Obama calls on his Internet campaign army to march again

McClatchy Washington Bureau ^ | Nov. 20, 2008 | Frank Greve

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

President-elect Barack Obama's 3 million campaign volunteers got re-enlistment notices this week.

Campaign manager David Plouffe, in a mass e-mail sent Wednesday to former workers, asked how much time they can spare for four missions integral to Obama's effort to transform his victory into a broader political movement.

The volunteers' options are, Plouffe wrote:

-Campaign for progressive state and local candidates

-Undertake grassroots local efforts to advance Obama's agenda

-Train others in Obama's organizing techniques

-Focus on local political issues.

"Obama's building a political machine," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, a center-left Washington research group.

[Piranha]

I agree with you. G-d save the United States.

Our country’s best hope is to quash Obama’s new $700 billion jobs-creation program that the Democrats are trying to put together to present on January 20.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

What everyone is missing is there is a huge dose of reality heading Obama's way.

This same generation mobilized to sweep the Messiah into office has a fifteen-second attention span.

If the promised "chicken in every pot" does not materialize quickly, the world is going to quickly turn dark and ugly for Mr. Hope and Change.

Obama's peeps want him to fuel their cars and pay their mortgages RIGHT NOW, not years down the road.

By 2010, Obama's disillusioned disciples will be chasing him with torches and pitchforks.

I don't think conservatives should turn our guns to our heads just yet.

It's going to be entertaining watching Obama be toppled from his pedestal like the statue of Saddam Hussein in the middle of Baghdad.

All glory is fleeting, Barry.

[Piranha]

The last President who promised two chickens in every pot didn't deliver but catalyzed a cult of personality that this country never saw again until this year and was elected President four times! Don't whistle past the graveyard and rely on reality to wake up the American people.

[longtermmemmory]

Given the general incompetence of the mccain handlers, I am concerned when you stupid party campaigning vs obama illegal alien voters.

[EBH]

To: Volunteers for Poll Watching Cuyahoga County.

I’m writing to both explain and apologize for the problems and failures which occurred during the election.

I first arrived in Cleveland on October 20th, as a New York volunteer for the Republican Party. Including election day I spent 10 days working to recruit Poll Observers and during that time spoke to many of you, asking for help defending the polls from illegal voting. Many of you agreed and following that agreement never received either an assignment, credentials that had been promised, or both. Many of you waited anxiously on November 3rd for credentials and assignments.

The details of multiple communications failures are a long tail of miss-steps that included spam filters, lack of training, multiple qualifying procedures, overtaxed volunteers and lack of co-ordination with workers in Columbus headquarters. Only after the fact did I realize that there were only a few polling stations that we could place observers in that were not in the heart of Cleveland, the most challenging areas of town. Columbus was making an effort to further qualify people for these difficult assignments after I had already spoken to many of you. They then excluded many because they couldn’t contact you in time. If they didn’t recontact you then you were never assigned. Even if some of you were contacted concerning a location the time was so short and the staff in Columbus so taxed for the time available that some were left hanging with a location, no credentials, but plenty of anxiety.

This is the short answer to what went on and why I am writing to apologize for the failures prior to the election. Hopefully things will run more smoothly in the future.

Thanks to all of you who stepped forward to protect the integrity of the voting system. My best wishes go out to you all.

---

This was the email apology I received. I volunteered on both the local and state level. I attended the training. I made numerous attempts at contact. I was ready, willing and had even taken the day off from work to be able. I lost a days wages, I cleaned the house, and we lost an election. They knew this was a battle ground state, they knew for weeks the crime being committed in Ohio, they knew what Brunner was pulling...and yet the Republicans were this unprepared and unorganized. Everything done on a local level had to go through the state level and then back down. What good is grassroots organizing if the blockade is within our own party?

Yes, I am still angry and bitter at my own party’s failure.

[randita]

You describe the people in Plato’s Cave. If you don’t know the myth, look it up on Wikipedia.

[nathanbedford]

I did look it up on Wikipedia because I did not remember The Cave. 50 years ago we did not have Wikipedia to use as a pony, although we had one for Caesar's Gallic Wars.

Plato was onto something for the cyber age. His insight tells us one more reason why it will be difficult to pry Kool-Aid drinkers loose from their fantasy.

[Neverforget01]

Obama has to produce results or the people will throw him out. If folks are unemployed and/or the economy is still in the same condition it is now, he'll be history no matter how effective his “organization “ is. It's always the “economy, stupid.”

[AD from SpringBay]

Obama’s team understands how to lead people. They need something to do and someone to not like. With these two elements before them, they will continue to be true believers and if they only work harder and keep not liking the bad guys. And, in so doing, fail to wake up to what Obama’s team is really doing.

[nathanbedford]

Let me consider your points in reverse order:

Fred Thompson would indeed make a fine spokesman, especially if he's preaching to the choir. I would not be opposed in principle to a bifurcated arrangement in which we turn a kinder, gentler face to the world, such as Fred Thompson would present, while we have our own Rahm Emanuel kicking ass, taking names and turning around the Titanic. On the whole though, I think unified command would probably be better and it must be done not by committee but with someone consumed by messianic zeal and blessed with the power to turn a phrase. You are right that first we must define among ourselves what it means to be a conservative, count noses among those on the right who want to go along for the ride under that working definition, and then go on the attack.

The immigration problem was lost at the border and not over a battle over amnesty. Bush deliberately and willfully declined to honor his oath and enforce the law. Once the land filled with millions and millions of illegal immigrants with all their family ties and anchor babies, the argument was inevitably lost. Inevitably, we suffered at the polls because Bush let the problem get out of hand at the border. I'm not looking retrospectively though, but forward . A Republican administration probably would at least have sealed the border and then given amnesty to the throng that was already here; but at least the border would have been sealed and the leak plugged. We both know the Democrats will do nothing of the kind. We will be hurt even worse in the next election as Obama turns on the bureaucracy to naturalize these people even more shamelessly than did Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

I do not think I used the phrase "country club" Republicans, at least not in the post you cite, I think I referred to "Bush establishment" Republicans. And by that I mean the individuals that he put in charge of the party, not excluding Karl Rove, who failed miserably to shore up the party after Bush himself no longer was a candidate. But the main culprit is Bush himself who refuse to fight his own corner. When explicitly advised by Karl Rove that he ought to respond to the charges "Bush lied and people died" in the wake of the failure to find WMD's, Bush, according to Rove, forbid Rove to mount such a defense. In any event, the President of the United States is the titular head of his party and it is his job to run it, to set the philosophical limits, and to discipline it. He did none of these things satisfactorily. To this day the Republicans have not yet learned to take a knife to a knife fight.

I think the real voter fraud committed by the Democrats occurs long before it is time to pull the lever. I concede that the Bush administration succeeded in one action against Acorn but I think that was probably only the tip of the iceberg. When the history of the Bush administration is written the perspective of time will probably show that the administration was intimidated by allegations of racism.

As to your observation that I get caught up in my own rhetoric, I am smart enough to plead guilty knowing that if I did not I would be laughed off this board. :)

[kassie]

This is way beyond scary.

[wintertime]

They have tactics to try to flood the net with their ideology.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Wow! You have really nailed it!

They use these tactics on FR when there are education issues. I honestly believe that the NEA and Democrats have attorneys and professional PR people just to respond to Free Republic education posts. At times I have felt very overwhelmed.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Just a couple of observations to try and clarify the context. I like Fred because he's not running for anything. He does have a calm and optimistic delivery and can pull the factions together. That, plus he is a conservative with a clear message. Think of Ronald Reagan during all those years before he "burst upon the national scene". While working a GE, and afterward, he was doing his radio spots and countless appearances on the rubber chicken circuit. He had worked the fields for years before it was time for a paying harvest.

We would have the demographic problem, even if not one Mexican had crossed the border illegally. Forty million dead babies in the abortion insanity and two-thirds of them were black or brown. If we had been successful in stopping abortion we were going to have to come to terms with the divide, whether they came from the womb or across the border. I think that this illustrates a major point. We have to do what is right morally and then fight our political battles on the field of politics. Can we do this? Are we smart enough? I don't know.

It is, in my opinion, Bush's worst failing that he could not communicate what he wanted for America. But something else is missing. There are some things that a President can't say but where are the backup voices calling the Democrats to task? Those backups have defaulted to talk radio. Republican Senators and Representatives and Governors should have been out front in defending the administration, regardless of what the administration was doing to defend itself.

[nclaurel]

No party was ever so clearly socialist and received such overwhelming reception from voters as Obama’s team. With his arrogance regarding his BC and his quickness to sue or send out the truth squad, it makes me wonder how any other party will be able to have the freedom to organize much less beat him.

[napscoordinator]

As far as beating him, we only have one more chance. If we lose that one than we will be done with him. Everyone says he would want another term....I seriously doubt it. Eight years (if he does that) is a very long time under grueling circumstances. He will be more than glad to be done. Why wouldn’t he want to collect his 400,000 retirement check every year doing nothing when he will only be 54?

[nclaurel]

I think his arrogance will overcome any common sense he may have had. I doubt he will ever do more than be a figurehead even in office. $400,000 isn't that much since Michelle made nearly that and they could so much more plus all that adoration as Royalty for life. I hope I am wrong but I see him as wanting to be grand bumba for life. Look at how both Arab and Arican nations function.

[unspun]

That is why conservatives need to organize outside (and inside and along with) the Republican Party.