After recuperating from several weeks of lack of sleep, with 2 or 3 hour long nights being very common, it is an absolute pleasure for me to use My 100th post to thank all the voters in Cabarrus County for giving Barack Obama a victory in My own County.
With the odds stacked up against us in this County, we managed to pull out a victory thanks to the very hard and dedicated work of dozens of volunteers. The demographics in Cabarrus County working against us, with a relatively small African-American population and a majority of older Democrats, the Obama campaign predicted we would lose here by 2%. Instead, thanks to staff and so many volunteers, we won by 4%.
We won, thanks to all those days of door-to-door canvassing, making calls, distributing fliers and door hangers, giving rides to the polls and putting up yard signs. It was hard work, but it paid off and I'm sure I speak for all the other local volunteers when I say that we very eagerly look forward to the fall to start doing it all over again.
It was very inspiring to witness the enthusiasm and spirit that drives all our volunteers on a scale I haven't witnessed in a political campaign before.
We won this battle, even though some people stubbornly refuse to admit it, but the war will be won in November.
After this Primary victory we're not hibernating, but we keep organizing and building upon this success to prepare for the big battle in November. So join our group and be a part of history.
Trust me, come this fall, Cabarrus County is in for a surprise.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Thank you Cabarrus County!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Voting starts today!
Today our local Board Of Elections opens its doors for the early "one-stop" voting process.
You can vote early every weekday until May 2nd from 8.30 am - 5 pm at the Board of Elections offices on 53 Corban Ave SE in Downtown Concord.
There is also one Saturday you can vote early, May 3rd, from 8.30 am - 1 pm. This also the last day to vote early.
During early voting you can also register to vote and vote at the same time, in case you missed the voter registration deadline, this is your one chance to still vote!
Same day voter registration is NOT possible on election day, May 6th.
Same day voter registration is meant for new voters, they won't allow you to change your party affiliation at this time.
If you're 17 but turn 18 before the November election, you can register and vote in the primary during early voting even though you're only 17 at this time!
Check out the Cabarrus County Board of Elections website to find out all about same day registration.
You can also look at the Democratic sample ballots on the same website.
Since several folks have asked me who i would vote for in the Democratic Primary, I will put up several posts in the following days explaining who I would vote for and why. I'm pretty sure you know by now who i would vote for in the big Presidential nominee race :-)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Black is the new president, bitch
In case you missed Saturday Night Live yesterday, check out the following hilarious video.
And don't forget to read Barack Obama's personal answer to that whole preacher firestorm.
I'd love to see all of you at the second meeting of "Cabarrus for Obama" this Tuesday March 18th at 7 pm at the Sweet Pea Cafe in downtown Concord.
At our first meeting 65 people showed up. Join us!
For more information and to RSVP follow this link.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Obama has already won against McCain.
By proxy that is.
Democrat Bill Foster, endorsed by Barack Obama, has snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a closely watched special election in Illinois that gave the longtime Republican district to the Democrats. Foster has won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis.
That result was amazing given the 14th District's clear Republican lean.
President Bush won the district, which spans into the far western suburbs of Chicago, with 55 percent in 2004 and 54 percent in 2000.
Hastert won reelection easily for more than two decades.
Bill Foster was endorsed by Barack Obama, and ran on a similar platform of "change". Obama made a TV ad praising Foster. Meanwhile, McCain campaigned for the Republican candidate Jim Oberweis, and fundraised for his campaign.
Watch the Obama ad for Bill Foster:
Foster's win should demonstrate to the Democratic leadership that Obama can help elect more Democrats to Congress, even in formerly "safe" Republican sites.
The defeat is a major setback for the NRCC and House Republicans. The NRCC spent nearly $1.3 million defending the seat, a significant percentage of the $6.4 million the committee showed on hand at the end of January. That is a major investment of limited resources, only to
come up empty.
House Republicans, already dispirited by the loss of their majority in the 2006 election and more than two dozen retirements within their ranks since then, will likely take this defeat hard. Watch to see how many of them will retire over the coming weeks as vulnerable members take the Illinois special election as a sign of things to come in the fall.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Canvassing in a winter wonderland
I returned on Tuesday from Ohio, where I volunteered for Sen. Obama's campaign in the frozen city of Cleveland. Hundreds of volunteers from all over the country descended upon the state to help out the Obama campaign.
What follows is the story of my journey in a winter wonderland.
Getting to Cleveland was no small feat. As the person who I stayed with told me, "February is the worst month to come to Ohio". I wish they had told me sooner.
I had planned on getting to Cleveland in one day. Including all the necessary stops, the trip should take about 10 hours under normal weather circumstances. The problem is that the weather was anything but normal, although it might have been normal under Ohio standards.
It was getting dark when I crossed the Ohio river and pretty soon after that it started snowing. With a high of 25 degrees the snow wasn't going to disappear anytime soon. I was tired and didn't feel like driving in the dark and snow anymore, so I stopped in Cambridge, OH and checked into a hotel.
The next morning i was looking forward to a mere 2 hour drive to my final destination. When I opened up the curtains of my room i found out that everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow and it was snowing even heavier than the night before. I could see the highway in the distance though and traffic seemed to be moving right along, so I decided to hit the road.
For the first 10 miles or so everything was fine, the road was clear, but after a short while it seemed like the snowplows had stopped working. Everything was white and you could not see the road anymore. It snowed even harder now and visibility was reduced. The only thing I could see were the tire tracks made by a truck that was in front of Me.
For the next 3 and a half hours I followed those tracks in what I would describe as "white knuckle driving". At several points my car started beeping and a light started flashing on the dashboard of My Prius, indicating that my tires were slipping. Until I got to Ohio I didn't even know my car had this feature. Hey, at least i learned something.
I got to Cleveland eventually, a day later than planned and a nervous wreck after that drive. The next day the canvassing started.
Saturday morning I reported to the local Obama Headquarters in Lakewood, a suburb on the west side of Cleveland.
As usual (we did the same thing in South Carolina and Illinois) we were asked to visit targeted voters in targeted neighborhoods with personalized door hangers which indicated where people had to go vote.
Because the campaign asked me not to, I can't tell you what neighborhoods and what voters get targeted exactly.
My door to door canvassing brought me to streets on the edge of lake Eerie and allowed me to snap some pictures of this massive, partially frozen, lake with the Cleveland skyline as a backdrop. The temperatures were still freezing. The advantage to this is that canvassing went pretty fast, people tend to not keep their front door open for very long when its 25 degrees outside.
On Sunday and Monday the weather got a lot a warmer, with temperatures reaching 50. The snow melted and roads were clear.
I had originally planned to stay in Ohio until after primary day, but the weather reports indicated that the weather was about to make a turn for the worse so i decided to leave while I still could. On Tuesday morning I headed home. This time I made the trip in one long drive.
On Tuesday afternoon Cleveland got covered in freezing rain. Pretty soon after that it started snowing. It has been snowing ever since and temperatures have yet to get above freezing again. I had escaped just in time.
Even though the results in Ohio weren't what i had hoped for, we didn't do too bad in the City of Cleveland. Obama won 69% of the vote there.
By the way, I didn't just work in Cleveland, I also managed to squeeze in a visit to this little hangout:
Luckily, the next step for me in this drawn out race will be right in my own backyard.
If you want to get involved with the Obama campaign right here in Cabarrus County, please join the "Cabarrus for Obama" group on the official Obama website.
May 6th is primary day!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Clinton's are funny?
As you know, and you might be sick of hearing me talk about it by now, I'm an Obama fan.
However, I'm not one of those people who support Obama because they think Hillary is just a "B***".
I respect her, but I think Obama is by far the better candidate.
That being said I wanted to share some humor out of the Clinton campaign with you all. The problem is that none of this was meant to be funny.
First of, a supporters' YouTube video that's meant to counter the many stirring Obama videos that have reached millions of young people by now.
Judge for yourself, but I think it inspires me almost as much as a rusty doorknob does. It has a very high "Up with People" level.
Then we also learned that Bill Clinton argues that Hillary has done excellent in the primaries, considering that she is "operating on a shoestring". She raised $140 million.
I hereby volunteer to drive Bill Clinton around in some areas in Rock Hill, SC, where I was campaigning for Obama during the SC primary. I visited people there that lived in totally dilapidated houses with "port-a-potties" by the side of the road because they didn't have any sewer access. I'll let them explain to Mr. Clinton what a shoestring budget really is.
Calling $140 million for a political campaign a shoestring budget is the kind of Washington-speak we have tolerated too long. It's time for a change of the guard.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday blues: November edition
A very quick and short "Monday blues" feature this week. With all this primary stuff going on I haven't had much time to look for funny videos, but I didn't want to withhold the one I did find.
Note: If you get my posts through certain RSS readers or in your e-mail you might have to go to the website to watch video's.
You might have seen the following music video about Barack Obama. It was made by Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed peas and you'll see several musicians and celebrities participate in it. The reason you might have seen it is that it apparently gets about 1 million views a day on YouTube. You can watch a high quality version of the video by following this link.
The McCain "straight talk" campaign has it's own version of this, but it's just a tad bit less inspiring. Makes you think about the November contest :-)
Have a great week at work!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
My trip to Chicago; adventures in Obamaland
This past weekend I flew to Chicago to help a Belgian TV News crew make a report on the Barack Obama campaign. As you might know, Chicago is Obama's hometown and it's here that his political campaign started.
We visited the National Obama Volunteer headquarters and went to the communities where Obama was a community organizer some 25 years ago.
When I landed, the contrast between Charlotte and Chicago couldn't have been any bigger. In Charlotte it had been a balmy 60 degrees, in Chicago it was 30 and there was at least 10 inches of snow on the ground. The skyscrapers were hidden in a dense, low hanging cloud cover and it gave the whole city a weird kind of atmosphere.
After checking in to our downtown hotel we only had to walk a few blocks to reach the National Obama Volunteer Headquarters on W. Adams Street.
From the sidewalk it looked like any normal entrance to a huge office building and there was not one sign mentioning Obama. After making sure we were at the right address we took the elevator to the 10th floor. As soon as the doors opened there was a sight to behold.
The whole 10th floor of this building was filled with hundreds and hundreds of volunteers, almost as far as the eye could see. There were volunteers sitting behind rows of computers and the rest of them were just sitting on ever chair and in every corner they could find making phone calls all over the country, From California to Tennessee. I picked up a list of voters and a calling script as well and made some calls into New Mexico.
The whole operation seemed very professionally organized while at the same time having a fun and personal vibe. There was a childcare corner where little kids were making the well known Obama symbol with finger paints and on the other side of the building was a store selling all the popular Obama merchandise, there was also a buffet style kitchen where everyone could pick up a slice of pizza (there were about a dozen different kinds) and a drink. Speeches of Obama and the latest election news were projected on big screens.
People kept pouring in and out by droves, picked up a list of voters at the big front desk and started making calls.
It was easy to make friends, especially after I mentioned that i was a volunteer with the campaign in SC.
It quickly became clear that the campaign isn't spending much time and energy on Chicago and the state of Illinois, Obama out-polls Hillary by a 2 to 1 margin here, but is using the big pool of volunteers here to make a difference elsewhere in the country.
I was very impressed with the enormity of the operation, these headquarters are open 24 hours, but after a few hours we had to leave the HQ and head for bed, tomorrow was going to be a long and busy day.
The next morning we followed Obama's path he described in his book "Dreams from My father", in which he talks about his work in the late 80's on the south side of Chicago as a community organizer.
If you haven't read the book yet, I highly recommend it, even if you're not a big Obama fan. It's a very human story about the struggles of a multiracial person trying to figure out where he belongs.
We had set up a meeting with the Reverend Dr. Alvin Love of Lilydale First Baptist Church. Dr. Love was one the people who hired Barack Obama in 1985 to start working for a new community organization called "Developing Communities Project" or DCP for short.
The DCP still exists today and Dr. Love is now the President of the organization.
You can find a lot more about Obama's time there in the "Dreams from My father" book and there are also some interesting online articles about it.
Reverend Love turned out to be a very inspiring man. The TV crew had me interview him on camera and I came away with a much better sense of what makes Barack Obama tick and where he gets his drive.
I asked Dr. Love, who still talks to Obama regularly, if the thought that politics had changed Obama at all. His answer was refreshing: "I don't think politics have changed him, he's only gotten better at what he used to do here and he does it on a much larger scale."
I also asked him if the US are "ready for a black president" and once again the answer was refreshing. "Let me answer that in 2 parts. I think that the challenges and problems we face in this country by far transcend any question about race and gender and my second answer would be, ready or not, Here he comes!".
My final question was if Dr. love thought that Barack's work here 25 years ago had made a difference. "Oh there's no doubt, our crime rate is down and back then I didn't even know the name of the pastor of the church 2 blocks down from here. Now we all know each other, talk and meet all the time and fight together for our neighborhood."
It was nice to have confirmed that Obama really is the candidate who brings people together to face the challenges of the future.
After the interview we stayed for the very lively church service, with a lot of gospel signing and great music.
We closed off the day and our stay in Chicago by walking around in "Altgeld Gardens", the first public housing project in the United States, built in 1945. It was especially this area where Obama focused his effort in the 80's.
There were Obama signs everywhere, because the folks that live here know what a difference Barack Obama can make. I'm hoping the rest of the US catches on as well.
If you want to see the Belgian TV news report, you can do so by following this link. Mind you, most of the report is in dutch, so you won't understand a lot of it, but you can at least enjoy the images. You will see the whole news broadcast, but if you fast forward to the 18 minutes and 30 second mark you'll see my report.
Monday, January 28, 2008
How I (and thousands of others) helped the Obama landslide in SC.
The victory on Saturday in South Carolina wasn't a surprise to all the volunteers who had been working for the Obama campaign there, but the extent of the victory was.
For the past few weeks I was one of thousands of volunteers working all over the state of South Carolina to make sure we got the result we saw on Saturday evening.
I'll try to give you a little peek behind the scenes of the campaign from my personal view.
There wasn't any new groundbreaking strategy used as far as I could see; the same old tactics to win political campaigns was put in motion: build an army of volunteers, identify your supporters early and then do everything you possibly can to get those supporters to the polls.
When I first got involved with the local Rock Hill headquarters, several weeks ago, the emphasis seemed to be on identifying who would vote for Obama and convincing folks who were still undecided to join our side.
This was done through phone canvassing and door-to-door canvassing. The headquarters were always filled with people making phone calls, sometimes it was hard to find a little corner to sit in and make your calls.
We noted who was already convinced to vote for Barack and the folks who were still doubting got literature in the mail and sometimes a house visit in an effort to help them "see the light".
The week before the primary the tactics shifted to finding volunteers within the group of people who said they would vote for Obama. These volunteers would help on primary day, by phone canvassing and making door to door visits. This time I decided to walk around neighborhoods and participate in the door to door canvassing.
I usually drove to the HQ in Rock Hill where I picked up my "walking lists" and then drove even further south to places like Lancaster and Chester to knock on some doors.
What struck me as I was driving all over the northern part of SC was the hundreds of Hillary signs you saw everywhere along the road. You hardly saw any Obama signs. You see, the Obama campaign didn't invest a lot of money in signs, for a good reason.
Maybe somebody should have told the Clinton campaign that yard signs don't vote and that it's better to invest money in organizing your supporters and volunteers. On the other hand, maybe Hillary's campaign just couldn't find all those volunteers?
Another thing that struck me was the poor state a lot of the areas that I drove through were in.
While I'm sure that the folks who live in Charleston and Hilton Head island are not doing too shabby, it's obvious that the rest of the state is really hurting. Why a lot of them keep voting republican is beyond me. The only reason I can come up with is that probably some preacher told them they would go to hell if they voted Democratic.
The folks I talked to on their door steps were all very nice and I found about a dozen volunteers for election day.
The day before election day most of the people who the campaign had identified as strong Obama supporters got a big personalized door hanger placed on their front door explaining where they had to go vote and how the electronic voting process was going to look. Thousands and thousands of those got distributed all over the state and I hung up a few hundred myself.
On January 26th, the day of the primary, we had the most volunteers working, in an effort to make sure all of our supporters went to vote.
The staging area for the campaign in Rock Hill was moved that day from the headquarters we had on Ebenezer Road to the Freedom Center in downtown Rock Hill to be able to accommodate the hundreds of volunteers working that day.
I was the precinct captain for Precinct 8 in Rock Hill. That day about 60 volunteers were working in Rock Hill alone, going door to door and visiting everyone on their list of Obama Supporters. Many more volunteers were making phone calls out of the Freedom Center as well. The plan was to visit all of our supporters once before noon, once more in the afternoon if they hadn't voted yet and also call them to remind them to vote. So if you waited a long time to get your butt to the polling station you might have been "harassed" 3 times that day.
I walked door to door with a young team member from Pennsylvania from 9 am to 6 pm. What was really satisfying to see was that the work we were doing had an immediate effect. At one point while walking along a long straight street we looked behind us and saw 3 cars pull out of different driveways at the same time, all of them on their way to vote. In my precinct we also had the problem that the polling place was different from the one people were used to. We met a lot of people who said they went to vote that morning at their usual polling place,but found it locked and empty and they had returned home without voting. We were there to tell them where the new polling place was and a lot of people immediately went out again to vote as soon as they found out. If there hadn't been any volunteers visiting those folks that day, they would not have voted.
The 8th precinct is a very diverse area. We walked through neighborhoods that look very much like the one I live in but we also walked on dirt roads to visit people living in totally run down houses with no sewer facilities. They all had a port-a-potty standing in their front yard. This is also America.
My energy was drained by about 6 pm and I drove down to the Headquarters on Ebenezer road that I had worked out of the past few weeks. I found a small group of people watching TV, anxious to get some results. Most folks had driven down to Columbia to join the celebrations there. We ordered pizza for everyone and counted down to 7 pm.
When at 7 pm CNN projected Obama as the winner the roof almost came off the building. All the hard work had been more than worth it.
I'm impressed by the very diverse crowd that volunteered for Obama, from all walks of life and from all over the Country, with folks coming from Texas, Kentucky, New Hampshire and all over the place, next to a lot of native South Carolinians.
I also met several people who had never voted before and a lot of folks who never voted in a primary before.
The headquarters was run by folks who were all less than 30 years old. The energy and excitement was always around.
It's the same energy, inspiration and drive that will help us win the presidential election.
It's the kind of coalition of new voters, young voters and experienced voters that will win the presidential election.
The only candidate that brings all of this together is Barack Obama.
In case you're still wondering why I support Barack Obama, I can just use the words Senator Kennedy used today: "Barack inspires me, it's that simple."
And in the words of President John F.Kennedy:
"The world is changing. The old ways will not do... It is time for a new generation of leadership."
On a sidenote:
You'll remember from my previous post that the Belgian media has been interested in my work for the Obama campaign. You can now see an interview online that a reporter from Public TV in Belgium had with me and my lovely wife by clicking on the following URL: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/mediatheek/1.241790
You'll hear a lot of dutch, but big parts of the interview are also in english, so go ahead and have a peek.
I'll be going to Chicago this weekend with a crew from a commercial TV station in Belgium. We will walk around in the neighborhoods where Obama used to work as a community organizer and also visit the national Obama Headquarters. I'll keep you posted as to how that trip goes.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The heat is on in South Carolina.
Welcome to all Independent Tribune readers!
You might be visiting this blog because you have read an article about me and My support for Barack Obama in the South Carolina primary.
If you feel like you want to get involved as well, please send me an e-mail.
You're more than welcome to join me and some friends as we head down to Rock Hill, SC to help out in the local Obama Headquarters. I plan on riding down there every weekend. There are also opportunities for you to help out on weekdays.
As you know, the North Carolina primary isn't until May, by then the Democratic nominee will have long been decided on. So if you really want to make a difference you need to join me and thousands of other volunteers in South Carolina.
Are you fired up?
Sunday, December 9, 2007
History being made in front of my eyes.
Today I spent my afternoon together with 30,000 other people in a football stadium in Columbia, SC. It felt like being part of history.
48 days before the Democratic primary in South Carolina, Oprah Winfrey joined Barack Obama on stage and made a passionate and convincing plea to explain why Obama is the candidate for President of the USA.
It was the biggest political rally for any non-incumbent candidate in the past few decades. The NY Times calls it a "staggering sight" and could come up with only one bigger number: JFK drew about 35,000 for a Labor Day rally in 1960.
After Arrested Development got the crowd to their feet by singing their hits, we allbroke a world record. When entering the stadium, everyone had received a little flier that had a phone script on one side and the name and phone number of 4 SC Democrats on the other side. After a signal from the stage everyone was asked to call all 4 people on their list and ask them to vote for Barack Obama. In doing so the crowd set a world record for "biggest phone bank". A representative of the Guinness World Record organization actually got on stage and handed over a world record certificate.
Then it was time to listen to the 2 people everyone had come for.
Oprah entered the stage under a thunderous applause and gave a 15 minute introduction to Obama.
Winfrey praised Obama for his wisdom and concern for ordinary people.
Invoking American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, she said: "We don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality."
She addressed some of the reasons the opposition always mentions when they say you shouldn't vote for Obama.
"There are those who say it's not his time, that he should wait his turn. Think about where you'd be in your life if you'd waited when people told you to," she said.
Winfrey urged voters to consider Obama's life experience instead of focusing on the amount of time he has spent "in the hallways of government."
"I'm sick of politics as usual," Winfrey said. "We need Barack Obama."
After Oprah announced that it was "Obama Time", Barack Obama got on stage and gave a 45 minute long speech.
He received a minute long standing ovation when he said that "Next year the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot." He said voters will need to cast ballots in favor of a candidate, not against an incumbent who is leaving office.
Obama had several remarks that where obviously addressed at his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, but never mentioned her name.
He said if he's the party nominee, an opponent won't be able to say he supported going to war in Iraq, supported a resolution which might lead to war with Iran or doesn't want to talk to leaders we don't like, all things Clinton did and said.
"I'm tired of Democrats thinking the only way to look tough on national security is to act like George Bush," he said. "We need a bold Democratic Party that's going to stand for something, not just posture and pose."
"It's not good enough to tell the people what you think they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. That just won't do. Not this time," he said. "We can't spend all our time triangulating and poll-testing our positions because we're worried about what Mitt or Rudy or Fred or the other Republican nominees are going to say about us."
He said he was "riled up" that some believe that as a black man, it would be hard for him to win the race."I remember some folks saying, 'Oh no, a black man can't win," Obama said. "I remember that. When folks tell me I can't do something, that's when I want to do it."
He closed off with the, by now familiar, "fired up, ready to go" chant. It was impressive to hear 30,000 voices yell it out.
Today's rally coincides with a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll that puts Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival, in a statistical tie in South Carolina. meanwhile, the republican candidate that seems to be surging ahead in the polls, Mike Huckabee, also had a "rally" in Columbia this weekend and had 400 people show up.
Obama can win this and after today 30,000 more people will make sure he will.
You can view the complete speech of both Oprah and Obama on video on Obama's website.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Obama - Oprah 2008?
I'll be traveling to Columbia, SC this weekend to spend some time with my in-laws but mostly to spend more time with My favorite presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
It looks like I won't be alone...
The Obama campaign had planned a rally with Barack and Oprah Winfrey this Sunday in the Colonial Center in Columbia, which seats about 18,000, but on Tuesday Obama's state director Stacey Brayboy announced that "overwhelming excitement" had caused a run on free tickets. The rally will therefore be moved to the 80,000 seat college football stadium.
Even though the campaign doesn't expect to completely fill the stadium, it is clear that several tens of thousands will be attending.
Tickets to attend the rally are no longer required, but the Obama campaign requests that you RSVP on their site if you plan on attending. Doors open at 12.30 pm.It could be the largest political gathering in South Carolina since 1976, when Jimmy Carter captured the Democratic nomination and spoke to tens of thousands from the Statehouse steps, said Alex Sanders, who introduced Carter at the time.
If there still is such a thing as people power, I do believe we have found our presidential candidate.
I'm trying to reach the campaign to see if I could do some live blogging from the event, but they are understandably overwhelmed by the success of this thing, so I can't promise yet that I'll be able to report live from Williams-Brice Stadium. If not, look for my report Sunday evening.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Another evening with Barack Obama
The Obama campaign arranged press credentials for me so I could do a live blogging session on BlueNC.
Barack Obama spoke to an energized crowd of 4000 in the O'Kelly Riddick Stadium in the middle of the NCCU campus. The stage was decorated with a big banner that said "CHANGE we can believe in".
As usual, the crowd went nuts when Barack walked on stage.
He started by saying that not only the number of folks that his rallies attract is inspiring but also the make up of the crowd. Just like at another Obama rally I had attended the crowd was very diverse, all ages and races.
He then went on as follows:
The main reason you're here is that you're sick and tired of George W Bush.Obama then talked about his cousin Dick Cheney, saying he's "been hiding this for a long time, everyone has a crazy uncle in the attic and a black sheep in the family". He said he "doesn't want to go on that family hunting trip anytime soon".
We're tired of an administration that treats our constitution as a nuisance.
Tired of tax cuts for the rich and bad economic policies.
Tired of different standards of justice, e.g. Jena 6 against Blackwater or Scooter Libby.
Tired of a lack of progress on health care and education and energy policies.
And most of all tired of a war that costs us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars.
But changing parties in the White House isn't enough, we need big and fundamental change.
We need major change in health care and energy policies, but we can only do that with a fundamental change in the way politics are done.
Obama spoke about the "culture" in Washington DC, saying he wants to "clean the place out" and make fundamental change in Washington.
He doesn't think anyone in Washington is really listening. He's running because he wants the people's voice to be heard in Washington.
Folks in Washington think I'm naive when I'm "talking about hope again".Obama says he has experience in standing up against special interests and has experience standing up even when its not popular. He references to an anti-war speech he gave when he was running for Senate, when Bush's popularity was 65%.
Folks say I haven't been in Washington long enough, but being in Washington for too long might boil all the hope out of Me.
Some of the people with a very long resume are Cheney and Bush, as they've proven, a long resume doesn't guarantee good policies.
He said that is something you need to expect from the next president, someone who is willing to stand up, that doesn't flip-flop.
Obama then promised health care for everyone by the end of his first term.
He wants to invest in early childhood education and takes aim at No child left behind, that "leaves the money behind".
He wants to work with our teachers instead of against them. He will get banks out of student loans and make college affordable for everyone.
Obama believes there is no contradiction between our security and our moral standing n the world. He says he'll restore habeas corpus and close down Guantanamo Bay because "that's not who we are". "we're going to lead the world by deed and by example."
The first thing I will do after getting sworn in is calling together the joint chiefs of staff to end this war.Barack then went on to blame Hillary Clinton for voting for the Iran/revolutionary guard resolution and says we shouldn't be beating the war drums twice. Clinton is telling him he's naive for wanting to talk to "our enemies".
But Obama believes we should never fear to negotiate but shouldn't negotiate out of fear.
Finally Barack Obama feels confident that he can lead this country in a new direction.
I won't be a perfect president, but I'll always be honest and upfront. It's going to be tough, hard and difficult to repair the damage of the last years.Obama then closed off with the familiar "fired up, ready to go" chant and a sentence he ends a lot of rallies with:
I want to open up the doors of government to the people.
Government by the people and for the people, especially for young people.
Let's go change the worldHere's some pictures I took. You can click on any of them to see a much bigger version.
Pictures taken during Obama's speech:
After the speech the "press corps" got some private time with the candidate, but I didn't interview him. We all gave that honor to a much younger colleague who also had press credentials :-)
There's a great video on the News & Observer website, which gives a good impression of the Barack Obama rally in Durham yesterday.
Have a good weekend! Read More......
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Live blogging tomorrow: Obama in Durham, NC
I will try to do a live blogging session tomorrow on BlueNC from the NCCU campus in Durham where Barack Obama will host a massive "countdown to change" rally.
The Obama campaign has given Me press credentials and I've been assured that the whole campus there is wirelessly connected.
I plan on starting at 4.30 pm, Obama is Scheduled to speak at 5 pm. So head on over to BlueNC at 4.30 pm if you want to follow the event live.
In case you will be attending yourself, they had to move the event from the Gym to the O'Kelly Riddick Stadium because of the overwhelming demand for tickets and they plan on opening the doors already at 3 pm to allow the thousands of expected supporters to get in on time.
I will post an extensive report on the event on here as soon as I get home. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Fired up: Obama in Rock Hill, SC
(Click on pictures to enlarge them.)
I had the pleasure of attending a big spirited rally for Barack Obama in Rock Hill, SC yesterday. I thought you might like to read a report on the event.
The Gym of the Northwestern High School in Rock Hill was packed to the brim with over 2000 supporters.
I was surprised to see a very diverse crowd there (I had expected a predominantly African American group), from disabled veterans to young teenagers, from black to white, young and old.
The doors opened up at 6.45 pm and Senator Obama took the stage at 7.45. He spoke for a little more than an hour. He was introduced by Congressman John Spratt after the local marching band played a few tunes.
Obama spoke in front of a rowdy crowd in Rock Hill, receiving loud applause at points in his speech.
"The reason you're here, let's face it, is that you're sick and tired of George Bush," he said.
Obama's speech emphasized hope for the future and the need for substantial political change.
He spent quite some time in his speech defending himself from the critics that are saying he "doesn't have enough experience" and "doesn't know how to play the game in Washington".
In an obvious swipe at fellow contender Hillary Clinton he stated: "We don't need somebody who knows how to play the game better, we need somebody to put an end to the game playing and change the game".
Naturally, there was a lot of talk about the war in Iraq.
Obama harshly criticized President Bush for pursuing what he called, "a war of passion, not of reason". Obama was always against this war and has consistently voted against it.
He pledged to call the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the White House the day after he gets sworn in to start pulling our troops back.
He received an equally loud response when he proposed increasing the minimum wage every year and criticized the No Child Left Behind education program.
Other highlights of His speech talked about raising vehicle emissions standards to decrease dependency on foreign oil and providing health care to all Americans.
Obama also touted the need for open government and pledged to be honest about where he stands on issues and what his plans are.
He ended his speech by having the crowd chant "fired up" and "ready to go" and concluded with a marching order: "Let's go change the world."
I left being thoroughly impressed with a man that just radiates charisma and really seems to mean what he says.
He's got my vote.
