No celebrating yet. Leave everything on the road.
Kari Chisholm
A few weeks ago, at his blog Daily Kos, Markos told all of us to go all out in the push to victory. Don't allow yourself to have any regrets in the aftermath:
One of my favorite cyclists likes to say, "Leave everything on the road", meaning that when he crosses the finish line, he will have burned every last ounce of energy in his body. If he falls short? No regrets because he gave it his all, every last bit of it.We can't have regrets on Election Night, thinking that some Democrats came up short because we failed to leave everything on the road. We can't have a Jim Martin or a Bob Lord or a Darcy Burner or whoever come inches from victory, knowing that maybe we could've done just a little bit more to help them cross the finish line victorious. Even if all you can give is $5 to one candidate, or one afternoon phone banking, it still matters. There's a lot of us, and a lot of little gestures adds up to a whole lot of action.
Well, today, Markos reports this note from an inspired volunteer right here in Oregon:
Hi Kos,I wanted to express a big thank you for your leave everything on the road article a couple of weeks back. Your article motivated me to go down and volunteer at Obama Campaign headquarters in Portland, OR which I have been doing after work almost every day over the last week, this week and next week. Additionally, I canvessed over the weekend and recruited my sister and husband to volunteer. My husband and I have also donated additional money.
I now talk to lots of volunteers on a daily basis and am communicating 'leave everything on the road' to them as well. It has been effective in having the volunteers sign up for additional shifts.
Prior to reading your article, I would have been crossing my fingers..now I am involved and ask myself "is there anything more important than this I could be doing right now?" The answer is No.
Thank you for making a big difference.
And if that doesn't inspire you, here's a video from Barack Obama with the same message:
Seriously, don't let this happen to you. Or Barack Obama. Or Jeff Merkley. Or Kurt Schrader. Or Ben Westlund. Or Kate Brown. Or any of the fantastic candidates for the Oregon House that are on the cusp of victory.
It's time to sign up for one last volunteer shift. Do it right now.
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connect with blueoregon
Oct 29, '08
The main task now is to call Dem. voters who haven't sent their ballots in and make sure we get max participation. You can just go down to the campaign office closest to you and volunteer on a drop in basis. That's what I was told anyway.
Oct 29, '08
I hope that Obama doesn't screw himself too much by his wavering all over the map on WHO is gonna get tax cuts. Between he and Biden they've posed at least 4 different numbers and change between "per taxpayer" and "per person" so often that I don't know anymore who will or won't be getting a taxcut. With Biden putting the threshhold at $150K per taxpayer, to Obama at $250K per family, to Obama tonight dropping that to $200K per family, to Obama saying $150K per taxpayer, it is becoming completely unclear what he intends to do about taxes. If I were in the middle class (however we define that) two income families (working families) making decent incomes can expect a tax increase. While we voted for Obama, it is extremely worrisome to have him so all over the map within the span of two weeks BEFORE the election. You can't cut taxes for 95% of taxpayers when you can't possibly define who those taxpayers are.
I know it doesn't matter because we're all rich, but believe me, rich or poor, numbers matter and people do remember. I just wish he'd have picked a number and stuck with it. Now he just appears to be another politician instead of "the one".
Oct 29, '08
Hilarious video.
For anyone interested, the first word out of the French crowd is "putain" which means "whore" but is used to mean "son-of-a-b****."
9:00 p.m.
Oct 29, '08
If anyone would like to head out my way to Gresham, I could use some volunteers to help turn out more votes here in Gresham.
We've made calls to thousands of homes, but there are still voters who weren't reachable by phone that we need to contact and encourage to vote - and to vote the whole ballot.
Oct 29, '08
Wow! Loved the half hour Obama infomercial, with the lead in to the live speech. Later tonight he had a rally with Bill Clinton in Florida. They both rocked, big time! Big Dog was at his best! And how about those Phillies.. Philadelphia is going to bring it home Tues. night for Obama. The city of Brotherly Love wins the world of baseball and the nation's presidency.
Oct 29, '08
I am in Las Vegas with hundreds of other out-of-state lawyers as part of the Obama Voter Protection Program. At training last night there was at least one other 503 area code lawyer. Nevada has early voting (voters can vote at any polling place in the county) -- which closes Friday -- and the campaign has almost every polling place covered with one inside poll observer and one outside observer. My assignment for Thursday and Friday is in a mall (thank goodness for the air conditioning); my shift is from 8:30 a.m. (bringing coffee and donuts to make friends with the official elections people) until the last person has voted (even though the mall closes at 9, if people are in line, they get to vote). Including keeping track of any polling problems (the Nevada Obama Legal Boiler Room is at the top of my speed-dial), if a person votes a provisional ballot, I follow them out and gather as much information as possible which is then called-in to HQ where other volunteers enter it into data bases and begin to track that ballot. A completely separate organization does GOTV so they know who hasn't turned in ballots.
Nevada has seen an incredible turnout of early voters; some rumors have it at 40% of all registered voters with a deluge expected Friday. If we didn't have vote-by-mail, I'd suggest Oregon look at early voting for its convenience. Just stop in while shopping at the mall.
Maybe Obama's organizational skill and competence is so jaw-dropping because of 8 years of gross (and, according to Gordo, "possibly criminal") incompetence. Maybe it's because Obama is 21st century and McCain is so 19th century. But I notice no one is sneering at the idea of a "community organizer" anymore.
I'm looking forward to returning to Oregon's cool and -- yes, even rain.
Randy2
Oct 29, '08
Presidents Gore and Kerry strongly urge you to take nothing for granted.
8:59 a.m.
Oct 30, '08
I hope that Obama doesn't screw himself too much by his wavering all over the map on WHO is gonna get tax cuts.
He hasn't and he didn't.
Obama has said throughout the campaign that families making less than $250,000 a year will not see a tax increase. Those making less than $200,000 will get a tax cut, he says. "If you make less than a quarter of a million dollars a year, you will not see a single dime of your taxes go up," Obama said the October 7 presidential debate in Nashville. "If you make $200,000 a year or less, your taxes will go down."
The number cited on Biden came from a McCain ad..and is, of course, an attempt to mislead. Biden was speaking October 27, in an interview with WNEP in Scranton. He said, "$87 billion tax break doesn't need to go to people making an average of $1.4 million. It should go like it used to. It should go to middle class people — people making under $150,000 a year." Biden never says that tax breaks should "only" go to such people.
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