Obama Campaign Launches "Vote For Change" Voter Registration Drive

Today, May 10, marks the first day of what the Obama campaign is calling its "Vote For Change" project. From barackobama.com:

On May 10th, Barack Obama is launching Vote for Change, an unprecedented 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive. More than 100 events will be held across the country that day. Obama volunteers will register new voters as the start of a six-month voter registration drive.

Marc Ambinder has more on just what this project entails and its potential impact:

The Vote For Change program will lay the foundation for Obama's general election get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama aides won't say much more, but I gather that the campaign is constructing an incredibly elaborate online interface to allow its more than a million donors and volunteers to directly persuade their neighbors through a variety of media. Names gathered from the voter registration effort will be merged with names gathered through Obama's primary efforts and the names off of the Democratic Party's integrated voter file as well as lists purchased from outside vendors.

On election day, Obama might have more than a million individuals volunteering on his behalf. That should scare the beejeesus out of the McCain campaign and the RNC.

Comments

[SaviourMachine]

One of the great things about the registration drive today was looking out amongst all the people and seeing the diversity of ethnicities,backgrounds,gender,young and old,from all different parts of the city.

There was definitely a feeling of unity.

I will savor that sight for the rest of my life.

[BWonka]

All expressing the same sentiment - HOPE!

[SaviourMachine]

Yes, and commitment ! Lots of commitment !

[MiddleRoad1]

So pruod of you guys. You guys are AMAZING!

[buckygreen]

Me too. We had a great great day registering voters. The response was phenomenal.
To paraphrase Michelle, I'm starting to feel good about our country for the first time in many years.

[gladys46]

What a feeling!!

[kevenseven]

God, or whoever, bless all of you for your enthusiasm!

[Ramus]

Gosh and golly..you mean there were WHITE people at the registration drive? White people who don't have a college education? Those hardworking white people? Don't tell Billary.

[Youth4Obama]

Wow, this is amazing. What a phenomenal presidential campaign he's running!

The only way he can lose is if Sean Hannity scares up enough votes.

[buckygreen]

I'm an old white male, and I'm with you and Obama. You young folks are going to have to clean up the mess because it will take many many years. But this is a very good start.

[JackW]

Curious the old white man tells the kids they have to clean up his mess! Why didn't he?

[evekendall]

:o)

[kevenseven]

Pushing 50 white male here, and I'm in. I want it to be said that in my lifetime that the dark fantasy of White Supremacy was put to death.

That and reversing Global Climate Change, and maybe I can pass from this Earth with something like a clear mind.

[AMJordan]

Hannity will SCARE enough voters...into voting for Obama!

[williamg]

Most important comment of the entire campaign:

“[Reagan] changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.” -- Barack Obama, speaking to Reno Gazette-Journal.

That one comment led Bill Clinton to spend the next week (leading up to So. Carolina), ranting and raving, finger-waging and finally comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson. Obama baited Bill into it, and Bill fell for it.

Wait until he baits this hot-head McCain phoney into an explosion. It will happen, just wait.

[ThunderclapNewman]

I plan on fixing popcorn. :-}

[kevenseven]

Bill,

Are you cribbing somebody?

Because that was a powerfully intelligent comment.

Not that you are stupid. but that was really insightful.

[williamg]

The minute I heard that Obama made those comments, I knew he was baiting Bill. That entire week became so predictable. Remember Bill screaming at the CNN cameras - he couldn't take it. Obama literally clumped Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

All Obama has to do in a debate is compare McCain with Bush nonstop. Even though McCain expects Obama to do it, it will tug at his ego eventually, and he will let loose.

[williamg]

Not cribbing. I always provide links if I post someone else's stuff.

[AMJordan]

"Pop Pop Popcorn!"

[ObamAtomic]

Obama 3C= cool,calm,collected....a master politician.
McCain will implode seen bullet train at full speed ..coming at him... Obama 08 to16
Queen HC will be oldie..
that is why she want the nomination now,or never
same reason king Bill is so excited,,now or never
they misjudge Obama,,like queen Hillary said it,he only got
one speech at the convention,she realize her dream were fading away!

[Noelle]

If Huffpost doesn't mind....There is a great diary on DailyKos by casperr about today's Vote For Change Rally in NYC. 1,400 people showed up at just one location. This diary is filled with awesome pics of the event!!!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/10/215616/585/659/512920

There is another diary up tonight about Austin. Seems it went pretty well in Texas today too.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

Everyone is involved: Age, Race, Gender, Religion, Econmicis

A Change is Coming America

[emmav70]

AWESOME !!

[maxdenn]

Obama will make McCain look foolish in the pending presidential debates. No doubt about it.

[kevenseven]

I don't know about that. Obama is Mr. Light Touch.

He does not openly cut an opponent if he can avoid it.

[williamg]

I don't know. I think he shows a certain tact for people in his own party, that he won't show for a guy who wants to continue being in Iraq for the rest of our lives.

[ThunderclapNewman]

It will be done with great finesse and a very light touch.

McCain will think he's been through a shredder.

[AMJordan]

Correction: He does not cut a fellow Democrat if he can avoid it. We will see what he'll do to McCain.

Besides, a light-touch may be all that's needed. You don't use an A-Bomb to kill a termite.

[soundfury]

Obama gave Hillary a run for her money and she's tough. McCain better search for his tennis shoes now. Just like Hillary teased Obama on his bowling and then struck out herself, I'd like to see Obama challenge McCain to some hoops.

[EyeWantOneNation]

Obama was "Mr. Light Touch" because he knew the Clinton Machine; give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves...and he was right !!

Second: Obama took the high road, and didn't get down and dirty with a fellow Democrat...when he goes up against McCain, the gloves come off !!!

[BearsLeft]

A new poll says that if California were to re-do their primary now, Obama would win by 13 points.

http://cbs5.com/politics/poll.clinton.obama.2.720136.html

[SaskiaStars]

Makes me wonder how many people voted for Hillary but have changed their mind and would not vote for her now - bet lots.

[kevenseven]

Well, 13% plus her margin of victory.

Thank God we are about to be spared to any further reminders by the Clintonians about how SHE won the BIG BLUE MACHINE STATES!

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big surprise! HRC spent 20 years running for president, and first she got Bill elected twice, and boyo! she has a hellofa rolodex!

She can line up support in all the BIG BLUE MACHINE STATES!

But she fails to even consider the caucus states?

Oh, for the love of God, Obama is going to sweep CA, NY, MA, NJ, keep counting them.

But the cool thing is he is going to get half the electoral vote west of the Mississippi.

A first for a Democrat in, what, 75 years?

[gladys46]

I've wondered why all those supers endorsed hillary before the campaigns even got started .. were they that convinced that she was the sure winner? Now hillary tells america what the supers are meant to do ... well dag they sure did jump the gun!!

[VolvoBirkenstock]

Had it not been for the large percentage of early votes cast, Obama would have probably won it the first time.

The dynamics had changed, but those who voted early had no way of changing their votes.

[AMJordan]

How many voted for Edwards or Richardson, Dodd and Biden and now are regretting it?

[williamg]

Villaraigosa! He was able to get over a hundred thousand people signed up for early voting. That was the killer. Which of course proves how much she has relied upon machines to get her wins.

[marlainWA]

Two of my kids not knowing the rules were independent but not decline to state independent, they both tried to vote for obama and were told they couldn't.

they live in CA, i wonder how many that happened too, especially of the young who don't follow politics? I do and didn't even know the rules since i live in WA or i would have told them.

[AnAussieSlummingIt]

In the early states 'name recognition' is everything isn't it?
Does this skew the results when comparing one state with another?
Does this mean that comparing early voting states with late voting states is like comparing apples with oranges?
(Genuine distress upon realisation - I is an ignorant Australian)

[kevenseven]

Plenty of mail in ballots for Edwards, yet he had bowed out by the time I went to the polls.

[BearsLeft]

Brain fart. Sorry. The new margin is 6 points, not 13.

[soundfury]

That's partly because the real Hillary hadn't completely emerged at that time. She started emerging around Ohio. That's when she started going downhill. I don't care if she won PA and Ohio. I'd like to see a redo of Ohio especially. She took everyone for a ride there on the NAFTA lie and the Bosnia lie.
I hope those people remember that she underestimated their intelligence and they actually proved her right.

[BWonka]

Bill's talk in S.C. turned me off to the Clintons. And that was also when it became obvious Edwards wasn't going to win.

So I voted EARLY (in CA) for Obama. And every day I am more and more glad I did.

[JohnnyLee]

It's also a case that Obama was new to the scene and people didn't know him yet. aka Clinton has much better brand recognition.

[williamg]

In the CNN interview, Obama also had a rather cutting response to Mitt Romney, who is now supporting McCain and who has belittled Obama's experience.

"He can read a prompter very well and energize a crowd, but he has not accomplished anything during his life in terms of legislation or leading an enterprise or making a business work or a city work or a state work. He really has very little experience, and, you know, the presidency of the United States is not an internship," Romney said on CNN on Wednesday.

Obama pointed out that Romney had questioned McCain's qualifications before dropping out of the Republican race.

"The contest didn't work out so well for Mitt Romney," Obama added, a wry smile on his face. "Here we are, and there Mitt Romney is."

[gladys46]

Yeah, where's mitt's return on all that $$$ he wasted - he of all, the successful business man - some people should just rest a little longer!

[trevor01]

Roosters crow at the rising of the sun.

[readyfornewleadership]

Yes we can

[kevenseven]

Can.

And will.

I will finally get my country back.

[BWonka]

We ALL will get our country back - even those who worked so hard the last 7 years to destroy it.

[AMJordan]

No deposit, no return. Ten cents please.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

It's about time, isn't it?

[lornejl]

The " me " has been the problem. Let's replace me with " we" and " our" " lets put the us back into the U.S.

Oh man, that was good, I might run in 0012

[AnAussieSlummingIt]

YesYouHave.
;-)

[lornejl]

ONE MILLION DONORS...
ONE MILLION VOLUNTEERS
THREE HUNDRED MILLION SITTING ON FAT ASSES

[AMJordan]

We can't all help how we're made.

[EyeWantOneNation]

True...but please speak for yourself, AMJ...
(turning around to see what's in the chair...never mind!!)

[HumeSkeptic]

Obama outlines plans for race against McCain

By CHARLES BABINGTON and SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writers
Sat May 10, 6:15 PM ET

BEND, Ore. - Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.

Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in "town hall" events.
...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080510/ap_on_el_pr/democrats

[HumeSkeptic]

Wolf Bltzer interview of Obama. I liked it.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7736712&ch=4226716&src=news

[kevenseven]

Hume,

Drop me a line on [e-mail]

[SaskiaStars]

ok you two - are you staring a fan club.

[going2ireland]

You're braver than I would be to post my email address for all the nuts who troll here.

[EyeWantOneNation]

AHHH - - Yet ANOTHER couple finds love and happiness on the pages of HuffPo...and goes off into the sunset to speak their privite truths !!!

[kevenseven]

Oh, yeah, this is good.

[williamg]

I love the way he gave Mitt Romney the smackdown. Reminded me of the last debate before Iowa when he told Hillary he looked forward to her advising him also.

[SaskiaStars]

"yea - and look at where Mr. Romney is today" HA!

[HumeSkeptic]

It tells you that he's not going to take crap from anyone.

[SaskiaStars]

My God - watching Obama - how can anyone not respect this guy?? Just listen to him, he is humble yet confident. He is truly Presidential.

[HumeSkeptic]

Exactly what I thought as well. And look at how he addressed each issue. And,yet, like a mantra, Hillary supporters keep repeating that he doesn't talk about issues.

[chinacatsunflower]

wow. thanks for this. i do not have tv and had not seen this yet. what an intelligent, articulate and gracious man he is. we need him in the white house!

[williamg]

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are already drawing up strategies for taking each other on in the general election, focusing on the same groups — including independent voters and Latinos — and about a dozen states where they think the contest is likely to be decided this fall, campaign aides said.

In a sign of what could be an extremely unusual fall campaign, the two sides said Saturday that they would be open to holding joint forums or unmoderated debates across the country in front of voters through the summer. Mr. Obama, campaigning in Oregon, said that the proposal, floated by Mr. McCain’s advisers, was “a great idea.”

Even before Mr. Obama fully wraps up the Democratic presidential nomination, he and Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, are starting to assemble teams in the key battlegrounds, develop negative advertising and engage each other in earnest on the issues and a combustible mix of other topics, including age and patriotism. [...]


Advisers to Mr. Obama said their research suggested that Mr. McCain, notwithstanding his high profile in American politics for more than a decade, was not well known to many voters. In particular, Mr. Obama’s aides said they would highlight Mr. McCain’s opposition to abortion rights to try to stem the flow of disaffected women who backed Mrs. Clinton in the primaries and whom Mr. McCain’s aides said they would aggressively court.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11strategy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[maxdenn]

I think Senator Obama will make short work of McCain in the upcoming debates. Much as JFK did with Nixon.

[AMJordan]

Don't kid yourself. JFK had to work like a dog to beat the Trickster.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Nixon would have eaten McTwit alive.

[lornejl]

McBomb has a sweaty upper lip, you can't win with one of those.

[BWonka]

Sadly, Nixon did....

[FADUTA]

Check a history book maxdunce - JFK just squeaked by Nixon. In fact had Daley the First not got a lot of dead people to vote in Lake County, Nixon would have been President a few years sooner. You folks whine about Fat Al having the election stolen? Nixon had a bigger beef that Al.

[AMJordan]

And eight years later we discovered that the DEAD WERE RIGHT!

[SaskiaStars]

I have posted this on two other threads and have yet to get any kind of answer.

I have a question for any self proclaimed feminist who has vowed to vote for McCain and not vote for Obama in November.

What exactly is your problem with Obama - and spare me the "he's inexperienced" or "he had a crazy Pastor" because those are not a good enough reasons for a self proclaimed feminist to vote for a man who has publicly stated that he will be sure to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court and we all know what that means to Roe v. Wade. I am really curious what the problem is because I have not seen a shred of evidence that Senator Obama is against any issues that are important to women.

I am asking this, in all honesty, and as respectfully as I can, as a 45 year old white woman who is a proud Obama supporter. If there is something about him that I and millions of other progressive women voters are missing, please enlighten us.

Obama 08

[Rockville]

Early in this race, my 35 year old daughter asked me why it was reported that women my age were heavily favoring Clinton. I have yet to come up with an answer. Some of them simply want to see a woman as President, but that wouldn't explain their reported negativity towards Obama. I think frankly that many thought they had a lock on the Presidency and are simply angry at him for winning. However I believe that all but the most rabid will in time recognize that Obama's Honesty, Integrity and Character are pretty good things to have in a President. My thought has been that the two words "Supreme Court" will take care of the anger.

[SaskiaStars]

I think you are right about the part about how they are mostly mad at Obama for winning. It is what I have suspected for a long time. I know how hard it is to support a candidate with all your heart and see them get sooooo close to their goal - but not quite make it - it is hard to accept.

[EyeWantOneNation]

{crickets}

sorry, Saskia !!!

[oommoore]

Maybe she caught the Obama fever and changed her mind. His campaign has a way of doing that to people.

Obama '08

[FADUTA]

Hey I like feminist so can respond??!!

Reasons NOT to vote for BO: His lack of knowledge on the economy scares me. I see everyone rolling out JFK on this string. Again - read about the man - he cut taxes to bring us out of tough economic times. He stared down our enemies - he didn't chat with them.

[AMJordan]

"He stared down our enemies-he didn't chat with them."

If you're talking about JFK, I think you need to go back and study the Cuban Missile Crisis. If JFK had been played by McCain or Clinton, WWIII would have been the result.

[SaskiaStars]

Ok - all good arguments. Barack Obama intends to cut taxes for everyone earning 100,000.00 or less. He only wants to roll back George Bush's tax cuts which will effect only those who earn over $250,000 per year which is about 2-3% of the population. The whole capital gains tax argument only effects those who live on or earn enough from their investments that they will see any increases - it will not effect those with 401K or other retirement investments because those taxes are deferred.

Kennedy was a master of diplomacy.

Barack Obama is smart enough to surround himself with experienced, level headed, intelligent, experts and they, together with Senator Obama's good judgment will handle what ever comes along.

[NoSpinTruthZone]

Experience is important. We're just finishing 8 years of neo-conservatism. Eight years which produced economic budgets that exceeded 3 Trillion Dollars! (I wish that was a typo, but it's not).

I don't want a neo-con in there just as much as I don't want a liberal whacko. BO is far too liberal, and far too inexperienced.

[SaskiaStars]

Far too liberal?? Can you explain your assessment?

[Boboday555]

What are you talking about?
Senator Obama's lack of 'experience' with our current form of lobby based, money for favors, style of GOP Government is his single best feature.

Ps
Lincoln had as much experience when he became President and he did okay.

[CJCalgirl]

Dear No-spin, Brains trumps experience every time. We let these Wash. pols keep doing the same thing to us year after year expecting different results. Not too bright, but we've seldom, or not for a long time, been offered any real choice. Good sound bites leaving an empty taste in the mouth. A 'Progressive Liberal' is a person who believes in creating equal opportunities for ALL to flourish. It is 'whacko' to continue our present path to oblivion. Do you want your tax dollars to continue to pay the interest on the national debt, or help us all realize our dreams? Do you 'love' your country while hating its' citizens?

[sunzen]

Gobama!