Whew. I am exhausted. Today my goal was 200 knocks, but alas, we had to stop after 185 due to a combination of darkness and rain. My record of 190 from yesterday will have to hold until the general.
In case you missed the back story, I'm in Cleveland, Ohio getting out the vote with the SEIU for Barack. You can read about my experience this past week here, but that's not the purpose of this diary. The purpose of this diary is to give you every piece of information you need to know to get out the vote on a shitty day tomorrow in Ohio.
Some tips, information, instructions, and warnings, contained beneath the flip...
Wow. Canvassing is absolutely exhausting. I'm in Cleveland, OH canvassing with SEIU local 1199 out of New York, my home state. We're working night and day to be sure that wards notorious for low turnout head to the polls and deliver an upset victory for Senator Obama in Tuesday's primary.
I've had experiences that were bizarre, inspiring, scary, and hilarious.
Some fun anecdotes, canvassing tips, and sad stories below the fold...
UPDATE: Quick side note, I knocked 190 doors today. That's a personal record for one day. I'm proud of that. I've knocked over 500 doors since arriving here on Tuesday. Tomorrow I'm hoping to break my record again...
Just thought I'd share with everyone an email that was just sent out by Daniel Biss, a very popular State Senate candidate in Illinois that some of you may be familiar with from his netroots fundraiser success.
DISLAIMER: This was a comment that I wrote in several diaries that some people who noticed it seemed to like. I realize this isn't quite a full diary, or fully thought out or linked or whatever. I'm sorry if that bothers you. I just thought this might be of interest to some of the other people around here. Just some of my thoughts on Barack Obama and recent issues he's faced:
This is the video from Saturday Night Live last night. I won't give it away, but if you enjoy Democratic politics and all things humorous, this is definitely worth your time.
I'm sure some people are going to say this diary is too short. I'm sorry if that offends you for some bizarre blog-police related reasons. It's just a video, lighten up.
So, there's been a lot said on here in the past about who was the best candidate on the environment. A lot of people have said Edwards, in fact, there was a diary on the rec list yesterday about how Gore should endorse him.
Well, the League of Conservation Voters thinks he'd choose Obama. Here's their rankings, based on their votes in congress ONLY (although there are candidate submitted profiles as well):
You can go here: http://presidentialprofiles2008.org/ to see the numbers and read their profiles. I don't know about you, but I choose substance over rhetoric, and I trust the league of conservation voters quite a bit.
So, it would seem that based on actual votes in congress, Obama is your choice. If Obama is your choice, and you can spare some change, consider donating. Your donation can be as small as $5. Thanks.
Quoted from CNN's advance excerpts from his upcoming speech:
In advanced excerpts of his remarks, Obama, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, says the "bar for success" now in Iraq "is so low that it is almost buried in the sand... We've had enough of a war that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged."
"I opposed this war from the beginning," Obama says, according to the excerpts. "I opposed the war in 2002. I opposed it in 2003. I opposed it in 2004. I opposed it in 2005. I opposed it in 2006. I introduced a plan in January to remove all of our combat brigades by next March. And I am here to say that we have to begin to end this war now."
Follow me below the fold for a brief description of the four point plan he is about to speak about...
Today I was reading a CNN story about Petraeus speaking before Congress. It struck me that they quoted Bush's statistics about decreasing violence, then they quoted Dick Durbin saying the numbers were manipulated, then they site a poll on how many Americans oppose the war. There was no reporting, just copying the AP report which is stenographing quotes and pollsters. Now, this is nothing new. But this particular case stuck out to me because of how much it degraded the FACT (yes, it's a fact. news organizations are supposed to report these) that the reports were manipulated. That wasn't Dick Durbin's opinion, that was a fact. And they don't even go into how he, along with millions of people on blogs and websites all over, know that the statistics are manipulated. So while they're not lying, they're certainly not telling the truth.
And so here's how our media is decaying: One Quote at a time. One poorly written, non-fact checked report. One report where nobody lifted a finger to find out what the truth is. The media doesn't even attempt to investigate anymore, and that's what we expect from them.
This diary is being written as I reach the halfway point of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. If there is anyone who gets that we're being hoodwinked, and that Democrats need to get through the clutter and stamp out Republican lies and fear mongering, it is Al Franken.
Lets change the primary calender. There, I said it. Iowans, you've had a sweet ride, but that ride should be coming to an end, and probably will be.
So lets change the primaries. But, and this is important, lets not be hasty. First, how to fix the primaries is a hard question with no easy answers. I don't think anyone wants a national primary so that we can waste all our money on media for the primary and have less for the general. So we should appoint a commission of sorts to come up with an acceptable solution.
BUT WE CAN'T CHANGE THE PRIMARIES THIS YEAR. Florida, you lose. Michigan, you too.
Democrats are politicians: They like getting elected. It is almost written in stone that they will take the presidency and increase their majorities in the 2008 elections so long as Bush is President until then to remind the people how much they hate republicans.
If they impeach Bush and Cheney, and Pelosi takes over and forms a cabinet and rules for a year, the results are FAR less certain. For one thing, Nancy Pelosi will never be a leader in the fight for impeachment, or the papers will immediately paint that as her desire to assume the presidency as third in line.
We're learning more about the Larry Craig fiasco, CNN updated their story minutes ago. According to the site:
According to Roll Call, the arresting officer alleged that Craig lingered outside a restroom stall where the officer was sitting, then entered the stall next door and blocked the door with his luggage.
According to the arrest report cited by Roll Call, Craig tapped his right foot, which the officer said he recognized "as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct."
The report alleges Craig then touched the officer's foot with his foot and the senator "proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times," according to Roll Call.
At that point, the officer said he put his police identification down by the floor so Craig could see it and informed the senator that he was under arrest, before any sexual contact took place.
Sorry if this was already posted, but this is the first I've heard of the arresting officer's account.
Cross-Posted from Take A Stand - My Home Blog - Please feel free to comment or bookmark over at my home blog, it's new.
There's only one thing better than seeing Barack Obama speak: Seeing him speak twice. So yesterday I took off work and passed up a day's pay, grabbed my little white button, and headed out to New York city for a decidedly good day.
Barack spoke in NYC at the SEIU local union hall in Manhattan at 2pm, and then later at the Marriot in NYC at 5pm to a standing room only crowd of thousands at $25 a ticket. I volunteered, and it was a wonderful experience.
According to the NY Times as of about five minutes ago, Patrick Murphy will be supporting Senator Obama's primary campaign, despite the fact that Clinton was heaping praise on him as recently as yesterday.
Now this is important because Murphy is an up and coming star, and a veteran of the Iraq war. This will certainly help burnish Obama's credentials on national security. I'm glad to see vets coming around to his foreign policy worldview, he has a unique character that I believe will serve him well in dealing with other countries, especially those that might resent us.
This weekend me and one hundred and sixty of my fellow Obama supporters were taught the secret to this campaign: us. Barack Obama has, first and foremost, reinvested in our success, in our future. And in turn, we have been taught to be better organizers, better leaders, better supporters, and perhaps, better people.
I cannot stress enough how powerful this training was. I feel empowered. No other campaign has ever done anything like this. Barack is pushing down responsibility, asking us to organize ourselves instead of waiting for instructions from the campaign. We are organizing and creating support in a way that no other campaign has ever attempted. We are drawing more small dollar supporters than any campaign ever has before. We are the future.
Today was the first day of Camp Obama in New York. I only have limited time to write a little wrapup now because there was no internet access at the school, as planned. Sorry this couldn't be more in depth or interactive. I'm on a short schedule so I'll get to the highlights.
First we met Ray Rivera, the Northeast Coordinator for community organization, who seems to be running the camp. Then we met Temo, the national coordinator. We had a brief speech from Councilman Sanders of Queens who is an elected Barack supporter (they are rare in NY, at least officially). Then we heard from Paul Skully, who was the main "teacher", so to speak, for today and tomorrow til 3pm.
So I was reading an article in the Tallahassee Democrat that I thought was particularly dismissive of the blogosphere and the netroots movement. It pissed me off. So I wrote the writer. We actually had quite a good conversation. I think I did a pretty good job defending our progressive values against his DLC - styled points, but I'm curious what you guys think.
To give you a little taste, I'll first leave you with this little gem before the jump from the original article, which can be found here:
Simply put, the laptop liberals of the bloggers convention are direct descendents of those wonderful folks who brought us George McGovern and Michael Dukakis.
