COLORADO!!!

Justin and I arrived in Colorado today! We will be here from now through the election in order to help out Obama's campaign however we can. Since we didn't get in until the evening - we will be starting tomorrow. They haven't told us what we will be doing yet, but since we rented a car I am guessing we will be going door to door.

We met our wonderful hosts, Dot and EB, who will be giving us a place to stay during our time here. They are very cool people with two very sweet and outgoing kids.

Since we haven't done anything for the campaign yet - I will use this post to share some fun pictures of us and lil' Obama in the airport and downtown Denver:






Only 4 short days until the election...

Camp Obama

I went to Camp Obama yesterday! No, there weren't any smores, arts & crafts, or scary stories (unless you count talk of the last eight years) - but there were some fantastic and enthusiastic people.

I applied for Camp Obama about a month ago, and had almost forgotten about it until they contacted me last week. On Friday at 3:00 I found out that I would be going to an all day, Camp Obama event in Oakland on Saturday starting at 8:30 in the morning. Luckily, I was able to attend and had a great time.

What is Camp Obama you ask? I was wondering pretty much the same thing up until I went. They train you to be a "Deputy Field Organizer" for Obama's campaign. We were taught some of the basics of phone banking, going door to door, and they taught us how to tell our own story so we can better connect with the people we meet.

It was a really fun experience. There were about 200 people at the camp and they each had incredible stories about what has motivated them to get out and help the Obama campaign. One thing that most people had it common was that the devastation of the 2004 election made them realize how important this really is. As I passed a table I heard a woman say that she wanted to help however she could because she didn't want to see Obama lose this election and wonder if she could have done more. That really resonated with me, that is why I want to get involved while I still can.

Camp Obama also gave me my first chance to make phone calls to a swing state - New Mexico. They had a goal for Northern California to make 100,000 calls this weekend. We each made phone calls for just under an hour and collectively we made almost 4,000 calls! I was nervous, but it only took a couple of calls to realize that it wasn't as intimidating as it seemed.

During our time, which was actually only about 40 minutes, due to a lengthy explanation about how to make phone calls by our table facilitator, I made 26 phone calls.

There where only a few things they wanted us to say. First, we would tell them our name and that we were calling as a volunteer on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign (giving them the chance to hang up right away). Then we asked them which candidate they plan on supporting in the upcoming election. If they said McCain, we thanked them for their time and moved on to the next call. It is not an efficient use of time to try and persuade those who have already made up their minds. If they said they were undecided we asked if them which issues concerned them the most, and let them know that they would be given more information on that topic in the near future (either someone would call them back, or would mail them the information they requested). And finally, if they said they were Obama supporters we would tell them about the early voting options in New Mexico and ask them if they were interested in volunteering.

Here were my results:

• Out of 26 calls 9 people answered
• 1 was the wrong number (or so they say)
  
• 1 hung up after I explained who I was and where I was calling from
  
• 2 were not home
• 2 did not speak English (they both spoke Spanish)
• 1 answered "Never Obama" and when I asked if that meant he supported McCain he hung up
• 2 said definitely 100% Obama! They both were not interested in volunteering, but one had already voted early, and one was going to vote on Tuesday

Not so bad. Doing those first calls really broke the ice for me. I plan on making many more calls leading up to the election, and hopefully will plan a phone banking party or two (since I should do something with my "Deputy Field Organizer" title).

Finally, the camp really stressed the importance of giving our time out of California in a battleground state. The name of the program is "Drive for Change" and typically those from Northern California would travel to Reno, Nevada. I signed up to drive to Nevada over election weekend a while back and had been planning on it ever since. Well, I guess Northern Californians have been volunteering like crazy and they have many volunteers already lined up. They are asking people to get to other Western battleground states if they are able to - and the one they mentioned the most was Colorado. It is a very tight race there and they can use all the volunteers they can get.

So, I changed my trip and now I am planning on going to Colorado for election weekend. I was even able to talk my boyfriend, Justin, into coming with me. We will get in on October 31st and stay until November 5th. It should be exciting to spend election day working in a battleground state!

Only 19 days until I go to Colorado, and only 23 days until the election...

Did Joe Biden win the VP debate?

You Betcha.

Although, when playing the expectations game you never know. Some claim that Sarah Palin "held her own" just by showing up.

As I was thinking about putting together a blog entry about the debate, I found that I had nothing really new to say. So this entry will have some of my thoughts along with some of my favorite remarks, news coverage, quotes, and funny jokes that I have found over the last few days.

I do want to focus on three things about Sarah Palin's debate performance (and I mean performance) that really frustrated me - but did not surprise me.

She did not answer all of the questions

Palin made it clear that she had things that she wanted to talk about, and things that she didn't want to talk about. Throughout the debate she veered off topic to make the points she wanted to make. At one point she even acknowledged it:

"And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also."

This is such BS - and it is nauseating to hear her say it over and over again. On Fox News, one of the only places she will actually do interviews, she claimed that she was annoyed at Katie Couric for not asking the right kind of questions during their interview:

"So I guess I have to apologize for being a bit annoyed, but that's also an indication of being outside the Washington elite, outside of the media elite also. I just wanted to talk to Americans without the filter and let them know what we stand for."

If she really wanted the public to get to know her she would ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS, not just focus on talking points that have been ingrained into her head. She has proven that she is unable answer real voters' questions the by few times she has attempted to do so.



The next day McCain had to retract her statement, which actually supported Obama's stance on strikes against terrorists in Pakistan.

"She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest. In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's—that's a person's position… This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitve policy statement made by Governor Palin."

Again, this is proof that she has shown an inability to communicate with the public about herself and where she stands on the issues - mostly because she doesn't know. The only time she shines is when she is in front of a teleprompter that is feeding her lines. When she goes off script it all falls apart. How is the public supposed to feel like they are getting to know her or feel like she is "talking straight" to them when all she has ever shown us is a list of talking points?

This brings me to the second thing about her performance that frustrated me:

Her complete reliance on talking points

In a fantastic, and very blunt article in the Huffington Post, Robert Shurm said:

"Palin relied on topline phrases and had little command of facts. Why, she even memorized the name of the President of Iran. But it was mostly blah, blah, blah. At the end, the Obama-Biden ticket is far ahead on the big issues -- and Palin's a parrot repeating memorized phrases, not a plausible vice-president."

She made it painfully obvious that she was relying on memorized talking points. This is why she tried to change the subject to taxes THREE times in a row, and tried to shift the discussion to energy (her so-called "strong point") whenever she had the chance. These were the areas she had talking points for, these were her fall-back safe topics.

I am sure that her advisers told her to let her personalty show, but even that was scripted. As she shook Joe Biden's hand at the beginning of the debate she asked him if she could call him Joe. Then, later in the night, she delivered a cute little rhyming line.

"Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again."

Coincidence? Very doubtful. Everything about her answers were scripted including the way she spoke. Which finally brings me to my third frustration:

Her folksy talk and eye-winking were obviously scripted and fake

Seriously? Eye-winking? Is selling us used cars, or a set of cooking knifes? I understand that Sarah Palin does have a folksy way of talking, but the way she rolled out old favorites like "joe six-pack" and "hokey mom" and sent a "shout-out" to a third grade class made it clear that she was hamming it up for the cameras. The reason she plays these things up is to appear more in touch with the people. She wants people to see her as compassionate and understanding of the problems they are facing. But the way she responded after Joe Biden choked up a bit while talking about his family hardships showed that she isn't really as compassionate as she likes to portray herself.



She just moves right on and doesn't even acknowledge what Joe Biden just said. She went on to the the next talking point and took it as yet another opportunity to say Maverick. Rachel Maddow summed it up perfectly on her show while talking about the political importance of folksiness.

"I'm sorry, but that moment spoils every other attempt to make me believe all the 'aww shucks, I'm just a regular nice lady' business. The political importance of folksiness - it's not just style. It is supposed to be a measure of authenticity, of real human connectedness and sensitivity. One harsh show of callousness can undo many hours under the light saying doggone."

Now, just for fun, here are some funny take-aways from the debate - starting with the SNL debate sketch.



From someecards.com:


Only 2 days until the next Obama/McCain debate, and 31 days (one month!) until the election...