Teaser: "We Need Change Out Here, Too" (Updated 3x with Trailers)

I'm getting really pumped for the 6th...almost as much as for the 4th!  

But I guess election day comes first-- and my friends and my made the tough decision to pass up the Grant Park speech to spend the day GotVing in IN.  

Better to miss a victory speech than see a concession one, I guess...

Knowing this is coming so soon after the election is just that much more encouragement to keep my head totally in the game through the 4th.

I already reserved my train ticket to Chicago on the 6th - I figured if I did that, I'll HAVE to make it work out.

See you all there!

Thanks for doing this!  It was a pleasure to meet and spend some time with you in Madison last week.  Kurt, thanks for hosting the party!

I will be in Chicago on 10/6 and can't wait to see you again!

I just put a message on the main discussion site about finding a location. Please check! Thank you. 

http://www.236.com/news/2008/10/27/eight_ways_to_survive_the_next_9828.php

My fav was no. 1.

amk

And great 'stache and haircut too!

Keep us updated like this,

Janey

BondiBeachViews

amk

..to being there.

Wasn't that into the 'stache at 1st, but by the end of the 3 vids, it grew on me (Not Literally, sillies!). Very Barbershop Quartet. :-)

But seriously, thanks to Justin for producing these and Al, for being Al. 

Y'all looked like a buncha community organizers to me (and yes, for me, that is a compliment!).

Si somos americanos, seremos buenos vecinos;
compartiremos el trigo,seremos buenos hermanos -- canción de Rolando Alarcón

Todos somos americanos.-- Barack Obama

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/28/0112/7194

amk

Al,  many thanks for the shout out and very happy to help with this important work.  Even though the regular work sked is indeed driving me bonkers at the moment, helping with this kind of work is still a pleasure and very exciting.

After a brief trip, I hope to have a more edited and longer video wrap-up of Al's trip online toward the end of the week.  Any Fieldhands with editing and/or motion graphic skills that might want to contribute to the cause, please let Al or myself know (justin [at] storymethis [dot] com).

Special thanks to Kurt and Constance for making the Madison trip happen, and to everyone else who made Al's Madison stay a rip-roarin' success.  If y'all can find a way to bring Al to your city, it's highly recommended!

There's something surreal about how fast the GOP has gone from arrogant triumphalism to its death throes. Just yesterday, the GOP's mighty Titanic was cruising along, its opulent decks lined with fat-cat financiers and neoconservative warmongers, all smoking cigars, drinking champagne and extolling the deathless virtues of their fearless captain. The compliant media issued glowing dispatches. Karl Rove cackled with glee as he plotted out a permanent Republican majority. Then the luxury liner hit an iceberg known as reality....

In desperation, McCain has tried to blame everything on the ship's captain. Last week, he launched a bitter attack on Bush.....

But the problem isn't Bush, it's American conservatism itself -- or at least the debased, intellectually bankrupt and utterly failed thing that American conservatism has become. For McCain to truly renounce Bush, he'd have to renounce the tax-cut ideologues who have bankrupted the country. He'd have to renounce the neoconservatives who led us into a catastrophic war. He'd have to renounce the culture-war attack dogs like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin who have coarsened conervatism's soul.

amk

Obama 49 McCain 44

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=8247ab3a-7593-421d-8100-61e6e00ebc0b

This is a great idea. Just imagine the number of folks that you will reach using the combined approach of one-on-one with video blogging. I am impressed!

To riff on Al's post title: "we need change out HERE, too!" And so, I wanted to put one last call for volunteer help canvassing in Terre Haute, Indiana (Vigo County), during our big GOTV drive this weekend, Monday the 3rd, and Election Day.

A lot is happening. Governors Sebelius and Napolitano visited our office yesterday, a mark of just how serious the Obama campaign is taking Indiana and Vigo county. Terre Haute/Vigo county is important for a couple of reasons. Historically, it is a "bell-weather" district. More importantly, because big wins in Lake county, Indy, Bloomington, and Lafayette balance out the more conservative swaths of the state, a win here could tip the balance effectively in a tight election. The campaign is counting on gaining “surprising” votes here.

Just so you know, here are the numbers from 2004:

Indiana:
Bush: 1,479,000 votes (60%)
Kerry: 969,000 votes (39%)
Difference: 510,000 votes

Vigo County:
Bush: 20,988 votes (53%)
Kerry: 18,426 votes (46%)
Difference: 2562 votes

No wonder Obama should have been written off in Indiana. The fact that we are tied with virtually no undecideds remaining (3%) is a testament to the reality that something is happening in this state.

BUT, WE NEED LOTS OF HELP.

The Obama office in Chicago is technically handling all the formal Chicago/Illinois volunteer groups being sent to WI, MI, IN, and MO. Indiana is getting quite a bit, but most of that help is going over to Lake county or down to Purdue in Lafayette. Vigo county and parts south need help too. If every district along the Illinois-Indiana line is not big Obama, we have not done our jobs.

So, this is also a plea: can you help us in Terre Haute? Do you know anybody who can help us down here—3.5 hours south of Chicago? Each day this coming weekend we need 50-70 additional volunteer shifts to have enough personnel to do what we have to do. On Monday, Nov. 3, we are half filled and, on Election Day, we also have large needs. 

Canvassing runs from 9-12, 12-4, 4-8 on Sat., 11-2, 2-5, 5-8 on Sun., 9-12, 12-4, 4-8 on Mon., and 6-9, 9-12, 12-3, 3-6 on Election Day. Monday night will be a massive CANVASS OF THE ENTIRE TOWN, as we put a flyer on EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT'S door, reminding them to vote and where their polling place is.

Thanks for your consideration of this request—and your passing it on to anybody who can help us. Feel free to email me directly at brendan.corcoran@gmail.com.

A friend sent this video to me: Conservatives for Change. I thought of Christi, and some of her friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBLnwMbYmUw

Wonderful to imagine people who haven't been involved in the Campaign as eager as we are to hear more of Al's ideas

http://people-press.org/report/465/mccain-support-declines

Is this possibly an outlier ? I heard PEW was on the mark in 2004.

amk

amk

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081028/NEWS0502/810280379

Top executives and editors from several major dailies in the Northeast, dissatisfied with The Associated Press, met recently to discuss the formation of a content-sharing agreement that in several cases would serve in place of their AP agreements. .... "It's fair to say that newspapers across America are upset with the treatment they get from the AP," the executive said. "Newspapers are now taking the view that they want to take events into their own hands. The truth of it is, there is a real desire to get better content, shared among people in non-competitive markets."

 http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003878111

Well done, Al & Field Hands.

Obama 48 McCain 47

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081028/NEWS0502/810280405

It was great to see how much interest we got for the event and to hear so many people bring ideas and plans to the table! I hope the Chicago event pans out real well and I will try to make it!

Hasta luego y suerte!

Alex Games

Nearly 20 percent of all Florida voters have cast ballots already. That includes 1,128,241 abentee ballots (35.4% by Democrats and 49.96% by Republicans; and 1,193,987 early votes (53.66% by Democrats and 30.25% by Republicans).

All told, 115,418 more Democrats have voted than Republicans. Also 357,298 independent and minor party voters have cast ballots.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/10/the-florida-vot.html

I'm still constructing my operational definition of what it means "to organize" and I'm stumped by what you said in the finale of teaser III, Al. You said (emphasis mine)

"Barack organized America, but if America doesn't organize him, he's not going to be able to do even a fraction of what he said he'd like to do."

Over the course of the months I've been here (beginning roughly around Super Tuesday back in Jan/early Feb), I've picked up a kind of ongoing, working definition of the verb "organize" ... but the above usage baffles (and intrigues) me.

The verb "to organize" strikes me as an umbrella-verb that covers lots of other, highly-specific verbs in the same way that "to report" (as in 'to work as a reporter', that's good reporting, etc.) contains many more specific verbs, i.e., to interview, to research, to request documents, to read documents, to discuss, to analyze, to socialize (w/ sources), to review findings and double-check them for accuracy. Once I compiled that list for "to report" I had more of an idea of what a reporter does, or what someone who says "s/he was reporting" might mean by that statement. 

I'm still compiling my operational list of verbs that fit under the "to organize" umbrella. Here's my operational definition of "organize" that I've culled from my time here at the Field (as well as articles/examples of what the Obama campaign has done in the ground game).

To organize means to...

• Compile functional, current contact lists of "the group to be organized" (cf. Al on getting permanent contact info about Obama fieldstaff and fellow fieldworkers met in the course of the campaign.) 
• Engage in prolonged conversation w/ members of the group, with an emphasis on listening, in order to learn what are the most important issues or concerns of that group
• To brainstorm possible plans of actions to solve those concerns, or ways to move the ball down the field toward the goal of solving the concern. 
• To initiate a plan of action, i.e., contact So-n-so in order to tell that person about such-n-such (see, for instance, the AP Fournier letter writing campaign) 
  
• To request members of group to participate by doing some quantifiably-measured action. i.e., N people did thus-n-so.
• To structure groups in such a way that allows natural leaders in the group to emerge. To encourage such participation and coach people to grow and develop their strengths.

This denotes a kind of peer-to-peer structure. 

It's active, engaged. The participants are not passively awaiting someone else to solve the problem but are themselves pinpointing the problem and generating solutions. 

Emphasis is on "we" (and what we do) more than "they" as in "they say" and "they do" and "they" --that nefarious group that has more power than we do.

But when it comes to "organizing [President] Obama" I lack some aspect to fit into my functional definition of what it means "to organize."

Maybe I'm confused by Obama as the object of the verb to organize. Sorry to get all grammatical on you, but I sense that the relationship of Obama as the object of the verb "to organize" drives at some essential meaning of what it means to organize that I don't (yet) understand. 

I get organizing ourselves, but how does a group of ourselves organize a single person, Obama? 

Does it mean that we organize ourselves in order to tackle some pressing issue and we include President Obama into our group of peers so that he (and we) can tackle said issue together?

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/10/crist-extends-e.html

Mason Dixon:

New Hampshire: Obama 50%, McCain 39%

North Carolina: Obama 47%, McCain 47%

Montana: McCain 48%, Obama 44%

Insider Advantage:

Georgia: McCain 48%, Obama 47%.

Suffolk Poll:

Nevada: Obama 50 McCain 40

http://politicalwire.com/

Enjoy this wonderful video about Charles, a volunteer at the Boulder, CO Obama office. Oh, and get out your handkerchief.

Sean Quinn's road story of a day in Raleigh NC

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-raleigh-north-carolina.html

long for a blog but be sure to read it to the end.

I'm not sure what I can add but I comend your grammatical analysis. What does it mean for Obama to be the object of to organize?  I think your last bullet captured this idea but what struck me from Dreams of My Father was how Obama really did go in and organize the stakeholders. He brought them together and as a result of simulataneous processes those stakeholders - not the organizer - took action. I imagine young Barack zipping his lips and sitting on his hands while those individuals spoke up and took action. And repeated the process on and on.  He probably wasn't sitting on his hands, but i would have been. My weakness is bossiness and that old-incorrect adage abouit doing it yourself if you want it done right. Participaing in the campaign has shown in real life what Obama talked about in his book- the way to really get it done is to get everyone involved. So, when Obama organized Chicago residents, he produced results by getting people to act. If we organize him, we'll get him to act? is that what it means to organize him?

And I love the twinkle in your eye and good humor..

OK...I finally get IT. I'm 60 years old and I finally get IT. So I'm ready to dig in and get a little dirty. Thanks for being inspirational and smart!

Step 3: Healthcare, peace, poverty, economic justice, election reform etc:

Why step 3? The Democrats as human beings are as vulnerable to favor trading and corruption as anybody else.  All these issues involve that big pot of tax money.

We've got to put a firewall between congress and wealthy interests. We've got to relieve them of the distracting, corrupting burden of the continual campaign. Public election financing, no voting or advocating for people you have social relationships with, no selling the contacts you make in government after leaving government.

Luckily this is absolutely bipartisan. Everybody who isn't getting any favors (99.9%) is against anybody else getting them. Human nature again.

Assuming Obama wins (knock wood)

Step 1: Keep the organizations alive

Step 2: Fight for the firewall.

Step 3: Everything else

I know that I said this in another thread, but I wanted to get this here for posterity. Thanks so much for coming to Madison, Al, and sharing your thoughts on the opportunity we all have to organize this president. To the other Fieldhands (and beyond) who may be trying to bring Al to your neck of the woods, let me say that it was really worth it. I learned a lot organizing just by putting the thing together. Al is / was incredibly generous with his time and very gracious. If you want to give your local community a real "jolt" toward getting organized, bring Al in. You'll be glad you did!

 You owe me some tissues :-))

Al, you're the best.  For what it's worth, the opposite of that lovely German word "Schadenfreude" is "Mitleid," "with-suffering," better known to us English-speakers by its Latin cognate, "compassion."