or as my friends James says,

“screw the lapel pin - make every dickwad poseur politician do THIS to prove their patriotism.”

Here goes, with sincerity:

We are the ones we have been waiting for on November 3 & 4

←∞→

I apologize that this over-used & often-mocked phrase best expresses my point which is: the fierce urgency of our continued effort now thru Tuesday night to garner not just an Electoral Vote majority, but also to achieve an undeniable margin in the POPULAR VOTE. We need a landslide victory for Barack Obama.

If you read no further please take One more step toward the goal of getting One more vote for Barack. Suggestions follow. I know you’re tired. If every One Obama supporter ensures the vote by One other supporter, this election will be a landslide. A landslide would be good as anything less than a sound thumping in the popular vote for us will be One reason for the GOP to make pseudo-indignant hyperbolic claims as a ‘party of the real’ people every time they pull some stunt. So let’s make sure to translate our HOPE into HUGE on Tuesday. I’m tired too, but One 48 hour period is nothing compared to 4 more years of national death.

• Drive voters to the polls for One hour or more (sign up at MoveOn.org)
• Drive One voter to the polls (MoveOn.org)
• Make One more call to a swing state. Log on to Barack Obama’s Call Center
• Knock on the door of One neighbor who might be iffy about getting to the polls by closing time.
• Call your Mom! Your family, their neighbors - make sure One of them voted for Barack and get them to agree to do One more thing too.
• Write One well-intended non-partisan post to an acerbic and patriotic blog (for example: http://michellemalkin.com/) in a genuine attempt to communicate One universally shared concern.
• Share One powerful quote with undecided(s), Republicans or Independents . My secret-sharer’s very wise choice for these next two days would be:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
Abraham Lincoln,  December 1, 1862, Second Annual Address to Congress

You are the One. Really. You. Are.

I’m Talking to You.

Be The One.

Data Doesn’t Go To The Polls. You Do

Every Number Starts With One. One Action Can Change Everything. Please Be One.

I am One. The margins of victory in Virginia and South Carolina were enormous because I called voters there. The margins in Pennsylvania and Nevada are narrower because I canvassed there. They are narrower now because One woman living in Virginia put aside One opportunity to visit her 6-week old granddaughter in Boston, to instead canvass for Barack Obama in Western PA. The campaign’s coffers are full because I donated small amounts regularly. The campaign is able to afford its extraordinary media offensive because I have volunteered more months, days and hours than I can count. I know that Barack won the nomination because I am One of every One of the millions of volunteers dedicated to the Obama Campaign. I am not a party activist nor will I ever be - my involvement now is solely for this candidate who could only slip in at this critical time. It is, most powerfully, the structure of a peculiarly American bargain that Obama spreads before us, and keeps his end of, a campaign and then a life of self-reliance and community, individual and country, that I am honored to work my ass off for. That is why I chose to be One.

Ye Olde Addage: Polling data is a quantified compilation of stated intentions. Supposedly the mythical ‘Road to Hell’ is paved with excellent intentions.

Please vote and vote early so you can spend your time urging everyone you know to vote. We need huge margins to keep the clamor down. They will fight every declared race that is within 2 points.

Carry on comrades (yes, comrades).

Dear Mrs. Dunham,

Sorry I missed you. I started this post October 22 right around the time Barack left the mainland to visit you.  I am listening to him on TV at this moment, for the first time commenting on your passing in the night. He is saying you have “gone home” and is briefly telling the story of your life, characterizing you as a ‘quiet hero’ whose satisfaction came from working to ensure that the next generation, children and grand-children, had a path to a better life. He likened you to all the good people who sacrifice to do the right thing.  It was very sweet. You have seen your dear grandson on an enormous path toward an extraordinary goal he might stated as a child, when his Toot asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. He has made it look easy while we know it’s been a series of trials almost Biblical in sequence. Radical change meets enormous resistance. Barack had to have learned the value of infinite patience in part from you - the cornerstone of the family.   

Your belief in education made everything possible for Barack, and he is intent on impressing that belief into the American psyche, as he should. It must have been a kick for you to see intelligence and competence in leadership make a comeback in the person of your grandson, as all the other candidates ran the other way. It has been a long time since we had a candidate who was unabashedly indebted to and thankful for his education. You are a quiet hero.

You should be reveling in greatly deserved joy without distraction right now; and perhaps you are.  Is it crass for me to wonder whether or not you were able to vote for Barack?  Much sadness at this time but also the prospect of unbelievable pride and joy for the Dunham/Obama/Soetoro-Ng/Robinson family,  extending to their friends, neighbors, citizens and country. Tomorrow, I hope that what Barack hopes is true about the country, is true.  Thanks again Mrs. D.

With great admiration.

The Dunhams

Lots of vigilant police, union members, families, and CA volunteers rally 4 Obama. Voters? TBD

♦♣♥ Thelma Gutierrez, The Casino Worker, is aware that McCain-Palin are firmly against labor unions, isn’t she? ♥♣♦

The Reluctant Enthusiast

This Saturday morning, after a 1 AM super-secret TXT message from Barack, he sent me this little email note asking for yet another favor (and of course another donation!):

Barbara –
I have some important news that I want to make official.
I’ve chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.
Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois — the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.
I’m excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can’t do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.
Please let Joe know that you’re glad he’s part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we’ll make sure he gets it:
http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe
Thanks for your support,
Barack

I didn’t receive the note until I returned home that evening. Did it ever occur to Barack that, after waiting up into the wee hours for his secret TXT message, then needing to be wide awake and reasonably sharp a few hours later to do his bidding, it might be a bit much to assume I would check my email? As usual, Barack needs instant gratification so he sent the the exact same ‘personal note’ to THE HUSBAND. Did I deserve to be punished for volunteering for a 9 AM “Calling 4 Obama” phone bank shift? Punished further I should say, as we were calling Republicans in Nevada (don’t even get me going on that bit of torture). I had suspected the ever impatient Barack of at least two-timing me (for all I know there are millions doing his bidding) but to make me a cuckquean to my cuckold is beyond measure. Does he even know or care that THE HUSBAND was a bit of fence-straddler in the early going?  Probably. Sometimes I think what Barack really loves is the challenge of snaring the hard-to-get.

THE HUSBAND, as usual, is feeling guilty, spending the day as he does all of his days, NOT doing any favors for Barack, except to avert his eyes while I do. For some reason today, perhaps because he doesn’t have to leave the yard, he decides to step-up and answer Barack’s request to ‘Welcome Joe!’. This is what he wrote:

Supports the Yard Sign without reservation!

Good choice. Smart choice. Confident choice. Now nail it. Times are
tough. The choices are stark. It is not the moment for pussy-footing
equivocation. McCain is the latest incarnation of the evil downside of this
nation, the party he represents needs to be rooted out of our collective
soul and reformed to a renewed set of ideals. Obama/Biden can do this, but
it won’t be done by appeasing the dark side. We need to be bi-partisan, but
we cannot cooperate with failed policies and selfish, self-aggrandizing
goals. No more FISA backslides. No more conditions on the ground. Defend
the principles of our Constitution and get out of Iraq. Then education,
education, education. Reverse the attack on the intelligence of the
electorate begun by Ronald Reagan, and return America to innovative
excellence. With a smart, thinking, educated electorate we won’t have to
worry about future Bush/Roves, they will be brushed aside as Goldwater was.
The people will get what they deserve only if they are smart enough to know
what it is. In electing Barack/Biden as a repudiation of every single fact,
policy, appointment, act and instinct of the Bush administration we are not
only saving the future of the Democratic party and the United States of
America we will also save the Republican party from itself. Attack and
expose. The truth is our sword. Honesty is our shield.

———————

Okay, I really could not have done better if I had spent all day trying, so I’ll swallow my pride and share the men. While T.H. welcomed Joe, you can tell his address was to impress You-Know-Who. I can smell a little passion, but I can be certain of a couple of things when it comes THE HUSBAND. Not only will he not leave the yard, but he won’t take out his wallet. He thinks he’s too cool to campaign, he wants it to look like his eyes are averted, which is why the above note is a strikingly unusual action. Normally, he just likes to watch.

Happy Birthday to you, man. What a year. Seems like 3 years since last August, and 2 years since Iowa doesn’t it?

You sure know how to do things right. I completely understand why this is your year. You’re not coming back for 2012 if 2008 doesn’t work out, are you? ‘The fierce urgency of now’ is more than a politically correct quote by a great leader. You’re our back-door man. You’ve got to slip in without being seen.

For your stance on the Iraq War, they let you be a stand-in at rehearsal. None imagined you’d make it to the big dance, and they handed you a dance card pre-filled with trouble and woe that no one would wish on their worst enemy. Still, they are convinced you are blindly ambitious. For what I wonder, could you possibly be ambitious, other than to go down as a great leader? I want nothing less than a great leader as well. What am I missing?

Your so-called ’soaring rhetoric’ is practical and, yes, very soaring. What’s wrong with that? I have been living your ‘platitudes’ and I know they are words to live by. I am a better person for being careful to only speak positively about you, rather than in contrast to a negative in our opponent. Win or lose, you have taught me by example and clear articulation, allowing me to test the message for myself.

From many of us, you have asked exactly what we wanted to be asked. That is, simply to be asked. And how you work us! When you say it’s not about you, of course, the world scoffs. But, I know that you are about us.

E Pluribus Unum. You’ve had it right since you diagnosed it in 2004, doctor. Why are we so divided? It was/is a strategy to win 51% of the vote at the expense of the 49% who later gain many of the 51 when they realize they’ve been used to win, by any means. We’ve been had, all of us, and they’ll do it again.

You’ve got more cheeks than a porcupine has quills. I admire your way. Your mother would be swelling with pride. Happy Birthday Senator. I hope next year I’ll be typing a different title, but you’ll always be a gift to me.

Leos rule.

Messages from the Continental Edge to Swing State Voters

I have friends and neighbors who support Barack Obama but, like me in previous years, don’t go much farther than keeping current, talking with friends, donating a few bucks and always voting. They aren’t into phonebanking*, canvassing or ‘grouping up’, but they want to do more in the 2008 election. And so we love Lynn Branco’s ‘event’ linked to a national event: Postcards for Votes. It’s a terrific reason to gather locally and discuss which of Barack’s policies will benefit our community and why, and how that translates nationally and globally. There’s not much surfing in Ohio, but they need the jobs that will be created in clean energy industries. Now shuttered factories still have their prime transport locations.

Thanks to the postcard format, we each communicate why we support Obama/Biden to a voter in a swing state. The postcards are sorted by message to target states from a central location. No postcard party is required. Anyone can write a card when they have the time. It has been terrific preparation for me when I phone bank and travel to swing states to talk to voters. Last I heard from Lynn, we had mailed over 12,000 cards from Southern California via her event posting since the start of the general election. I bet we’ll over 16,000 by the deadline.

You might think a postcard couldn’t win an undecided voter over, but it could be just the message they are waiting to hear. Every engagement I have with voters in this campaign leaves me with the strong impression that no other effort so tirelessly, directly, and personally connects with people like we do in the Obama campaign. Phone banking is a great way to meet fellow supporters, but it’s only measured significant impact on election results is during GOTV efforts.

The message we send is that we don’t seek the liberal vote, the blue vote, the Democratic vote. We want the vote of anyone who believes that truth is better than fiction, that courage is better than fear, that intelligence trumps bravado, that those who put their lives on the line deserve the best we have to offer, that a good education can transform a society, that tolerance breeds understanding and that we are one people to whom much is given. And so from us, much is expected. We can work our way back, one voter at a time.

* for research notes on the efficacy of phone banking, go to the page below

http://research.yale.edu/GOTV/?q=node/10

Sovereign Citizens, Sadistic Bigots and Stupendous Surprises*.  

*Yes, I was indeed surprised in the Food Giant parking lot, when the dude who emerged from the V-6 Chevy pick-up fitted with a gun rack, plastered w/various negative bumper stickers, wearing shit-kicker boots and a ‘F**k the ACLU T-Shirt’ approached me and said, without a hint of sarc or sneer “Lady, I like your T-Shirt”, a bright green ‘O’Bama’ T-shirt. He then asked where he might volunteer for Barack Obama before the election in 4 days.  I love it when that happens. I pinned him as a Ron Paul guy all the way.

I spent five or six days in Western PA, crucial days for me, my campaign life, and I hope for the lives of my grand-niece and granddaughters.  Yes, I know that Obama technically lost the PA Primary. But did he?  He did far better in the Pittsburgh area than expected, and that would be a crucial area for any Democrat in the general election. The Philly area is a lock for the Democrat any year. In addition, Obama, unintentionally I believe, bankrupted his opponent by out-spending her 4 to 1 and, I guess, making her feel like she had to keep up. Kinda unwise since her reputation preceded her, was trumpeted by the Governor, most state and local  Democrats & her whining about Barack and all his money just made everybody take a look at him again. How did Mr. Nobody manage to have more money that the Clintons, anyway?  Senator Clinton was getting awfully mocking by that point and it wasn’t wearing well. As a woman, I at least wanted her to not go any smaller than she already had. And the advertising money certainly didn’t matter to the Amish in Lancaster County, who don’t get advertisments of any kind, just unadulterated information, and who voted for Obama by a large majority.

An Amish horse and buggy roll past a polling station in Blue Ball, PA on April 22, 2008.

I just had to go to Western PA. I knew it would matter, I had family there I could visit at last, frequent flier miles to use and, at home,  a supportive group of upper-division art students who were ready to carry out their final project on their own. I made my mind up after watching Senator Clinton’s Bosnia lie, her refusal to apologize yet again, her remark aligning her experience w/John McCain’s by dissing Obama’s apparently inconsequential “speech in 2002″, her junk-talk in Ohio, the ‘Shame on you, Barack Obama’ admonition as Gov. Strickland cupped his privates and, just prior to the Ohio Primary the last shoe dropped, the ‘no, I couldn’t vote for someone that devious even if she ran against Dick Cheney’ realization. This realization was simultaneous for many Obama bloggers who weren’t against Hillary until that moment,  but who were live blogging while watching the March 2nd ‘60 Minutes’ segment on misconceptions about Obama by rust-belt voters, and the reactions to the obvious information-deficit by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes,  who then informed both Senator Barack Obama and the sadly, passive-aggressively dishonest Senator Hillary Clinton who was seemingly nearly as information deprived about Barack’s religious practices as your average rust-belt High School Grad.  (The same Senator Clinton who, by the way, had been at a Christian Prayer Breakfast just that morning with Senator Obama, as she was less regularly than he on Sunday mornings in the Senate).

With a nod to my students, who had canvassed LA with me in February and were busily saving their latte money to send to the Obama campaign, and I took off to the land where the middle-aged woman is gold.

I arrived in East Liberty as instructed, had supporter housing lined-up by Pitt HQ with a wonderful woman in Squirrel Hill who was ready to have a small dinner party with me and her few Obama-supporting friends. Then, my main contact, the young Out of State Volunteer Coordinator Adam changed my location.  He sent me to the burbs, following a young woman named Corey.  Oh, I could go on about the strategic brilliance of Obama staffing HQs with young, uncommitted-to-careers as recent grads from the nation’s finest universities. You know, those glazed over, Kool-Aid drinkers everyone made fun of ?  The ones who had gone to college and seen their ROTC peers sent to Iraq to possibly die, mentally or physically? They smelled the dying seas, an increasingly putrid environment their country saw no need to clean-up, they spotted, if were not born from, a bored and spoon-fed wealthy class, they could see the dearth of fulfilling jobs, they felt the vibe of global disdain for the country they came from.  So of course they were the most driven to seek a teacher, a leader who made sense of this country & this world for them. They are labeled ‘elite’ I think, b/c they seek reasons beyond an ancient text of questionable authorship, beyond the nostalgic belief that ‘everything I need to know I learned from a cowboy, a bartender, my dog, or my 3-year old, etc..” to explain the complexities of life’s interwoven problems. Yes, careful consideration and reasoned approaches to solutions, once called “conservative thinking” is now called ‘liberal elitism” - hear William F. Buckley groaning from his grave? “Conservative thinking”, the oxymoron of 2008, has taken the form of over-simplification in easily digestible sound-bites.

So off on the winding roads of Pittsburgh I went, following the chic Corey in her convertible  in my rental car.  At a stop light, I tapped my iPhone to note we were in a, I don’t know, familiar feeling area. Upon arrival at this little office, not nearly as hip as the one in East Liberty (no phones, no modem, no Obama buttons) I looked out the window and decided to call my sister who lived in the Pittburbs and inform her of my re-location. I had already called her upon arrival and planned to stay with her for a couple of nights, or at least visit her and her family for a meal.  ”Wendy,” I said, “I’m in the burbs, maybe a bit closer to you, and looking out the window at a Luciano’s Pizza and a church on a hill?”  She said, “I’ll be right there.”  Apparently, ‘Luciano’s‘ is the it spot.

Corey (OFA), Elliot, Jerad and Mom at our office

 I at Wendy’s house, less than 3 miles away from the office.  My other sister drove up from Virginia to assist on the weekend.  A reluctant canvasser was she at first. I was scared to death, but someone had to fake it, so I did.  Were were to the conservative La Roche College, and I was tackling young African exchange students, assuring them that just b/c they couldn’t vote didn’t mean they couldn’t canvass or call. Pretty soon my sister, my ss, was corralling faculty, and having success as they promised to make phone calls during the last push weekend.

Jill, making those confirmation calls for push weekend.

We even took  guff from some students who, with indicative emotion, stated the equivalent of “No Fu*king Way!”  I had to summon my ‘inner Obama’ a multitude of times.  No, it’s not Kool-Aid.  It’s American Pragamatism.  The campaign’s message to those of us who represent was, ‘don’t waste your time and energy arguing with a tree-stump when there are undecided voters to speak with. This is a primary election and that adamant Clinton voter might become an Obama voter in November if we win- but not if the Obama canvasser they met last April was a preachy asshole.’  And I felt so much better saying, “believe me, I have nothing to gain by angering you, but I am here from California as an information-based middle-aged woman who knows about implementation and engagement.  That is where the difference between these 2 candidates lie. I’ve had it with promises of being taken care of.  I’m  helping myself by helping Obama.  Our problems are huge and none of us can sit around hoping someone will solve them for us.’  Self-reliance is back.  Spent my days before and after my sister’s visit doing various things.  The most fun was canvassing the neighborhoods with Sara Curl, on my left and your right, in the photo below.  Sara had never done this before and had far more stamina than I did. An amazing woman, full of joy and almost breathtaking certainty this would work, that Obama would win.  I never saw a hint of worry or doubt from her, and that was inspiring.  

Sara and I still email about the compounded kindnesses that we were part of or witness to, and of our luck at sitting right there (below), with Rochelle from Virginia, opposite the TV cameras at just the right spot. They filmed Barack and the trio of middled aged women just beyond him and we were on CSPAN.  My peeps were calling me as I drove toward the airport that night as Obama’s speech was on tape-delay while HRC, in Philly, spoke of bombing Iran in front of adoring crowds.  Apparently, I was seen nodding and my husband (at home with his lawn sign) said I was saying, “that’s right, that’s right”.  That’s right!

Rochelle_VA, Me_CA, Sara_PA : @ 4_21 Obama Rally in VIP seats

PS, did I mention that Michelle clasped my hands?  the crowd dispersed, some guy handed me his ‘Teamsters for Obama’ sign, and I looked up to see Mrs. Obama quite accessible.  I reached my hand in, I imagined she recognized me from the LA Rally months prior (oh, vanity) but there was nothing insincere in her gaze. Knowing she was already married, I could only say, “Thank you Mrs. Obama.”  And she said, “Michelle.” I expected to move on but she reached for my other hand (and she has some warm and soft hands, people) without losing eye contact, so I continued, “I’m here from California to ah…, and these are my friends.” Sara waved, Rochelle had left. Michelle must have been verging on exhaustion +/or tears and let out an anxiety-share sigh of thanks, shook her head in disbelief (as she did in LA at the support) and, solidfying her grasp looked in my eyes with a smile and said, ever so quietly, ‘we’ve got to get this one’.  Well, we got it to within 9.8  %.  I will never forget those days and the kindness of many but mostly the unspoken bond of ‘getting it’ with Sara, my ss, and Michelle Obama. Oh, and Franco Harris walked me to my car!  That’s right.