The campaign left him $60,000 in debt and unsure of his future. At 38, he was a state legislator in a party out of power, a black politician trounced in the black heartland, an outsider in the tribal world of Chicago politics. His long absences from home had angered his wife. "He was very dejected when it was over," said Mikva, "and thinking of how else he could use his talents." When a nonprofit group dangled a high-paying job, as director, Obama was so nervous--for fear that he might get it--that his hands were shaking on the way to the interview, a former aide reported.
Like many Obama supporters, I have a great deal of personal affection for my candidate. In other words, I like him a lot as a human being, in ways that more resemble your relationship with friends than with politicians. I guess that means I have drunk the Kool Aid, which is alright with me.
I've been biting my nails over Barack's plans to give a speech in Germany. I know everyone is really excited about this but I'm convinced it's a mistake.
First, there was much speculation that they would be doing it at the Brandenburg Gate, something that I found to be quite inappropriate. The fact that they STILL pursued it, even after various German politicians including Angela Merkel criticized the idea, was something I found stunningly arrogant.
Now he will be speaking before the Victory Column, which is a relief. And I am still biting my nails. After all...as much as we want him to be...
Barack Obama isn't President yet.
What business does he really have giving a speech overseas like this?? What is the rationale behind it? To quote Tuffie's comment from the diary on the rec list:
This has backlash stamped all over it. It fits every single GOP and media these: arrogance, President of Eurotrash or America?, etc., etc. It makes me uneasy.
This feels like it's all about Obama, Obama, Obama. It isn't going to gain him a SINGLE vote that he doesn't already have. It may, instead alienate those folks who already think he's too foreign and too different from them.
This is a diary repost: I wrote it earlier but I thought the night-time crew might like to meet Obama's awesome sister.
Barack's sister, Maya, is pretty amazing as a surrogate. She's funny and charming a great speaker and really inspirational (Hmmn...she reminds me of someone....)
I think the campaign is planning on using her more on the campaign trail and she's doing a great job. She was in Florida holding events including a fundraiser and even a meeting with teachers (she has a PhD in Education and is a teacher herself).
Here is her appearance at a Women for Obama yesterday. She had lots of personal stories to share including talking about their mother and grandmother, and how Barack's daughters make him cry. I think she's just as effective as Michelle in terms of reaching out to women, especially Hillary's voters, and showing a different side of Barack.
I basically love her already. (More below the fold.)
Michelle has a really novel new approach to her campaigning and one that I find brilliant.
Starting in New Hampshire a few weeks ago, she now does these "roundtable discussions" with groups of women where she zeroes in on issues like getting adequate child care and the Family Leave Act. She still has a stump speech (and it's a great speech), one that wraps around relevant policies, but a lot of what she does is listen to other women and their concerns and then responding with her own thoughts.
Like The View basically.
Anyway, this framework really plays to her strengths. When she was in New Hampshire right before the Unity event, she got GLOWING press, not only in newspapers but on the local news. She came across as incredibly warm and intelligent (and beautiful! She wore this very striking white and gray dress that I am still looking for).
It's basically the PERFECT format for her.
Today she appeared in Pontiac Michigan with Jennifer Granholm and has gotten more really great local press.
When Obama arrived and stepped out of an enormous bus, he was greeted with a rowdy "O-BAM-A" chant from the crowd, which quickly provided a hearty rendition of "Happy Birthday" for Malia.
Yesterday we learned that the NRA will be putting some major bucks (a $40 million dollar effort) towards slamming Obama on gun control in battleground states.
Well we are returning fire. Elizabeth Edwards, already such an effective surrogate for Obama when it comes to Health Care, is headlining the group Health Care for America Now to advocate for Universal Health Care and criticize Mccain's ridiculous plan. Via Politico:
Next week, the group Health Care for America Now will unveil a $40 million effort, with the first ad buy being a $1.5 million in national print, online and broadcast advertising.
...
The group's goal is to provide "quality, affordable health care for every American," and it obviously dovetails with the Obama campaign's promise of providing universal health care. The group will spend $25 million in paid media, while also funding 100 organizers involved in events around the country.
I am feeling pretty frustrated. I won't write a GBCW because that would be as unproductive as the diaries that are frustrating me so much.
But I was re-reading Dreams from My Father earlier today. When I first read it three years ago, I really only knew Obama as a writer and I was thinking about what a lyrical and poetic and beautiful story it was.
But having followed this campaign for 17 months, I feel like I know Barack Obama the man, or at least, having become incredibly invested in this campaign, I feel like part of his journey. Anyway, on this read, this passage stuck out to me.
p. 49
'If you want to grow into a human being,’ she would say to me, ‘you’re going to need some values.
"’Honesty – Lolo should not have hidden the refrigerator in the storage room when the tax officials came, even if everyone else, including the tax officials, expected such things.
Fairness – the parents of wealthier students should not give television sets to the teachers during Ramadan, and their children could take no pride in the higher marks they might have received."
I feel soooooooo silly using a diary on this...I am hanging my head in shame, as I type this.
But I have become strangely attached to the contest that Parents.com is having between the two possible First Ladies, (or rather between their cookies). I didn't make Cindy's recipe, but Michelle's shortbread cookies are THE BESTEST, and plus, it will give her a nice round of good publicity when she wins the contest.
Also, ever since Cindy Mccain's highly unladylike attack on Michelle Obama last week, and since I learned that Cindy actually plagiarized her recipe, I am just really determined for Michelle to take her down.
Until today, Michelle was ahead by almost 130 votes. But Cindy has been really closing in--perhaps Red State is freeping it? Anyway, if you have two seconds PRETTY PLEASE go and vote for Michelle? If you already signed up for this thing last week when it first started, you can actually vote again, every single day, so just log in and vote for Michelle.
Thank you! You may now return to the serious political news!
Ever since May's lackluster numbers, I think a lot of folks are worried about Obama's fundraising. I am actually GLAD that people are worried since it makes them more likely to give.
But I have been closely tracking Obama's money intake, as best as I could, over the past month and I would say we have NOTHING to worry about.
The main difference between this month and last month is that they are doing a TON of fundraisers. Having the nomination wrapped up has freed both Barack and Michelle from having to campaign constantly and both are using their time to really rake in the cash.
Yesterday Michelle held TWO fundraisers. One in the afternoon in Alabama that had about 250 guests for at least $1,000 a pop. Then in the evening, she went to Washington DC and had another one.
Last week I did something I would normally NEVER consider.
As I was busily stacking my groceries on the conveyor belt I came to face with...Michelle and Barack, looking so happy and in love on the cover of US Weekly! And naturally, I bought the thing. Literally the first time I have ever, ever spent money on a celebrity magazine.
And, I wasn't the only one. Michelle's cover issue was apparently a big success!!
Putting Michele Obama on the cover of Us Weekly appears to be a gamble that’s paid off. Early sales numbers for the celeb glossy are trickling in, and according to sources that are familiar, the June 30 issue could sell more than 900,000 copies. (A spokesperson for Us declined comment, saying that whether good or bad, the magazine doesn’t comment on week-to-week sales.)
To put the numbers in perspective, sales for the prior three weeks’ covers averaged about 710,000 copies per week.
A new poll out tonight from ABC/WAPO has uniformly good news as well as some areas where Barack can progress.
Highlights:
Obama has more work to do with Hillary's voters. This particular poll doesn't show much of a unity bounce. I think when she and Bill start campaigning for him it will go a long, long way toward getting those folks back.
Almost nine in 10 Republicans now support McCain, while not quite eight in 10 Democrats said they support Obama. Nearly a quarter of those who said they favored Clinton over Obama for the nomination currently prefer McCain for the general election, virtually unchanged from polls taken before Clinton suspended her campaign.
One EXTREMELY encouraging sign....Americans are catching on that Mccain is really Mcbush!!
In general, 57 percent said McCain would continue to lead the country as Bush has, while 38 percent said he would chart a new course.
This is BEFORE Obama runs ads defining him. So that's a great start.
I thought I should write up today's Rasmussen poll since yesterday's showed Obama losing a point and folks were worried the bounce wouldn't last. But he's actually holding steady at 6 points, attracting 47% of the vote and John McCain gets 41%. With "leaners" Obama hits 50% and still leads by 6%.
In the Rasmussen weekly tracking poll listing of 2004, which you can check out here, you'll see that John Kerry never had a lead of 6 points. His biggest lead was 2.8 points, in August. Most of the time he was behind or led by much less than that. Like 1.4 or even .6. George Bush also never had a lead of six points. So ignore the Dukakis comparison--that poll was probably an outlier. When we compare where Obama is now to where Kerry was in 2004, he is in a markedly stronger position.
When Hillary and Bill Clinton start campaigning for Barack and when he starts advertising on television, I expect he will increase this lead somewhat.
So....is anyone else rather obsessed with 270towin.com? I find myself fiddling around with the various scenarios of the electoral college several times a day. Sometimes I give Barack a landslide, flipping North Carolina and Montana and Indiana and even Georgia and turning them blue.
But most of the time, I play a rather depressing game. I call it, What If He Loses Ohio? The most recent Ohio polls show it as basically a toss-up. Of course, this was before Hillary dropped out. The Unity bounce which we have seen have a huge effect on national polls will undoubtedly be felt in individual states as well.
That said, Ohio includes large swaths of Appalachia, and large numbers of the Hardworking Americans that have given Barack a lot of trouble. Unlike Pennsylvania, it doesn't have huge cities that can offset his weak spots. I am basically not optimistic.
BUT Barack can win the Electoral College without Ohio with very little difficulty. In fact, there are at least two completely realistic ways. They are
I have this incredibly goofy smile on my face right now. What caused it? Reading this account of Terry McAuliffe at Hillary's staff party:
Looking relaxed, McAuliffe stopped by to speak briefly with reporters, saying the entire campaign staff is looking to "take some time, relax, and do everything we can to help Barack Obama."
"It was a great campaign, 17 months... Talk about her breaking the glass ceiling, and I think she shattered it. She got in, she got more than 18 million votes, she won a lot of important states. I think I speak for all the staff here, they’re very proud. It was an exciting campaign. It was very close, but now we do everything we can to help Barack Obama become the next president, because it’s about the issues."
McAuliffe said Clinton's mood is "great." Asked if she'd soon do a campaign swing for Obama, he said she would "do anything."
"She has made that clear, she will do anything she can to help Barack Obama," he said. "If he wants her to travel every day she’ll do that."
He would not give much insight into what she'd say tomorrow, saying only that it would get people "pumped up" and build the momentum for the final five months.
Sen. Hillary Clinton visited staff at her headquarters in Arlington, Virginia Wednesday just after most of them had been told they would no longer have to report to work after Friday.
A staffer who was in the room said she invited all of her campaign staff to come to her home on Friday.
Before Clinton arrived, the staff was told that they would be paid through June 15th. But the bulk of the staff was told their last day of work would be Friday.
Junior staffers were emotional and some were crying and as Clinton left her headquarters, she waved to cameras outside.
Reading this passage made me rather sad. Not because I forgive or excuse Hillary's behavior...but because I can understand that she fought very hard for this nomination and must be terribly disappointed. I can relate to that even as I think less of her for every hour that goes by without conceding.
Barack is in Las Vegas today giving a really scathing speech on the housing crisis and the economy in general. It is chock-full of policy proposals but he is also quite expertly tying Mccain to Bush. He even poked fun at the sad little fundraiser they are having in Arizona today!
Some highlights
On the fundraiser
I just had the privilege of visiting with Felicitas Rosel and Francisco Cano at their home here in Las Vegas.
Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting. He’s holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters. And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn’t want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years.
Barack Obama has picked up three superdelegate votes from Hawaii.
Hawaii Democrats selected three Obama supporters to fill its remaining superdelegate slots at their state convention today, including the new chair and vice chair of the party.
Chairman Brian Schatz and vice chairwoman Kari Luna say they will support Obama at the national convention. State Democrats chose retired Judge James Burns, also an Obama supporter, as the final superdelegate.
The three Obama supporters are among the state's nine superdelegates, only two of whom support Obama's rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Among Hawaii's pledged delegates, Obama leads Clinton 14-6.
This puts him.....LESS THAN 50 DELEGATES AWAY!!! Yet another important milestone reached, and how lovely that it was Barack's home state than brought him there. :)
Many of you may remember the tiny Japanese town that has been enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama's campaign--because they share a name and they hope that if Obama becomes president, they will be a tourist destination. A pretty savvy plan if you ask me!
Anyway, they are all pretty stoked about last nights results.
As US presidential candidate Barack Obama declared he was "within reach" of the Democratic nomination for the White House, the city of Obama in western Japan was dancing with glee today.
Amid fresh enthusiasm, self-styled Obama supporters were gathering in beachside Obama Park to celebrate the candidate’s march to the nomination with local hula dancers as the sun sets.
"We believed this day would come. There were days we were worried, but we are really glad that we have kept working" to support Obama, said Seiji Fujihara, head of the local tourism board.
"We want to have more campaigns that could help Mr Obama and continue our fight until the very end of the election," he said, promising to keep up their support to help Obama beat Republican nominee John McCain.
