Share Your Story with a Superdelegate is a page on the Obama website where you can make a direct appeal to undecided superdelegates. My own story on the flip. I hope other Kossacks will post their own? From the website:
Our work so far has taught us one important lesson: that your personal story about why you support Barack Obama is often the most powerful persuasion tool for someone who's undecided.
That's true whether that undecided voter is your neighbor or a superdelegate.
The story of where you're from, what brought you into the political process, the issues that matter to you, and why you became part of this movement has the potential to inspire someone who could cast a deciding vote in this contest.
Here's my contribution:
My daughter Carmen is fifteen years old. Her World History teacher at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Mr. Randy Rutschman, is an avid politico and just a wonderful teacher. He's got many of these teenagers, Carmen included, thinking seriously about developing their own political views for the first time. Carmen and her friends have impressed me by asking so many intelligent questions about the political process over the school year, and I know this is Mr. Rutschman's doing; they all adore him.
During the California primaries I canvassed for Senator Obama, and one Saturday I asked Carmen to join me. "I haven't asked you directly whether you support my candidate," I said, "but if you support Senator Obama, you ought to come along." I was thrilled to hear that she was backing the Obama campaign at school, but she wasn't too crazy about giving up her Saturday morning; in the end, though, she decided to join me. We hopped into the car and headed for El Tropical in Silverlake, a funky Cuban coffeeshop where a small but fiery group of Obama supporters quickly trained us and sent us along to Los Feliz. Our goal was to persuade undecided Democrats to vote for Senator Obama.
We spoke to several dozen Democrats, many of whom were not as undecided as we'd been led to expect. There were a lot of high-fives and shouts of, "Yes We Can!" with fellow Obama voters, and a few exchanges with some slightly grumpy Clinton supporters. The low point was having a door literally slammed in our faces by one elderly voter, whose name was Winifred, and Carmen observed dryly, "I never met a Winifred I could love." We never did find out who Winifred was supporting. But even so, it was really exhilarating to be spending a beautiful afternoon this way, speaking to fellow voters whom I'd never met with my daughter; it takes a certain boldness to just go up to someone's house and ring the doorbell! It was a great education for Carmen, and an even better one for me, as we shared our growing feelings about healing the nation after the disasters and the bitter partisanship of the Bush administration, and how in Senator Obama we've finally found someone who is in truth (not "only in words"!) a "uniter, not a divider."
The last house we visited was an Independent voter's. A stubbly, attractive young man of about 30 answered the door, and to our surprise, he proceeded to grill me (very politely) about the Obama campaign. Most people had wanted to grab our literature and end the conversation as quickly as possible, but here was a real live undecided voter! Asking questions! "Why are you voting for Obama?" he asked, in a not just interested but positively penetrating manner. "I voted for Bill Clinton both times; enthusiastically the first time, and still willingly the second," I began. "I loved both Clintons at first, but became increasingly disappointed with them." He seemed surprised at that, and said, "Okay, but why are you voting FOR Obama?"
"Senator Obama is the first politician I've ever known who seems more interested in getting regular people to participate in government than in his own career, his own prestige ... his legislative achievements in Illinois are amazing, especially the videotaping of criminal suspects, which was a really hard piece of legislation that passed unanimously in the Illinois State Senate, he did that. It's no accident that he rose so far, so fast ..." I was just getting warmed up, he seemed interested, and then suddenly my daughter broke in! "I'm too young to vote!" she nearly shouted. "But all my life I've seen the adults fighting and arguing about politics, and nothing good can ever come of it! Senator Obama can change that if he becomes President, because he is for everyone working together, and THAT is why I support him!" Our voter's eyebrows had shot right up, and there they stayed. He stared at Carmen and you could just see his mind changing right before your eyes. He slowly said, "I think you may be right."
It's too bad I can't send Carmen to every house in the nation with this simple, incontrovertible message. But I think it's getting through to people, even without her help.
(And thanks, Mr. Rutschman!)