're not attending, and give me some insight on Barack's neighborhood, favorite music, favorite food, etc!
Thank you,
Gail/freedom4u_n_me/Obama in the Heart. Please contact me with any questions. grtnewt3@juno.com
Anti-Clinton and Anti-Edwards merchandise is bothering me. Anti-Clinton and Anti-Edwards merchandise worn, created, or propagated by so-called-Obama-supporters is pissing me off. While malicious attacks have found fertile breeding ground in America’s political conversation, the whole point of Senator Obama’s message and the engine driving genuine supporters is a desire to redirect the conversation’s ethical compass. True supporters have got to think outside of the box.
Get outta the box and onto a memory stick.
I caught the live SEIU Health Care Forum in Las Vegas webcast on thinkprogress.org and I must admit that Clinton and Edwards were both quite impressive. I’m still full on pulling for Obama but I think all three of them are exceptional Americans. Everyone from exceptional Americans to ordinary folks from other countries deserves respect. I waited tables at a Mexican restaurant in Tribeca my first semester at Columbia, and contrary to popular belief, even waiters speaking sub par Spanish deserve respect. The candidates are claiming to be here to serve us. It is nearly impossible to effectively serve someone when respect has turned its back.
During the forum, Obama got hit with the toughest questions but it was a blessing because he came across as the most thoughtful and intelligent as a result. As I watched, I felt as though Obama was being attacked while other candidates were being handed silver platters on which to pontificate. Then I got excited: we all know that animals attack when they feel threatened. There was one young lady in particular who nervously critiqued Obama’s site before asking her question which was in truth a statement with a question mark added to the end. This nervous young lady was on the attack because her interests were threatened. And this is why we grassroots Obama supporters must not wear, create, or propagate any merchandise that is anti-anyone; first and foremost because we mustn’t let them see us sweat. There are some vile anti-Clinton shirts out there that in actuality do little more than admit fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Any Obama supporter wearing malicious merchandise is admitting fear, uncertainty, and doubt. We should sweat courage, confidence, and conviction. Secondly, our party must not arrive at the general election as a bloody mass of battered barracuda. We must arrive at the general election with the swagger of an NBA first-round draft pick.
I’m cutting and pasting an excerpt from a blogger named Sven on the Health Care Forum
Link
Who do you think would be the BEST president on the issue of health care?Hillary Clinton 34%John Edwards 16%Barack Obama 9%Bill Richardson 4%Dennis Kucinich 0%Chris Dodd 2%Joe Biden 0%Mike Gravel 0%Now, please note that they're just asking who would be best on health care. Clearly, Hillary has an edge here both because of name recognition and because of her work on health care during the Clinton presidency.What I found really disturbing about these numbers though, was that 50% of the respondents were 65 or older. How representative are numbers when you have a sample of only 5% below 40 years of age? And it really made me wonder how representative other poll numbers are that do not publish the age range of respondents.
One of my goals within the grassroots effort has been to get more Generation X & Generation Y voters out to the polls because this country’s political goliaths have been sleeping on us. We are the ones whose Social Security benefits are in the gravest danger. We are the one’s who will pay through the nose for this war (many of us with our lives). Remember that line in the movie Troy, “War is old men talking and young men dying”? Goliath has been sleeping on us because we have been sleeping on him.
It usually takes a massive shift in the global consciousness to move young voters to get out to the polls. Vietnam was a shift that gave rise to an increase in voter turnout amongst younger voters. So guess what? This is our shift. Anyone who has waited tables knows that if the shift before you had a rough time, you have got to be on top of your game. So guess what? This is our shift.
This is our shift.
Akin
www.atthatdrop.com
April 20 - Agganis Arena at BU - doors open at 6 - Barack to speak after 7.
The student tickets are selling very fast. Students interested should contact the Obama for America student organizers for their respective schools.
We on the event Host Committee will be taking contributions from others who want to attend starting now. Tickets will be mailed to the donors. Contribution levels and corresponding ticket ranges are $230, $460, $1,150 and $2,300. If you are interested, please contact me, preferably by email at jstanganelli@swsllp.com. (Please note that if you send me a message through this site, but do not include your email address and do not have messaging enabled on your own Barack page, I cannot contact you).
Joe Stanganelli
This seemed pretty exciting and appropriate:
From the MyBillofRights.org website:
"Our mission is to promote awareness and respect for the Bill of Rights as the foundation of our individual freedoms, our laws, and our greatness as a nation; through the design and crafting of Bill of Rights displays to be placed on public lands throughout America."
Like Senator Obama, this project is eschewing corporate funds for a groundswell of donations from all of the "We the people" to erect displays of the Bill of Rights on all of the State Capitols.
Arizona has already passed a bill to be the first state to erect a display that isn't funded by taxpayers. Texas looks like it will be next.
Just kind of exciting. Thought I'd share! I love bumping into good news for a change!!
There is a great new BarackObama.com action page explaining and showing Barack's history of opposition to the Iraq war (text and video of Barack on Iraq), his current proposal (the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007) to extricate ourselves from the mess in the least damaging way, and more importantly how each of us can do our part. There are numerous guides on the new action page to get you started taking responsibility by taking action, even if its just spreading the word (links there will show you how to email the page to your friends).
Two things in particular I urge you to check out there: (1) you can sign a petition on that page to support Barack's Iraq War De-Escalation Act; (2) there is a link that is a remarkable window into all the private organizations supporting the troops and their families who have borne the sacrifices of the war while most of the country has been able to ignore it day to day, along with great access to new and surprising ways you can help -- for example, did you know you could donate some of those unused and hardly usable freguent flier miles so soldiers and their families can be together more while recovering soldiers are in VA hospitals throughout the country? You can, and I am, and I hope you at least check it out on Barack's new Iraq action page.
(I was going to call this post "Baracktion" but that would just be too corny.)
The campaign's New England Steering Committee is hosting a rally/bash/fundraiser with Senator Obama in Boston on April 20, 2007. It's going to be an exciting opportunity to not only hear Barack speak in person, but for all supporters in the area to help keep the campaign's incredible momentum going.
For more information about the Obama Bash and/or to get a ticket, please contact me. Capacity is limited, so please do not wait.
So people like to tell me stuff when I’m wearing my trusty Obama 08 button. After a most exciting Essex County Obama Meetup, I stayed up all night mapping out Initiative ideas and pricing shirts, buttons, posters, post cards, & buttons online. Anyone who’s ever seen the film Election, will understand why I actually root for Reese Whitherspoon (& it is not because she went to my alma mater).
SOFT DISSOLVE TO: Wednesday morning in Jersey. Neighbors are tickled pink by the sudden warm weather but I’m dragging my heels cause the coffee’s not workin’ on me anymore. I hit up my old high school to see about organizing a debate with another school in Jersey just before the primaries. As I’m coasting on empty, my spirits droop into my socks. Around lunch time I stop into a local convenience store and this Grey Haired Nurse Lady comes up to me in line to ask if I’ve considered Senator Clinton. So I tell her what this gorgeous Rutgers student told me, “A vote for Senator Clinton is a vote for the status quo. A vote for Senator Obama is a vote for possibility.”
DEAD SILENCE.
Surrender smirked at me.
Sleep called on me all day, but I stayed up for a NJ for Obama conference call where I’m sure I babbled incoherently like a Former-Child-Star-On-the-Skids. I finally went to bed resigned to this daunting marathon ahead of us all.
Now I have this T-shirt design on my wall, right? And I woke up to the word “Barack”. Eventually, I will mass produce enough shirts for all my BarackObama.com friends!
Somehow.
I climbed out of bed and went down to a local Printing Center in Jersey. I told this local small business owner that I was pricing merch for some grassroots Initiatives and the owner (who it turns out is probably the coolest small business owner in Jersey – if not the universe) tells me, “I like that guy.” And for the next hour, this guy and I talk about politics, his kids, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, 9-11, the war, 911, Social Security, Giuliani, John Amos, NJ for Obama, Tempest Bledsoe, Keisha Knight Pulliam, Tribeca, Robert Deniro, Charles Dutton, the printing press, Rutgers Prep, computers, the future, crime, Barack the Youth Vote, Manhattan, the colors of the rainbow, Senator Clinton, Upper East Side socialites, and just about anything else you could expect to fit on the tip of a push pin.
After learning about some great deals in the name of possibility, the most Gentile Kat you could imagine from Louisiana saunters in with a map looking for directions to Costco. It turns out one of my Stanford roommates was a rather gentile Kat from Abbeville, Louisiana so I recognized a sort of kinship to this lost gentleman from Louisiana. A’ight, I was just getting my passion back, but the bottom line is I wanted to help the guy. And then this Jamaican American woman tip toes in and this itty bitty business in Central Jersey is turning into the bar from Cheers where everybody has some kind of positive reaction to thought of “Barack Obama”.
Then I get a message on my cell from a friend from high school who I haven’t seen in a decade who it turns out is dating a big Obama Supporter.
And then…now this is where surrender took a rain check…I went back to that same convenience store around lunch time. Pat Benatar’s “Invincible” is blasting from a car stereo and that SAME GREY HAIRED NURSE LADY pulls up in her Blue Car bopping to “Invincible.” I’ll admit an affinity for any 80s pop hits. And my Grey Haired Nurse Lady waved gleefully. And my spirits soared! Not out of some deluded notion that my Grey Haired Nurse Lady was going to vote my way. But because she was going to vote. And I was going to vote. And we were sorta bonded not by our candidate, but simply by our commitment to participate in the political conversation – the conversation about everything you could possibly fit on the tip of a push pin…
A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.
-Nietzsche
I was excited to see how well the Senator did in Clinton, Iowa. When I checked the Quadcity Times this morning, it said there were about 400. Over 600 attended according to Pat, one of our fellow supporters who hosted the event.
I'm in Peoria, IL and 3 of us went to Davenport! 3700 strong!His speech was, as usual, inspiring! He makes you feel good, doesn't he? It's that Hope factor, I believe! I couldn't hear his entire speech due to all the cheers and applauding. It was an excellent turnout! They had a youth band, that was great! There were so many people in line that instead of opening the doors at 5:30pm, they let us in at 5:12pm! I couldn't believe the High School gym could hold so many! It was packed!I was allowed to sign up as a volunteer for IA caucus. I know it's an important state and I'd like to do as much as I can! All in all, it was a wonderful day! Much warmer than Springfield!
I'd love to hear from anyone else who attended any of the Iowa events!
Thanks,Gail/Freedom4u_n_me/Obama in the Heart
So the bigger more official Obama '08 button they gave me as a volunteer for the March 9th NYC event worked its magic for the entire night.
I found this poem online that embodies much of what's so fantastic about Michelle Obama:
a woman
there is a woman who careswhat i have to saythere is a woman who lovesme for who i amthere is a woman who sayswhat she wantsthere is a woman who doeswhat she feelsthere is a woman who createsart through lifethere is a woman who seeslife in artthere is a woman who singsfor those oppressedthere is a woman who actsto save all womenthere is a woman who cannotknow how we need her
In both of Michelle's introductions (which were not identical but exceptionally well tailored to the respective crowds) she said a leader is someone with the ability to "move us from passive indifference to active engagement."
Before moving forward, it is so very important to note that both Michelle & Barack addressed the two different crowds with equal passion, integrity, intelligence, & candor. One would expect to find greater investment in the people who gave more money, but as far as I could see - the two levels of contribution were equally appreciated and privy to the same capacity for empathy. That speaks so very well to the kind of future we are in for AFTER WE WIN THIS!
I won't single anyone out, but certain existing groups have had no activity. If nothing has been done in your area, don't wait for the administrator of your group to initiate a first meeting in your area. If you have the time and interest, please initiate discussion on scheduling a first meeting in your area.
I'm also concerned that we don't yet have groups organized for many locations - including some major college towns. (In Washington, that would include Pullman/WSU, Yakima, and Eastern Washington University.) Are there people in those areas who can start organizing for Obama?
The woman behind Obama As his career soars toward a presidential bid, wife Michelle keeps his feet on the ground
The Chicago Sun-Times January 20, 2007 BY ROSALIND ROSSI Staff Reporter
Backstage, behind the floodlights, moments before he gave the 2004 Democratic convention keynote address that would launch his career into the national stratosphere, Barack Obama made a confession to his wife, Michelle.
His stomach was a bit queasy.
Michelle responded by hugging her husband tight and looking him straight in the eye, Obama recalls in his book, The Audacity of Hope.
· Obama's Anchor
"Just don't screw it up, Buddy!'' Michelle said, transforming the tense moment into one of shared laughter.
A month ago - long before HRC and Obama's campaigns were trading accusations about David Geffen and Robert Ford - here is part of what I posted on a Seattle Obama blog regarding what Obama and his supporters need to do to withstand attacks:
This is the campaign strategy I expect Senator Obama to use when running for President: a very positive, uplifting, message of unity. Though Dukakis and Kerry were criticized for not counterattacking efforts to swift boat them, I fully expect Obama will run an entirely positive campaign, including in the general election, even in the face of swift boat attacks. As Senator Obama's ambassadors, I believe we (his supporters) have an obligation to be just as disciplined, and stay on message: building up Obama without ever disparaging Clinton . . . or Republicans.
In response to Donna's original post on the Women for Obama blog - that "women's issues" often means only "abortion" or "childcare" and Cecily's advocation to get started in our own lives and communities, I wanted to share what I've been doing since Sunday and hopefully encourage others to join us!
I'm just buzzing with excitement about the possibilities presented by this website and Obama's campaign: Americans across the spectrum really seem to have taken up his challenge and I couldn't be more encouraged by the response and all the individual initiative he has inspired. The Audacity of Hope indeed!
I believe he has touched a deep nerve and tapped into an even deeper hunger in America, not just for inspired leadership but for a "New Way Forward", and we must make the most of this unique moment. We all must step up and do our part. Here is mine. Regardless of your stand on the Choice issue, I hope you will join the conversation and make it richer for your contribution.
This is personally my favorite argument for an Obama White House. It's my favorite because it's written by a columnist whose other works I tend to disagree with whole-heartedly. If Obama can bring two polar opposites together like, this imagine what else he can accomplish!
Run, Barack, Run
by David Brooks, NY Times, October 19, 2006
Barack Obama should run for president.
He should run first for the good of his party. It would demoralize the Democrats to go through a long primary season with the most exciting figure in the party looming off in the distance like some unapproachable dream. The next Democratic nominee should either be Barack Obama or should have the stature that would come from defeating Barack Obama.
Second, he should run because of his age. Obama's inexperience is his most obvious shortcoming. Over the next four years, the world could face a genocidal civil war in Iraq, a wave of nuclear proliferation, more Islamic extremism and a demagogues' revolt against globalization. Do we really want a forty-something in the White House?
And yet in his new book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama makes a strong counterargument. He notes that it's time to move beyond the political style of the baby boom generation. This is a style, he said in an interview late Tuesday, that is highly moralistic and personal, dividing people between who is good and who is bad.
Obama himself has a mentality formed by globalization, not the S.D.S. With his multiethnic family and his globe-spanning childhood, there is a little piece of everything in Obama. He is perpetually engaged in an internal discussion between different pieces of his hybrid self — Kenya with Harvard, Kansas with the South Side of Chicago — and he takes that conversation outward into the world. "Politics, like science, depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality," he writes in his book. He distrusts righteous anger and zeal. He does not demonize his opponents and tells audiences that he does not think George Bush is a bad man.
He has a compulsive tendency to see both sides of any issue. Joe Klein of Time counted 50 instances of extremely judicious on-the-one-hand-on the-other-hand formulations in the book. He seems like the guy who spends his first 15 minutes at a restaurant debating the relative merits of fish versus meat.
And yet this style is surely the antidote to the politics of the past several years. It is surely true that a president who brings a deliberative style to the White House will multiply his knowledge, not divide it.
During our talk, I reminded Obama that at some level politics is about power, not conversation. He pointed out that he'd risen from nothing to national prominence in a few years so he knew something about acquiring power, but he kept returning to his mode, which is conversation, deliberation and reconciliation.
The third reason Obama should run for president is his worldview. At least in the way he conceptualizes the world, he is not an orthodox liberal. In the book, he harks back to a Hamiltonian tradition that calls not for big government, but for limited yet energetic government to enhance social mobility. The contemporary guru he cites most is Warren Buffett.
He has interesting things to say about the way culture and economics intertwine to create urban poverty. He, conceptually, welcomes free trade and thinks the U.S. may have no choice but to improvise and slog it out in Iraq. The chief problem in his book is that after launching off on some interesting description of a problem, he will settle back, when it comes time to make a policy suggestion, into a familiar and small-bore Democratic proposal. I'd give him an A for conception but a B-minus for policy creativity.
Obama, who is nothing if not honest about himself, is aware of the problem, and has various explanations for it. And what matters at this point is not his platform, but the play of his mind. He is one of those progressives, like Gordon Brown in Britain, who is thinking about the challenges of globalization outside the normal clichés.
Coming from my own perspective, I should note that I disagree with many of Obama's notions and could well end up agreeing more with one of his opponents. But anyone who's observed him closely can see that Obama is a new kind of politician. As Klein once observed, he's that rarest of creatures: a megahyped phenomenon that lives up to the hype.
It may not be personally convenient for him, but the times will never again so completely require the gifts that he possesses. Whether you're liberal or conservative, you should hope Barack Obama runs for president.
I was a freshman in college when Bush 'won' the 2000 election; throughout college I was amazed at my generation's apathy towards politics and political activism. But who could blame them? Our generation has had no reason to step up to the plate politically, partly because we have not been compelled to or included in the debate. Until now.
Barack Obama has a Facebook page. I just joined and invited a bunch of my friends. Initially I was mildly impressed at the ways in which he was using the internet to his advantage, but yesterday I found my way on to his Facebook group. To my amazement, not only did the group have 250,000 members since mid-January, but students were actually using the message boards to have constructive discussions about political issues in a way that simply did not happen when I was in school.
If Barack can tap into this young generation, which he is fully able to do, he's got a group from 18-26 which, in large part, has not cared enough to vote in past elections. That's huge! Not because of the fundraising, but because we can keep his momentum going past the initial media frenzy he's undergoing at the moment.
If anyone knows of events going on in Boston, let me know! I really want to be involved!
Not since John Kennedy has there been a candidate as inspirational and able to unite and move this country ahead as Barack Obama. In a time when we desperately need to move in a new and positive direction, his message is one of hope, shared work, and shared benefits. He will be a president for all the people and will reenvigorate our dreams and reestablish what it means to be an American.
Work hard for the candidate who can revitalize the American dream!
