Obama Urges Door-To-Door Canvassing For His Budget (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama released a new video Wednesday morning through his campaign-offshoot organization, Organize for America, asking viewers to rally in support of his proposed budget.

The video, sent to the 13-million-strong email list by former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, has the president declaring: "We must rebuild our economy on a foundation that lasts. And that is exactly what the budget I submitted to Congress is designed to do."

WATCH:

The accompanying website asks viewers to either "Call Congress" or "Join a Canvass."

The video email blast has become a tried and true tool of the Obama political arsenal, one which Organize for America has deployed several times since its inception. The problem OFA and the president face is that there may simply not be enough oxygen in the room. The public was easily galvanized for an election, and seems moved and affected by highly populist issues like AIG's bonuses or financial bailouts. Getting similar levels of involvement for a budget fight is a much more difficult battle - one that proved elusive during the stimulus debate - and it should provide an interesting insight into the extent of the emotional investment of Obama supporters.

"I'm asking you to head outside this Saturday to knock on some doors, talk to some neighbors, and let people know how important this budget is to our future," the president says. "And that is why I'm asking you to stay involved in the days ahead."

Comments

[SPQR1775]

FIRED UP AND READY TO GO...."BE THE CHANGE" WE WILL! See everyone on Saturday, can the RUSHPUKES SEE WHAT THE ROCK OBAMA IS COOKING?! CHANGE, YES WE CAN!

[NotPC]

Our "Community Organizer in Chief" - while enrolled in the presidential "on-the-job" training program - sends his minions "door to door" - Priceless!!!

Have any of these people he is encouraging to go "door to door" read ANYTHING in regards to his budget - will they be able to answer people's questions, or are they simply going to be "out there" because BO said it was a good thing to do?

[KeepItMoving08]

Pulling out my walking shoes....

See everyone on Saturday!

[hamchunk]

So, could you intelligently answer any questions in regards to the budget? Or is it still all about the "change"?

[Sweetbay]

I will be out this saturday doing what I can to help the President pass this budget. I will be writing letters and making phone calls.

I voted for Obama to put America back on track and that is what this budget will do. And, I'm taking names of anyone who opposes it on either side of the aisle and will work in 2010 to get them UNseated.

My ex called tonight and said something about he's starting to get a little scared that Obama is selling the house (meaning he was afraid of all the government spending). I told him he had it absolutely backwards. That not only had we already sold the house, but we were left with the repair bills. Now we're just trying to get the house back.

Is this a cheap way out? Absolutely not. But, it's the only way out that makes sense to me.

Eventually Americans will be back to work and there will be fewer people using government resources like unemployment insurance, aid to families, food stamps, etc. So, those expenses will be reduced while the tax revenues increase. And, finally, we will begin to pay down the debt again.

[Ourrias]

I would LOVE to know where all the neo-con hacks on this comment board were, with their oh-so-righteous indignation, when the neo-con liars got us into a 2.5 BILLION DOLLAR ($2,500,000,000.00) PER WEEK money hole in Iraq!

And, by the way, IT IS STILL COSTING AMERICA $2,500,000,000.00 PER WEEK in the uncalled for, ginned up, lied into, quagmire that is George Bush's Iraq!!!!!!!

So, to all of you screaming like stuck pigs about Obama's budget, eff you!

[j-stl]

Myth: The Iraq war is the reason for the ballooning debt.
Fact: Most of the estimates I have found put the estimate of the total six year, cost of the war around $500 billion - and your numbers are close to that. The current annual deficit is over $1 trillion (and was $500 billion in 2007). The total deficit has grown from $5.6 trillion to $10 trillion since 2000. The cost of the Iraq war accounts for only 10 to 20% of this cost.

I always love the argument "I know you are, and so am I" as a justification for stupidity The debt grew by almost $5 trillion dollars - the rest above and beyond the war is just out of control spending (a pox on both parties). The Obama budget plans to add $10 trillion to the debt. The annual deficit of more than $900 billion per year dwarfs the cost of both wars and the entire US military budget.

And this is change you can believe in? While the Republican party under President Bush spent way too much, it got worse under Pelosi/Reid (7.4% growth in the debt.over the entire adminsitration). President Obama is projecting to run that at 9.1% over the next 8 years.

Please end the blame game. We are here today because both parties have spent far more money than we have - and the current budget proposal is planning to continue this practice.

[roncar]

When do you suppose Obama will come to the realization that the campaign is over and that it is now his job to sell the people on his Marxist ideas. I would love for one of the Obamatrons to come to my door trying to sell this BS. It would make my day.

[hamchunk]

Exactly. He wanted to be the President, its time to start governing and quit the campaign trail. But the reality apparently didn't match the hype.

[Steamboater]

AS long as these AIG bonuses are in place, I wouldn't give Obama 10 seconds of my time for this budget. This is clearly up to him to fix and he's losing more and more support over this issue every day. Shame. He should have been smart enough to see it coming but often politicians shrug off their own supporter's concerns and think that support will remain there regardless.

[j-stl]

What I don't understand is why y'all would be excited about canvassing for a budget that more than doubles the national debt by adding over $10 trillion in the next 8 years. A budget that runs a true deficit of over $900 billion every year for the next 10. A budget that projects a national debt greater than GDP in 8 years. I understand you are excited about your priorities being realized with this administration, but at this cost - a national debt in excess of $50,000 per citizen in just 8 years and a deficit greater than the growth in GDP – the tax base necessary to pay for it.

Please – read the summary tables in the budget (pages 132 & 134 specifically) and tell me why this makes you happy.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/A_New_Era_of_Responsibility2.pdf

[TENICH]

I will gladly canvass my neighbors and email all my Penna congressmen, Republicans and Democrats, for my man, President Obama. President Obama is the only one who has a plan for getting our economy back on track that makes sense to me. He explained the big picture and I get it.
I am so glad he called for action. I am sick of the chatter. I will tell my Penna. congress people, To get in line, get out of the way, or you will get stomped.

[hamchunk]

Yeah,....... OK.

[bungle]

about time..

[friskee1]

ok, so this is our opportunity to put up or shut the h*ll up. i unfortunately can't canvass because i have to work, but i will be emailing my congressmen and spreading the word. this is our opportunity to make somethin happen and i for one will not sit back on the sidelines to complain and blog about what pres obama isn't doing. instead, ask yourself, what are WE doing???

[iknowdou]

Put up or shut up? Those are the only options? Since when did progressive Democrats start acting and sounding like republicans? And to each other! We are the party of diversity, empathy and open mindedness. Of intelligence and wisdom, not this defensive, judgmental, divisive pettiness.

[hamchunk]

Really!! The so-called progressive Democrats have officially become as closed-minded and intolerant as the Republicans they wished ill upon for eight years.

[connorin]

I don't see why you bother...apparently, Prez Post-partisan is planning on his own version of the Politburo:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aI5mX_2Yfz7s&refer=worldwide

[susierr]

I'm back in the canvassing game. You betcha! This Saturday, my usual Obama mamas will be OUT and on the road doing whatever it takes! AND the weather is getting really nice now, here in N.E. Ohio. It was OUR group that turned my little city blue and all of our efforts to turn OHIO BLUE!

[Warmglobe]

Apparently you have way too much time on your hands

[dsws]

"I'm asking you to believe not just in my ability to bring change to Washington. ... I'm asking you to believe in yours."

He's a small-d democrat. There's a lot of good stuff in his budget, too.

[VikingQuest]

"He's a small-d democrat"

He's a big $-Democrat.

[iknowdou]

No thanks.

I'm so mad about AIG right now, and the dicking around that we are getting from our leaders. That our government, elected officials no less, want our FREE labor so that they can be half-a$$ed about education, infrastructure, regulations, ending the war, and bringing Bush's cabinet to justice, is not an idea I can sell!

I wouldn't be able to, in good conscience, try to sell my neighbors something that I have so many doubts about.

I, for one, am too tired from working as a social worker for practically free while the people who make derivatives trades, or bets, that I won't make my mortgage, earn all the money and pay less in taxes.

I just don't believe this budget does enough to provide the social justice that I would be willing to go door to door to promote. This is like my mini boycott.

If you feel the same way, don't go canvasing.

[VikingQuest]

If you are that mad at AIG you are a fool.

$165 million?

Look what the Government has blown in the past 6 months . . . about $1.5 trillion in new spending.

[iknowdou]

That is hardly the point. I don't care if it's 3 cents and if you don't get the point then you are why we keep getting 'fooled' by fools.

I want to know that there are enforceable laws and not this corporate anarchy. And I want to see the rules that apply to the workers, also apply to those in positions of power.

If there is no accountability, if someone can take the Wyden-Snowe amendment out of the TARP bill when no ones looking, then how do you know that the budget we want passed is going to be the budget we get? And if the same people who are regulating AIG are going to be handling our money, what makes you so sure that I'm the fool and that you aren't?

I can't go door to door, selling this budget with this much still unresolved. I'd rather feed the homeless and keep fighting for the transparency and accountability and justice that I already canvassed for.