We intend to win Georgia!
That's what Howard Dean said to a very energetic crowd yesterday when the Register for Change tour rolled into Atlanta yesterday. I didn't take great notes, or great photos, but I want to share my thoughts because this was an exciting event. It happened about 6:00 pm in Midtown Atlanta as thick storm clouds rolled overhead, but there were still about 300 people (my estimate) who showed up to see our DNC chairman and the new Atlanta Obama headquarters.
Earlier in the day, the tour had been in Savannah and Macon, where the tour drew crowds as well. Dean told us that Savannah exceeded its goal of registering voters, and maybe had even beat Atlanta. That would be great, because Saturday 1300 new voters were registered in Atlanta.
I was impressed with the size of the crowd. It was bigger than the crowds that attend John McCain rallies that have McCain present. Dean talked about how this is the first time since 1992 that we have tried to win Georgia. He went on to talk about how the issues that affect and concern Georgians are the same ones that the Democratic party want to fix, and said he wants to come to Georgia and ask for our votes. I think that's going to work. He also mentioned that we are targeting evangelical voters because we can come together on important issues like poverty and healthcare. He didn't mention Jimmy Carter at this point as a guy who might help, but he could have.
We had a couple of local pols also present, including mayor Shirley Franklin, state senator Nan Orrock, and my Congressman Hank Johnson. We also had some Hillary protesters, which I didn't understand. But Dean acknowledged the protesters and said that Hillary is a great person and a great Democrat who was going to help us campaigning and winning in November. Yeah party unity!
Finally, Dean talked about a study that the DNC had done in Virginia to find the most effective method of winning, and said that what we must do is go and talk to our neighbors and find out what issues concern them. With this information we can talk to them about Obama and the Democratic party and how voting blue is the right thing to do. He challenged us in Georgia to go out and and meet three times each with 25 neighbors, but then said to Mayor Franklin that that Democrats in Oregon were challenged to meet with 40 neighbors and wondered if Atlantans could beat that. Well, why not?
Georgia is going to be tough in November only because some people here are used to voting for Republicans. I am grateful that Obama and DNC want to turn that around this year and are trying to help us turn Georgia blue.