SOCIAL: FW: You, me, Barack Obama. It's time for us to step up.
Jen
schradie at hotmail.com
Sun Sep 14 15:52:00 PDT 2008
Just thought I'd forward this e-mail from a friend who's working on the
Obama campaign since folks here expressed wanting to get involved, though it
sounds as if ya'll already know how to, but just in case.
Regards,
Jen
j e n s c h r a d i e
graduate student
department of sociology
university of california, berkeley
schradie at berkeley.edu
"What do I think of Western Civilization?
I think it would be a very good idea."
Gandhi
_____
From: marc vogl [mailto:marc.vogl at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 10:46 AM
To: marc.vogl at gmail.com; megara doorly
Subject: You, me, Barack Obama. It's time for us to step up.
Hey everyone,
Hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend. I'd like to take a few
minutes of your time to respond to some of the emails, calls and worried
looks I've been getting as the presidential election looms 50 days from now.
Barack Obama can, and will win this election. It will be close, and it will
get uglier, but I am confident in the candidate, the campaign leadership and
most of all: in you.
The victory will come because of the effort we make to turn out the vote. In
the parlance of electoral campaigns, we're going to have to win this thing
on the ground, and not on the air. With history as our guide we know that
ultimately people elect presidents, not vice-presidents and rightly or
wrongly, people vote for the candidate perceived to be more authentic than
experienced. We also know that Barack has gotten to this point because he
has gotten people to check in to the political process that previously had
been checked out. More than any issue or position - withdrawing carefully
from Iraq, cutting taxes for the middle class, providing everyone with
access to health care, standing up for choice and cutting down our carbon
emissions and oil dependence - we will win this election because we made the
case that Barack Obama's leadership will set a smarter, more thoughtful,
less partisan course for politics in Washington, for policy in our country
and for our relationships with the rest of the world.
So, what can we do?
Give money. 72 of you have contributed to the Obama fundraising page I set
up last fall and I am grateful and inspired that we met my $10,000 goal. In
fact we surpassed it. So I recently reset the goal for $20,000. If you've
not given to the campaign yet I am asking you to step up now; if you've
given already consider another $10, $100 or $1,000.
<http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/KSG4Obama>
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/KSG4Obama
We're trying to make history here and the obstacles won't be overcome by
money alone, but countering the slander and deceitful ads that McCain is
running costs a lot and we cannot allow the Republicans to outspend us.
Give your time. Many of you have phone banked, canvassed, held fundraisers,
registered voters, and made professional and personal sacrifices for this
campaign already - using up vacation days, spending less time with friends
and family, getting up a little earlier and staying up a little later. I'd
say something pithy like you can go back to bed and your normal lives on
November 5th but the reality is that Obama only wins this election because
of volunteer efforts. Megara and I have seen volunteers make the difference
in precincts and counties in California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania and we
hear about it from friends who've quit jobs or taken time off from school to
work for the campaign in Virginia, Wisconsin, New Mexico and elsewhere --
they don't call them battle ground states for nothing. Please look at your
schedules for the next 6 weekends and if you don't live in a battle ground
state think about traveling to one to pitch in.
To find out how to volunteer in your neighborhood click here:
<http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer>
http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer
Note: If you want to volunteer in Wisconsin or Virginia drop me a line and
I'll connect you with friends heading up campaign efforts in Madison and
Richmond.
If you are in the Bay Area you can join phone banks or road trip to Nevada
through http://www.sfobama.com/ or head down to the campaign office at 935
Market St @ 5th (open 9am-9pm). And let me and megara know if you want to
join us on trips we have planned too!
GIVE OF YOURSELF
At the Democratic Convention Barack said very clearly:
"What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been
about me; it's about you. For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one,
and said, "Enough," to the politics of the past. You understand that, in
this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same, old
politics with the same, old players and expect a different result."
The joy we'll feel in November and at his inauguration will stem from our
own efforts - great and small - that we make today. In nearly 18 months of
writing these emails and supporting this campaign, nothing has felt better
than having a conversation with a friend or a family member that ended with
them saying "After talking to you Obama has my vote." Some of you have said
it to me; many of you have persuaded someone (with a soft sell or a hard
sell, in one conversation or over many) and know this great feeling too.
You're reading an email that is going out to 100 people. Each of you has
friends and family - close and distant - all over the country. I cannot
stress enough how critical it is to pick up the phone and call these folks
(a facebook message may not quite seal the deal). Call them if they're a
Republican in Missouri and you think convincing them is a long shot, call
them if they're an independent in Florida and you think they're on the
fence, call them if you know they're sitting at home in Michigan wearing
their Obama t-shirt and you just want fire each other up.
John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon by just 9000 votes in Illinois in 1960.
George Bush beat Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida in 2000. (And Gore beat
Bush by 366 in New Mexico)
This election is going to be incredibly close and your sister, brother,
uncle, aunt, friend from high school, your mom or dad is going to be the
difference. Thanks for giving what you can and inspiring me.
Thanks for reading a long email too!
Lots of love, Marc
415.205.7303
PS - Please give me or megara a call if you want to know more about getting
involved or if you have specific questions about issues, positions or
effective ways of talking about the issues. We'll share what we know.
5 Issues & Talking Points
Even if you can't convince someone to support Barack at least you can let
them know the truth:
* THE TRUTH: In responses to the "swiftboating" attack ads going on
Barack has this created this site to set the record straight:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome
* TAXES - Obama will cut taxes for 95% of working Americans. He'll
do it by providing a $500 tax credit for each worker and $1000 for each
working family; provide a 10% break on mortgage interest payments for 10
million homeowner; eliminate all income taxes for seniors making less than
$50,000 a year; and provide $4000 tax credit for college tuition to anyone
who commits to 100 hours of public service. [Obama Speech, Dover, NH,
September 12, 2008] For those that want to learn more from the authors of
Obama's Tax Plan directly:
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121867201724238901.html
"McCain proposes cutting the gasoline tax paid by the oil companies and
trust that they will pass on the savings in the form of lower prices at the
pump. He's proposing tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans
in the hopes that a little bit of it will trickle down to ordinary
Americans. I do not believe that giving $4 billion in new tax cuts to oil
companies will create any jobs or save you any money. I believe that if we
want relief for families, we should give relief to families, not oil
companies. If we want to create jobs, we should do more to make work pay for
ordinary Americans, not boost the profits of oil companies." - [Barack
Obama, August 1, 2008]
* ENERGY - McCain has been in the senate for 26 years and has voted
against increased fuel efficiency standards & tax credits for more efficient
cars; against renewable sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against
solar power. Against wind power. When Senator McCain talks about the
failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis,
it's important to remember that he's been a part of that failure. Now,
after years of inaction, and in the face of public frustration over rising
gas prices, the only energy proposal he's really promoting is more offshore
drilling. ;
OBAMA's ENERGY, GREEN JOBS, CARBON REDUCTION PLAN: eliminate the need for
oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela in ten years by investing $150
billion and leveraging billions more in private capital to build a new
energy economy that harnesses American energy and creates five million new
American jobs. (1) invest in the US auto industry and offer $7,000 credits
to consumers to put 1 million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on our
roads within six years; (2) require that 10% of our energy comes from
renewable sources by the end of the first term - more than double what we
have now. (3) call on businesses, government, and the American people to
meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15% by the end of the
next decade. This is by far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to
reduce our energy consumption - and it will save us $130 billion on our
energy bills ---- We will set a goal of making our new buildings 50% more
efficient over the next four years. Along with the cap-and-trade program
I've proposed, we will reduce our dangerous carbon emissions 80% by 2050.
[Obama speech, Michigan State University, Monday, August 4th, 2008] Read the
full plan at <http://www.newenergyforamerica.com/>
http://www.NewEnergyforAmerica.com
* EDUCATION - McCain has opposed expanding Head Start, fully funding
No Child Left Behind and called for the closure of the Department of
Education; Obama wants to increase the number of students taking
college-level and AP courses; expand innovation and school choice by
doubling funding of responsible charter schools; create teacher Residency
Programs that will train 30,000 high-quality teachers a year and expand
mentoring programs that pair experienced, successful teachers with new
recruits. He also wants teachers and school boards to come together to
design performance pay plans. All this will be equal to the cost of just a
few days in Iraq and made by possible by carefully winding down the war in
Iraq.
* Iraq & Afghanistan - McCain goes even further than President Bush
in opposing the sovereign Iraqi government's own support for a timetable to
redeploy our troops. Bush wants to leave 140,000 troops in Iraq costing $12
billion a month [$5,000 a second] while Iraq sits on a $79 billion surplus;
Bush's plan is to keep four times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan, and
we have no comprehensive plan to deal with the al Qaeda sanctuary in
northwest Pakistan. Obama will succeed in Iraq by responsibly removing our
combat brigades and pressing Iraqis to stand up for their future, by having
a comprehensive strategy to finish the job in Afghanistan - with more
troops, more training for Afghan security forces, more development
resources, more anti-corruption safeguards, and more of a focus on
eliminating the Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuary along the Pakistan border.
[Obama speech, September 9, 2008] More American soldiers and coalition
troops will die this year in Afghanistan than in any of the first 5 years in
that war. Osama Bin Laden is still at large. [Associated Press, August 24,
2008]
Much more information at: http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/
--
***************
Help me help Obama!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/KSG4Obama
"Arts education teaches people to see other through each other's eyes.It
teaches us to respect and understand people who are not like us. That makes
us better citizens and makes our democracy work better."
- Barack Obama, April 2, 2008
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