New York Post Endorses Obama

Find the New York Post's endorsement of Barack Obama here. It isn't exactly the most flattering endorsement in the world, but that's pretty much the kind of thing you can expect from the NY Post--trust me, I used to live up there. Nonetheless, it's better than an endorsement for Clinton! Enjoy.

New Tampa Democrats give edge to Obama

The New Tampa Democratic Club caucused tonight, and shook out this way: 13 votes for Barack Obama, nine for Hillary Clinton and eight for John Edwards.

Obama supporter Jeff Blake came from St. Petersburg to the club's meeting in Tampa Palms.

"He can bring this country back to being the beacon of hope, so that other countries can look up to us, and we are the country they aspire to be," Blake told the club.

-- Bill Coats, Times staff writer.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/28/Hillsborough/New_voters_find__D__g.shtml

In my mind I'm goin to Carolina (Part 1)

When we left for Columbia, South Carolina last Friday at 5 am, I didn't expect to fall for South Carolina's voters but it hit me from behind.

In my mind I'm goin to Carolina
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Maybe just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin to Carolina in my mind

Dark and silent last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I going, going
I'm goin to Carolina in my mind

With a holy host of others standing round me
Still I'm on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind

- James Taylor


I was excited to finally be doing something concrete for Obama in an early primary state. But at the same time, I also felt torn about leaving Florida and all of the grassroots energy we had been putting into the Tampa Bay area, especially Monday's MLK parade in St. Petersburg.

Since the Florida primary debacle, the Tampa Bay O-Train volunteer group has refocused its attention on the national effort. With that in mind, we sent almost 40 volunteers to South Carolina. Some went for a long weekend and others volunteered for an entire week. We understand that this election is not about Florida anymore. It is now South Carolina's turn. South Carolina's voters are in a position to change the world.


Our particular O-Train caravan drove to Columbia, South Carolina with 9 volunteers in two cars with 2 more volunteers following a few hours later. We only made one food stop. When we stopped to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we didn't realize that it would be our last meal until after 9 pm that night. Good thing I packed some snacks in my O-Train mobile.


We arrived at the Midlands Regional Headquarters around 3pm.


And they immediately put us to work.

Now I must admit that phone banking is my least favorite thing to do, so I jumped at the chance to canvass. It didn't look like Jerel was enjoying phonebanking either,

so I pulled him away from the phone to canvass with me. It was cold but we kept on knocking on doors until headquarters called us back in.

After a very late dinner, we went home to Mike's house. Mike had agreed to house a few volunteers from Tampa. Not only did Mike allow 9 of us to sleep at his place, but he also cooked breakfast for us. It was delicious!

We like Mike!




We reported for duty on Saturday morning at 10 am. Jerel and I were leaving headquarters to finish canvassing the neighborhood that we started the day before when a new volunteer, Mohan, walked in. Having traveled by plane and bus from Princeton University, Mohan was happy to join us. Fellow O-Trainer, Michele also helped us canvass this neighborhood.

Jerel, Mohan, an exhausted Edward and me:


Did I mention that Saturday was cold and rainy all day? Having lived in Pennsylvania most of my life, I knew that wearing plastic bags over my socks would be essential to my success and sure enough, the newspaper bags kept my socks dry. We knocked on doors all day. We only stopped to look for a Starbucks so we could have some hot chocolate and coffee. We couldn't find any Starbucks nearby so we ended up at a local McDonalds. We caused quite a scene at this McDonalds. First of all, Mary behind the counter, talked me into giving her my Obama button. Now I have given away a lot of Barack Obama buttons but this one was special. I had it since February 07 but there was something about Mary at McDonalds. After I gave it to her, she allowed me to video tape her.

We met a lot of Obama supporters at this McDonalds including Miss Cynthia. We were handing out tickets to the Sunday Obama Rally and Miss Cynthia handed us a pen as she invited us to come to her church the next morning. On the pen was a phone number for Shekinah Glory Family Care Ministries. I called and left a message that we wanted to attend their services on Sunday morning. Pastor Margaret Harper called me back Saturday night and gave me directions to their Sunday morning services. She told me that it was a small church that focuses its outreach ministry to single mothers and children.

After our McDonalds break, we knocked on doors in a new neighborhood. We were glad to hear that Obama had a lot of support in this neighborhood. Our favorite Obama supporter was Leon Robinson of Columbia, SC:

We were wet, cold and hungry but Leon got us fired up and ready to canvass some more. We finally joined other volunteers at Damon's for dinner Saturday evening. Jerel had discovered Damon's Friday night and it ended up being our favorite place to unwind. Chandra the bartender took good care of us:


The next morning, Jerel, Mohan and I were driving on the highway to attend church when the tire pressure warning symbol lit up on my dashboard. I admit that I am not very good at monitoring tire pressure but I believe that my brand new car was being a little extreme with its warning. I have only had this car for about 2 weeks so I wasn't sure exactly what the symbol meant. My co-pilot, Jerel, looked it up in the cliffnotes version of the manual. It had the whole color code scare-o-meter just like Homeland Security. Apparently, we were at the "immediately pull over and read owner's manual" alert stage. Knowing that the change in air temperature most likely caused a change in the air pressure in my tires, we stopped at the nearest gas station to add some air.


When Jerel, Mohan and I arrived at the strip mall where this small congregation would be worshipping, we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how we strangers would be received. As we approached room where the church service was being held, we could hear it rocking with electric piano, drums, guitar, Congo drums and joyful voices. We were led to the second row and watched as a lesson about the Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, the Breastplate of Righteousness and the Helmet of Salvation was presented to the congregation. To briefly summarize; with prayer and faith, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from those who would tempt us or do us harm.


They involved the children in the lesson by dressing them in toy armor and then quizzed them by giving away the toy armor set to the child who could name all four. They also had many of the children take turns reading Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.


Pastor Harper


Pastor Harper allowed Jerel to read a letter from Senator Barack Obama outloud to the congregation. Jerel also talked about how Obama was the target of negative and misleading attacks. I thanked them for allowing us to attend their church. I mentioned that although we could have gone to any church in Columbia, we believed that we were meant to meet Miss Cynthia at McDonalds and attend their Sunday worship service.


Jerel and I both had experienced this kind of environment before but Mohan is a Hindu-Indian from England. He kept turning to me and whispering in his British accent “This is amazing. This is brilliant!”

A few minutes later, Jerel, Mohan and I were called to come up front to be Obama’s surrogates for prayer. Pastor Harper said that God wanted them to pray for Obama’s protection. They were going to pray for Obama through us as his surrogates. Jim Reed led the prayer as Jerel, Mohan and I held hands in the front of the room. The entire congregation surrounded us (also holding hands) and prayed for our protection. Tears streamed down my face as I felt all the prayers and energy in the room directed toward Senator Obama and his volunteers. Mohan was right. It was brilliant! This small congregation had opened their arms wide to welcome us and then wrapped them around us to protect us and Obama. I don’t think that the 3 of us will ever forget this experience.

The time at this service flew by so quickly that we had not realized that it was already 2 pm and we were supposed to report at the convention center to volunteer for the Obama rally at 3 pm. Would we make it in time? To be continued...

Follow-Up: New Hampshire Agrees to Recount

Dennis Kucinich has succeeded in his pursuit of a recount of the New Hampshire primary results.

However you feel about the New Hampshire vote last week, I find it fascinating that state officials there would agree to a recount, and it will be equally fascinating to see what it reveals.

Dennis Kucinich Demands New Hampshire Recount

Dennis Kucinich is actively seeking a recount of votes in the New Hampshire Primary. I have my suspicions about the legitimacy of the New Hampshire results, but I also fear that the more questions surrounding this issue become associated with Obama, the more it will be seen as sour grapes on his part and begin to tarnish him. I'm ambivalent--proud of Kucinich for his courage and worried that this push may give the media an opportunity to paint Obama and particularly his supporters as crybabies. I hate to give the media that kind of fodder. Anyhow, here's the story from the AP . . .

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hI6F-VhnmJPDIgAFnfu6VPHpqapAD8U3EBKG0

For Karl Rove, Race-Baiting Still En Vogue

First, a short memo to Karl Rove: Before you start giving our candidates primers on how to conduct themselves, perhaps you should first tend to your party's disastrous gaggle of fearmongers, bloviators, and racists. That should be enough to keep you occupied.

Sadly, that is the least offensive part of Rove's drivel in today's Wall Street Journal. His commentary smacks of the desperation his party feels in the face of an Obama nomination and, in that solitary desperation, borders on overt racism.

According to Rove, Barack Obama is "often lazy" and, in the New Hampshire primary debate "his trash talking was an unattractive carryover from his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard." What else, Rove? I bet he can't swim, either. Perhaps he talks aloud in the movie theater.

I will let alone for now the host of unfounded assertions in this piece, but the thrust of it is significant for one very important reason: The Republicans cannot beat Obama and they know it. They felt much more secure when they thought they'd be facing Clinton; that is a fight they are used to having. They've memorized that play book.

Obama is different. The Republicans don't know how to deal with his broad appeal and in the groundswell of grassroots momentum that has propelled the senator to front-runner status. So they resort to the caustic, snarky old politics. They throw subtle racist barbs and levy unsubstantiated assertions.

They want nothing more than a Clinton nomination. We must not give them that chance. Their divisiveness is no match for our hope.

Nancy Pelosi Backs Barack Obama

Amid all the press surrounding the more glamorous endorsement of John Kerry today, you may not yet know that veteran congressman George Miller (D) of California also endorsed Obama this morning. This is an absolutely pivotal endorsement, because, as Chuck Todd wrote today over at First Read, "This is perhaps the closest to a Nancy Pelosi endorsement as you can come without actually getting it. Miller is incredibly close with her politically. He wouldn't be doing this without her consent." Chris Matthews and his entire roundtable on today's "Hardball" wholly agreed with Todd's assessment: this is HUGE for Obama's chances in the upcoming California primary on the so-called Tsunami Tuesday. If you ask me, it's even bigger than Kerry's very eloquent and impassioned endorsement today in Charleston (which was the best damned speech I've heard Kerry give since he was a kid just back from Vietnam handing out some much-needed straight talk on Capitol Hill).

The significance of Miller's endorsement cannot be overstated. Lisa Vorderbrueggen of the Contra Costa Times reports that Miller, a more than 30-year veteran of the congress, "is also a renowned champion of women in politics -- he is a top advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco." Given his stature as a "champion of women in politics," he answered the question of why he chose not to help elect the first woman-president with a question of his own: "why not elect the first African-American?" He distinguished between the Clinton and Obama campaigns by drawing contrasts between Clinton's more traditional candidacy and Obama's more genuine promise of change. "I've watched both campaigns and I know both candidates," he said, "and I believe Obama offers us an opportunity to truly change the way we do business in Washington.

Miller further praised Obama as one who "has the skills and experience that's necessary to really challenge the status quo in Washington, D.C.," and noted that he is "very encouraged by the energy of the people responding to him and his vision of how people can come together to solve the problems that confront us."

Obama's support among elected officials in California is growing. In addition to Miller, Obama also won the endorsements of Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, CA and Susan Bonilla, the Contra Costa County Supervisor. His chances of securing the nomination may come to depend heavily on the results of the California primary on February 5th, an open primary in which independents and Republicans will be able to vote in the Democratic primary, so he needs every single endorsement he can get there. Pelosi's approval of her right-hand man's endorsement of Obama is just huge!

Did Clinton "Truck In" Voters To Win New Hampshire?

This is a developing story, but I believe that Senator Clinton's campaign trucked in volunteers to vote for her in New Hampshire. The NH primary has a very loose system where a person can just come in and on the day of the primary vote declare an intention to move into New Hampshire.

If one checks the NH Secretary of State's office, they will see this:

January 8, 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION DAY - Unregistered voters may register
and vote on this day.

And this...

WHO CAN REGISTER
New Hampshire residents who will be 18 years of age or older on election day, and a United States Citizen, may register with the town or city clerk where they live up to 10 days before any election. You may also register on election day at the polling place. The town clerk's office can inform voters of what proof of qualification they should bring to register.

There is no minimum period of time you are required to have lived in the state before being allowed to register. You may register as soon as you move into your new community.

I also have it from a good New Hampshire-based source that a person can walk in and tell the town hall representative that they intend to move to New Hampshire, and still be allowed to vote.

It's also known and documented that the Clinton campaign called and paid for volunteers to show up at rallies. That's right, paid for them.

By contrast, the Obama campaign volunteers that did come in did so on their own dime.

The open question I ask is how many New Hampshire Primary voters actually live in New Hampshire? The margin of difference between Senator Clinton's voters and Senator Obama's voters is so small that this question becomes an important one. Especially since the Clinton Campaign was facing a cash crunch. Where did that money go? Some of it went to paid people living in nearby states to come into New Hampshire.

...and then we won Iowa....

Last night, we changed the world.

I grappled with the above statement. I thought it an exaggeration. I thought it was hyperbolic. That statement wants too much, I thought. I thought it was impossible, through one political act, to change the world.

I was wrong.

But, last night, a black man with a funny name and an odd background won the Iowa Caucus and is one giant step toward the presidency of the United States. And he didn't just win; he won big. This nation won big.

This was not just a self-interested win for us and our candidate. This represented a transformational shift in American democracy and in the conventional political paradigm.

As the Senator said in his acceptance speech: "They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do."

This speaks to the larger issue that this country is hungry for change, and yearns for it now, at this moment. It speaks to the bottom-up nature of this campaign and to the importance of the grassroots. The grassroots feed this campaign. Each of us has a stake here. Each of us is accountable for this campaign's success.

Last night, we changed the world. Everyone is watching and it is our responsibility now to show how much further we can go. We can celebrate now, but tomorrow the important work begins. There is much to be done, but with a fresh voice, renewed hope, and a clear-eyed commitment to the ideals upon which this nation is founded, that work will be done. And we will prevail.

Now, let's get on to New Hampshire. And let's kick some ass.

Thank you so much for your hard work and support,
Johnny Bardine
Co-chair, Netroots and Rapid Response Committee
Media Coordinator

Iowa: Obama 38%. How sweet it is!

We are fired up. Ready to win!