Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Deep Breaths
I need to take a few deep breaths and calm down.
In the interim, please pass the word around that independents and republicans in Pennsylvania can change their party registration to vote in the Democratic primaries on anytime before March 24th!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
March 4 Not-So-Live Blog
I am sad and will go to sleep soon. I can't stomach the idea of a few more months of Clinton.
I'm still at work but wanted to at least post that Obama has, as expected, won Vermont. I am both hopeful and nervous about Ohio and Texas. Think good thoughts!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Andreeson: An hour and a half with Barack Obama
Here is a must-read new article by Marc Andreeson, founder of Netscape, on his assessment of Barack Obama. He came away from his meeting with Obama with four distinct impressions:
First, this is a normal guy. I've spent time with a lot of politicians in the last 15 years. Most of them talk at you. Listening is not their strong suit -- in fact, many of them aren't even very good at faking it. Senator Obama, in contrast, comes across as a normal human being, with a normal interaction style, and a normal level of interest in the people he's with and the world around him...
Second, this is a smart guy. You can see how smart he is in his background -- for example, lecturer in constitutional law at University of Chicago; before that, president of the Harvard Law Review.But it's also apparent when you interact with him that you're dealing with one of the intellectually smartest national politicians in recent times, at least since Bill Clinton. He's crisp, lucid, analytical, and clearly assimilates and synthesizes a very large amount of information -- smart...
Third, this is not a radical. This is not some kind of liberal revolutionary who is intent on throwing everything up in the air and starting over... There's no fire in the eyes to realize some utopian or revolutionary dream. Instead, what comes across -- in both his questions and his answers -- is calmness, reason, and judgment...
Fourth, this is the first credible post-Baby Boomer presidential candidate. One of the reasons Senator Obama comes across as so fresh and different is that he's the first serious presidential candidate who isn't either from the World War II era or from the Baby Boomer generation. He's a post-Boomer. It's very clear when interacting with Senator Obama that he's totally focused on the world as it has existed since after the 1960's -- as am I, and as is practically everyone I know who's younger than 50.
Read More: An hour and a half with Barack Obama
Gallup - Obama has 8 Point Lead
For the first time ever, yesterday's Gallup tracking poll shows Obama with 50% support nationally, compared against Clinton's 42% - an 8-point lead! I can hardly wait for tomorrow!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
MSNBC Biographic Episode on Obama - Video
I just found this fantastic video snippet from an hour-long MSNBC show today, which went into enormous detail on Obama's background, rise to prominence, and his candidacy. I find it to be well-researched, thorough and fair.
The show also included a great history of his candidacy for President thus far (for those of you who haven't been following the race nearly as obsessively as me) :).
Update: I just realized the video below is only a snippet, if any finds the full show online, please let me know. Otherwise, keep an eye out for it on MSNBC.
Pass this around!
New Obama Video - We Are the Ones
Here is the new video by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. I like the first one he put out, Yes We Can, better but this one is good too.
On the Ground in Galveston Texas
The below update was sent in by Wendi, one of the students I sponsored to go down and volunteer in Texas:
I'm based out of Galveston, TX, actually a small island linked to mainland Texas by bridge, and I'm staying in a house with some other students. Galveston is a staunch Democratic stronghold in the state, but most of the TX volunteers are up in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, etc., and our office is desperate for more bodies so the local campaign is already talking about getting us to work organizing the main groups of local volunteers.
We got into Galveston late tonight and the office was really packed for a precinct captain training session. We also met quite a few out-of-state volunteers, including a woman who had been working with us up at the Palo Alto office a month ago! It's really amazing that we've got some out-of-state people here, because Galveston is quite unknown and small, even though it seems lots of the state recognizes we need to get more people here.
The local office was really happy to have us and surprised that we'd heard about their office--it was really just by chance that one of the Stanford students we're with happens to be from the town of Galveston. Just judging from the total number of people in the office and the Clinton office as we drove by, our office seemed to have many more people. Also, the local campaign is pretty organized, with impressive-looking T-shirts, bumper stickers, rally signs, etc. that say GALVESTON for Obama.
Tomorrow we have a canvassing effort in the morning, lunch with VA governor Tim Kaine (some think he may be a potential VP candidate), afternoon canvassing, then calls throughout the night to get local volunteers to work the polls and instruct voters on what to do for the primary and caucus on Tuesday.
The really interesting thing about the Texas "two-step" election is that it includes both primary voting (election day or early voting) and an election day caucus. Most Texans have never participated in the caucuses before because normally the primary election has been long decided by the time Texas has its election, so organizing people to work on election day and tell people about the caucuses is huge.
You can also track Wendi and her fellow students from Standford in Texas at their new blog at: Stanford in Texas for Obama
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