Barack Oblogger

The Problem of Low-Information Voters

2008-07-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

How informed is the American electorate? The Washington Post takes on the issue:

So a bunch of academics decides to revisit one of the defining books of modern American politics, a 1960 tome on the electorate. They spend years comparing interviews with voting-age Americans from 2000 and 2004 to what Americans said during elections in the 1950s. The academics' question: How much has the American voter changed over the past 50 years?

Their conclusion -- that the voter is pretty much the same dismally ill-informed creature he was back then -- continues a decades-long debate about whether Americans are as clueless as they sound.

Reader, before you send that outraged e-mail, consider that you may be an exception. You, of course, are endlessly fascinated by the debate over domestic wiretapping, but it's possible your neighbors think FISA is a hybrid vehicle. In fact, it's quite possible your neighbors are Republicans only because that's what their parents were, and ditto for the Democrats across the street. They couldn't even mumble a passable definition of "liberal" or "conservative."

Read more here

It is my belief that certain portions of the right-wing purposefully foster ignorance in the American voter. They want it, along with voter apathy and low-voter turnout.

I just spoke with a young man yesterday who was not going to vote for Barack Obama because he was told IN CHURCH that Barack was a Muslim. I asked him specifically whether people who attended the church (The Church on the Way in Van Nuys) told him (which would just be conversation), or whether it was something a pastor told him. He said it was something a pastor said, which, if this is true, would be against IRS regulations. (And from the looks of this comment I found on a New York Times story, it appears as though this may be a common occurrence at this particular church.)

But even more critical than the legal ramifications is the fact that churches like these are filling the heads of their parishioners with lies.

These same voters will pull the lever on election day. Sad, very sad.

I spoke with the gentleman and tried to give him some accurate information. I hope that he listened.

And please, people. Do your research. Don't base your vote on what somebody told you or some crazy email FILLED WITH CAPITAL LETTERS spewing garbage like "BARACK OBAMA IS THE ANTICHRIST!!!!!!!!"

Get the facts straight. Our country depends on it.

Latino Voters Prefer Obama

2008-07-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

Latest polls show 66% of Latino voters prefer Obama versus 23% who are supporting McCain.

I guess Barack's "Latino Problem" has cleared up.

Obama in Berlin

2008-07-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

The largest crowd ever for an Obama speech.

Click here to read the full transcript.

Don't Miss Barack Online

2008-07-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

Now you don't have to miss one moment of Barack online.

Sign up to get alerts whenever there is a video stream at:

http://my.barackobama.com/videoalerts

Obama Visits Sderot, Israel

2008-07-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Obama toured a home that had been torn apart by a rocket blast.

Israelis for Obama

2008-07-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Israeli supporters of Obama waiting for him at the Kotel (Western Wall).

Click here to see more photos and here to read about Obama's Hebrew blog. Also, visit Jews for Obama for the latest updates.

Michelle Obama on BlogHer

2008-07-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Michelle's got her own blog on BlogHer.

Give her a warm welcome!

http://www.blogher.com/lets-talk

Olbermann on McCain's Secret Surge Before the Surge

2008-07-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Vanity Fair Spoofs New Yorker Cover

2008-07-23T08:51:00.001-07:00

Vanity Fair takes on the New Yorker.

Surge or No Surge... It's Still the Same Damned War!

2008-07-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

True confession... I avoid watching television news.

Once the Democratic Primary started, it opened my eyes to the fact that most of the commentators and news anchors DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT and instead focus headlines on ridiculous issues like flag pins, bittergate and the like.

I have gotten the most insight and learned the most from reading the comments of readers on places like Huffington Post, Digg and Reddit.

I'm not just talking about those who are Obama supporters, but people who bring a fresh, sorely needed voice to the discusssion based on their actually having thought about the issue and not a talking point printed out on a piece of paper in front of them.

Now, the media chatter is all about the surge.

I broke my TV-abstinence pledge this morning and tuned into Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Big mistake.

Joe was hammering the question over and over again to Gen. Wesley Clark "Is the surge working? Is the surge working?" Clark agreed that yes, more troops have helped quell some of the levels of violence that we've seen in Iraq. And Joe sits back all proud of himself like he's scored some major concession from the left.

Why is this important? Is the surge working?

Why isn't the larger issue being asked?

Why are we in Iraq?

Why have we spent three trillion dollars, lost thousands of American lives and possibly more than a million Iraqi lives? For what?

We were led into this war under false pretenses. Al Qaeda is still strong, Osama Bin Laden has not been captured. There were never any weapons of mass destruction.

What does make sense in terms of our objectives in the country is that American oil companies are being given no-bid contracts to resurrect the Iraqi oil industry. We needed to set up an oil colony, and Iraq was the most vulnerable of the oil nations that we could gain control over.

We're there because we have a government run at the highest level by oil men and have the shadowy interests of the oil companies in control of the White House.

The surge is a distraction created by the right-wing to keep us away from the real question that we need to keep asking over and over again until we get a straight answer, what were the motivations of our political leaders in choosing Iraq as the place for fighting against Al Qaeda?

Obama in Amman, Jordan

2008-07-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

John McCain's Neverending War

2008-07-23T06:25:00.001-07:00

From The Jed Report:

Bush Says "Wall Street Got Drunk"

2008-07-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

President Bush is quoted at a Texas high-dollar fundraiser as saying that the reason for the mortgage crisis is that "Wall Street got drunk."

He'd asked for the cameras to be turned off before he made his statement, but someone in the audience was taping and the footage was aired on a local Texas ABC News station.

You can watch the footage here.

And here is the transcript of the conversation:

President Bush: Wall Street got drunk, it got drunk, (it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your TV cameras.) It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up, and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.

And now we got a housing issue, not in Houston, and evidently, not in Dallas, because Laura was over there trying to buy a house today. (laugher.. Crawford!)

I like Crawford, unfortunately after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I’m now no longer the decision maker. She’ll be deciding, thanks for the suggestion! I suggest you don’t yell it out when she’s here. Later, telling her “Hey honey, we’ve been on government pay now for 14 years... so go slow!"

It’s uh.. caused me to lose my train of thought. Anyway.

Daily Show: Bridging the Black/Jewish Gap

2008-07-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Humor break from the Daily Show. Can Barack win the elderly Jewish vote?

Excited GIs Greet Barack in Baghdad

2008-07-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

South Carolina Senator's "Cute" Obama/Osama Photo

2008-07-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here we go again with the Muslim terrorist associations...

South Carolina State Senator Kevin L. Bryant thought it was really hilarious to post the following picture on his blog:

He got a lot of flack and media attention from it and took it down from the blog, but still posted a link to the photo. Supposedly the intention was to "stimulate an examination of Sen. Barack Obama’s foreign policy."

Yeah, right.

Some Obama supporters who are tired of the fearmongering and the lies have taken action by calling Bryant's office and letting him know their feelings.

I suggest you do the same by calling his office at (803) 212-6024.

And South Carolinians, PLEASE vote this clown out of office.

Better yet, let's all put our money where our mouth is, and donate to Bryant's opponent Marshall Meadors to make sure this kind of gutter politics does not continue.

UPDATE: Here is MSNBC's segment "Kevin Bryant Posts and Runs":

John McCain: "I Graduated Fifth From the Bottom of My Class"

2008-07-21T08:38:00.001-07:00

Sounds scarily familiar...

Obama's First Interview in Afghanistan

2008-07-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

CBS News' Lara Logan interviews Obama in Afghanistan.

Barack Obama Addresses Netroots Nation

2008-07-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Barack discusses the campaign's 50-state strategy in a video address at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas.

George Bush Makes the Children Cry

2008-07-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

This little girl just couldn't take it any more and ran away from President Bush in tears at a White House T-ball game.

Don't blame it on the chipmunk.

Iraq Prime Minister Agrees With Obama's Timeline

2008-07-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

Rack another one up for Barack on the foreign policy scoreboard. This adds to chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff's Adm. Michael Mullen's statement showing that he is in agreement with Barack's stance regarding Iran.

Obama's sound foreign policy judgment shines through.

From an interview with Der Spiegel:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports US presidential candidate Barack Obama's plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months. When asked in and interview with SPIEGEL when he thinks US troops should leave Iraq, Maliki responded "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned." He then continued: "US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

Maliki was careful to back away from outright support for Obama. "Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business," he said. But then, apparently referring to Republican candidate John McCain's more open-ended Iraq policy, Maliki said: "Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems."

Read more here

UPDATE: Obama campaign adviser Dr. Susan Rice made this statement about the Maliki remark:

Senator Obama welcomes Prime Minister Maliki's support for a 16 month timeline for the redeployment of U.S combat brigades. This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan.

Nevada Republicans Cancel State Convention

2008-07-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Enthusiasm gap, anyone?

From Wall Street Journal:

Citing a lack of interest, the Nevada Republican Party has called off its state convention and will instead pick its delegates to the national convention by private conference call.

The state party broke up its original convention in April when supporters of Ron Paul hijacked the proceedings and tried to elect delegates for their candidate to the national GOP convention in September. Party officials tried to reconvene on July 26, but they needed a quorum of 675 and received only 300 RSVPs, according to local reports.

Barack Greets the Soldiers in Kuwait

2008-07-20T04:33:00.001-07:00

Barack shot a few hoops with our soldiers in Kuwait.

Fight the Smears about Obama and Taxes

2008-07-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, there has been a deliberate email smear campaign started by Obama's opponents that is intent on manipulating the American people through false rumors, innuendos and flat-out lies.

The Republicans can't beat Obama on his record, so they just make up stuff. And unfortunately, a good number of Americans are "low information" voters and might believe an email sent to them from someone they know.

It's our job as Obama supporters to stick with the truth and let Obama's record speak for itself. It's also our job to try to raise the discourse among the American electorate and help educate those who might not have the time or inclination to really follow the issues.

The Obama campaign has a new site, Fight the Smears.

Here's the latest smear on Obama and taxes, which states that Obama will raise taxes, when the reality is the Wall Street Journal compared the two tax plans and concluded that McCain's tax plan would benefit the rich, while Obama's would help the rest of us:

Through the powerful Action Wire network, we plan to push back against the smears and attacks that are on the rise in email inboxes and websites across the internet.

Just organizing this group has brought a lot of attention to the challenge we're up against -- Time Magazine and many TV networks have featured this group and its potential.

And it's already starting to work. Making the truth public is the most powerful weapon we have against these shadowy lies and whisper campaigns.

Now it's time to get to work. Have you heard the latest smear about Barack and taxes?

Check out the lies these faceless new emails are pushing about Barack and help fight back:

http://my.barackobama.com/obamaandtaxes

A viciously misleading smear email just started circulating around the internet. The email spreads lies like, "Under Obama your taxes will more than double," and tries to convince readers that his policies will "crash the stock market."

It even tries to claim that Barack will tax water!

That might make you laugh -- but it shouldn't. Right now thousands -- perhaps millions -- of Americans are taking these words for fact and forwarding it to their networks, all because they don't have the truth. Too many of them will never know that the nonpartisan, nonprofit voter advocate group has proven that this smear is "a pack of lies."

We don't know who started these rumors, and we probably never will. But we do know what we can do about them.

We've got to fight back. Check out the full smear email, get the facts, and help spread the word now:

http://my.barackobama.com/obamaandtaxes

Thanks for your help,

Fight the Smears

P.S. -- Thanks for being a part of our rapid response network. Remember, our strength is in numbers, so make sure you and the Obama supporters in your area are part of the Obama Action Wire.

To join the Action Wire, just log onto your My.BarackObama account and sign up for the Action Wire group. (If you don't have a My.BarackObama account yet, creating one is simple and quick.)

http://my.barackobama.com/joinactionwire

June Fundraising Numbers

2008-07-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Keep it coming! Great work, guys!

We have some big news we want to share with you.

Because of your generosity and commitment, we're reporting to the press today that this campaign is in a very strong financial position.

In the month of June, supporters like you helped raise $52 million.

But more impressive than the number is how you did it. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people contributed to building our campaign for change. Many were first-time donors, giving only what they could afford -- and the average donation was just $68.

You continue to prove what ordinary Americans committed to change can accomplish, despite the Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs funding so much of our opponents' campaign.

But we can't stop now.

It's going to take everything we've got to defeat John McCain and the Republican National Committee in November. And we can't do it without your continued support.

Can you make a donation of $25 now to strengthen our movement for change?

https://donate.barackobama.com/junenumbers

I also wanted to share with you another promising piece of news.

The Obama campaign and the DNC ended June with a combined total of nearly $72 million in the bank. It's a healthy number. But McCain and the RNC together still have a huge cash advantage, and we need your help to close the gap.

As I mentioned in my video message to you earlier in the week, we're facing a Republican machine with unprecedented resources at its disposal. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee finished June with nearly $100 million in the bank.

Our campaign does not accept donations from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs, and neither does the Democratic National Committee. But John McCain and the RNC have no such standards.

Along with the vast amounts of unregulated money being raised by shadowy outside groups, there's no telling how much they'll spend running attack ads.

We must work together and fight back against their efforts.

Please make a donation of $25 now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/junenumbers

I know this isn't the first time we've asked you for money, and it won't be the last.

We have developed a strategy -- a very aggressive strategy -- that will only work if our millions of supporters continue to contribute their time and their money.

We are now on the air with TV ads in 18 states -- including 14 that George W. Bush carried in the 2004 election. And in each one we're also building extensive grassroots field organizations.

It's all part of our strategy to spread Barack's positive message and compete in all 50 states.

That strategy will work, and it has to. The stakes are too high and the need for change too great. We are thrilled to be on this journey with you and thank you for all you have done so far. But victory is only possible with your continued help.

Please give $25 now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/junenumbers

We can't do this without you.

Thanks,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America