Folks, we’ve got one week until the Pennsylvania primary. Time to hunker down and do all we can to help Obama close that gap.
All week, several Kossacks and I will post these action diaries to remind you how you can help Barack Obama in Pennsylvania. Today: phonebanking, contacting friends, and donations. More below.
Calling All Pennsylvanians!
The national phonebanking tool has a few requests up for calls today. Let's make those calls.
Women For Obama: Call Undecided PA Women.
Fellow females, let’s remind PA voters that Obama’s the best candidate to advance womens’ issues. For background info, here’s a diary I wrote last December that details Obama’s position on women’s issues. From economic concerns to education to reproductive choice, Obama is deeply concerned with issues that matter to female voters. His issues page has even more specifics.
Veterans for Obama: Call PA Vets.
Share why you support Obama with your fellow vets. Talk about why Obama’s the best candidate for our troops, how he’ll support them, and how he’ll bring them home. Obama also wants to honor and take care of our vets once they get back. Read more on veterans’ affairs at his website.
Volunteers for Obama: Call OH and MI Supporters.
Help recruit more folks to travel to PA and take part in crucial GOTV operations. We need all hands on deck. Your positive experiences can help inspire others to take time this weekend to drive down and participate. Help grow and strengthen the movement!
If you’re new to phonebanking, check out this FAQ or listen to a tutorial.
Contact a Friend in Pennsylvania
Great action item here. Who knows someone in PA? Who has friends whose relatives, in-laws, former roommates live in PA? Get in touch with these folks. Write a quick and to-the-point email, and ask them to pass it along.
The whole idea behind grassroots politics is leveraging the collective power of the many who volunteer. Each of us is more influential with those we know than any campaign commercial. Put your support in your own words, and express why you want folks in PA to vote for Obama.
Here’s one I am sending to my best friend to pass along to her family and friends in PA. You can borrow some of it (though maybe not the personal-to-me biographical part!), and add your own thoughts in.
Dear (best friend),
Can you pass this on to your friends and family in PA? Thanks!
I’m (best friend’s name)’s friend from college, now living down in Texas, where I’ve been volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign for the past several months. With your primary next week, I wanted to explain to you all why I chose to vote for Barack Obama.
Barack Obama’s positions on the issues show that he is honest, trustworthy, and committed to longstanding Democratic causues. Obama opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning, and wasn’t afraid to stand up and say so. He spent the first part of his career working as a community organizer, giving a voice to the disenfranchised and helping to register voters. After graduating from Harvard Law, where he was the first African American of the Harvard Law Review, Obama worked as a lawyer on cases of discrimination and voting rights, helping to protect our democracy. Later, as a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, he taught young law students to respect the rules on which our nation was founded. With Obama, we know we’re getting a president who will actually uphold and defend the Constitution, as well as one who at least knows what it says!
Furthermore, Obama’s history shows that he knows how to get things done, and always looks to help individual people. While I lived in Chicago, Obama was my State Senator, and I volunteered for his Senate campaign. During his eight years as a legislator, he passed many key reforms that demonstrate his progressive values. He required insurance companies to pay for mammograms, mandated video taping of police interrogations for capital crimes, and increased tax credits for working-class citizens. I know that as President he will continue to look out for those in need and look for ways to positively impact everyday Americans’ lives.
All of that aside, Obama represents an opportunity to make great gains for the Democratic Party by developing a movement of engaged young people who want to turn their energy into the change our country needs. I’ve been amazed to see hundreds thousands of young people turn out to volunteer to help Obama get elected. When he wins, these folks will stay engaged and help carry out the work we need to repair our country. I know they’ll stay, because it happened to me – Obama was the first candidate I ever volunteered for, and I haven’t stopped since.
Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate. I genuinely hope you’ll give him your fullest consideration, and join myself and the millions of other people who have decided to cast their vote for Barack Obama.
Sincerely,
(kath25)
Donate to Obama!
Last but not least, let’s keep pushing the numbers up on Obama’s fundraising. Over 1,314,730 people have already invested in Obama, invested in change. Donate now, and double your impact! An Obama supporter will match your donation right now. Best of all, that link will fund the Obamathon, the Netroots fundraising drive for Barack Obama!
(Come on, what else you gonna go with that tax refund? Or that "economic stimulus" you’re getting?)
Obama’s making huge ad buys in Pennsylvania to counter Hillary’s media dominance. Help keep him on the air. Help pay the staff that are coordinating massive GOTV volunteer efforts. Help get Obama’s message out. Even $10 makes a difference – Obama has made it this far thanks to folks like you willing to give whatever you can.
Thanks for joining us, and hooray for the first day of Obama Action Week!