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Here's a copy of what I've started sending around to folks I've been in contact with from the earlier Gore effort in NY. The first mailing went to about 2-3 dozen people who had been working with me here in the Rochester, NY area or a couple of contacts from other communities in NY. Shortly I will be sending it out to a much more extensive list (a few thousand) of previous Gore supporters from around the state. Feel free to use any or all parts of this to send to any person, place, or thing you can think of to get this letter writing campaign started. I really do think "snail-mail" letters will be much more impressive than e-mail for this, since all these leaders are flooded with (probably) thousands of e-mails every day (assuming you could even find e-mail addresses for Dean and Carter). Any feedback is welcome and will be useful. LET'S ROLL!!!


Hi all,
I'm back with a possible new strategy (developed with some on-line folks at Democratic Underground) for getting Gore's name into the mix for the Democratic nomination. I know, you may think it's way too late for that; but, the way things are going between Hillary and Barack there will soon be blood on the floor and the convention in August will be deadlocked with neither candidate having the requisite number of delegates to get the nomination. This scenario has been envisioned by a number of people, even some notable political pundits (http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/02/15/al-gore-to-the-rescue.aspx) have imagined the scenario where Gore is the compromise candidate that a lot of Democrats look to to bring some order out of the possible chaos at the convention.

To that end, we are starting a letter writing campaign to Howard Dean, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and former Pres. Jimmy Carter urging them to turn to Gore if the convention is deadlocked and/or there are such bad feelings by the end of the primary process that a healer is needed for the party's sake and to make sure we can win in November. I am strongly suggesting that if you write such letters they be real letters, NOT E-MAILS. All these folks get way too many e-mails every day to pay any attention to something like this. If you want to do this, and in case you need some "talking points" to get you started, here are a few things I think I will mention in my letters to these folks: continuing damage to the party as this race gets nastier and nastier; the need for someone who really does have foreign policy experience; a strong environmental issues candidate; a person who has proven he can win the national popular vote; someone known and respected by world leaders both then and now.

I imagine each of you will have your own ideas of things to say. If you want to add to my list, feel free to send those ideas back to me and I'll send them along to others as I continue to send notes like this to lots of contacts I have from the earlier work on trying to get Gore on the ballot in NY. I think what I will do is try to follow up these "snail-mail" letters with an e-mail in a week or so (if you want to do that, the e-mail contact information for them is pretty easy to find) to remind them that we are serious about this. The ideal, as far as I'm concerned, would be a Gore/Obama ticket. I think that would sweep the election in November and position Obama for Pres. in 2012 or 2016. We could be looking at at least a 16 year reign for a Democrat in the White House.

Here are the critical addresses: Howard Dean, DNC, 430 S. Capitol St., SE, Washington, DC 20003; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 235 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515; and Pres. Jimmy Carter, The Carter Center, One Copenhill, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307. Both Howard Dean and Rep. Pelosi have been involved in trying to figure out ways to resolve a deadlock, if there is one, and both are, at this point, uncommitted to either candidate. They both have met with Gore and others to discuss how to resolve a deadlock within the past couple of weeks. Former Pres. Carter has urged Gore numerous times to get into the race and, I suspect, may have also been involved in some discussions about how to resolve a deadlocked convention. All these folks are super delegates.

I'd be interested in any response you may have to this strategy. I will be contacting lots of other former Gore supporters in this state and contacts I have in other states (not that many) as we pursue this strategy. If you feel as I do that Gore would be the ideal candidate this fall I would encourage you to send this note (or your own) to as many like-minded friends as you can. We would like to spread this idea as far and wide as possible. In advance, I'll thank you for any effort you might put into this.

Rod Bailey