Swing State Blogger

WHY I WILL NEVER SUPPORT OBAMA: THE STORY OF OBAMA AND HIS SLUMLORD PATRON

2008-04-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama is proud of his work as a community organizer on Chicago's south side. Which makes it even more appalling that his political career has been bankrolled by the misery of the poor.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, tenants shivered without heat for five weeks in a slum building during the brutal Chicago winter of 1997. The slums were in a government subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side in Senator Barack Obama's district. That same week, the company responsible for the slum gave $1000 to the campaign of Barack Obama.

Over the next 10 years, the slumlord - whose portfolio of 30 buildings included 17 buildings in foreclosure, 6 buildings vacant and boarded up, and hundreds of apartments vacant and in need of major repairs -- raised millions of dollars for Mr. Obama as his slum empire grew in Senator Obama's Illinois district. The slumlord and his companies were represented by Mr. Obama's small law firm, and he has never produced his records of the work he did for the guy, despite his repeated promises. And Obama wrote letters urging the government to lend even more money to this sleazebag, even as other departments in the government were suing the guy for his slumlord violations.

The slumlord is Antoin Rezko, currently on trial in Federal Court on Racketeering charges for basically paying off every public official in the State of Illinois. Check out the latest trial doings at Rezkowatch.

Mr. Rezko was not just "some guy" who slipped under Obama's campaign radar because his money was pooled with hundreds of others. Antoin Rezko is Barack Obama's political godfather. He has known him for 17 years. At crucial points in his career Mr. Obama spoke to Rezko on a daily basis, and Mr. Obama still to this day considers him a friend.

But don't take my word for it: This is old news in Chicago. You can read the Chicago Tribune story , "Obama and his Slumlord Patron."

OBAMA’S VOTE SUPPRESSION TACTICS GO WAY BACK TO HIS FIRST POLITICAL CAMPAIGN

2008-04-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

I came across the following story from the Chicago Tribune about how Barack Obama won his first political office by getting his four primary rivals kicked off the ballot. Running on a platform of expanding access to the ballot box, Obama’s operatives systematically and successfully challenged thousands of signatures on his overmatched opponents’ petitions, and then annihilated his opponents in court when they challenged him. He hired a prominent civil rights attorney to do his dirty work. All four of his rivals were swept off the ballot. His response, “if you can win, you should win.”

Stupid me. When I posted my previous article, I naively thought Mr. Obama would actually care that disenfranchising voters wasn’t “new politics.” Now we find out his “new politics” is just Chicago-style voter suppression, wrapped in a very nice package.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Here is the full text of the article.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story

chicagotribune.com

MAKING OF A CANDIDATE

Obama knows his way around a ballot

Some say his ability to play political hardball goes back to his first campaign

By David Jackson and Ray Long

Tribune staff reporters

6:48 PM CDT, April 3, 2007

The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights.

"Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"

In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."

But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled.

"I gave some thought to … should people be on the ballot even if they didn't meet the requirements," he said. "My conclusion was that if you couldn't run a successful petition drive, then that raised questions in terms of how effective a representative you were going to be."

Asked whether the district's primary voters were well-served by having only one candidate, Obama smiled and said: "I think they ended up with a very good state senator."

Obama behind challenges

America has been defined in part by civil rights and good government battles fought out in Chicago's 13th District, which in 1996 spanned Hyde Park mansions, South Shore bungalows and poverty-bitten precincts of Englewood.

It was in this part of the city that an eager reform Democrat by the name of Abner Mikva first entered elected office in the 1950s. And here a young, brash minister named Jesse Jackson ran Operation Breadbasket, leading marchers who sought to pressure grocery chains to hire minorities.

Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews.

But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.

Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.

"I liked Alice Palmer a lot. I thought she was a good public servant," Obama said. "It was very awkward. That part of it I wish had played out entirely differently."

His choice divided veteran Chicago political activists.

"There was friction about the decision he made," said City Colleges of Chicago professor emeritus Timuel Black, who tried to negotiate with Obama on Palmer's behalf. "There were deep disagreements."

Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer's elimination marked the first of several fortuitous political moments in Obama's electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections for U.S. Senate after tough challengers imploded when their messy divorce files were unsealed.

Obama contended that in the case of the 1996 race, in which he routed token opposition in the general election, he was ready to compete in the primary if necessary.

"We actually ran a terrific campaign up until the point we knew that we weren't going to have to appear on the ballot with anybody," Obama said. "I mean, we had prepared for it. We had raised money. We had tons of volunteers. There was enormous enthusiasm."

And he defended his use of ballot maneuvers: "If you can win, you should win and get to work doing the people's business."

At the time, though, Obama seemed less at ease with the decision, according to aides. They said the first-time candidate initially expressed reservations about using challenges to eliminate all his fellow Democrats.

"He wondered if we should knock everybody off the ballot. How would that look?" said Ronald Davis, the paid Obama campaign consultant whom Obama referred to as his "guru of petitions."

In the end, Davis filed objections to all four of Obama's Democratic rivals at the candidate's behest.

While Obama didn't attend the hearings, "he wanted us to call him every night and let him know what we were doing," Davis said, noting that Palmer and the others seemed unprepared for the challenges.

But Obama didn't gloat over the victories. "I don't think he thought it was, you know, sporting," said Will Burns, a 1996 Obama campaign volunteer who assisted with the petition challenges. "He wasn't very proud of it."

Endorsement or informal nod?

By the summer of 1995, Obama, 34, had completed his globe-trotting education and settled deep into Chicago's South Side.

He had gone to Harvard Law School with private ambitions of someday following Harold Washington as mayor of Chicago. At Harvard, where Obama was celebrated as the first black president of the Law Review, classmate Gina Torielli remembers him "saying that governor of Illinois would be his dream job."

Back in Chicago after graduation, Obama won respect for running Project Vote, which registered tens of thousands of black Chicagoans. "It's a power thing," the volunteers' T-shirts said.

Community organizers packed his wedding to Michelle Robinson, a South Shore resident and fellow Harvard Law graduate. The newlyweds bought a Hyde Park condo.

His memoir, "Dreams from My Father," was published that summer to warm reviews. He was working at a small but influential legal firm, teaching constitutional law as a University of Chicago adjunct professor and sitting on the boards of charities.

At the same time, the South Side's political map was thrown up for grabs when then-U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds was convicted of sex crimes and a special election was called to fill his congressional seat.

Palmer joined the race and, according to multiple accounts, introduced Obama as the successor for her Illinois Senate seat.

"She said, 'I found this wonderful person, this fine young man, so we needn't worry that we'd have a good state senator,' " said former 5th Ward Democratic committeeman Alan Dobry, who volunteered to help both Palmer and Obama that year.

In recent interviews, Obama and Palmer agreed that he asked her whether she wanted to keep her options open and file to run for her state Senate seat as a fallback in case her congressional bid failed.

Obama says he told her: "We haven't started the campaign yet."

"I hadn't publicly announced," he said. "But what I said was that once I announce, and I have started to raise money, and gather supporters, hire staff and opened up an office, signed a lease, then it's going to be very difficult for me to step down. And she gave me repeated assurances that she was in [the congressional race] to stay."

Obama "did say that to me," Palmer says now. "And I certainly did say that I wasn't going to run. There's no question about that."

But beyond that, the private discussions they held in 1995 are shrouded today in disputed and hazy memories.

Obama said Palmer gave him her formal endorsement. "I'm absolutely certain she … publicly spoke and sort of designated me," he recalled.

Palmer disputes that. "I don't know that I like the word 'endorsement,' " she said. "An endorsement to me, having been in legislative politics … that's a very formal kind of thing. I don't think that describes this. An 'informal nod' is how to characterize it."

In July 1995, Obama announced he was planning to run for Palmer's seat. He filed papers creating his fundraising committee a month later and officially announced his candidacy in September.

He emerged that winter as a gifted campaigner who after finishing hectic workdays would layer on thermal underwear to knock on South Side doors.

In impromptu street-corner conversations and media interviews, he disparaged local pols for putting self-preservation ahead of public service. At the last house on a dark block, "he would start a discussion that should have taken five minutes and pretty soon someone was cooking him dinner," said paid campaign consultant Carol Anne Harwell.

Then Palmer's congressional bid collapsed. On Nov. 28, 1995, she placed a distant third behind political powerhouses Jesse Jackson Jr., who holds that congressional seat today, and current state Senate President Emil Jones Jr.

Palmer didn't fade quietly away. Citing an "outpouring" of support, she upended the political landscape by switching gears and deciding to run in the March 1996 primary for her state Senate seat.

But she had two big problems. To get on the ballot, Palmer needed to file nominating petitions signed by at least 757 district voters—and the Dec. 18 deadline was just days away.

And then there was Obama, the bright up-and-comer she had all but anointed.

Obama's aides said he seemed anguished over the prospect of defying Palmer. "I really saw turmoil in his face," Harwell said.

Obama sought advice from political veterans such as 4th Ward Ald. Toni Preckwinkle and then-15th Ward Ald. Virgil Jones, who say they urged him to hold his course.

"I thought the world of Alice Palmer," said state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), now the House majority leader. But "at that point she had pulled her own plug."

According to Palmer, it was without her knowledge that her supporters initiated discussions to persuade Obama to step aside. They invited him to the home of state Rep. Lovana "Lou" Jones, now deceased. Obama arrived alone.

"It was a brief meeting," said Black, a Palmer friend who had advised Obama when he was a young community organizer in the mid-1980s.

Obama didn't try to justify his decision to reject Palmer's plea, Black said.

"He did not put it in inflammatory terms, he just did not back away. It was not arguments, it was stubbornness," Black said. "Barack had by then gone ahead in putting together his own campaign, and he just didn't want to stop."

'If you can get 'em, get 'em'

Just in time for the Dec. 18, 1995, filing deadline, Palmer submitted 1,580 signatures—about twice the minimum required. That day, Obama lashed out at her, telling the Tribune she had pressured him to withdraw.

"I am disappointed that she's decided to go back on her word to me," he said.

Obama campaign aides also responded that day—but quietly, and out of the limelight.

Davis and Dobry marshaled volunteers and began poring through the nominating petitions of Palmer and the three lesser-known Democrats, according to interviews.

"We looked at those petitions and found that none of them met the requirements of the law," Dobry said. "Alice's people, they'd done it in a great hurry. Almost all her petitions were signed a day or so before the deadline."

According to Davis, Palmer "had kids gathering the names. I remember two of her circulators, Pookie and Squirt."

Davis and others urged Obama to file legal challenges.

Such tactics are legal and frequently used in Chicago. Ballot challenges eliminated 67 of the 245 declared aldermanic candidates in Chicago before this past February's elections, an election board spokesman said.

Davis recalled telling Obama: "If you can get 'em, get 'em. Why give 'em a break?

"I said, 'Barack, I'm going to knock them all off.'

"He said, 'What do you need?'

"I said, 'I need an attorney.'

"He said, 'Who is the best?'

"I said, 'Tom Johnson.' "

Obama already knew civil rights attorney and fellow Harvard Law graduate Thomas Johnson, who had waged election cases for the late Mayor Washington and had offered Obama informal legal advice since the days of Project Vote.

With Johnson's legal help, Obama's team was confident. They piled binders of polling sheets in the election board office on the second floor of City Hall, and on Jan. 2, 1996, began the days-long hearings that would eliminate the other Democrats.

Little-known candidate Marc Ewell filed 1,286 names, but Obama's objections left him 86 short of the minimum, and election officials struck him from the ballot, records show. Ewell filed a federal lawsuit contesting the board's decision, but Johnson intervened on Obama's behalf and prevailed when Ewell's case was dismissed days later.

Ewell could not be reached for comment, but the federal judge's decision showed how he was tripped up by complexities in the election procedures.

City authorities had just completed a massive, routine purge of unqualified names that eliminated 15,871 people from the 13th District rolls, court records show.

Ewell and other Obama rivals had relied on early 1995 polling sheets to verify the signatures of registered voters—but Obama's challenges were decided at least in part using the most recent, accurate list, records show.

Askia filed 1,899 signatures, but the Obama team sustained objections to 1,211, leaving him 69 short, records show.

Leafing through scrapbooks in his South Shore apartment, Askia, a perennially unsuccessful candidate, acknowledges that he paid Democratic Party precinct workers $5 a sheet for some of the petitions, and now suspects they used a classic Chicago ruse of passing the papers among themselves to forge the signatures. "They round-tabled me," Askia said.

Palmer to this day does not concede the flaws that Obama's team found in her signatures. She maintains that she could have overcome the Obama team's objections and stayed on the ballot if she had more time and resources.

It was wrenching to withdraw, she said. "But sit for a moment, catch your breath, get up and keep going. I'm a very practical person. Politics is not the only vehicle for accomplishing things." She became a special assistant to the president of the University of Illinois and is now retired.

Obama said he has not been in touch with Palmer since 1996. "No, not really, no," he said.

Though she hasn't determined whom to support in the presidential race, Palmer, 67, said her dispute with Obama doesn't affect her assessment of his fitness to hold office.

Saying that jobless high school dropouts "are sitting on the steps next to my house," Palmer added: "There is a savage economy going on out here, and we've got collateral damage. I am looking closely to see who has the courage, the smarts."

dyjackson@tribune.com

rlong@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

Senator Obama - LET THEM VOTE!

2008-03-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

“In this year's election we have a historic opportunity to bring more people than ever back to the political process and an essential part of that is ensuring every vote counts.” -- Barack Obama Website

News Item: The campaign of Senator Barack Obama ran out the clock today on allowing a million citizens of Michigan to cast their votes in a new Democratic primary.

Dear Senator Obama:

What a clever victory for your campaign. What a scandalous, hideous defeat for everything good you are supposed to stand for.

How depressing that the great candidate of “change” turns out to be nothing but a garden variety Chicago pol who wins his office by throwing out the ballot box.

When I first registered to vote 40 years ago, the right to vote was prominent in all our minds. Brave citizens in the South and throughout the country had marched, organized, sacrificed, had shed their blood to fight for the right of every citizen of this country to cast a vote. I was deeply inspired by their courage and by the students and the nuns of my college who had participated in this movement. I never took my right for granted.

I proudly cast my vote for Eugene McCarthy and four years later for Shirley Chisholm. I would have been drop-dead thrilled to know that 40 years later another charismatic, progressive black candidate would be poised to accept the nomination as president of the United States.

But never in my worst nightmare would I have imagined that this constitutional scholar, this civil rights lawyer and brilliant student of American history would stop a million people from voting because he was afraid of the outcome.

We have a word for politicians who win by slamming the ballot box shut. We don’t call them leaders. Or statesmen.

We call them tyrants. We call them despots.

They don’t deserve the office they seek.

A news article recently said that you told a guy from Michigan that re-voting there was “very complicated.”

You did not say that when you started your improbable campaign for president -- “It’s too complicated” to raise millions of dollars, organize volunteers in every state, get people to walk for you, call for you, vote for you -- No. You said, yes we can.

Thousands of people at your rallies chant “yes we can!” Re-voting in Michigan is peanuts compared to what you have accomplished. But now you say, No we can’t?

No. You’re saying “No We Won’t!”

We won’t allow people to vote because we might lose
We won’t allow people to vote because we are afraid of who they will choose
We won’t allow people to vote because winning is more important than anything else.

We already have a president who sits in the Oval Office because he stopped the votes of citizens from being counted. Some of us have never accepted the legitimacy of his presidency.

Are you going to be the next George Bush, Mr. Obama, doing whatever it takes to win, including silencing the voices of millions of citizens?

If that is where you are, you don’t deserve to be president any more than George Bush did.

Let them vote. Let them all vote – Democrats, Republicans, Independents -- let the chips fall where they fall.

Because if you win fair and square you could lead a truly united party. Because if you win when all the votes are counted and all the votes count, no one can deny you your victory. Because if you don’t, your victory will be forever tainted in the minds of many people like me who think you won by stopping the vote.

Because if you run out the clock until it is too late for all the votes to be counted, you will truly be the second coming of George W. Bush.

I don’t think we can survive four more years of that.

1 day to go, for real

2004-11-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

Ever been tired and wired? Holy Mackeral.

We are so wrapped up in what is going on we have kind of lost any sense of excitement about the election. Since I don't contact voters directly, I don't get to feed off of their feelings. It's just grinding out my small part of this massive operation every day. If it's really crazy, then it must be Tuesday.

Tomorrow is 60 vans full of people, getting out the vote all day in massive successive waves. I don't care what part or committment you have in this operation, whether you volunteer like me or do it for the 50 bucks they pay the canvassers, there is still some kind of buzz in the air. We all know that in some small way we are all a part of history and we all have a part, however small, in changing it. It's 1 am now and our staff meeting is in six hours. I think I better sack out, but not before my nightly meditation on the election of our new prez. It definitely seems to be working.

I am working on my Creole, which is worse than anything you can imagine. At least rudiments of the old high school French is coming back, and I wish the Creole teams Bon Chance every day that they go out. They are just the world's most wonderful people, very kind, hardworking, proper. The ladies come in their fine hats and dresses and the gentlemen are lovely and polite. If I ever moved to Miami I would like to live in a Haitian neighborhood. THis has been a great thing about coming here for me, to get to know this community a little bit.

I think the Haitians will sometime soon eclipse the Cubans in political clout in Miami. THey didn't seem to realize how much clout they had, and maybe this election will help the community understand that there is power in numbers and organization.

I am getting to know my drivers very well. I am kind of strict, actually a bitch on wheels, and that is where my catholic school training is so helpful. I don't let anyone talk when I am talking and people have to be respectful to each other. No talking back and no bullshit. Everyone knows we are on the same page, and then things can run much better.

Never thought I would be a valet. Maybe this is a new career I should take up. We made a lovely key board for our van keys like you see in a hotel, and it works great. I swiped the board from the trash and got the office supplies from the Office Depot, which was kind enough to open up an hour early to let me in. Where there is a will there is a way.

Tomorow we crash around 8 p.m., except that then we have to clean up the place, pack up the place and find a place to watch the new president being elected. If we don't all fall asleep first, it will be very exciting.

3-2 days to go

2004-10-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

Day 3 is over and it's a good thing, actually.

Does the phrase "total chaos" mean anything to you? Maybe not total chaos, but man, I don't know if it's the full moon, the day after Saturday night, Halloween, or the heat, but people were freakin' today. Too impatient, short tempered, not getting along. Doesn't work for me.

Still, we got out tons of people, putting door hangers on doors that tell them where to vote. One guy came from his mailbox and it was stuffed with a dozen flyers, stickers, reminders, and postcards about voting. ACT is definitely not alone.

For all the volunteers, we still seem hugely short staffed. The job of reaching 110,000 households is unbelievable. It is about 10 times harder than it seems. When people don't work together, the disorder spreads. There is like a group mentality that can be infectious.

One tip for volunteers in a GOTV in the future: bring some food and remember to eat it. I keep forgetting this, resulting in a crash and burn thing.

We are all so involved in this we really have no idea what is going on in the world. Nothing bad, I hope.

We are flooding neighborhoods with canvassers and literature. What they say is that repeated contact increases turnout. Assuming that the American Taliban will actually let people's voices be heard, we will win. All I can say is, I hope the Democrats are not playing nice in the swing states. The Republicans have declared war on democracy and we should give it back as much as they do. I hope the Dems have picked up the gauntlet and do the same thing to them they are trying to do to us. You want a war? Then bring in on, God damn it.

Don't quit, it ain't over till it's over.

At least it's Halloween in Miami and the drag queens are FAAABULOOS! A good break from the grind of GOTV.

Go Us!

PS pray for john kerry too.

4-3 days to go

2004-10-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Day 4 is over, so it's 3 days to go, actually.

We hear stories about Republicans trying to suppress the black vote in Miami. One of our volunteers taking a family to the polls saw the pubs challenging people in line. Some of them apparently are telling people they can vote on the internet, which of course is a lie. Their goal is to gum up the works and make the lines move so slowly that people will give up. In my book, they are criminals and liars.

These people are American Taliban. They do not believe in democracy, they want to supress popular voting, and they want to establish a theocracy where only they rule. The Republican Party has become like the Communist Party - with a sham of democracy hiding behind a veneer of choice, with intimidation, staged rallies with bused in supporters demonstrating in favor of fearless leader, no accountability. The party of Lincoln has become the party of George Wallace. Their time is over.

People will not be discouraged. People are waiting in line for hours because they are mad. There are Kerry signs everywhere. They are on lawns, in stores, in people's car windows, telephone poles. We went to a barbecue place today that had a Kerry sign on the outdoor counter. Yesterday the little Haitian restaurant had warning signs about people's votes being stolen. Tonight, we drove through a street demonstration with Salsa music and people dancing in the street with Kerry signs. Election protection is about to descend en masse in Miami.

Today the vans increase, the people increase, the enthusiasm increases. People who came for a buck return for the cause. People who didn't care come back so enthusiastic. One canvasser told me that people have been reminded to vote so many times they are thinking of hiding out!
Good.

This time we will not be denied. We are gonna win.

5 days to go

2004-10-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

4 days actually, now.

There are remarkable things happening. Every days, heroes and heroines from the community emerge. Leadership emerges, in big and small ways. People find they have a knack for this, for becoming a leader, inspiring people. Every day, we ask team leaders to recommend others in their group who would make good leaders. Every day, people surprise themselves. They start out nervous, shy, think they will hate canvassing. They find out that they are great at it. They inspire themselves. They take the literature home and pass it out in their neighborhoods. They get their neighbors involved.

One of the van drivers said he had never voted before, but he was inspired by all the people who have come from all over the country to do this. He is becoming a leader in his community. This is part of the legacy of ACT.

The plan is to do the impossible. Double the leaders and train them, have them empower their teams to get out the vote, knock on doors, give out literature, walk, knock, talk.

Behind this massive effort which doubles every day is an equally massive effort for deploying vans, preparing literature, training people, etc. etc. It is amazing to see people mesh into teams and help each other get this done as if they had been working on this for years. When people of good will and common purpose come together, anything can be accomplished.

The canvassers report massive numbers of people have already voted, energy is building, excitement is building, people will come out and vote in massive numbers.

We are going to win!

6 days to go

2004-10-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

I heard about a group called "American Graffiti" that wants to project images of John Kerry on public buildings in Miami. I tried to hook them up with some "swing the state" folks from LA who knew people in Miami .....

Every day is a mob scene that is so huge you don't think it can possibly get any bigger, but new people keep coming from all over. More from California, more from New York, more from everywhere. Union people, community people, some can hit the ground running and some just are very quick studies. Everyone is flowing into their roles, understanding they have to teach the new people, even if they are new themselves. There is a common purpose. It is amazing what common focus and goals can do.

We split into satellite offices tomorrow. North, where I am, has the hugest area - 47000 households to be visited three times in the next six days. There will be hundreds of volunteers, hundreds of people, cars, food, water, literature, on the job training, etc. etc. all to be organized on the fly.

I don't have time to listen to news, but spirits here are strong, there is wonderful camaraderie and the focus is clear. A good sense of humor is also essential.

Didn't canvas today, did precinct walk lists and other essential but grind-out stuff. To see this come together is pretty amazing. Word from the field is very good, lots of positive responses. WHen you canvas, you try to find more leaders in your canvas group. They get trained on the job and then they do the same thing. We have to go from 10 to 100 leaders in 3 days. We will do it, somehow.

One of the Haitians told me that the new moon was a time for making your prayers and meditating, and that this was the most powerful time. Since there was a partial lunar eclipse tonight, I asked if the same principal worked for eclipses. He said he didn't know, but I decided this was true and meditated about the country electing John Kerry. The red sox won, so obviously it has already started to work. All the people from SF who were in the car getting pizza got out to admire the eclipse. I thought we should chant or something but nobdy but me was in favor of that. WHat would we chant? "Go Kerry, Go Kerry"? Very dull.

I got put in charge of vans. Now that is a guy job. Oh well.

Lunar eclipse, Boston swept the series. THese are good signs.

More tomorrow.

Yowza! Times have changed

2004-10-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

In the two weeks since I have been here, ACT Miami has transformed itself into a huge GOTV machine. Before we were going in 2s and 3s to canvass neigborhoods and now - hundreds of people every day. Holy Mackeral.

We are trying to get people to vote early. Our group knocked on 600 doors today - not enough. We got to do better. I am pretty strict as a group leader, but people seem to respond to it. Everybody worked hard except for the group that went the wrong way and didn't seem to care.

GOTV is just grind out the numbers stuff. IF enthusiasm counted, we would win. But it's just grind, grind, grind.

The office is splitting into 4 on Wed or Thursday to cover the entire county. It's all about getting out the vote in Fla. I refuse to listen to the news or read the paper. I just have control of my little piece of turf, and that's what I want to concentrate on. That way, I feel like I did everything I could. I hope it's true.

I still feel like it will break our way. I do know the redsox won the second game. Anne Hackett, are you listening?

Why Florida's Going Blue

2004-10-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

When I was here two weeks ago knocking on doors and registering voters, people were still furious about what happened two years ago and were not playing around this time. They wouldn't just say they were registered, they would swear and cuss about having their votes stolen and how it wasn't going to happen again. One guy started pounding on our table and went into a full rant about W. My take: Florida's going blue. Again. Jeb's not going to be able to steal enough votes to change it either.

I met people from California, New York, California, Massachusettes, California, New Jersey, and, California who gave up a few days or a week of their lives or just took off from their jobs for two months to be part of this incredible effort. The work is hard and stressful and the air is absolutely electric. Like we're creating something much bigger than any of us or all of us. Like, an underdog team that does the impossible because they just believe that they can do it. And we believe. We believe we can make a difference. We believe we will make a difference.

Am taking 10 days off from work, flying in Saturday to Miami to do whatever is needed to save the planet. Can hardly wait!