Welcome, friends. The purpose of this regular series is to promote enthusiasm and action among Daily Kos members. Romney will very likely out-fundraise President Obama. However, we believe that we can still win if (1) we can remain competitive financially, and (2) we volunteer our time and energy (GOTV, canvassing, phonebanking, LTE, ...).
ObamaNightlyNews posts every night at 9:00 ET, 8:00 CT, 7:00 MT, 6:00 PT
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I apologize for the extremely tardy nature of the post. I got home really late.
As I was contemplating this edition of the Obama Nightly News, I considered different titles. The first title I considered was, "Blocking and Tackling !" . As many know, I have read David Plouffe's book, perhaps, one hundred times, without exaggeration. I draw many lessons from it. One lesson from the end: after the financial crisis was clearly upon us and McCain had said that the fundamentals of the economy were sound and thus, he needed to suspend his campaign in over to avoid trying to argue that the economic policies that were destroying our economy needed to be continued, Plouffe noted that we still needed to block and tackle to realize in our votes what the polls portended. Blocking and tackling are the fundamentals of football. They are not spectacular. They won't make the highlight reels. However, they win football games. Champions do the basics, the fundamentals, well. They never take anything for granted. They never rest upon past successes. Teams that do not block and tackle well don't win - no matter what happens on paper.
Winning is about doing the basics better than anybody else. Winning is about working harder than anybody else. Michael Jordan was the GOAT because he practiced harder than anybody else. Tim Duncan was the greatest power forward of all time. He was not the most athletic basketball player. He was not the most spectacular. However, he is, almost unanimously, the best power forward to have ever played the game. His nickname ? The Big Fundamental.
We are well ahead in the polls. The only way we lose is by not blocking and tackling; by losing our focus. Even if we win reelection at the Presidential level, we will pay a price for complacency and lack of focus. For, important legislation takes place at state house; budgets, attacks on women's rights, attacks on women, xenophobic attacks on those of different ethnicity and sexual orientation. Important legislation comes from misogynist governors like Bob McDonnell of Virginia. Budgets start in the US House of Representatives. To me, this election is looking like a wave election with an electorate that is very similar to 2008. We have a good chance of winning back the US House of Representatives. We should retain the US Senate. If we continue to donate whatever we can, talk to our friends and neighbors and family members about President Obama and our Democratic Party, if we make calls, organize, and canvass, we will win, and win by a wide margin. If we win by a wide margin, we will send a message to the Republicans. If we win by a wide margin, we will have a mandate; the republican policies and obstructionism will be shown to be widely rejected, when there are more voters at the polls, like in Presidential elections. So, let's block and tackle ! Take nothing for granted ! Fight until the last vote is counted ! And a large win by our President will help us get better legislation (both in terms of coattails and in terms of an earned mandate). Moreover, we need to punish the republicans for being the party of the rich, white, male and nobody else. Furthermore, I want to run ads against Willard and Bain Capital well after the election, as a warning to the others.
Now, 2008 was a "Change election". Those types of elections are on the winning side normally only during an economic downturn. It is odd. Changes in socially progressive items which poll well , hurt a candidate in an election most of the time. However, progressive views do not hurt the challenging candidate at an election when the economy is in turmoil. This has been my observation. Our country is not a center right nation. And any one progressive policy polls may poll well. But a forthright candidate who shows himself or herself to be dead serious on actually following through on that policy gets condemned by the mainstream media. Those views are labeled as "unAmerican" or untraditional or an attack on traditional America. And perhaps, more people are lost than gained for each new progressive view advanced; new people are lost or "alienated " (which says something poor about the person who moves away from our party due to some new progressive agenda item).
Our economy now has an economic floor laid underneath it, as President Clinton put it. We have had 29 consecutive months of job growth, yielding 4.5 million new private sector jobs. And had the republicans not sabotaged our economy by (1) preventing the American Jobs Act (and other stimulus bills ) from passing and (2) laying off public sector workers, then our economy would have a much lower unemployment rate.
Our economy is clearly not in free fall. Yet, we do not see the robust job creation that would substantively or rapidly lower our unemployment rate. Each recovery is slower than the last. This does not seem to be the time, in previous decades, when change would be popular.
Yet, I still believe that our party and President Obama are agents of change. Why ? The demographics of this country are changing, rapidly. So, old Appalachian white guys who are poor feel threatened. And the rich, white men do not want to give up their current power. We know that trickle down is a failed economic theory; it is a myth that cutting the marginal rates for the highest wage earners benefits the middle class.
But the wealthy needed to try to trick Kansans and the Appalachian white guys.
This is their way of keeping control; if they play social conservatives, argue for the economic status quo as what God would want, then they get to retain their wealth.
We do not obtain a broadly shared prosperity.
So, what happens ? The republicans argue for deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy (with much nowmorethaneverism) as a traditional value. They also argue against diversity and progress. This can win elections. And if they get those tax cuts, wealth stays at the top. The wealthy stay wealthy; they enrich themselves. They get the right to do whatever they want, regardless of the consequences for the rest of us. Investments in our future economy are delayed. Equality is denied. They get to retain the status quo which is great for them and not so good for the rest of us. Willard's policies would cut his own taxes to less than one percent. Ryan/Romney's "plan" for Medicare would destroy it. This is economic darwinism, randism at its worse - that is the result of laissez faire economics - or in this case, something even worse.
Fighting that status quo and fighting for broadly shared prosperity is fighting for change. And we are not simply fighting against the status quo on the economy - we are fighting inequality in social areas where traditionalists have fought us. Ending Don't Ask - Don't Tell, declining to defend DOMA is another, the Executive Order of the MiniDream Act is yet another. Affirming that all people should have the right to marry the partner of their choice is yet another. It helps that the President's character and family life are unimpeachable. It helps that the person affirming equality is stable, intelligent, and credible. It helps that the person fighting for change is one who takes second place to no American in defending our country. It helps that our President showed his character by saving our traditional American manufacturing jobs, making cars, here in America.
In this election, the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama are the agents of change. And the republicans are the party of the status quo with the goal of enabling the wealthy to retain their wealth at the expense of the middle class. And our American electorate is now much less threatened by realistic campaigns which support progress in equality. The flags waving in Denver in 2008 were beautiful. Progressives love this country; we want it to live out its promises, to make those promises real for everybody. The support that our President has, after his stances, is a promising harbinger that the best of America is yet to come.
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Some more great polls
To recap:
Ohio - Obama +10 (53-43)
Florida - Obama +9 (53-44)
Pennsylvania - Obama +12 (54-42)
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Bloomberg has up 49 to 43
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Republicans are delusional
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Iowa
is first (today as it should be lol)
Get registered to vote with your current name, at your current address, by ten days before the election. You can also register on Election Day at your polling place.
If you are registering to vote at the polls on Election Day, you must provide photo ID. Voters who register on Election Date have to prove both identity (photo ID) and residence – but your ID doesn’t need to have your current address. You can use one of the following items to prove your Iowa residency:
◦A residential lease
◦Property tax statement
◦Utility bill
◦Bank statement
◦Paycheck
◦Or any other government document with the current name and address
More information :
Iowa does not have a voter ID requirement, but you may be asked to show identification if:
◦You registered to vote after January 1, 2003, and have never voted in a Primary or General election in your county;
◦You have moved from where you are registered to vote;
◦You have moved from where you are registered to vote;
◦Your right to vote has been challenged;
◦The precinct election officials do not know you.
If one of these situations applies to you, be sure to bring one of the following pieces of identification to the polls:
◦a current and valid photo ID
Or any of the following documents, with your name and current address:
◦Current utility bill (including cell phone bill);
◦Current bank statement;
◦Current paycheck or government check;
◦Other current government document.
If you have additional questions about voting in Iowa, please contact: Iowa Secretary of State: 1-888-SOS-VOTE (1-888-767-8683);
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Colorado
Get Registered to vote with your current name, at your current address, by 29 days before Election Day.
To be registered for the November 6, 2012 general election, you must register no later than October 9, 2012.
You can get your registration started right now.
On election day, make sure that you have
Make sure you have one of these pieces of identification, with your current name on it, with you at the polls:
◦A valid Colorado driver’s license;
◦A valid identification card issued by the Department of Revenue in accordance with the requirements of Part 3 of Article 2 of Title 42, C.R.S.;
◦A valid U.S. passport;
◦A valid employee identification card with a photograph of the eligible elector issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the United States government or of this state, or by any county, municipality, board, authority, or other political subdivision of this state;
◦A valid pilot’s license issued by the federal aviation administration or other authorized agency of the United States;
◦A valid U.S. military identification card with a photograph of the eligible elector;
◦A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and current address of the elector. For example
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Next up is Nevada
Get registered to vote with your current name, at your current address, for the November 6, 2012 general election by October 6, 2012. If you miss the deadline to register online, by mail, at the DMV or through a voter registration drive, you can register to vote in person at your county clerk’s office up until October 16, 2012.
Click here for the form to register in NV
Here is what we need to know :
Here's what you need to know about registering in Nevada
•You need to be 18 or older on Election Day.
•You need to be a United States citizen.
•You need to be a resident of Nevada and the county in which you’d like to vote for 30 days before the election, and in the precinct for 10 days before the election.
•You can’t be a felon who has not had his or her right to vote restored.
•You can’t have been determined by a court of law to be mentally incompetent.
•You can’t have claimed any other place as your legal residence.
•If you’re a first-time voter who registers by mail, you’re required to submit proof of identification either at the time of registration or when you vote. You can include a copy of your identification with your registration form today! Acceptable forms of ID include: a current utility bill, bank statement, valid photo ID, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.
Don’t forget—your state may have additional ID requirements when you go to the polls.
If you have additional questions about voting in Nevada, please contact:
(775)-684-5705; nvelect@sos.nv.gov
On Election day
Nevada does not have a voter ID requirement in most cases, but if you haven’t yet voted in a federal election in Nevada, and didn’t show an ID when registering make sure you bring:
◦A current and valid photo ID that shows your physical address; or
◦A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or document issued by a governmental entity, including a check which indicates your name and address, but not including a voter registration card issued
In order to vote by mail, you need to provide:
◦A copy of a current and valid photo ID that shows your physical address; or
◦A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or document issued by a governmental entity, including a check which indicates your name and address, but not including a voter registration card.
◦If there is a question as to your physical address, the election board officer or clerk may request additional information.
◦These provisions do not apply to certain first-time voters. See if they applies to you.
If you have additional questions about voting in Nevada, please contact: Elections Division: 775-684-5705; nvelect@sos.nv.gov
Link to
Transcripts and Documents.