31 Friday Oct 2008
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Party splits:
Democrats (38%): 88/8 Obama
Republicans (36%): 90/7 McCain
Independents (26%): 48/48 tie
It should be noted that in 2004, the partisan split was around 36R/35D/29I. So the idea of Republicans having the same percentage in low-enthusiasm 2008 as in high-enthusiasm 2004 is a bit hard to believe right now.
31 Friday Oct 2008
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Nice jersey.
31 Friday Oct 2008
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Ellen Goodman’s latest column describes Democratic jitters about losing again.
There are hard-core Democrats so hunkered down against hope that if you told them the only way McCain could win is by personally bringing Osama bin Laden home in chains, they’d respond: “SEEE! I told you! That’s the October Surprise!” (………)
Do you remember when the Obama rallying cry was “Yes we can”? Now we are in the scary season and here’s the new mantra: The only thing we have to fear is hope itself.
Considering Kerry’s early departure from Missouri in ’04 and how the polls here show Obama and McCain straining to run through the tape first, Missouri Democrats have a right to some heebie jeebies. One activist recently sent out an e-mail with a link to a troubling article in the Utne Reader. Here’s the critical sentence:
States have purged some 13 million voters from the voter rolls since 2004, Joe Rothstein reports for U.S. Politics Today. According to Rothstein, 17 percent of registered voters in the vital swing state of Colorado have been dropped from the rolls, and 10 percent of voters have been dropped in Missouri.
Rothstein claims that:
At least 13 million voters have been purged from the rolls since 2004. That’s 10% of the 120 million votes cast in 2004 and twice as many voters than have just been added through massive registration drives.
(boldface mine)
I don’t know about that, but I did call the Secretary of State’s office and asked what the process is for removing voters from the registrations rolls.
The communications person I spoke with, Ryan Hobart, told me that the National Voter Registration Act that was passed in the nineties requires states to take steps to remove inactive voters, and here’s how Missouri goes about it.
Local boards of election send a postcard to every registered voter before each election. (We got ours yesterday.) If that postcard is returned as undeliverable, the voter is flagged as inactive. If he does not vote in the next two federal elections, then his name is removed from the rolls. If he does, he is reactivated.
As a further step to keep the rolls accurate, Missouri created a statewide voter data base in 2006. If a voter’s information turns up at two addresses–that is, if his name, date of birth, Social Security number and signature match–then he is removed from the voter rolls at the older address.
Not only do those steps sound reasonable, but in fact, Mr. Hobart assured me, Missouri has, because of the registration drives this year, more voters on the rolls than it did in 2004. We have a record number of registered voters. So Rothstein’s assertion that twice as many voters have been purged as added in the last four years is not for us to worry about, because it isn’t true in Missouri.
The state also takes steps to remove deceased voters from the rolls. Each month, the Department of Health and Senior Services sends a list to local election boards of voters who have died. The state also sends out a list of felons who are ineligible to vote.
So you can scratch this one off your angst list. Worry if you want to, but focus your fretting somewhere else.
31 Friday Oct 2008
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Barack Obama on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia:
As the crowd filled in a local band cranked a few tunes.
“And the band played on…” – I spotted this individual reading while he waited for the speakers.
There was a huge crowd of students and others outside the event across the street (south) of the location. While they may not have been able to see everything, the sound system was more than adequate in allowing them to hear the speeches.
A contingent of “Rednecks for Obama”
The media work space behind the main press riser.
Obama on the rope line.
Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) outside the event after it was over.
31 Friday Oct 2008
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I shot close to fifty, but it was a late rally and the quality wasn’t very good on most of them – oh well. Digital cameras don’t waste film – and when Obama kicks off his reelection campaign, I’ll buy a better camera than my vintage model. But that’s in the future…here is what we have today!
I have a feeling that this young lady will be first in line Tuesday morning!
I get a perfect shot framed, and had my shutter speed set just right, and wouldn’t you know it – right before the pic snapped, someone raised their own camera and I got the camera instead of the Senator!
Not as good as the one above would have been, but hey, here is the man himself!
It’s about the world that this little guy will inherit in a few short years. His Mom doesn’t want to trundle him off to this endless frickin’ war that the bu$h-cons started!
And the thought of this little girl strumming a guitar on this quad ten years from now singing “Where have all the Flowers Gone” breaks my heart, and that is what this election is about!
I got some funny looks from the rest of the press pen when I finished the chant – it’s a tradition at rallies and games, etc, for a speaker to end with “M-I-Z” and the crowd to respond back “Z-O-U” while pumping fists in the air. When the first speaker, the president of the campus Democrats (an organization I was once a member of!) ended her speach with the chant, I reflexively chimed in. When they looked at me funny I said “What? I went to school here!” At that point I became the official source of information about all things MU for the traveling press. And one of the J-school students was bowled over – one of the professors teaches the Libby Letters matter and didn’t know that one of the people who signed that brief was an MU alum, or at least didn’t mention that part – but that doesn’t surprise me, and I explained to the student that I was a life sciences nerd, not in the J school, and my professional name is not my married name, which is relatively common and therefore more difficult to google. Anyway, I am sure that the professor who teaches that class knows that there is an MU connection now!
31 Friday Oct 2008
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( – promoted by Clark)
(Also posted on Daily Kos)
Much has been made of the Obama-Biden strategy of being competitive in states that Republicans carried in recent presidential elections. Missouri is very much in this mix and unlike 2004, when the Kerry-Edwards campaign pulled out of Missouri in the weeks leading up to the election, the Obama-Biden campaign has expanded their tremendous presence in the state. According to David Plouffe, winning Missouri has always been an important part of the overall strategy to reach 270 electoral votes, and in typical fashion, the campaign has spared no effort in winning. The efforts are paying off, also, since Obama, once trailing in this state by 5 points or so, is now 2 points ahead on the Pollster.com composite, and has a nice upward-going trendline!
But winning doesn’t mean we’ve won. Barack himself is telling us to “run through the tape.” Since September, I’ve been doing my part to make it so. Here’s what it looks like in my part of Missouri: University City, just west of the city of St. Louis.
The University City Obama office
So what got me off my rear end to work for the Obama campaign? Two things did. One, I, along with almost all of us here, was unhappy with the late August poll numbers, especially coming out of the RNC. Second, and the most important reason, is that DNC Chairman Howard Dean asked us to. Dr. Dean had visited St. Louis as part of the Register for Change tour (diaried here) and during his speech he told us that the race for Missouri would be extremely tight, with probably only a 2-point margin for victory for whoever won the state. He implored us all to do what we could for the Obama campaign, even if it meant taking time away from our families and loved ones. Thankfully, many took hom at his word, if the University City office was any indication:
The University City Obama office in September. Lots going on here, with canvassers getting their walk packets, phonebankers making calls, visitors buying campaign materials. Of the St. Louis area offices I visited, this one was the busiest,and the one quickest to put me to work!
I’m a canvasser. I’ve done it for MoveOn in 2004, in Florida, and the 2006 Claire McCaskill campaign. For me, I definitely do better when I can talk to voters face to face–plus I like being outside and getting the exercise! Dr. Dean told us in the speech I saw that the personal contact between us and the voters made the most difference in driving support to our candidates and causes. Thus, while phonebanking is important–that’s how possible supporters are identified, and helps to generate the walk sheets the canvassers use–it is the canvassers that close the sale. I always relished the challenge of it in past campaigns.
Jana, a Neighborhood Team Leader (in the white pants), briefs a group of volunteer canvassers on the day’s objective. Our group that day included two foreign students studying at Washington University–they couldn’t vote in our election, but came out to help anyway!
This gentleman, in front of the Obama painting, came out from California to help us. I’ve since run into a couple of other Californians who took time off and came out to help us in University City.
Jana, my usual canvassing contact, always started us off by going around the group to tell everyone whey we were supporting Barack Obama. After that, she usually gave a full briefing on what our objectives were for that day’s canvass. In typical Obama campaign fashion the canvassers were always provided with all the forms, talking points, and literature needed to go with the walk sheets and maps–and we always left knowing what the objective was that day, be it voter registration, voter persuasion, or GOTV.
I know a lot of people find knocking on doors to be difficult. In my experience people were usually much more receptive to a stranger at the door than a stranger on the phone (those phonebankers doing the cold calls? God bless ’em. I couldn’t do that with any skill even if you paid me!). Sometimes I found McCain supporters, but in all cases but one, they were polite (the rude one just slammed the door in my face after saying, “I’m not talking to you”). A few were wary of the stranger at the door, even when I put on my best smile and exam-room manner (my day job is practicing veterinary medicine). But I have to say, of the campaigns I’ve worked, I’ve never experienced the reception I often got when I came to the door. So many greeted me with a smile, often a handshake, and even a “God bless you” for the work I was doing. Those doors would put an extra spring in my step, and make me want to work that much harder to get my walk packet done!
In case you’re worried about people letting up with the good poll numbers: At my office at least, I can tell you that the last weekend I came in for my 1 PM shift, I found out that all of the walk packets for the shift had already been given out! A staffer actually had to drive over to one of our forward offices (a staging location for Election Day) and got the three of us canvassers that were waiting for packets what we needed. We’ve had good turnout every weekend I’ve canvassed, but this was the first weekend they actually ran out of packets at shift time!
If you haven’t canvassed, NOW is the time to get your feet wet! This weekend there will be an all-out push to get our voters to the polls on November 4th. Missouri does not have early voting, and even in the jurisdictions that do, the early voting period has passed. There won’t be any persuasion needed, just a simple question: “are you voting for Barack Obama this Election Day?” If you’re still a bit worried, talk to someone in your local Obama office. They will, most likely, pair you with an experienced canvasser to help show you the ropes. It’s not hard to learn what to do–You can do it! Those first few doors are always the hardest ones, even for an experienced canvasser like me; after that it gets a lot easier.
Here we are filling out our canvass reports. My partner this day was Catherine, a Canadian college student, who mastered the fine art of canvassing very quickly!
Smile! We’re canvassing for the winning team!
The need for GOTV cannot be overstated; even with Obama up in the polls it means nothing without actual votes. If you live in or near a swing state, call or visit your local Obama office today, and see where they can use you. Make plans to travel to a swing state, if you possibly can. Missouri does not have early voting, and the campaign has us organized for the big day with one goal in mind: to get our voters to the polls, and make sure they can cast their ballots. We need an all-hands evolution to bring home the win, in Missouri and elsewhere!
Just in case you need a bit more inspiration:
Everybody, say hello to Marvin!
I was back at the office filling out my latest canvass report when I heard one of the other volunteers talking to this gentleman. Marvin had been making phone calls, and told the other volunteer, between calls, that the first campaign he had ever worked was the Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaign of 1936, and that he has worked every Democratic campaign since then! Think about that for a minute. The same year John McCain was born, a young Marvin was out knocking doors for FDR. I had to introduce myself to Marvin at that point, and shake his hand. To say I was awed would be an understatement!
Marvin told me he had done it all–canvasser, precinct captain, phonebanker–and that he was phonebanking only because he couldn’t get out and walk the long distances anymore. He didn’t tell me his age, but since he served in World War II, I’m guessing he’s in his late 80s or early 90s.
He’s just one more reason I got up and went to work for the campaign!
In short, canvassing is not difficult, and that face-to-face contact can make all the difference in the world between the voters turning out and staying home. You’ll be talking to supporters, and I guarantee you will get some love from them, for doing the work we’re doing.
So let’s win this thing, for Marvin, and for all of us! Get those walking shoes on and take the streets this weekend!
31 Friday Oct 2008
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31 Friday Oct 2008
Posted in Uncategorized
Technology and I are barely on speaking terms. That may seem odd for a blogger, but it’s true, and my camcorder bit my plans in the butt this morning, just to remind me of it.
I went to Arnold to videotape Joe Biden, and five minutes into his speech, the camcorder screen went blank. So you don’t get video of him, and that’s a shame because, God love him (as he would say), he was great. And the greatness wasn’t that he said anything we haven’t heard–I know Obama and he want a three month moratorium on home foreclosures; I know they want judges to have the authority to help homeowners renegotiate loans; I know they think McCain’s proposed tax on health care benefits is scandalous.
I like Biden’s sense of humor. He enjoyed describing how McCain, when he’s at a rally with Palin, points at her and says, dramatically, “maverick.” Then she points at him and says, “maverick.” But Biden quotes Senator Bob Casey, who observed that “You can’t call yourself a maverick when all you’ve been for the last eight years is a sidekick.”
But Biden’s sense of humor is not what made him worth hearing either. The best word to describe what made him worth hearing is one that’s a little out of fashion because it could sound cornball, and that’s “heartfelt”.
A couple of dozen workers from the Chrysler plant that just closed in Fenton were sitting behind him, wearing red t-shirts. He talked at some length about the 1700 jobs just lost there, about how the last minivan made at Fenton rolled off the line two days early. Even workers who were facing the loss of their jobs took enough pride in their work, up to the end, to get the work done ahead of schedule.
Biden recounted how hard it was when the GM plant closed in Delaware. On the last day the plant was open, he stood outside the plant as the workers came off their shift. People advised him against being there, because they knew those workers would be angry and that they would be likely to take it out on Biden. And that did happen. There were lots of expletives deleted aimed at him. But 85 percent of those who cussed when they saw him, he said, came back and said, “Thank you for being here.”
His empathy for those Chrysler workers was heartfelt.
And he concluded the speech by saying that the divisiveness that has characterized Republican rule has to end. Even those who have viciously attacked Obama and those who’ve been less than honest are going to see that we want to unite the people of this country. Biden’s voice got louder, fuller, as he said that. This was the part I wish I had on videotape. “Barack Obama has steel in his spine, and he will appeal to America’s better angels,” he boomed. He finished by saying that all America is patriotic, and there’s nothing beyond our capacity if we unite. He believes that. It was heartfelt.
photo courtsy of washingtonpost.com
31 Friday Oct 2008
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30 Thursday Oct 2008
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From the Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal:
Would you vote to ban embryonic stem cell research?
BENJAMIN: No. Stem cell research is one of the great hopes of modern medicine, and I support it whole heartedly. I do not support human cloning.
PEARCE: X. (Voters) decided this issue, placed it in the Missouri Constitution and is out of the General Assembly’s hands. I would oppose tax dollars going to SCNT research.
Is higher education better off in Missouri now than four years ago?
BENJAMIN: No. The students make a university a great place, and right now too many are being priced out of a college education in Missouri.
PEARCE: Yes. Funding was cut four years ago and has increased each of the last four years. We also have limits on tuition increases now.
