By The Associated Press
[Sun Jul 6, 2008 10:57 am EDT]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080706/ap_on_el_pr/rnc_adwatch
TITLE: "Balance."
LENGTH: 30 seconds.
AIRING: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. ...
ANALYSIS: The ad is the first by the Republican National Committee against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The party is spending about $3 million to place the ad in four battleground states, taking advantage of its financial advantage over its Democratic counterpart.
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complete copyrighted story, including ad script, at clickable link above
by Tula Connell, Jul 3, 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/03/mccains-flea-market-economy
George W. Bush’s solution to our nation’s economic mess—that his failed policies helped create—is to applaud people who must work three jobs to make ends meet.
Sen. John McCain colors his solution to working families’ financial struggles with similar crayons: He encourages us to make a living selling stuff on eBay. ...
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complete item at clickable link above
Read More »Thank you Benny for putting together tomorrow's Unity BBQ, and for reminding us all what it is about:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws ofNature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effecttheir Safety and Happiness.”
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Thursday, July 3, 2008
David Hardt, YDA President
Young Democrats of America
http://whYDA.org
Dear Young Democrat,
On this Fourth of July, whether you are a student a month into a much needed summer with no classes, a young worker excited to have a long weekend to celebrate with friends, or a young family looking forward to fireworks with the kids, you might notice that this year's patriotic celebrations have a little extra hope and optimism attached to them. You see, this year the Fourth of July falls exactly four months before Election Day 2008.
Already, 2008 has proven to be the year of the young voter as a Young Voter Revolution sweeps the country. During many of the primaries and caucuses young voter turnout doubled, tripled - and in some cases - quadrupled compared to the numbers we saw in 2004. Even in deep red states like Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee, more young voters cast ballots for Democrats than Republicans.
Why are you voting for Democrats this November?
Tell your story at http://www.whYDA.org
The opportunity our generation has to sweep Democrats into office up and down the ballot in every state in the nation is unprecedented. Turning this opportunity into a reality, however, will take a lot of hard work. We need to do everything we can to convince our friends and family to vote for Democrats come November. With everyone gathering together to celebrate our nation's independence, I can't think of a better weekend to get started.
That is why YDA picked this holiday weekend to unveil our newest project. A web site designed to encourage a community of young voters to share why they are voting for Democrats and why they think others should as well. We call it whYDA.org (get it?), and in order for this to be an effective community building and persuasion tool, we need you to visit and tell your story.
Why are you voting for Democrats this November?
Tell your story at http://www.whYDA.org
Read More »
The 'mushy middle' hard to reach for Obama, McCain
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
7-3-08
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-the-middle
WASHINGTON (AP) — They're the most fickle voters, and potentially the most powerful. Thus, with party nominations secure, John McCain and Barack Obama now are pushing toward the center to win them over.
Meet "the mushy middle," a complex chunk of people likely to decide the presidential election but difficult to reach and very hard to please.
"Yes, we can!" isn't floating their boat. Nothing much is, from either candidate.
They aren't uniformly conservative or liberal, and they don't fit strict Republican or Democratic orthodoxy. They aren't typically engaged in politics, and they don't much care about the campaign. And like so many others, they are extraordinarily pessimistic. ...
Some 39 percent of voters called themselves Democratic, 29 percent Republican, and 32 percent independent in the June 13-23 survey, part of an ongoing study tracking opinions of the same group of people over the election cycle. ...
That Democratic edge suggests Obama may be less dependent on votes in the middle than McCain.
Still, the likeliest path to the White House cuts through the center of the electorate.
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complete copyrighted story at link above
Wednesday, July 2, 2008 2:23 PM [EDT]
Democratic National Committee
Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 2, 2008
See the Video McCain Wanted You To Miss
Washington, DC -- This morning the McCain campaign sent around a video clip of John McCain on Good Morning America under the "In Case You Missed It" headline. What the clip did not include, however, is Senator McCain misleading the voters on his own admission that the economy is something "I still need to be educated on" despite his 25 years in Washington. When the reporter interviewing McCain began her question by noting that McCain has "admitted that you're not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy," McCain interrupted and said "I have not. I have not. Actually I have not." [ABC News, Good Morning America, 7/2/08]
In reality, McCain has repeatedly acknowledged that he doesn't understand the economy and that he's "not smart enough" to solve challenges like the mortgage crisis. He has, however, read Alan Greenspan's book.
Today, your friends at the Democratic National Committee released the video that McCain's campaign wanted you to miss. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVVIw7oZEyk
"Apparently John McCain's campaign thinks the voters haven't already noticed that he was right when he admitted he doesn't understand the economy as well as he should," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "As the voters have gotten to know John McCain, they realize that he is offering more of the same failed and flawed Bush policies that have left America's working families struggling to keep their jobs, stay in their homes, and pay more for everything from gasoline to groceries. The last thing Americans can afford is John McCain's promise of four more years of the Bush economy."
McCain: Straight Talk on the Economy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVVIw7oZEyk
Script:
Read More »
Few demographic differences evident among Hispanics
by Jeffrey M. Jones
July 2, 2008
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108532/Hispanic-Voters-Solidly-Behind-Obama.aspx
PRINCETON, NJ -- Hispanic registered voters' support for Barack Obama for president remained consistent and strong in June, with Obama leading John McCain by 59% to 29% among this group.
While Hispanics generally preferred Hillary Clinton to Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, a solid majority of Hispanics have consistently backed Obama against McCain in general-election trial heats. Obama has led McCain by about a 2-to-1 margin since Gallup began tracking general-election voting preferences in early March. ...
Rather, Hispanics of differing demographic backgrounds all tend to solidly support Obama. It thus appears that there isn't much beyond a shared Hispanic ethnicity or identity that explains Hispanic voting patterns. ...
Implications
Some political experts assumed Obama's struggle to attract widespread Hispanic support in the primaries would carry over into the general-election campaign against the Republican candidate. But Hispanics have become a reliable Democratic voting bloc, and have so far shown little difficulty in transferring their loyalties from Clinton to Obama. Obama continues to lead McCain by about a 2-to-1 margin among Hispanic voters, as he has since March. Hispanic voters could be crucial in key swing states such as New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida.
While George W. Bush made a strong push for the Hispanic vote in the 2000 and 2004 elections, McCain faces an uphill climb to attract Hispanics' support, given their consistent and solid support for Obama in recent months.
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complete copyrighted item with charts at link above
Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 40 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_el_pr/obama_faith
ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Reaching out to religious voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called for expanding President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — supported some ability to hire and fire based on faith.
Obama unveiled his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.
"The challenges we face today ... are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama said.
Obama's announcement is part of a series of events leading up to Friday's Fourth of July holiday that are focused on American values. ...
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complete copyrighted story at link above
Thanks for checking out the site.I now have the video for my song "Obama,Yes We Can" complete with captions for the hearing impared.It will soon be caption in ither languages so that all Obama supporters may join in.Thank you again for all the support. Lets get the man elected and take our country back.Save America and you save the world. obamarocks08.com
Barack Needs Your Support!
Please Read the Following which is 100% true. - McCain's Advantage
David Plouffe did a video about it the other day.
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/briefing1?source=20080627_DPV_D1
Sat Jun 28, 2:06 PM Pacific
The Myth of John McCain's Fundraising Disadvantage
A few days ago, I showed that despite John McCain's widely praised decision to accept public funding, about half of his general election budget will be funded privately with donations funneled through the Republican National Committee.
Even though the public finance system nominally limits McCain's post-convention spending to the $84 million he'll receive in public funds, those limits are relatively meaningless thanks to loopholes that allow him to spend RNC money as if it were his own.
When I wrote about this, I thought I was flagging something that the McCain campaign would have wanted to keep under wraps to avoid charges of hypocrisy. After all, individuals can give up to $28,500 to the RNC, more than twelve times as much as the $2,300 an individual is allowed to give to Obama's general election campaign.
It turns out that I was completely wrong -- for weeks now the McCain campaign has been publicly boasting that McCain-RNC fundraising activities are joint operations to raise money for McCain's general election campaign.
In fact, when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis gave a strategy briefing to supporters earlier this month, he explicitly noted that as far as the general election is concerned, there is no meaningful distinction between McCain campaign fundraising and RNC fundraising.
Davis argued -- correctly -- that to get a true understanding of who is leading the fundraising battle, one must look at the combined totals of each candidate and their party.
In other words, it's not the John McCain 2008 committee versus the Obama for America committee, it's McCain+RNC versus Obama+DNC.
And when you look at the numbers that way, the world turns upside down: John McCain is leading the fundraising battle, and it's not even close.
As you can see from this chart, John McCain and the RNC not only outraised Barack Obama and the DNC by more than 50% in May -- $45.9 million to $28.1 million -- they are also sitting on nearly twice as much cash-on-hand, $85.1 million to $47.1 million.
The bottom-line here is that the media have spun up a David and Goliath narrative about fundraising this campaign. They are partially right -- it is a David and Goliath battle, but they've got the roles reversed.
No matter what happened in the primary season, so far in the general election, it's John McCain whose got the fundraising advantage now.
And it's Barack Obama who is the underdog.
100% true. David Plouffe did a video about it the other day.
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/briefing1?source=20080627_DPV_D1
Barack Needs Your Support!
Please Read the Following which is 100% true. - McCain's Advantage
David Plouffe did a video about it the other day.
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/briefing1?source=20080627_DPV_D1
Sat Jun 28, 2:06 PM Pacific
The Myth of John McCain's Fundraising Disadvantage
A few days ago, I showed that despite John McCain's widely praised decision to accept public funding, about half of his general election budget will be funded privately with donations funneled through the Republican National Committee.
Even though the public finance system nominally limits McCain's post-convention spending to the $84 million he'll receive in public funds, those limits are relatively meaningless thanks to loopholes that allow him to spend RNC money as if it were his own.
When I wrote about this, I thought I was flagging something that the McCain campaign would have wanted to keep under wraps to avoid charges of hypocrisy. After all, individuals can give up to $28,500 to the RNC, more than twelve times as much as the $2,300 an individual is allowed to give to Obama's general election campaign.
It turns out that I was completely wrong -- for weeks now the McCain campaign has been publicly boasting that McCain-RNC fundraising activities are joint operations to raise money for McCain's general election campaign.
In fact, when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis gave a strategy briefing to supporters earlier this month, he explicitly noted that as far as the general election is concerned, there is no meaningful distinction between McCain campaign fundraising and RNC fundraising.
Davis argued -- correctly -- that to get a true understanding of who is leading the fundraising battle, one must look at the combined totals of each candidate and their party.
In other words, it's not the John McCain 2008 committee versus the Obama for America committee, it's McCain+RNC versus Obama+DNC.
And when you look at the numbers that way, the world turns upside down: John McCain is leading the fundraising battle, and it's not even close.
As you can see from this chart, John McCain and the RNC not only outraised Barack Obama and the DNC by more than 50% in May -- $45.9 million to $28.1 million -- they are also sitting on nearly twice as much cash-on-hand, $85.1 million to $47.1 million.
The bottom-line here is that the media have spun up a David and Goliath narrative about fundraising this campaign. They are partially right -- it is a David and Goliath battle, but they've got the roles reversed.
No matter what happened in the primary season, so far in the general election, it's John McCain whose got the fundraising advantage now.
And it's Barack Obama who is the underdog.
100% true. David Plouffe did a video about it the other day.
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/briefing1?source=20080627_DPV_D1
Important: Call your senators today Please Make a Quick Call to Protect Medicare TODAY
Today, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote on a Medicare bill (H.R. 6331) that the U.S. House passed earlier this week by an overwhelming bipartisan 355-59 margin. This vote sends a strong message to the Senate that action needs to be taken now. We need to call the Senate and make sure they pass the bill without making compromises that leave seniors citizens out.
What Does the Bill Do? The bill will help more seniors qualify for help paying Medicare premiums by fixing the current personal assets test. In addition, the bill stops scheduled payment cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients. There are also improvements to Medicare’s preventive benefits such as eliminating several co-payments as well as bringing mental health parity to Medicare benefits.
It’s time to tell the Senate to pass H.R. 6331 for America’s seniors. They need to feel pressure to vote for this bill. Please call your Senators right away.
Time is short, as the vote is scheduled for TODAY. Please call your Senators toll-free at: 866-851-9631 · Ask them to support H.R. 6331. Let them know that you are watching to make sure that they do not settle for a compromise that leaves seniors out. (from USWA alert)
by Seth Michaels, Jun 26, 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/26/afl-cio-endorses-obama-launches-meet-barack-obama
The AFL-CIO today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.
The AFL-CIO General Board, which voted to endorse Obama, includes presidents of all 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, as well as Executive Council members and representatives of state and local federations, trade departments and constituency groups. The General Board votes by per capita membership. In conjunction with the endorsement, the AFL-CIO launched a new website: Meet Barack Obama.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/obama.cfm
In its endorsement statement, the General Board noted that Sen. Barack Obama "secured the nomination of his party in a campaign that has energized millions of Americans and spoken to the hopes and dreams of people from every corner of our nation."
His leadership can re-engage disenfranchised Americans and bring our country together. Sen. Obama has advocated a change of direction for our nation that mirrors the priorities of the labor movement.
In announcing the endorsement today, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, "Barack Obama has proven from his days as an organizer, to his time in the Senate and his historic run for the presidency, that he’s leading the fight to turn around America." Saying, as a champion for working families, Obama...
knows what it’s going to take to create an economy that works for everyone, not just Big Oil, Big Pharma, the insurance companies, the giant mortgage lenders, speculators and the very wealthy. We’re proud to stand with Sen. Obama to help our nation chart a course that will improve life for generations of working people and our children.
Obama has vowed to fight for working families and for an economy that works for all—and he has the record to prove it. As a church-based community organizer, Obama assisted those affected by closing steel mills. As a state senator in Illinois, he sponsored legislation to expand health care and protect overtime pay. As a U.S. senator, Obama has earned a 98 percent lifetime rating from the AFL-CIO. And all along, he’s marched on picket lines and rallied with striking workers.
Read More »
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/25/obama_campaign_manager_argues.html
Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe today made a presentation to the press at the Democratic National Committee arguing that Obama has run up historic margins with women voters and is well-positioned against GOP rival John McCain with Hispanics. The [12 page] Power Point that accompanied the presentation can be viewed here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/obama_presentation_062508.pdf
or
http://tinyurl.com/5trp7v
Posted at 6:57 PM ET on Jun 25, 2008
Rally
Participating Candidates
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama
Event Details
Date: June 27, 2008
Time: [11:30 am EDT]
Location: Unity Elementary School, Unity, NH
Description
Obama and Clinton hold a joint rally.