Author: Luam

Four years ago, while watching the Democratic Convention in my living room in England, I joined DailyKos so I could talk about the speeches and our candidate with other Americans interested in politics.  I had friends who were Americans and others where were interested in politics, but I had to go online for the combination of the two.

This year I will watch the convention from a very different seat, as a member of the Pennsylvania delegation.  How did I become a delegate?  The short answer is that I applied last December and the campaign picked me.  The longer answer is that I helped start Philadelphia for Obama back in August, and have been building a movement here in Philly for about a year now.  I have participated in every phase of the campaign, and stayed here in PA even when it was very tempting to abandon my turf and head to an earlier state.  I have been the point person for the visibility outside two Democratic Presidential debates, one in October the other in April, and helped make sure that Obama had a full slate of delegates on the ballot for the first time in at least a generation.
The third very real answer about how I got to be a delegate is that I read blogs.  It is because of blogs that I knew over the summer that Obama was the candidate who was closest to my politics.  More importantly, I knew that Obama could win Iowa and that if he did it would be a long campaign.  A year ago when people would ask if the campaign would come to Pennsylvania I would tell them it was a 30% chance, it was probably about right and no one would believe me if I said anything higher.  It is also because of blogs that I had been involved in a few races in 2006 before I was inspired by Obama.  I cannot imagine that without the blogs I would be a delegate.  The information I read was essential, but the call to action was critical.

I am not the only delegate who blogs, but I am probably the only one who started as a blogger and then got involved in electoral politics.  I am the only one who was endorsed by atrios, Chris Bowers, and Booman.  Sadly I have not blogged much in the last year between lack of time and self censorship.

If there are any other delegates (super Ds included) who read this diary, please give us a shout out.  Maybe we can have a meeting of the Netroots Caucus of Democratic Delegates.

In order for me to get to Denver and cast my vote at the convention for Barack Obama, I need your support.  Years of thesis writing and long months of volunteering have left on a very spartan budget without room for trips like this on.

This donation counts as a donation to a Federal Candidate, so if you give $200 or more then you need to fill out a form with the FEC and you have to be an American national.  Then again I am not planning on running any media buys so donations of $15.01 or whatever you can afford is more than welcome.

It is easy to get upset and frustrated when we lose important fights in Congress, especially after working so hard in 2006 to win us a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate.  We shouldn’t forget that some of the people we fought hard for and gave money for have our backs now.  The lesson of 2007 is that we need to fight even harder to keep the Representatives who have done good by us get more good people in Congress who share our values who have courage, integrity and honor, who will step up and speak for the American people, our troops and take seriously their oath to defend the Constitution.  As kos wrote, “This is it. This is the way to change our party.“
I had the great privilege to work for one such candidate in 2006, and in 2007 he has been one of the best voices against the war and for the constitution in the U.S. House.  Congressman Patrick Murphy has been a strong, consistent voice for progressive values in the people’s House.  Recently he has taken a series of courageous stands in voting for positions that are good policy, but may be bad politics in his very purple district, as Matt Stoller put it earlier today, “Here’s Patrick Murphy, the recognized Democratic freshman leader on Iraq.”

Two days ago when we were frustrated that the Senate and House has approved more money for Iraq, Congressman Murphy was too.  He voted against that bill on the grounds that we should not be spending more money on Iraq without appropriate conditions.  When the house first passed tax relief for the middle class in the form of freeing the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax Patrick Murphy was one of 216 votes in favor.  When the Senate refused to pass taxes that would offset the cost of this tax, Patrick Murphy was one of only 64 congressional representatives who voted in favor of balancing our budget and agaist the bill; only Democrats voted against that bill and most of them were in very safe seats.

Last year Patrick Murphy’s victory party party kept us late into the night awaiting the results.  There was an air of jubilation as the good news from all over the country came in, but we were awaiting the result of the race we had personally invested in.  The celebration first started in the press rooms when a group of bloggers including DelewareDem, Booman, and myself saw the returns from the north east of Philadelphia and did the math.  The race was so close that the new Congressman was not ready to declare victory for several more hours after that.  It was so close that the former Congressman was not ready to concede until the next morning.

Lets prove to Congressman Murphy and the rest of the Democratic Caucus that doing the right thing is also good politics.  If we want to ensure that good people like Congressman Patrick Murphy continue to represent us and continue take courageous stands we need to continue to support him and others like him.  If you live near his district in Bucks County PA, north of Philadelphia please Volunteer, if you can afford to Contribute.  He has our back, let him know that we have his.

I don’t think that it surprised anyone that Hilary Clinton decided to go negative now that it looks like her position as front runner is threatened.  Indeed I don’t think that very many of us are surprised that she went very negative when she decided it was time to go negative.  What really surprised me is that she did such a poor job of it.

For months now she has been telling us that she is the only one who knows how to fight toe-to-toe when the Republicans attack, and she assured us that she was ready.  When she attacked a fellow Democrat, I expected her to show us this vaunted ability to really drive the hit home.  The Clinton campaign has taken their swing at Barack Obama and to our collective astonishment, she missed.
If you Stab, Stab Deep

I don’t think that it surprised anyone that Hilary Clinton decided to go negative now that it looks like her position as front runner is threatened.  Indeed I don’t think that very many of us are surprised that she went very negative when she decided it was time to go negative.  What really surprised me is that she did such a poor job of it.

For months now she has been telling us that she is the only one who knows how to fight toe-to-toe when the Republicans attack, and she assured us that she was ready.  When she attacked a fellow Democrat, I expected her to show us this vaunted ability to really drive the hit home.  The Clinton campaign has taken their swing at Barack Obama and to our collective astonishment, she missed.

Clinton’s opposition research is certainly thorough.  She uncovered evidence of his boyhood dreams to be our president as recorded in the title of essays written in the third grade and even kindergarten.  Sadly for her campaign, they seem unable to tell the difference between plans and dreams.  They also seem unable to tell where the line is between decorum and ridiculous, and the difference between an attack that will hurt the other guy and the attack that will hurt the person making it.

She has also attacked Obama for helping to strengthen the democratic party with his leadership pack and encouraging Iowa residents to register to vote in Iowa if they are students.  Most Democrats encourage people to vote and encourage our leaders to use their own funds to help other Democrats win.  Perhaps Hilary thinks that most Democrats would prefer a candidate who was shrewd enough to hoard their money in 2006 for a presidential run rather than help raise money for congressional Democrats around the country.

Her campaign did show some decency in asking their county coordinator to step down after they were caught spreading the false rumor about Obama attending a madrassa and being a secret muslim.  There is some limit to how far the Clinton Camp is willing to go.

I do agree with Hilary Clinton that Character Matters.  I think that it is entirely appropriate at this stage to unearth any questions we might have about our candidate’s honesty and integrity.  We do need to ask ourselves if we think that they are honest enough, honorable enough, and forthright enough to be President of the United States.  If we don’t ask those questions now, the Republicans will ask them later.

It makes sense that Camp Clinton would choose now as the time to go negative, the polls are not looking good for Hilary.  Chris Bowers who had announced that Obama’s campaign was dead has now moved him into a fragile first place.  The campaigns have access to more polls that we do, but I can well imagine that Hilary Clinton and Mark Penn do not like what they see.  Hilary’s negatives are already much higher than her opponents’.  Perhaps they thought that these attacks would drive up Obama’s negatives but not move hers very much.

Obama’s relatively high positives and low negatives among both Democrats and Republicans (39%+ 43%-) is one of his strongest selling points.  It makes sense that the Clintons would be willing to risk a lot to bring them down and improve her ability to compete with him on that issue.

It is too early to tell if Hilary’s decision to go negative on Obama has worked.  It has certainly produced lots of attention and headlines.  Most of those are not very favorable to Clinton.  I have not seen any polls that were definitively conducted post these attacks.  It looks like Strategic Visions with release a poll tomorrow which shows Obama up at 32-25-25, when it is released we will see when it was conducted.

Clinton has long told us that she has battled the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” has the scars to show for it and won.  She was promising to fight and fight viciously.  Now she says that she would rather be attacking Republicans in her speeches attacking Democrats.  Hilary Clinton is certainly attacking and attacking viciously, but she is not attacking effectively.  She has lost my confidence in her and her team’s ability to take the fight to the Republicans and win.

I was looking over stats at Open Secrets trying to see if I could find out patterns of donations within an industry.  Turns out that isn’t easy to do, but I did get distracted by looking into the state by state fundraising numbers.  It turns out that Obama is the top fundraiser only in Illinois, Hawaii, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, Washington and Colorado.

There are several states in which Obama is the top Democrat. States like Idaho, Utah, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Wyoming.  In fact in Mississippi Obama out raises everyone except Thompson and McCain.  In Wisconsin only Thompson beats Obama.
We all know that Clinton and Obama have both raised more than any Republican, and Obama is close behind Clinton in fundraising.  I would have expected Obama to be winning more states.  The states he is winning fall into four categories; two home states, two very small blue states, five red states, and Washington.

In Illinois Obama gets a huge advantage, his home state loves him.  He gets more than three times as much as Hilary with over $9 mil to less than $3 mill from Clinton and less than $1 mil for Romeny.  Hawaii also favors its favorite son.  The proportion is even better with over 8 times the next contender, but the scale is much smaller since Obama only raises $311,191 there.

After Illinois, Washington gives Obama the biggest lead in fundraising with $1 mil almost twice as much as Romney, the next contender.

Georgia is a very red state, but Obama out raises Romney there by almost 200,000 and Guillianni by about double that.  In Georgia, the only metro area that Obama raises the most money is Albany with a grand total of only $4,600.  He comes in second to Romney in all but one of the top five zip codes, 30309 Atlanta, GA.  That appears to be a Democratic zip because Obama raised $70,425.  Almost double the next candidate, Hilary Clinton.

Kentucky surprised me by giving more of its money to Obama, Hilary, and Edwards than any republican.  Obama does not win any of the top metro areas except Louisville where he raises three times as much as Hilary.  He wins a few zip codes in Louisville and one in Prospect.

In North Dakota, Obama comes in second to Romney without winning either metro area or any zip codes.  Likewise in Utah, Obama comes in poorly in most metro areas and zip codes.  For Wyoming, Obama comes in fourth in Casper, $10,000 behind Hilary in Cheyenne, does no better than third in any given zip code but still beaks Hilary by over $11,000.

The fundraising map over at the NY Times, shows this effect if you are looking for it.  Click between the link for Clinton and Obama and watch most the bigger circles shrink and the smaller ones grow when when you change to Obama.

We already knew that Obama was raising more from small donors than his opponents from either party.  What this tells us is that Obama’s donor base is more geographically disbursed than the other big fundraisers.  He has surprisingly high levels of support in states that were red or purple in 2000 and 2004.  It explains why Obama is ready to open offices in out of the way states that have rarely seen Democratic presidential campaigns for the last 30 years.

If you like what you see in Barack Obama and want to help broaden his donor base even further, please make a donation.  Even better go to his political networking site and join your local groups as well as the Kossacks and Netroots for Obama.  Get involved with the strongest grassroots campaign for any of the presidential candidates for 2008.  Now in the time to get involved.

I know that right now he is focused on his campaign for the Presidency, but he will probably know whether or not he is in position to win the Democratic nomination sometime between January 3rd and February 5th.  The deadline for getting into the Senate Race in North Caroline against Libby Dole is February 29th.

In 2009, the Senate will be the deciding body for a large number of progressive proposals from Universal Health Care to Restoring our Civil Liberties and Energy Independence.  We need more strong progressives in the Senate to help fight to make these reforms law and to make sure that we can pass the best possible versions of these reforms.

One of the things that bothered me about Edwards running for president in 2004 is that he chose not to run for Senate again.  This was a year when we were hoping to take back the Senate and he yielded his seat to an undistinguished nobody.

We could use someone like Edwards representing North Carolina in the Senate.  He has unambiguously apologized for his vote for the war, and has moved to the left on a host of issues since he was last in the Senate.  I know that he is running for president at the moment.  If he does not win in the early states, he will have time to get himself on the ballot in North Carolina and bring that seat home for the Democrats.

Edwards has to win Iowa to be viable, even if he does win Iowa he will have to do well in other early primary states.  By February 5th he likely will either be out of the running or the nominee apparent.  It is my hope that if he does not win Iowa he will drop out immediately, endorse whomever he supports and begin his campaign to win a seat for the Democrats in the Senate.  He would be a valuable addition to our majority and a powerful voice for improving America.

Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays.  It is rooted in our founding myths, in the struggle of European immigrants to understand and survive in a new land.  In the triumph of perseverance and neighborly virtue over the harshness of the world we find ourselves in.  We gather together with family and friends and eat new world foods to celebrate the survival of our founding settlers and the most beautiful time of the year for much of our country.

This is my third Thanksgiving in America since spending the prior five Thanksgivings in England.  Living there gave me a much greater appreciation of what it means to be an American, to have rights, and to fight for those rights.  I am immensely thankful that I am an American and that we have rights for me to defend.
There are were some days when I would be discussing politics or read some item in the news and I would think, “No wonder we rebelled.”  The British are still subjects of their Queen.  Their civil liberties are privileges granted to them by leave of her Majesty and the Prime Minister.  While I was there those liberties were eroded without legal recourse by majority votes of parliament.  Lawyers in England argued to me that there is no such thing as rights.

We have rights.  Americans were willing to kill and die in order to rebel against the British and establish those rights.  Those rights are what make us American and makes America a nation worthy of our respect and love.  We must continue to fight and struggle to defend our rights and the rights of our neighbors.  Anything less would be Unamerican.

American has wonderful values and traditions, and I will not stand idly by while those are eroded and decay.  We are the land of the Free, and must remain so.  We cannot permit the stench of fear to turn us in to cowards afraid of our Virtues.  My rights have no value unless you are willing to stand up and defend them on principle.  It is how we treat our citizens who seems least worthy to practice their rights that we prove our commitment to liberty.

In recent history, we have been asked to give up our freedom to protect our freedom.  As Benjamin Franklin resized long ago this is a false choice, “The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.”  When our fear permits us to spy on our own citizens, imprison them without charges, torture them, intimidate them from traveling, and silence their voices then we have increased the risk of threats both foreign and domestic.  Even worse we have turned our backs on the sacrifice of our forebears who many who lived and died to secure those rights for us.

As we gather this Thanksgiving, be thankful that we still have the freedom to pursue non-viloent means of defending our freedom.  Talk about what makes you proud to be an American with your family.  Resolve to take part in our Democratic process, and fight for the candidate whom you think best understands how important it is to defend our Rights as Americans.

Pure and simple all the policy ideas in the world don’t matter if I don’t trust you to do what you say, don’t think you have the leadership abilities to do what you plan, or think that you have the backbone to follow through when you are challenged.  I know that many people here will choose their candidate based purely on positions, but I don’t think that is true of most of the electorate nor do I think it should be.

We are electing candidates based on what we think they will do in the future, and how they will affect the future of our nation.  Past performance is usually a good indicator of how they will perform in the future, but so is our own judgement of what they really plan to do and why they plan to do it.  We also need to be confident that they have the intelligence and judgement to make good decisions about problems that have yet to arise.  For all of these reasons we need to choose a candidate who has both integrity and ability.
No politician can function in their office if they are entirely pure, but we do need a president who has the basic ability to tell the truth, be true to their principles, stand up for what they believe in, and admit to their mistakes.  I demand from my candidate some basic respect for honesty.  Honesty about their positions from to tax code to starting a war, honesty about who they are and what the believe in.  I also want a candidate who shows a basic ability to follow the rules and keep their word.  We are all tired of having a president and congress who think they are above the law, in America no one is above the law and all deserve equal protection under the law.  I do not want anyone to be president who doesn’t think that they have to play by the rules that everyone else plays by.  I want a candidate who believes in something who has a clear core of moral values that affect their decisions, I would prefer one who has values that I can agree with; equality, liberty, justice, privacy, life.  I would settle for one who stands proudly by their values and listens to me when we disagree.  I want someone who is proud of what they have done and what they believe in, but no so proud that they cannot admit to a mistake when they have made one.  The ability to admit ones errors and rectify them as best as possible is a key character trait for me in selecting a leader.

The other important aspect of character is ability.  Do you think that person has the qualities needed to lead, do they have the charisma to inspire?  Do they have the intelligence and judgement to decide?  Do they have the wisdom and experience to guide them.  Do they listen to the advice of smart people of people who disagree with them?  Can they negotiate with foreign leaders with the opposition party?  Do they comprehend global politics?  Do they care about the concerns of voters, and understand how we live our lives.  Can they delegate responsibility.  No one is going to be great at all of these things, but a president should be able to do all of them to some extent.

I don’t think it is possible to talk about character without talking about values.  I think that an elected candidates first responsibility is to their own moral compass then to what they and their constituents are best for their country and their region.  To do that they need to have a core of values concerning civic virtues and ethical dilemmas and moral issues.  These are likely to root of their policy and often their integrity.  Those values can stem from any upbringing.  My values lead me to stand for protecting life, respecting privacy, defending the weak, protecting our constitutional rights, respecting the needs of the minority, treating others with respect and honor and defending the civil rights of my fellow citizens.  I am likely to choose a candidate whom I feel also agrees with those values.  It is likely that if they do we will have very similar policy ideas, more importantly they allow me to make an informed guess about what the candidate will do if elected.

We should be discussing the character of all of our candidates now.  It is important for how they will perform in office.  If we don’t talk about it now, the Republican nominee and any 527s will not be shy about talking about it later.  I have tried to write this in an unbiased way, but I would not be surprised if you have guessed who I am with by what character traits I felt the need to talk about.  Hopefully we can admit that character matters and show our character by trying to discuss theirs without rancor.

The Democrats proposed a bill that would fund the troops, and help to bring this war to a close.  The Republicans in the House voted against it and the Republicans in the Senate did not allow it to go to a vote.  They are the ones refusing to fund the war.  They claim that the DOD needs the money to support our troops, but for some reason they are unwilling to take the money as offered.

Too bad, elections have consequences and they have to stop whining and telling us that they can’t accept the majority will of our country and of the congress.  There are times when leaders have to lead and go against the will of the people, but in this case they have failed to lead and failed to convince the people or the congress that they are in the right.
The choice is simple 53 senators, four of whom are Republicans voted for the bill 45 Senators including Chris Dodd voted against it.  If they can’t accept the funding in the way it is offered then, they are the ones holding money back from our men and women who have given so much to this country.

In the meantime, it appears that Defense Secretary Gates is having trouble figuring out how to live within the allocated funding, so I have some suggestions for him.

Fire some contractors.  Most of our troops resent then anyway and they cost too much.  We shouldn’t be paying them any more than our regular troops anyway.  They make several times what the men and women in the uniform issued by the United States military earn, and yet are unaccountable for their actions.  This is bad for moral and troop retention.

Send home the National Guard.  If we send the National Guard back home to their families then the DoD will not longer have an obligation to pay those guardsmen their active duty salaries, and they can support their families by returning to their civilian jobs.  The same is true of the Reserves.  We need the guard in case of fires or hurricanes anyway.

Stop conducting combat missions.  The DoD already has enough money to pay the troops salary and feed them, so they should be able to live within their budget by spending less time and material on missions.  If our troops are not patroling, they will use less ammunition and probably less vehicles will need repairs due to wear and tear or IEDs.  By reducing the risk to the troops we can probably save money on their medical expenses as well, and by reducing the casualties the military can spend less money on recruitment.

Find the money they lost.  Perhaps before the DOD stops conducting missions they might be interested in finding some of the cash that has gone unaccounted for or recovering some of the money lost to waste and possible embezzlement from the contractors that they will have to fire soon.  This should fund our new leaner military for years to come.

Ask congress to accept the current bill.  It is clear that General Patreus and Secretary Gates are not above making political appeals to congress and the Republicans and the White House claim that they will listen to their Generals.  The solution is simple if the military really needs the money it should ask for it and accept any conditions which the civilian government deems appropriate.

Plan for withdrawal.  It is clear that the military will eventually have to withdraw.  If they have a plan in place now, it will save money in the long run since they will be able get the troops home sooner, deactivate the National Guard and Reserves sooner and save the money it costs to deploy the troops overseas.

I think that if the Military can follow my very simple advice then they will have little trouble living within the budget they already have allotted.  It would be nice if the Republicans weren’t refusing funding for the troops, but I have faith that our brave men and women and uniform will continue to persevere until Bush and his party choose to allow them additional funding.

I heard a statement from Barack Obama in his Meet the Press Interview on Sunday that is very important to me.  He said “there will be no permanent bases.”  Personally, I think that this is the most important commitment on Iraq that a candidate for our Presidency can make before taking the oath of office.  I think that it is the that our bases are permanent most clearly takes us across that line between liberator or peace keeper and occupier.  It arrogantly assumes that there will be no sovereign Iraq which might not want our troops in their country for the foreseeable future creates a mentally among both Iraqi nationals and our troops that we are in this for the long haul.
The interview has generally been panned by most as not a very good performance, considering the great speech he gave the night before, but this one line is very important.  I am not sure if it is the first time it has been said, but I could not find a lot of discussion about the issue.  As an Obama supporter I am very pleased to see him take this position which I had already been advocating.

Discussing permanent bases is much less sexy than discussing residual troops, but in my mind cuts closer to the fundamental issues without making promises that may be very difficult to keep.  Those bases are an insult to the concept of Iraqi sovereignty and state more clearly than any propaganda that we intend to occupy their country for the foreseeable future.  They gives lie to the claim that Iraqis chose their own government and that they are in any way independent of American control.  Without those bases there is room to hope that our troops will come home and Iraq will once again govern itself.

When the major Democratic candidates talk about leaving residual forces behind that has a significantly different meaning if we are maintaining permanent bases.  Those bases mean stationing our troops in Iraq permanently like we do in Japan, Germany and hundreds of other countries around the word.  That is not what most of America wants, we do not want to occupy any Iraqi soil, we want to give them their country back and ensure that our troops are used wisely.  In ways that make us safer rather than increase the risk to America and its citizens.  We must shed the mantle of occupiers.

I think that this is a better position than promising no residual forces because it allows for more flexibility in finding solutions to the problems that plague Iraq.   Most Americans feel a sense of responsibility and sickening dread when we consider what should be done in Iraq.  We are not the solution, but under a difference president we can be a part of the solution.  There is still potential for mass slaughters in Iraq, and our withdrawal plan should attempt to minimize that.  For example, I think that some form of international peacekeeping force should be on the table as a possible solution, and a president who has promised “no residual forces” cannot promise American troops as part of a peacekeeping plan.  I want our troops home, I still don’t understand how anyone could have supported them going to Iraq in the first place.  I also want us to be able to end this in a way that causes the least harm going forward, and I don’t want my president to be hamstrung by promises that were made just to placate the base and win an election.

There are many ways you can promise peace.  A withdrawal plan is critical, an end to combat missions is important, the promise of no permanent bases is fundamental.

For most on you the most exciting part of last Tuesday night’s Democratic Debate here in Philadelphia was what was said by the candidates inside the debate.  For me it was all the people outside the debate screaming in support of their candidates.  That isn’t because I am unhappy with how my candidate did, in fact I agree with the Drexel students watching just outside.  It is because I was the volunteer organizer responsible for making sure that Obama supporters were out in force showing their enthusiasm for Barack Obama.

I worked hard preparing for the event and had a great time showing my enthusiasm for Obama waving signs and screaming at the top of my lungs.  I am so gratified that we had so many people come out, despite a very dreadful pre-party fear that no one would actually show up.  My day was exhausting and crazy and I would absolutely recommend that all of you do something similar.

By the time my day started, we had over two hundred people signed up from our efforts organizing online and phone banking supporters.  The national campaign had sent out another e-mail to even more supporters the day before and I had no idea how many people had signed-up from that.  By the time I woke up, one of our brave and hardy supports had already been outside of the debate building for several hours making sure that we were directly across from the main entrance.

I fielded phone calls and e-mail from home for a few hours putting the final touches on some of our plans and arranging a few last minute details.  In the early afternoon, I went down to the site to scope it out and give our supporter there another break, also I hoped that seeing everything would help calm my nerves.  It was still pretty calm, but the news vans where there the police were out and the other campaigns had started to show up.  I was waved down by a friend of mine from Drinking Liberally who was acting as a liaison to the people running the Debate, it was good to see a friendly face and helped get me oriented.  I stopped by the Drexel Dem’s table and dropped off a few of our Barack the Vote flyers which remind people to vote in our local elections next week.

To our left was the Biden campaign, which was the first to show up in numbers, many of them from Delaware since it is so close.  Well into the afternoon there was only a single Edwards supporter, as many of them were heading up from North Carolina, he was very nice and helped him to reserve a space for his people and their signs.  He was very nice and we were happy to help.  The Hilary camp was the last to have any representatives show up from what I recall.  They drove up and a few very serious people got out and started to assemble the stands they use for signs.  Shariff Street, our Mayor’s son, and some of their people were with them as well, I had met him before at Drinking Liberally so I went up and said hello.  We debated how long it would last, he said that by the end of February I will be wearing a Hilary button or he would be wearing an Obama one.  I’ll give him my Obama button when the time comes.

The Obama area was organized and filled with volunteers.  I think we may have been the only campaign without any paid staff in the visibility area.  We did have people to talk to when we had questions or when they wanted us to cover an area or had suggestions for us.  I am very proud of the trust that the campaign put in me and my team working on this even to build a crowd and show our support at what was a major event.  I doubt that the cameras or the reporters could tell that, but I know it and am very proud of myself our volunteers and the Obama campaign.

We had arranged for some food as a surprise for our supporters to keep them going through night.  So I had to run home and get it started until some people arrived later that I could send over to finish it off.  I think that when the hot food arrived just before things really got going that is helped really boost moral.  The most frustrating part of the day was getting stuck in traffic at four o’clock just as things were officially starting, and there being very little I could do to get back to the Debate Site any quicker.  It was 4:00 the time we had told our folks to get there and I wasn’t going to make it for a few minutes and reports were that our crowd was trickling in slowly.

The day was just starting to take shape, but also starting to blur in my mind.  I was definitely in a stressed watching things mode.  I had to find someone I trusted to go back to my place who was willing to leave the main event and watch the burners on my stove so that the food and more importantly my house didn’t burn.  We had to improve the signage in front of our area.  We had to split all our volunteers between just outside the Debate entrance and the Chris Matthews taping a few blocks away.  I was trying to greet people as they arrived and we were signing them in a passing out stickers and signs.

Then the press started to arrive, asking people for interviews.  Why they supported Obama.  What they thought he should do at the debate.  I did an interview for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation which gave me a lot of sympathy for candidates trying to get their message out and not say anything bad.  He was a very aggressive interviewer, but I think I finished the interview well  trying to explain why I support Obama.  At some point the Philadelphia Inquirer took a picture of our supports which made page A6 for an article about the supporters at the Debate, I am on the right hand side of the photo.  If you’ve seen any press about Obama supporters outside of the Debate, could you leave a comment about it?  I would love to see it.

Around 6:30 things got going in ernest.  We had folks out in force and someone had jumped forward to be our cheerleader for the day.  Megaphones were not allowed so that was quite a difficult job.  We were free to find out own cheers for then event, I think one of the favorites what “Who Do we want? Barack Obama!  When do we need him? Now!”, also chanted “1,2,3,4” “Elect Obama, end the War! 5,6,7,8 Barack Obama in ’08” and some folks were singing “Oh, Oh, Oh, Obama, Oh, Oh, Barack Obama.”  I tried to monitor the crowd, but for the moment at least all I had to do was participate.

At some point most of the candidates’ supporters joined in some anti-War chants, and at some point some Jenna Six protesters came by and the Obama supporters joined them in opposing racism before returning to our own chants.  People told me that John Edwards went to talk to his supporters at some point.  That couldn’t have been more than a few feet away from me, but I didn’t even notice I guess I was too busy and too involved in what I was doing.  Someone told me that they saw Barack get out of his limo near the candidate entrance, we were at the main entrance and Secret Service didn’t approve of a stop where we were.  They told me that Barack got out of the limo, heard us chanting and gave a big smile.

Things got very interesting at around 8:15 when the Act Up protesters came by with torches, drums coffins demanding Health Care for everyone and critiquing Clinton and Dodd’s plans.  We all got quite and most of us wandered forward to watch them march through.  Actually it was pretty cool.  I got a little scared when a cop told me that he wanted to keep us apart so they could tell their people from out people.  At that point I started trying to get our people back further from the protest, since I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt or arrested.  At some point the structure of the even evaporated, and most of the campaigns decided that they were done.

They missed the best part of the night.  The energy then was really great, I managed to rally our supporters and get everyone chanting again.  This time is wasn’t for the cameras so much as for the night.  There was chaos, things were a little crazy and we were really jazzed up.  We were really careful to follow the rules set out for us, but I somewhat wish that events like these were more spontaneous and free form.  If you want to get a sense of the energy at that point the Daily Pennsylvanian has some footage.  Check it out from about 3:00 to 4:15 to see the Act Up protest and us cheering afterwards.

By that point the debate was about to start so we fielded a few more press interviews, cleaned up and headed over to our Debate watching party over at Mad Mex and I relaxed and enjoyed a margarita.  I certainly thought watching a debate live and with fellow Obama supports was a much better experience than watching it alone, had folks to cheer with and to discuss the debate during the breaks.  I did feel bad thought that some of our best cheerers were under age and couldn’t get in, nothing goes perfectly.

We had a really great crowd and a great event.  We got fired and showed our support.  We talked to the press and told that what we beleived and why we think that America needs Barack Obama.  We met supporters and volunteers from as far away as Virginia and had an absolutely great time.  I feel like I just finished running a marathon, it took me a day off before I was even ready to blog it.

Back to the grind, we have an election here in Pennsylvania in less that a week, and PA for Obama plans to Barack the Vote!