Monthly Archives: November 2008

(Community Matters) I’m spending the days before the election with extraordinarily enthusiastic people in Western Michigan. These folks have been living a recession, some say living in a depression. But, by the strength of character and optimism I’m finding, you wouldn’t know it. They were with us at the campaign headquarters until after 10 on Friday (I bet some much later), canvassed from 9am to after 6pm on Saturday and were back canvassing and phone banking yesterday. They made homemade cookies, cupcakes and sandwiches to feed us (the volunteers) and are housing many of those here from out of state.

(Community Matters) Late night word from the Texas Obama campaign, even more Texans headed to New Mexico. Juan, staff & volunteers (including now fulltime volunteer Barbara Engel) decided they’d get one more bus of volunteers to Las Cruces, so final bus Houston-SAT-New Mexico.

Gotta love the sustained outpouring of volunteer efforts even in the final 48 hours. Don’t know what I’m doing up. We’re going to be dropping door hangers all day, then rides and more GOTV tomorrow.

(Community Matters)

Final projections from 3BlueDudes:

Electoral College: Obama 367 – McCain 171 (using the 3bd Presidential Projector, tossups go to poll avg leader)

US Popular Vote: Obama 51.1 – McCain 42.1 (using 3BD October Number National Poll Munch)

US Senate: Democrats 56 GOP 42 IND 2 (using the 3BD Senate Tracker)

US House: Democrats pick up between 21-30 seats per 3BD reader poll

3BlueDudes

Latest from PPP:

Their teaser: Lots of people are leaving comments asking for predictions on this state or that state and I really don’t want to get too specific while the polls are running, but here’s the bottom line:

When we started running these polls Friday morning I was virtually certain Barack Obama would be elected President.

I still am.

UPDATE

Virginia is up

VA: PPP Obama 52 McCain 46 Undecided/other 2 Obama +6

Now Pennsylvania

PA: PPP Obama 53 McCain 45 Undecided/other 2 Obama +8

And now Ohio

OH: PPP Obama 50 McCain 48 Undecided/other 2 Obama +2

BlueDudes

The final USA Today/Gallup poll before Tuesday’s election has Barack Obama expanding his lead in the poll to his largest margin, 53% to 42%. The polling was conducted on Friday and Saturday.3

BlueDudes

Nate Silver: “Of all the polls out late tonight — and I do hope to have some sort of midnight update to the polling thread — the one that ought to give Democrats the most reassurance is the new poll out from NBC and the Wall Street Journal, which gives Barack Obama a 51-43 lead. What’s to like about this particular survey?

Firstly, all of the interviewing was conducted today (Sunday) and yesterday, so it’s about the freshest set of data that we have.

Secondly — and this is an underrated factor — the NBC/WSJ poll always behaves intuitively. It goes up when the other polls go up, and goes down when the other polls go down.”

538

(Community Matters) check this out:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7704636.stm

(Community Matters) Jessica D’Arcy and her 2 month old daughter, Lia, are canvassing in New Mexico.

Lia D’Arcy, perhaps our very youngest Obama volunteer

(Community Matters) Geronimo Rodriguez from Colorado:

Texans Gilbert Ocanas, Nicole Holt, and I are in northwest Denver which has a very mixed neighborhood of Hispanics, Orthodox Jewish community members and the working poor.

Walking the neighborhoods has been inspiring……

In southwest Denver, a predominately Latino neighborhood, Angelica De La Rosa came to the door and told me “my whole reason for living was to vote for obama”. She had already voted and wanted to shake my hand for walking her neighborhood on behalf of Sen. Obama. I shook her hand to thank her for voting.

Gilbert Ocanas met up with an older Hispanic genteman who looked at him and said “I am voting for obama and the world is going to change”. Obama equals hope equals vote equals change….

Nicole Holt was asked by a senior citizen if she would make sure someone took her to the polls on Tuesday. Nicole is making sure she gets a ride to the poll.
Posted by blackberry

(Community Matters)

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NPR.org, March 18, 2008 · The following is a transcript of the remarks of Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, delivered March 18, 2008, in Philadelphia at the Constitution Center. In it, Obama addresses the role race has played in the presidential campaign. He also responds to criticism of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an unpaid campaign adviser and pastor at Obama’s Chicago church. Wright has made inflammatory remarks about the United States and has accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism.

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union …” — 221 years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars, statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution — a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part — through protests and struggles, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk — to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time. Continued here

(Community Matters) Some pics

Hailey & Kirk Rudy last night

This morning during the kickoff

Grand Rapids, Michigan from 23rd floor, JW Marriott

Ground view

tonight, Obama for Change

Other pics from restaurant:

(Community Matters) NOT: The Prank Call

(Community Matters) “Senators Obama and Biden have made clear their commitment to fighting for equal rights for all Americans whether it’s by granting LGBT Americans all the civil rights and benefits available to heterosexual couples, or repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” said a statement issued by campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Senator Obama has already announced that the Obama-Biden ticket opposes Proposition 8 and similar discriminatory constitutional amendments that could roll back the civil rights he and Senator Biden strongly believe should be afforded to all.”

Wow, sad to see so many Austinites among top Prop 8 supporters:

(Community Matters) Two of my most interesting conversations with voters in Western Michigan today.

First: A young man said, no he was not voting for Barack Obama. I asked if he minded telling me why. He said because he learned Barack had taken his senate oath on a Koran. When I informed him that this was a lie and that Barack & Michelle were raised as Christian, he got mad. Not mad at me but that he’d believed what he read. He acknowledged that there was a lot of lies coming out of the McCain campaign

Second: Went to see a family of three voters, by no means identified, they’ve only once voted in a Democratic primary. Turns out another daughter had recently turned 18 and was registered to vote. The mother and daughters are enthusiastic Obama supporters, even took a sticker and immediately placed it on their car. The dad was gruff and told me he was voting for Nader. The mom came around and whispered to me, “don’t worry, we won’t let him vote for Nader. He’ll vote for Obama too.” He just shrugged and smiled.

(Community Matters) . . . . only in the press releases of Rick Davis and other McCain operatives. Yesterday I was worried by the Iowa story (they too turned out completely bogus). Tomorrow, there’ll be another. As a Michigan campaign volunteer said last night, if McCain had really moved to dead even in any state, he wouldn’t announce it, he’d still be yelling that they are close but need every single dollar and volunteer. Hell, even Arizona has been reclassified as a toss up state.

They are now just vying to avoid complete annihilation and humiliation, cranking out disinformation in press releases that make their voters believe there is still a chance.