I was honored to be amoung the Ohio bloggers chosen to meet with Sen Barack Obama at the Ohio Democratic Party Dinner. Initially, there was some discussion over whether bloggers should be considered media and get media passes or activist and be included in a raffle with other volunteers for the $150 dinner tickets. In the end, Sen Obama and his staff, sidestepped the whole discussion and just bought a table for a few Ohio bloggers. Included at the table were:
Ohio2006,
Writes Like She Talks,
Psychobilly Democrat,
Buckeye State Blog, Plunderbound,
Ohio 2nd(Mr. & Mrs.),
Phos Norka Pages,
Diary of a Community Technology Advocate and Me -
HeightsMom. Progressive Ohio is very lucky to have such active and engaging bloggers. It was a pleasure to meet everyone face to face. The crowd was huge (over 2500 people) and the energy level was off the charts. Everyone in the Veterans Memorial Center was excited about the event, the candidates and the possibility of a Blue Ohio.
There were so many great speeches at the event. I have included a few excerpts for you to enjoy here:
Senate candidate Sherrod Brown on "Poor Mike Dewine" -
Let me for a moment tell you for a second about this race for the Ohio Senate..we are raising money... we have started phone banking in many of the counties that John Kerry lost... but I've noticed the way the media covers this race is they keep talking about "POOR MIKE DEWINE" ... the iraq war is going bad, medicare is going bad, energy prices are up, Tom Noe is going to prison, it is "POOR MIKE DEWINE" to be in this situation. But, let me tell you something about "POOR MIKE DEWINE" from the moment that he was sworn in in January of 01, when George Bush was sworn in that same month - Mike Dewine has been a Rubberstamp for George Bush. On the Iraq War - Mike Dewine is "you got it Mr. President!" and energy bill written by the oil companies - "you got it Mr President RUBBERSTAMP", on the prescription drug bill written by the drug companies - Mike DeWine says "you got it Mr. President. RUBBERSTAMP!" One rightwing judge after another rightwing judge Mike DeWine says "you got it Mr. President. Whatever you need." No Raise in the minimum wage - No oversight and NO ACCOUNTABILITY! But you know what Mike DeWines reward for that is? A 1 million dollar fundraiser in Indian Hills Cincinnati. You know what else his reward is ...DIck Cheney coming in to (Ohio) to campaign, Ken Mehlman coming in to campaign, Karl Rove sitting in on his strategy meetings and helping Mike DeWine - POOR MIKE DEWINE!
Thats why this race is so important."
Barack Obama on the role of the blogosphere in politics
Sen Obama responded ... some of you guys know - I write and taught before I got into politics and the world is perfectable when you write. You can imagine the perfect candidate, the perfect world and the perfect policies and when I am writing - I do not have to vote on some stupid piece of legislation that is one half bad and one half good. So, what happens then is , there is a tendancy for us to get really frustrated, if a candidate, a party or a platform is not subscribing to our ideas ...about where we should go and some of that is useful. I think the blogs have become a useful conscience to the Democratic Party. Where they (the party) start splitting the difference with Republicans over and over - pretty soon they start moving the goal posts way over here and blogs have been a useful corrective to that.
But, I think it is also important though - for every blogger to recognize that "Hey - look - we are operating in the real world and if we've got a situation where we've got a high quality candidate with progressive credentials, who has decided to run and is moving forward against someone whom we know is entirely supportive of George Bushs agenda then we've got to get on with it"
If you really would like to be invigorated here is Sen Obama speech to the 2500+ Democrats at the ODP Dinner (by this time I figured out how to get clear recordings):
Listen to Sen Obama's speech at the ODP Dinner Party
If you would like to see or read more about the event and Sen Obamas meeting with the Ohio Blogosphere please visit any of the blogs listed above they each are covering it and each have a unique perspective.
Thanks Everyone. I hope you enoy it. -Cindy