I just watched Rachel on MSNBC and had a few observations
Hello everyone, how are you.
I just watched Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She had an appearence on Hardball with Chris Matthews and then her own show. Now I know that my beloved Rachel is a reliable liberal and I also love her programme. I make a point to watch it every night on MSNBC but for the last 3 nights, there has been a lot of concern shown by Rachel. Her "Talk Me Down" segment for the last couple of nights consisted on the theme that the early voting has not been successful for the Obama campaign.
I will illustrate my point with some examples
1- Even though Obama's Sarasota event had an amazing turnout and a lot of people, Rachel showed her concern on Hardball and then on her own show that the bleachers were empty and the stadium was not full. She then also stated on Hardball that her feeling is that "McCain may very well win Florida".
2- She has consistently stated that early voting has been dismal in states like Ohio and Colorado. For the last 2 nights she has maintained this line that out of all the absentee ballots requested, onlythe third have been returned. Gov. Ritter of Colorado had to finally correct her.
3- She has also constantly maintained that in the Ohio early voting, only 3000 people have voted in the largest 4 counties. Which I think is also incorrect.
Now I am sure that there is no ill intentions on Rachels part, but I got so concerned after watching her programme for the last 3 nights that I posted a "Concern Full" diary yesterday. And in Rachel's own words, I was "talked down" a bit by the fellow daily kos readers.
As for me, I am a first time voter as I just got Naturalized in January 2008. I live in N.Carolina and am a student and also work full time. As I wrote yesterday, because of my limited income, I have skipped dinner on numerous occasions so can save that $12 and add them up to donate to Sen.Obama. and so far, I have donated about $350 to change the country I love, and even though this amount may seem a little small for some, but for a person of my modest means, it is not small at all.
As of today, I have driven 5 of my family members to the polls. Now these are the 5 people who would never have voted because they think that the President has no role in our everyday lives. And I just kept bugging them till I changed their mind, drove them to the 1 stop register and vote station where they all registered and voted for change.
1 last note, I love you all. I owe it to Daily Kos and all the members who have given me hope in the last 4 years since Bush got reelected. You guys have given me so much hope when I felt down, you have shown me light when I thought only darkness surrounded me, and for that, please accept my gratitude and thanx.
LOVE YOU ALL
UPDATE: Thank you all for expressing your opinions on this diary. I just have couple more observations.
1- 1st, I think its not productive to keep on stating on your show that the early voting has been disastrous. Rachel has repeated that Colorado early voting misstatement as late as tonights show even though the facts show otherwise.
Also her statement last night that only 3000 people have voted early in the 4 largest counties in Ohio. What it might do is people may start thinking that this time is also "same ol". That the anticipation about Obama ground operation was just a hype.And again voters are not turning out as they have done in the past elections.
I completely agree that we CANNOT be lazy in our efforts. We have to keep working to make sure we win on Tuesday. But on the same time, we have to be positive and also feel happy that our efforts are having an effect. That people are turning out to vote, and this time, IT IS DIFFERENT.