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September 9, 2008

More Follow-up on Protests and Arrests During RNC by Sonia Silbert

Sonia Silbert, Co-coordinator of the Washington Peace Center, wrote last week with updates on the mass arrests and detentions by police of activists during the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.  Here are some more reports from her from later in the week.  You can also listen to her interview with us during the RNC on The Marc Steiner Show - click here.

Click here to read more!

September 9, 2008

Let The Elderly Never Sound Retreat by Djelloul Marbrook

Here's a piece contributed to our site by the author Djelloul Marbrook.  Check out his site to see more of his writing and to learn more about him.

The way to take government back from corrupters is at hand. Don't wait for the press to do it for you. It's a do-it-yourself job. It's the perfect job for retirees, because their years and diversity of experience are invaluable tools.
 

Click here to read more! 

September 4, 2008

Lea Gilmore – Sarah Palin Speaks



Sarah Palin speaks. Lets give it to her, she was phenomenal. Her presentation, her engagement, her fiery delivery wowed the Republican base, and a new conservative mega-star was born.

As the loudspeakers played the Sly Stone dance maker “I'm Everyday People,” there was a moment of irony for me. Because unlike the Democratic convention, I didn't see the rainbow of “everyday” people I know. I saw an overwhelming white audience, oh yes they did find some black Conservatives and Latino delegates to be within camera shot.


Click READ MORE below!

September 4, 2008

Obama Speaks Well, but…by Dr. Eric Durham

Hello America,

This is The GoodDoctor reporting once more....and I have shifted my attention that of the Republicans this week. As we know, their convention got off to a slow start due to Hurricane Gustav. (It seems that God answered their prayers to rain out Obama's speech one week too late.) But, now it seems they are "ready to go on the attack!"

Click READ MORE below!

September 4, 2008

Richard Vatz reviews Sarah Palin’s Speech

From RedMaryland.Blogspot.com:

All I can say is “wow.” And when John McCain ascended the stage after Governor Palin’s speech, he said “wow” too.

What an amazingly auspicious speech for an aspiring Vice President candidate to give. In the Geraldine Ferraro era, all of the rhetoric of a major female candidate had a defensive cast. This speech was a confident, aggressive speech by a female candidate for Vice President who knows what she thinks and knows from what values her assertions come.

Click READ MORE below!

September 4, 2008

Oh No She Didn’t, by Dr. Mary Washington



Believing, as Barack Obama, that “We are not as divided as our politics suggest, that we are one people and One Nation,” has never been more challenging than it was last night. As I listened to Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, I became increasingly despairing of the power, the fear, the hate mongering and the delusional self-congratulatory platitudes that peppered her speech and gave comfort to a culturally and economically insecure public. Her words were cast out to embolden the xenophobia of a frightened country, words that were so irresponsible given the external and internal challenges we face. Clearly, the Republican Party has come out of the closet about their plan to exploit and deepen our traditional differences and create and shine light on ones lying beneath the surface.

Click READ MORE below

August 27, 2008

Dr. Eric Durham on “Hill and Bill; The Clinton Factor’

People like Hillary Clinton!

This is obvious based on crowd reaction during her speech last night, and the reaction of the punditry as well. I both enjoyed and appreciated the fact that it was a TACTICALLY sound speech. She illustrated a sincere disengagement from the politics of the McCain campaign; she was clear about her unwillingness to be used as a pawn by the McCain campaign to draw votes away from Senator Obama. Her acknowledgment of the hard work of her campaigners, her acknowledgment of Susan B. Anthony (and the Seneca Falls Convention), and her reference to Harriet Tubman, signaled a Senator who understood her contribution to American History. ...and at the same time, she expressed her unwavering support for Senator Barack Obama. This was the magic of Hillary Clinton's address!


Click READ MORE below

August 27, 2008

Ladies First, by Ronnie Djoukeng

The Democratic National Convention is steamrolling the competition with women at the vanguard.

I believe Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton have provided a sturdy foundation for men to take it to the next level. On Monday night, Michelle discussed her roots and upbringing reminding and informing everyone that she’s American as apple pie. Women were allowed to see the construction of her pie’s latticework—motherhood, sisterhood, and marriage. These attributes that make her who she is reminded women that you can be all things and be proud to be all things. The affirmation of womanhood was a theme that ran through Michelle’s speech as well as Hillary’s.


Click 'Read More' below!

August 27, 2008

The Divides That Bind Us, by Dr. Mary Washington

What is Unity? It seems that the theme within the convention is  “from many one.” And yet do some in both the leadership and the rank and file of the Democratic Party find an uneasiness seeking to place us behind a candidate that embraces the diversity of opinion and strategies that is characteristic of a progressive and dynamic constituency? Do we deep down in our hearts believe the pundits and naysayers that see this cacophony of voices as a failure to stay on message and that we are fool hearty to have the audacity to speak of unity at the foot of the Tower of Babel?
 
Denver must come to symbolize the big tent and yes, we must learn to fight together toward many goals. Does the Democratic Party contradict itself to claim America to be “One Nation.”  I think the answer is “Yes” and it should be as Walt Whitman put, “Very well then I contradict myself,  (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” 
 

Click 'Read More' below!

August 26, 2008

Diana Veiga’s reaction to Michelle’s speech

I listened to Michelle Obama’s speech on the radio last night. Yes, I had to take it old school because I had to make an airport run. There’s nothing like listening to a speech on the radio, especially a speech of this magnitude. There I was driving down the highway and envisaging Michelle’s outfit, her hair & make-up, her gestures, the venue, the colors, the audience’s reactions. I depended solely on the cadence of her voice and my imagination to tell the story that was unfolding, the history that was being made.

Click "Read More" below!

August 24, 2008

It’s Party Time! by Dr. Eric Durham

Okay GoodPeople,

It's time to get this party started! ...and by the way, let's have fun...it's a joyous occasion, regardless of what the Republicans and the critics have to say.

The Number #1 reason to celebrate with absolute fervor is that this convention will be of historical magnitude! Senator Barack Obama, who has already made history in a number of ways, will address yet another arena-sized audience who is eager to hear more about a "different type of politics." No matter how the Republicans try to spin his ability to draw large crowds as a weakness...please "party-goers" rest asssured that if John McCain was able to do so, he would! ...and besides what do the large crowds symbolize? An intelligent person would go beyond Obama's oratory...and find that Americans are actually hungry for sincerity and relief from the "trickle-down" economic policies of the wealthy.

Click "read more" below for the rest of this entry!
August 23, 2008

Lea Gilmore – “Off to Denver”

Off to Denver

by Lea Gilmore

Lea Gilmore

In less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the Center for Emerging Media (CEM) and public radio WEAA 88.9 FM. Wait, I need to say that once more: I am on my way to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the Center for Emerging Media and WEAA! Forgive me, I had to say it twice so the enormity of it all could sink in.

Just for a bit of trivia here, did you know that the first ever Democratic Convention was held in Baltimore in 1832 where President Andrew Jackson was nominated? http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/convention/index.shtml

Go and throw that fact out the next time you are sitting in Jimmy's having breakfast with the morning java crowd and watch them be impressed at your political acumen, or something like that.

Click Read More Below!

August 22, 2008

Thankful to be a witness: a guest blog from Diana Veiga

 
As part of our coverage for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, we're excited to bring you a series of posts from guest bloggers.  We're thrilled to begin with Maryland Blogger Diana Veiga, who blogs over at 5andapossible.blogspot.com, which is a great group blog written by five young women (we'll be meeting another of their contributors later during the convention).  Enjoy!

 

If you believe what the polls say, I am probably one of the few black people who is not ardently supporting presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.  When I mention my hesitation about Obama to an avid supporter (and they are all around us), I am often met with dropped jaws and disappointed looks.  Apparently this is the black race’s one and only chance, so I better get on the bandwagon.  “But what’s he going to do for us,” I ask them.  “Girl, he’s not running for President of Black America, he can’t just cater to us,” they say.  Perhaps.  And then like any good believer would do, they “school” me on Obama’s credentials and end with, “and he’s going to change the nation.”  We won’t go into the fact that when I ask how, I have heard some of the craziest responses, including, “We’re finally going to have a black angel on the National Christmas tree.” OK, that’s change I can believe in.

 

Click Read More below!

August 11, 2008

A Tale of Two Galaxies – Exxon Mobil and the Rest of Us, by Lea Gilmore

“Oh my God, I just can't afford this,” frustratingly exclaimed the woman in front of me in the supermarket line as she watched her food bill go off into the stratosphere. As each beep registered item after item, she finally turned to me, a complete stranger who seemed an obvious ally to her pain, and she said, “You know, I can no longer afford gas to get to work, but if I don't go to work, I can no longer afford food to feed my family. ” I, and the guy with two small children begging for a Snickers bar behind me, gave our collective “amens,” deeply understanding her dilemma from a very personal place.


On that same day, the Exxon Mobil Corporation announced record second quarter profits of 11.68 billion (yeah, million but with a “B”!) dollars. This is the largest profit ever recorded by an US corporation, a profit margin surpassing their own previously astonishing record.


Let's really think about that and offer some perspective: These profits do not reflect a calendar, fiscal or even astrological year, but are a reflection of a mere three months of operations. And yet, this still did not meet Wall Street's earnings expectations resulting in Exxon stock shares actually falling.


It's like living in some fantastical economic twilight zone.


Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards always spoke of there being “two Americas.” It seems even deeper and more profound than that -- more like two alternate galaxies.


In one galaxy the inhabitants are ruled by the gods of speculation, and Wall Street provides the entrance to the diamond encrusted gates where the streets truly are paved with gold. The royalty here (commonly referred to as corporate CEO's and the like) make millions as their kingdoms collapse around them - Modern day Neros. In this corner of the universe, the one known as Phil Gramm, a former US Senator, economist and BFF (teenspeak for "best friend forever")  of John McCain, informs us that all of our economic pain is just in our heads. We are just a nation of “whiners” experiencing a “mental recession.” Yes, this is a scary place, made even more frightening by the insane amount of power the inhabitants here use and abuse.


Meanwhile back in the galaxy that I inhabit, many middle class and even upper middle class families who once enjoyed vacations and weekend getaways, now shop for groceries at the food bank . Turn off notices, foreclosure statements, pink slips and medical bills have replaced pay checks. In fact, this is where living pay check to pay check has become an accomplishment, because it means you actually have the money to keep going. As that venerable poet and stark observer of the human condition Marvin Gaye sang to us, “this ain't living.”


So given all of this, it is not a big leap to understand why ordinary folks just can't wrap their heads around any one business, not even a sovereign nation, making 11.68 billion dollars in three months. No matter how we intellectualize it, explain it and explore it, it just hits us in the gut.


And at the center of all this madness – oil.


Oil dominates our lives and the lives of others all over the world. In fact, even the immense humanitarian crisis in Darfur region of The Sudan is steeped in the politics of oil.  In particular, China remains hush hush as atrocities against black Africans continue to abound in the region. The Chinese government has reaped billions in profits as they have become The Sudan's number one trading partner. According to an NPR report, The Bank of Sudan estimates that the country sells well more than 80 percent of its crude to Beijing.

The US has appropriately called the hell in Darfur genocide, but even with the limited US sanctions that have been implemented against the government, there seems to be a hesitance in taking China to task -- due to oil access and more -- even though the Chinese government has the most leverage to affect change.  It is not the first time that a barrels of oil seem to trump human lives.

So what gives?

There seems to be a collective frustration when reason after reason is given for the remarkable rise in energy costs. Is it purely supply and demand? Are we being manipulated by the manipulators?

Even the so-called facts are relative based on the ideological  bent of the messenger. With the media infected with sound bite-itis, it's hard to get the facts. It seems even more impossible in an election year. What happened to the “Straight Talk Express? ” It feels kinda twisted to me. Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, just give us that elusive thing called the truth.

Maybe I am setting the bar too high.


We hear terms that we only sorta understand. This is what I have been able to infer so far: “Windfall profit tax” – good. “Big oil” - bad. “Renewable energy” - good. “Offshore drilling” – Bad (I think). What does it all mean? One thing we do know is that there are a group of people getting unbelievably wealthy and wealthier in the midst of our confusion.


My ignorance in these matters frustrates me, so I have been doing my own research. One thing I have been able to ascertain is that offshore drilling is actually – not good. It is not the great panacea we are being lead to believe. It will take years to impact the price at the pump. The environmental implications are dire, and according to many experts, we don't even have the hardware out there for immediate implementation. Yet still, according to a Rasmussen report this past June, 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it will have an affect.

OK, I get it.


When people are suffering, they will support almost anything just for some relief, no matter the long term implications (let's say it all together now - “Bush tax cuts”). That being said, I was proud of my American sisters and brothers when they didn't seem to be swayed by the pandering proclamations of a “gas tax holiday” pushed by the Clinton and McCain campaigns during the presidential primaries.

Alas, you can bet that gimmick will be back.


The other truth is that our dependence on oil is chilling. Gasoline, home heating oil, kerosene, asphalt and road oil, aviation fuel, lubricants, still gas and even more stuff is produced from one barrel of crude oil. The US imports around 50% of our oil, with 50% of that coming from OPEC nations. According to a Time magazine article published this past May, oil imports now account for most of the U.S. trade deficit, which was running at an annualized pace of $717 billion, or 5.05% of GDP, in the first quarter of 2008. Our addiction to oil is costing us in a big way.


There are alternatives, but it requires investment of resources by the government and patience from the electorate. There are no quick fixes. Even T. Boone Pickens, the oil billionaire and financier of the Swift Boat smear campaign that was instrumental in derailing the presidential hopes of Senator John Kerry in 2004, has embraced renewable energy by investing his gazillions in wind power (see, told you it is like the twilight zone...). Isn't this investment something our government should be doing?


Other forms of renewable energy such as tidal power, solar power, geothermal power, hydropower, as well as biomass (using living or recently dead biological material like hemp and corn and converting it into fuel) are also options. Something tells me that those oil lobbyist types aren't feeling so warm and fuzzy about these choices and will pull the big guns out (Hah! Too many easy jokes to make here) to slow the process of implementation.


One of the greatest advantages in using renewable energy is obviously the reduction of greenhouse gases produced by our massive usage of fossil fuel. That being so, one of the greatest disadvantages at the micro level is that it is often prohibitively costly for everyday folks to embrace alternative energy choices. Although most of us would love to convert our homes into bastions of solar efficiency, we don't have the big dollars to do so. It seems the people that can least afford to pay the exorbitant costs of installing solar panels and backyard windmills, are the ones who would benefit the greatest from the energy savings. Yet another dilemma.


Businesses are also in distress. Due to the high costs of energy, tightened access to credit, and housing troubles, employers seriously restricted hiring in July. The Labor Department released a report on August 7 reporting that the national unemployment rate unexpectedly hit its highest level in more than six years. No jobs means no consumer spending. No spending means the economy falters even more. But Mr. Gramm told us it is all in our heads, so why worry?


In this atmosphere where people are hurting on so many levels, and gloom and doom is thrown at us “every weeknight at 5 and 11,” there seems something obsessively obscene about energy companies enjoying record profits, at a time when many of us feel like we are on a sinking ship, with the lifeboats already occupied by oil executives making sure their bonus checks don't get wet.


Jeesh, it is just so easy to get discouraged by the unfairness of it all. That unfortunate helpless feeling starts nagging and it seems that no matter what we do, things just won't change. Well, that's not so true. There is one thing we can all do – VOTE.



Lea Gilmore

Friday, August 8, 2008

June 6, 2008

A Tragic Mistake at One of Baltimore’s Best Public High Schools

CEM intern Stavros Halkias is an alumni of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. We're excited to share his writing with our listeners. Please let us know what you think. Baltimore Polytechnic Institute is one of the best schools in the state of Maryland. It is consistently one of the best performing schools in the state with regard to standardized testing, has a list of influential and successful alumni that is both expansive and ever growing, and is often vaunted as one of the few Baltimore City Schools offering a world class education to its students. The success of the school is due, in no small part, to extremely talented and dedicated faculty that are willing to put their students first. In the recent history of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, or Poly, there was no faculty member more talented or dedicated to his field than Dennis Jutras. Unfortunately, Dennis Jutras will be nowhere to be found when Poly students return to school in September. Click "Read More" below for the rest of this article.
May 7, 2008

Dispatch from Indiana – Part 5 – Wednesday May 7, 2008

This is the fifth and final installment in CEM's series of dispatches from Indiana, courtesy of our intern Christina Arrison, who has been there working with the Obama campaign.

Last Thoughts 


It's all over, and everyone I've talked to has been pleased with the outcome of yesterday's primaries. While an outright win in Indiana would have been nice, the margin was so narrow in Indiana and he won North Carolina by so much that the night as a whole was certainly a victory. To me, though, one of the best outcomes of the primary was that it led a lot of people in Indiana to participate in politics for the first time. There were so many new volunteers coming into the campaign office who found out that it really is easy to help out. So many people were able to talk to volunteers, or to cast a vote for the first time. When I wrote my first post I was torn between appreciating the chance to give every state a voice and my worry that it would divide the party. But listening to the speeches of both Obama and Clinton last night it seems like the antagonism has been toned down, and now I'm convinced that the positives have outweighed the negatives. The work that the campaign and volunteers did during the primary didn't stop mattering when people cast their vote yesterday – come this November, and in many elections to come, the people who were energized by this primary will still be there, and hopefully will still remember that their voice matters.
May 6, 2008

Dispatch from Indiana, Part 3 Monday, May 5, 2008

CEM is excited to be bringing you dispatches from Indiana from our intern Christina Arrison, who is working with the Obama campaign. This is the third in the series.

The Night Before 

This is going to be a short one because I'm about to hop into bed to snatch a few hours rest before going back in tomorrow to canvass. The crazy Obama staffers are still at the office getting packets together for tomorrow, but they turned down offers of help so I got to come home to bed. They are going out at 3am to hang flyers on supporters' houses so they'll be there first thing in the morning when everyone leaves for work. I'll be going in around 6 to do some visibility, which can be pretty fun – standing at busy intersections with campaign signs and waving them around. I'm not sure how many votes it actually gets, but I guess any publicity is good, and maybe it will remind people to get to the polls.

Disenfranchised Voters

Today was surprisingly uneventful for a day just before an election. I knocked on doors in a neighborhood where about a quarter of the houses on my list were empty. I wonder where all of those people went to. I'm sure that many of them moved for benign reasons, but I couldn't help but think about the foreclosure crisis all day. That got me thinking about the many subtle, indirect ways that people can be disenfranchised. Home foreclosure of course wouldn't prohibit someone from voting, but it does mean that the voter probably won't receive any information from the campaigns, and switching your address for voter registration is probably the last thing on your mind if you're dealing with the trauma of losing a home. In Indiana if you moved more than 29 days before the election and didn't officially change the registration record you can't vote at your old precinct. There's also the fact that this state requires photo identification and proof of residence to vote, which low income, young, and elderly voters are much less likely to have. The recent Supreme Court decision that upholds the legality of such requirements means that even more states will probably establish similar laws. On a smaller scale, the fact that many lower income voters live in apartment complexes means that it's harder for canvassers to go talk to them, and personal contact at a door is one of the most effective ways of getting people out to vote. Last but not least, of course, there's the fact that the polls are only open until 6pm at night. And unlike many states, Indiana doesn't have a law mandating that employees must receive enough time off to vote, if their work schedule would otherwise prohibit them from going to the polls.

Huge Rally

Rather than close on that note, though, I should mention that tonight I was lucky enough to go to a huge rally downtown. We were all packed onto the American Legion mall in downtown Indianapolis. A local radio station put the attendance at more than 20,000, and the energy of the crowd was palpable. Stevie Wonder made a guest appearance, opening the rally with three songs which he played to the end despite a sudden downpour during the third number. The crowd held despite the several bursts of rain, and Senator Obama delivered a fiery version of his stump speech. It was a positive way to end the day and hopefully a good omen for tomorrow. The bulk of the work has been done now – tomorrow it's only what is called "knock and drag," where you knock on doors until you find someone who says they're planning on voting and you bring them yourself to the polling location. And so now to get some practice in, I'm going to knock off writing and drag myself to bed.

 

-Christina Arrison

May 5, 2008

Dispatch from Indiana, Part 2 Sunday, May 04, 2008

CEM is thrilled to bring you these blog posts from our intern Christina Arrison, who is currently in Indiana working with the Obama campaign. Enjoy!

7 Votes

Obama won the contest in Guam yesterday by seven votes, which was really the only thing keeping me going at 1:30 am last night after two hours of putting tiny stickers that reminded voters to bring their photo IDs to the polls onto a seemingly endless stack of doorhangers. The campaign staff and I kept reminding each other about those seven voters, thinking about how the balance of the election could hang on just one sticker, one person remembering her ID who wouldn't have otherwise, and how maybe that one vote will push us over the edge. Working in the field operation of a campaign requires that mentality, the firm belief that every vote matters. Some people think a campaign comes down to a good debate performance or a savvy piece of election mail; I think it comes down to a 1" by 2" white sticker.

Canvassing

Today I got a chance to put some of those stickers into action by going out and knocking doors. A lot of my work on the primaries so far has been the behind-the-scenes organization of the canvasses, so I really relish any opportunity to get out and talk to voters. Canvassing is one of the most exhausting things that I've ever done. It's physically tiring to be out in the hot sun walking all day, but more than that it can be emotionally draining to talk to people about a candidate I'm so passionate about and be greeted with apathy or anger. It's obviously not a personal attack on me, but after the all-night sticker marathon I'm not thinking logically today. Thankfully those people are few and far between, but I do still have the urge to go out right now and wake up the 24 year old I talked to today who said that he never votes because "change will still happen whether I vote or not." I tried to convince him otherwise but to no avail. I'm comforted, though, by the thought of two other young men I talked to today, both of whom said that they've never thought that voting mattered but that this time they feel inspired to cast a ballot.

It is a very intimate experience to go to the homes of so many strangers. Canvassing has taken me into neighborhoods of all kinds that I usually wouldn't have a reason to visit. It's given me lots of food for thought. Why is there, for example, an inverse relationship between the number of items on a house that say "Welcome" and how welcoming the owner is? Why are the front doors in the so-called "bad" neighborhoods always unlocked and wide open, while in the "safe" areas there is always at least one deadbolt fastened?

The issue of race

Knocking on doors also shines a bright spotlight onto the issue of race in this country. Race has obviously played a large role in the campaign in terms of the possibility that we could soon elect our first black president, but it also concretely affects canvassers who cross over racial boundaries to go door-to-door in neighborhoods that are in many cases still very segregated. Last week two of our canvassers, both young black men, were followed around by police in the mostly white neighborhood where they were working. When the pair was done knocking, the police car tailed them the whole way across the city back to our headquarters. Two middle-aged women from one of our unions were in a similar area today when they knocked on the apartment door of an off-duty police officer who told them they were illegally trespassing in the complex (which was not true) and that if he got one complaint from a neighbor he would arrest them right then and there. As a white woman I experience a different side of things – my blood still boils when I think of the woman in Ohio who told me she wasn't going to support Obama because she didn't think that America was ready for a black president. She leaned in confidingly and added, "But I suppose he's not all black. His mother was white."

Still, all of the negative and difficult experiences are far outweighed by positive stories that make me really believe that change is possible. Our team has had thousands and thousands of conversations with voters here in Indianapolis, and stories like the ones above are the exception, not the rule. All of the canvassers I've talked to see the chance to go into unfamiliar neighborhoods and talk to people they would otherwise probably not interact with much as an amazing opportunity to build unity, not as an uncomfortable or futile task. Our volunteers have boundless energy – the two women who were threatened by the police officer today came back to headquarters, got another packet, and went back out to knock more doors. And every time the press does another story about the "insurmountable" racial divide in the electorate, I just remember standing in Ohio with an African American coworker of mine as the union volunteers were getting ready to canvass. Most of the canvassers were middle-aged, white and male, many of them current or former meatpackers - definitely not your typical Obama demographic. She turned to me, laughed, and said, "Just look at all these white guys working their butts off to elect a black guy president. Who would have thought?"

Tomorrow's the biggest day of the campaign, so I'd better go get some sleep. In Indiana the polls are open for an extremely restrictive amount of time – 6am to 6pm. That means that most of the voter turnout canvassing has to be done tomorrow because on Tuesday there won't be enough time to catch people after work before the polls close. More on that to follow tomorrow.

 - Christina Arrison

May 4, 2008

Dispatch from Indiana, Part 1, Saturday May 4th 2008

 

Hey folks - one of our interns, Christina Arrison, is in Indiana for the primary. She's going to be sending us first-hand observations and thoughts from there for the next few days. By way of an introduction, here's her first dispatch. 

-Justin 

The Dirty Truth

The public face of any political campaign is a polished, powdered, and prepped candidate hopping on and off planes, buses, and trains to deliver speeches in front of supporters and ever-present news cameras. But the dirty truth is that the real work of a campaign is done once the candidate rolls out of town, by an army of sleep deprived, underpaid, junk-food-stuffed, (usually) 20-somethings, who serve as the ground troops for the candidate. I'm a new intern at CEM, and I'm also wrapping up a stint working as one of those sleepy 20-somethings for a group of labor unions that have endorsed Barack Obama in the presidential primary. Since the endorsement I've worked in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the suburbs of Philadelphia, and I'm currently on a plane headed back to Indianapolis for second stint there leading up to next Tuesday's election. Justin asked me to write a little bit for the site about my experiences working in the primaries, so I'll be sending a few dispatches from Indiana during these final, hectic days of campaigning.

The Hoosier View

The best part about being on the ground for three important primary contests has been the chance to talk to and work with people who are experiencing this election on an individual and personal level – people who, many for the first time, feel a meaningful connection to Washington and the process that puts politicians there. It's a nice counterbalance to the Big Media view of the campaign – all scandal and spin and personal attacks and very little examination of what the election means to real people. It's been four decades since the last competitive Democratic primary in Indiana. From what I've seen, many Hoosiers are a bit bemused by all of the attention – voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania are used to the swarms of canvassers and scads of robo-calls and TV ads from past general elections, but in Indiana, a solidly red state, many people are experiencing the invasion for the first time. Overall, though, I think people appreciate the attention and genuinely believe that their voice matters. Every day when our canvassers get back from the field they give reports of talking to voters who say that this is their first time voting, and that for once they think an election offers them a chance to concretely improve their lives – by getting better healthcare or livable wages, by ending the war, and for countless other reasons. We hear heartbreaking stories like the Katrina survivor with AIDS who can't afford his pills, and asked our union volunteer to have the Obama campaign contact him to get him cheaper medication. But even if the personal connection to the campaign just involves a voter yelling at a canvasser to get off her property, or slamming down the phone on another prerecorded call, at least they are offered the chance to participate.

Rising Tensions

That being said, I am a little worried about the length and tone of the race. Even in just the three primaries I've worked on there's been a shift in voters' attitudes. When I knocked doors in Ohio, most of the Clinton supporters I talked to were firm in their choice, but polite. On the plane back to DC after the Ohio election, I was seated next to the president of the New York chapter of NOW, and we were able to chat relatively amicably about the election, she in her Clinton button, me in my Obama t-shirt. Canvassing in Pennsylvania, five weeks later, the tone had shifted. Lots more people yelled at me, balled up their flyers and threw them back, or slammed the door in my face. I remember walking up the driveway of one house just in time to hear the woman say to her neighbor "If I get ONE more thing from Obama I'm just going to-" I didn't quite catch what she was going to do, as I was doing my best to blend in with the trees as I backed away. I think a lot of people (including some campaign staffers I know who literally have not had a day off in 15 months) are ready for this to end.

But in the meantime I hope that the next few days will provide some food for thought, and a chance to look at some of the issues that Indiana voters and the campaign workers and volunteers are thinking about.
-Christina Arrison