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.
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.
