Oregon: The Democrats are coming. And they are coming in force...The buzz has been Obama.

This is How the GE is Won. Grassroots voter registration and GOTV planning.

'On election day, Obama might have more than a million individuals volunteering on his behalf. That should scare the beejeesus out of the McCain campaign and the RNC.'


http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120918572488500.xml&coll=7&thispage=1


April 29 was the deadline to register for the May 20 primary in Oregon:

http://www.kval.com/news/local/17670079.html

And on to the General Election...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/10/obama-voter-registration_n_101108.html

This is How the GE is Won:

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/pay_to_attention_to_obamas_vot.php

edit typos

quaking in their boots. This is the last thing the establishment wanted. I can't wait to hear the fundraising numbers for April.

GOBAMA!!!

and then along came '08 and Obama

I am amazed at the voter registration numbers coming out of all the states

It's exceptional and sends a strong message to the Repugs in November

We will win

but I always knew when/if Edwards left the playing field, I would definitely swing to the Obama camp. Pretty much all the former Edwards supporters in my circle of friends & family made the switch to Obama, without hesitation. The two who switched to Clinton are now back on the fence (LOL). They have not been impressed with her tactics of late. Good sign.

Also saw some of Hillary's speech. She looks exhausted and kind of unkempt. No lipstick, hair's kind of screwed up. She was talking about the need for hybrid cars, alternative fuels, etc., and that was a relief to hear, too.

Obama looked relaxed, refreshed, and had a great rapport with the crowd. He was wearing a long-sleeved checkered shirt, and it was nice to see him out of his suit. His attire and the way he spoke fit with the venue, the crowd, and the event. He has spoke (so far) about his registration drive kickoff, and keeps his focus constantly on the future, moving on to do what is necessary to win the election.

I think it is very telling that Obama is using his resources to start a major voter registration drive. McCain and the RNC haven't, and Hillary hasn't, but that isn't surprising since it is an expensive endeavor and she is short on funds.

I think Obama is going to be a formidble McCain candidate. Obama's sense of timing and strategy keep us moving forward, and keep us focused on something POSITIVE, instead of the negatives coming from the Hillary campaign and her surrogates.

Once again, I am proud to be an Obama supporter, and proud to belong to the Obama supporter community.

http://www.ktvz.com/

:hi:

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mind, no matter the audience he's addressing. I thought it very brave of him to go before a religious audience and talk about acceptance of people who are different from them. I knew then, that I had made the right decision. He's a uniter, despite the protestations to the contrary, on this board. I am so glad the real world is not DU.

If we all work really hard, we've got a winner in Obama, and I hope this long drawnout nominating process, won't be too damaging, come November.

It's a new metric, unknown to the Clinton and the McCain campaigns.

are scared witless by Obama's smarts in organizing. This is the Dean Strategy on steroids.

Dean is so happy and proud this is all coming to pass..I just know.

by the party elites. Dean also organized from the grassroots, and that scares the big money people. And I think that's why he continues to be villified on this board. I am so sick of the DLC having control of "The People's Party".

that's how it's done

constructive steps to win in November, and after the last few months of constant hait-baiting, it is a freaking relief to hear him NOT respond to the recent hate-baiting of the Clinton campaign. I think it sets a great example for his supporters.

I don't think many of us have yet received Hillary's memo that we're not supposed to vote for the scary black candidate.

get it..it would go right in the trash bin along with all her other divisive memos.

:bounce:

Tell us more, please :hi:

It was organized by a Master Organizer ~ Barack Obama!
It had his stamp all over it.
Cheerful,inspiring, positive --- no one, I mean no one that spoke said one negative word about his opponent. Obama would have been so proud of his "students."

You could see it in the positive tone set by everyone on his staff, the volunteers and the 300+ that attended while I was able to stay.

Started exactly on time, people were of every hue, all ages - the children were adorable/holding signs they made and cheering, all economic levels and all so friendly and excited about being there.

Volunteers had a clear vision of their tasks -- directing the parking, signing you in, selling buttons/shirts, coffee/donuts with a cup for donations that didn't force you to donate but you
just did it because you wanted to.

The location was perfect! It was in the heart of Urban Los Angeles yet people from the Valley and South Bay were there at 8:30 AM, FIRED UP and Ready to GO!

It was precision and yet very relaxed... Jasmine Guy, Kerry Washington, Tatiana ? from one of the sitcoms, politicians, Union workers,long time community activists.

Great music!

There were special seats available for the Disabled with a lovely blue bow to give dignity to that important area.

The Chairperson reviewed our Voter Registration Packets and each line of the FORMS.

Every part started exactly on time.

We were dismissed by teams or friendship groups to begin registering and return in 3 hours.

My Mom wasn't feeling well so I had to leave but now I understand the process and can Register people on my own.

I registered hundreds of voters for the Kerry Campaign and I loved doing it but we started about 2 months before the election.

This organizational strategy is the best!

Thanks for your participation and good luck registering new voters for the GE -- you are to be commended for your volunteerism! And thanks for the details -- I love reading about what folks are doing on the ground out there. Makes it all the more real in here.

Does anyone else have one?

thanks goclark, again!

Keep it kicked for me everyone.

the activation of the People--especially the anti-war majority (--a significant majority of 56% way back in Feb. '03, just before the invasion Iraq (NYT poll; other polls 54-55%)--now a whopping, epochal 70%!). They tried everything they could to prevent it, including going along with the new riggable voting machines (run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit-recount controls--a mind-boggling failure of the Democratic Party leadership). They played the "Beltway" game and the corporate news monopoly game, all aimed at demoralizing, disempowering and disenfranchising the American people. They sat on their hands as Bushites committed outrages and crimes against black voters in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere. And they wrote off state after state to the Pukes.

It's interesting to think back, just a short distance (really) in history, to the origins of this massive grass roots uprising which has occurred around the Obama campaign. Probably the first inkling of it was the enormous protest marches against the Iraq invasion--which took great motivation and organization, in a very dark time. Then there was 2004, in which the grass roots blew the Bushites away in new voter registration, nearly 60/40, and matched the Bush-Cheney money machine dollar for dollar, in small donations, many generated on the internet. I remember the electricity in the air. We were going to "throw the bums out." Democracy seemed to be working. Then, that awful night, when the Kerry exit poll win changed to the Bush Diebold win, was like a boot to the chest for many people--a staggering blow, knocked the breath out of people --though some courageous souls hung on, in Ohio, and other places, trying to count the votes and figure out what happened. I remember sending Terry McAulife $100 on the night of 11/2/04, on their promise to "count all the votes." I later wrote to him and asked for my money back. (He never replied.) The grass roots was flattened--as if mowed down by gunfire. But only for a short time.

I was quite involved in election fraud investigations, and the start of the election reform movement, at that time. That's when I became a member of DU--which seemed to be the only Democratic web site which was PERMITTING discussion of the election system. And the election investigators and reformers were the first to get back up on their feet, and were very fired up, almost immediately. Goddamit, they stole it! The evidence is overwhelming. I also had been following a lot of approval/issue polls, from early in the war onward, and was amazed at what I found (--a very large, pro-peace, pro-social justice, pro-good government, progressive American majority, on virtually all issues; so, what the hell was going on? why wasn't this majority reflected in news/opinion coverage, and at the ballot box?).

The grass roots began to recover--and won the fight over the DNC chairmanship, which brought in Howard Dean and his 50-state strategy, and also (quite important, as it turned out) a new primary system, which included caucuses NOT COUNTED BY Diebold & brethren). By 2006, the grass roots was back up on its feet, and was only thwarted by DLC money and power, which placed many "Blue Dog" Democrats on the ballot, fooling the voters that change was possible. Another pro-war Congress was elected--60% to 70% for larding Bush-Cheney with billions more for a war that 70% of the American people oppose--a Democratic Congress that achieved an approval rating worse than Bush's! But still, just the IDEA that, with sufficient numbers of voters, vigilance over the voting system (bad as it is), good organization and fundraising from small donors, we can outvote the machines, was enough to hearten people, to re-invigorate the grass roots, to the point where this grass roots movement has now overturned the choice of the McAulife political establishment, and has galvanized our country's long, difficult journey back to democracy.

I don't know what will happen--in November, or beyond--nor even next week. Will McAulife & co. do us one last bad turn, and steal the nomination from Obama via insider manipulations? Will the global corporate predators steal it for McBush, in November? Will they nuke Iran, and declare martial law? Will they invade democratic Venezuela-Ecuador-Bolivia, which actually have transparent elections, and call off the election here? Are they that desperate for oil, or that worried about insufficient immunity for their many crimes, that they would bring the jackboot down here? No one knows, of course, but I can't even guess. We, the people, are up against some truly evil men with unparalleled power. And Obama is not that much of a reformer--at least what we can see of him--he is not the FDR we really need. So even if we are able to elect him--against the formidable election theft machinery of the Pukes (and I think we will be able to, actually)--what minefield have they laid out for him, in his efforts at even mild reform? All we can do is guess--as we try our damnedest to get the machinery of democracy to work again.

But what is certain--what has already changed for the better--is THE PEOPLE. We now have the large-scale activated citizenry that is the essential ingredient of reform. It takes more than a leader to reform a country; it takes the whole country. That is what is happening. And that is what is so very exciting. The activists. The volunteers. The door-to-doorers. The organizers. The grass roots. The voters. The People! The American people are BACK!

touched on so many points that I can relate to -- I, too, joined just after the (s)election in '04 -- around the same time you did! -- and for the same reasons and spent most of my entire first year here on the 'O4 Election forum (whatever it was called then).

I'm in a rush and have so much to say but can't - getting ready for a business trip to Pittsburgh -- but, this comment you made:

"...just the IDEA that, with sufficient numbers of voters, vigilance over the voting system ..."

I can recall so well in '06, people who were following the stolen elections and election reform encouraging Democrats to flood the polls because it's much harder for 'them' (whoever 'them' is) to steal the election when droves of voters vote -- that is key. I still worry that elections are being rigged -- why did Penn's company want to buy Diebold? Why is Hillary's chief strategist Mark Penn's lobbying shop headed by John McCain's top adviser, Charlie Black ? I embraced Dean's 50 state strategy, Nevada, my home, being one of the beneficiaries of his ideas with paid staffers here early on and still in play. We created a grassroots Democratic volunteer organization here in Northern Nevada that really changed the map. While we weren't as successful as we had hoped here with our National Dem candidates, we made a dent and locally, I was very proud of our GOTV efforts. So much to say, but, mostly, I just appreciate your response because this is what it takes. I, too, even have similar feelings about Obama, him not being my first or even second choice. I encourage all the posters here at DU to get out and volunteer, get involved, if not for a candidate, register voters, volunteer at the polls, find a local cause or candidate -- it takes action and commitment. We can do this.

a lot of work on the internet, informing people, encouraging people, and doing some organizing for particular projects. One of the things that I've been focusing on is this huge, democratic, leftist trend that has swept South America, and is gaining ground in Central America, and which I believe has been a harbinger for our country. They are way ahead of us, in a lot of ways, including transparent vote counting, maybe because they've felt the jackboot directly on their necks, and they don't ever want to go back there. Guatemala just elected its first progressive government, ever--Guatemala, where the fascist thugs slaughtered TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers, with Reagan's direct complicity. You gotta be moved by that. Guatemala, with a progressive government. In El Salvador, the Sandinistas' Daniel Ortega was elected president. And I just got the news--via Judi Lynn, who sent me an article by Nicholas Kozloff--that El Salvador is next. The leftist FMLN party is ahead in the polls, with a charismatic new, young leader, Mauricio Funes, running for president. (His election in March 2009 will coincide with the Obama celebrations here.) As for South America, leftist governments have been elected virtually everywhere--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and, most recently, Paraguay. There are only two dinosaurs left on the entire continent--fascist, horrible Colombia (larded with $5.5 BILLION in military aid by the Bushites), and the corrupt "free traders" in Peru (who will likely be ousted by the left in the next election cycle).

Mexico was an anomaly--a probable stolen election, in which the leftist came within 0.05% of winning. I'm sure the Bushites took extra pains there (our border country) to insure rightwing/corporate rule, for obvious reasons, and because they want privatize Mexico's oil. But the leftist revolution is astir there, too. It's only a matter of time.

You can't follow these amazing political developments in our own hemisphere, and not be heartened and encouraged. If the South Americans can recover from all they have suffered, and create democratic institutions, and elect good governments, so can we!

I am very glad to hear of your activities in Nevada. I don't know if you realize what a hero you are. You are a true American patriot of the first order--on a par with the original founders of our country, and with the leaders of our greatest revolutions--the anti-slavery movement, the labor movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and several anti-war movements. This is a turning point in American history--one of those great and pivotal times, where people who think of themselves as "ordinary" stand up to be counted, and determine to change things for the better, against great odds. It's happening in communities all over the country--and has been boiling beneath the surface for some time.

I said above that I don't know what will happen--and mentioned some dire scenarios. But the truth is, that we are not helpless before these evil men who are running our government and ravaging our world. And if they try something--such as stealing this election for McBush--I don't think the American people will put up with it. That's how far we've come--from the depression and listlessness after the 2004 (s)election, to this moment at which the tide is truly turning, because of people like you. People who refused to give up.

While I was our District Coordinator for a couple of years -- overseeing about 40 precincts -- sadly, I had to resign from this volunteer leadership position this past fall, when I took a new, more stressful, job. I did go back and assist with the caucus at my own precinct, and I have done a few things here and there, but my involvement to date has been very slim. I will do voter registration and some door to door canvassing as time gets nearer to the GE -- there's a local candidate that I have worked with in '06 that the GOP is trying to find someone to run against and I can put my services to good use in that race, too.

But, again, thanks for the post -- I especially am appreciative of the info you wrote about in South and Central America. Fascinating. I was not fully aware of the things you mentioned and you've piqued my curiosity now, so I will seek out more info on that myself. thanks!

Also, do not underestimate your actions on line -- I was drawn to information from posters such as yourself when I first starting seeking answers to the endless questions I had that teevee wasn't answering. Thanks to a few contacts, various discussion boards, on line relationships (I once met a poster from another board after exchanging posts with her -- she and her husband and my SO and I really hit it off when they came to our town on business -- it's really a small world) and lots of emails, I, too, became the beneficiary of folks like you who do on line politicking, advocacy and general 'spreading the word' activities. :hi:

Com'on Oregon!!

"Just days away from the Oregon Primary, supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama will open a campaign office in North Bend.

According to an Obama Campaign press release, the office will officially open at 1 p.m. today at the Pony Village Mall, 1611 Virginia Ave.

Following the opening, a group of volunteers plans to go out and knock on doors to encourage local voters to mail in ballots in support of Obama in his effort to seek the Democratic nomination. The opening of the North Bend office will bring the total number of Oregon for Obama offices to 20."


http://theworldlink.com/articles/2008/05/10/news/doc482559d2c7c18159341640.txt

:thumbsup:

Oregon may not even be a swing state in the fall.

Hillary is ahead by a narrower 46-40, but she won't be the nominee.